Instrumental in securing multiple offers from HSW!

I worked with Square One Prep (SOP) in RD 1 of the 2022-23 application cycle, with the pleasure of working with Amalia as my Advisor. I could not recommend SOP enough - SOP's unwavering support, commitment, and human touch are among the core reasons why I was able to succeed in a highly competitive season (admitted to 2 of HSW, waitlisted at 1)

As an international candidate who grew up in Asia, went to undergrad in the US and spent his professional career across both US and Africa, I knew very early on I wanted to partner with a team that is energized by my story, challenges me to reflect and gain clarity on my own motivations, and is committed to my success. After speaking with ~10 firms , including both China-based and US-based firms, I chose SOP because of Kathryn's honest style and SOP's team-based approach. Kathryn was enthusiastic about my profile: telling me that I should focus my energies on M7 schools and that with work and reflection, I have the elements to develop a compelling package for any M7 school. However, she was also brutally honest: cautioning me that especially for schools like HBS/GSB/Wharton, no one is a shoo-in, and while SOP team can help me craft the best possible application materials, there is still an inherent element of luck in the highly competitive process. Additionally, I loved SOP's leadership-team approach in the Premium package, where the leadership team (incl. Kathryn) reviews each essay (and resume, career narrative, etc) after the advisor and I felt good about the content. The leadership-team approach essentially creates a stage-gate for seasoned advisors to review my application materials from an outside-in perspective (similar to how an admissions officer would read my file) - and ensure that the logic flows smoothly, the language is easy to understand, and the storyline is consistent with my overall narrative. Later on, I realized that Leadership Review is truly one of the best parts of the SOP experience.

The first step in my SOP journey is the Career Narrative process - where a former career coach at top business program helps me ideate, develop, and refine my career narrative: a vision statement that tells the story of what I want to do professionally long-term. Wendy, my Career Narrative coach was very effective in using facts to back-up my career vision. Coming into Career Narrative process, I thought it would be an exercise of storytelling - focusing more on my personal journey. However, what I appreciated most is SOP's focus on using industry facts + trends to back up the career narrative. Indeed, the process feels more analogous to building the business case for a start-up: Wendy pushed me to reflect on my personal story (the founding rationale); conduct research to validate the opportunity (the growth potential); and articulate why I am the best person to deliver my career vision (the competitive dynamic). Throughout the process, Amalia (my advisor) and Kathryn stayed engaged: including multiple rounds of presentations to ensure that my story is compelling, easy to follow, and memorable.

While I signed on with SOP relatively early in the process (Jan'22) - Kathryn and Amalia both offered me the valuable advice of not starting too early, but instead, create pace by starting at a more reasonable time. Therefore, I started the essay drafting in mid to late June - which was quite helpful as I found myself to be much more effective when Amalia and I started rapidly iterating on essays. The essay process involves a brainstorming call, where Amalia and I would go over high-level ideas and stories / anecdotes to back up the storyline, followed by me drafting the essay in the next 1-2 hours and sending the rough draft to Amalia. I found the approach to be highly efficient as it enabled me to rapidly prototype essays, and advance / kill different ideas for the essay. What I also appreciate is Amalia's willingness to work with whatever I could produce in that 1-2 hour interval - which sometimes could look more like a skeleton sketch than a nicely flashed-out essay. With the process, Amalia and I would iterate essays with