Admitted to an M7!

I'll start with results - with good work experience, decent academics, great GMAT score, and non-existent extracurriculars, I was denied from 2 of HSW, waitlisted at 1 T10, and admitted to 1 M7, where I'll be matriculating in the fall!

I talked to 5 consultants on intro calls before picking SOP, and as many have noted, Kathryn blows them all out of the water. She spent over an hour with me assuaging my concerns, helping me pull out of a spiral with all that goes into the MBA process, and gave candid feedback that I was taking a high risk approach, but not one that was impossible to achieve (which looks prescient given my results!)

The consultant selection process was somewhat frustrating for me, so I'll try to save you some time - the massive advisors were pretty clearly not as invested in my success after putting the deposit down, while the small advisors seemed pretty disorganized. I narrowed to the more mid-sized providers of Veritas, Fortuna, and Square One Prep, but the differentiator for me was the specificity of SOP on how much time they will spend with you – and I think they actually may have underestimated that amount of time. This was never self-driven either – if an essay or career narrative wasn’t complete, we set up another call or another review. Lara, my day-to-day advisor, pushed me where I needed more help (essays and career narrative), while not wasting time where I was already relatively well prepared (resume and interview). She was equal parts taskmaster and champion, which made getting to the end of a difficult essay particularly rewarding.

Other Pros:
• Access to Founder – Kathryn read every essay I sent through to SOP and participated on every career narrative call. I’m honestly not sure how she finds the time
• Organization – Bailey really kept me on track and scheduled, which for someone that also has a busy work life was vital for staying focused. She actually created a proposed schedule for me while I was still deciding what consultant to go with as well

Cons:
• Costs – SOP is just more expensive than some of the other options out there. I personally think they do more with you relative to other consultants and make it worth it, but that’s a personal choice I was okay with.
• Career Narrative – I was encouraged to look at traditional post-MBA roles for my career narrative given my background. It’s impossible to know without the counterfactual, but I think I may have been more successful at getting an interview for some of my target schools if I had adjusted my career narrative toward something that would have more real-world impact, particularly for Stanford.

Overall, would definitely use SOP again, and have already sent a few friends their way!