When I first began the business school process, I truly didn’t know where to begin. I only knew I had an ambitious goal for myself: get into a top 5 MBA program. The application process itself is extremely overwhelming, and adding 5 schools into the mix becomes an even more daunting task. Thankfully, I had Kathryn to take me through every step of the way. I can honestly say I would not have been able to do this without her.

From the very beginning, Kathryn pushed me to think critically about my desire to receive an MBA. In our introductory call, we mapped out my career goals in a way that aligned with my interests. It felt like a real conversation, and I will use her advice to me when thinking about my career even beyond the MBA/application process.

While I consider myself a qualified applicant, like many who go through the MBA process I began to doubt that I had characteristics unique enough about me to be accepted into a top program. Coupled with my below average GMAT score (680) for all the schools I was applying to, I nearly considered giving up on the whole idea of applying a few times. I’m so thankful Kathryn was there to push me out of my own head, help me realize my value, and portray it in a meaningful and powerful way to the admissions committees.

In addition, Kathryn’s robust schedule for working together kept me on task and productive as I made my way through 5 applications. She has a truly brilliant system that allows you to craft the best possible story while maintaining true to yourself. By the end of working together, in addition to now having a whole portfolio of essays and a new resume completed, I also felt like I had a practical career journey that I was interested in pursuing long term.

Above all else, Kathryn always made herself available to me as I needed. Her email replies usually took less than 60 seconds, and her reviews of my material had a quick turnaround but were extremely thorough.

Thanks to Kathryn, I can proudly say I received interviews at 4 out of the top 5 programs I applied to, and was formally admitted to 3. Thanks so much to Square one for everything - you really helped my dreams come true!

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Kathryn helped me prep for the interview stage of my MIT Sloan application by running a mock interview with me and providing detailed feedback.

While preparing for my interview, I was uncertain how my stories would come across to the admissions committee. Through the mock interview, Kathryn was able to pick out which stories worked well, which didn’t add as much value, and which I absolutely had to mention. She also gave me suggestions for improving my narrative by considering the sequence of how I told these stories and the points that I should emphasize. She even provided some insightful observations about my experiences which I hadn’t previously thought of.

Given that I was extremely nervous and panicked about potentially messing up my chances of getting into my top choice school, the most valuable thing Kathryn did was reassure me that I was completely on the right track and, to my surprise, ready for the interview. Of course I was still nervous about the interview, but Kathryn’s guidance went a long way in calming my sheer panic and enabling me to approach the interview with some more confidence. I believe that the right mindset is key to performing your best during an interview.

In the end, the real interview went very well and I am super excited to announce that I received an offer!! A very big thank you to SOP for their hand in this.

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It was a wonderful experience working with Kathryn. I had my mock interview 4 days before my final one. Kathryn asked me relevant questions and guided me how to answer them effectively. What was remarkable was the fact that Kathryn understood my profile well and made sure my answers were customized accordingly.

This was my fourth collaboration with Kathryn and amongst the various other important reasons for me to keep going back to her, one key reason was that Kathryn immensely cared about me. She went beyond the professional requirements to help me and understand my profile. She was dedicated to my success all throughout. She consistently spent more time with me than what I had paid for to ensure my success.

The experience was very helpful as it prepared me well for the interview and boosted my confidence. I would any day recommend Square One for your MBA prep.

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I chose Kathryn from a number of different potential options because of her philosophy, focusing on bringing out an individual's personality. Over the course of just a few conversations she got to the root of who I am as a person, my motivations and goals, and made me realise things I didn't even know myself. I valued her insight and analysis as well as her candour, making very clear her view on any particular issue and what would be the best way to proceed, drawing on her extensive and unrivaled body of experience.

I went being rejected without interview from four schools to applying to the same four schools with two offers, including one scholarship. Kathryn was absolutely instrumental in this.

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The MBA journey was a tough one for me. After an unsuccessful attempt last year (I applied 4 schools with no interviews), I decided to work with Kathryn for a second attempt. Not only did Kathryn work tirelessly with me to put together the best materials possible, I felt like she was genuinely invested in my success.

Given that MBA applications are time consuming and extremely introspective, it's important to work with an adviser who brings both compassion and advanced expertise to the process.

Thanks to Kathryn's help, I secured interviews at all 5 schools I applied to, with acceptances from Columbia, Ross (full scholarship) and Fuqua (70% scholarship). This outcome exceeded my expectations, and I cannot thank Kathryn and SOP for making it a reality!

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Applying to business school is a stressful and involved process, which can easily take up months of your time if you don’t have the right guidance. I could not be more glad about choosing to work with Kathryn, who not only made much easier and less-stressful, but also constantly pushed me to achieve the best version of the story I wanted to tell.

I can bucket the advantages of working with Kathryn into two parts - one, process and two, content development. On the first, Kathryn had broken my application journey into a series of concrete and achievable goals, taking me through various elements of Resume, Career Narrative, Essays, App, LoRs and Interview prep in a manner that it never got too stressful or out of control. I also had the comfort her always being prompt and easy to reach for advice and turn-arounds, while she dealt very patiently with my one-too-many versions of essays!

On content development, Kathryn contributed meaningfully to helping me shape my story. While she helped me structure my thoughts and delve deeper into my experiences, she was also open to my pushing back on things I felt strongly about. The end result was that my final essays were truly, honestly, a reflection of me, and I couldn’t be happier with what we submitted.

I am admitted into two of my top schools, and I have Kathryn and SquareOnePrep to thank for that! I highly recommend working with Kathryn to any aspiring business school applicant!

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cannot thank Kathryn and her team enough for guiding me through the application process. Day in and day out, the team put forth 100% effort to help put me in the best possible position to succeed. Kathryn and my personal advisor, Rob, were not afraid to challenge me and always told me what I needed to hear, rather than what I wanted to hear. Their prompt reviews and valuable insights into my application were much appreciated, and their relentless pursuit of excellence did not go unnoticed.

Most importantly, the team produced results. Not only did I get into a great MBA program, I was accepted to my first choice, which is awesome. Initially, I was unsure whether using a consultant would be worth it, but looking back I'm very glad I did. Being accepted to a top MBA program was a huge step in my career, and the Square One team pushed me and made sure I put my absolute best effort into my application. I trusted the process, and I encourage anyone who is looking for an MBA to do the same.

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It was an amazing experience to work with Kathryn and Vanessa for my business school admission process. I received some great admission offers with big scholarships. My profile was very complicated because of my age and a lay-off at work, but Kathryn handled it very tactfully and ensured that the positive aspects of my profile were showcased vividly.
I could confidently talk during my interviews because Kathryn and Vanessa helped me understand my own life experiences and craft a genuine, coherent story around them. Kathryn was always accessible and passionate to help pretty much 24x7; I cannot remember a time when I needed Kathryn’s input and I had to wait more than a couple hours (usually she responded within a few minutes). I had some great discussions with Kathryn and Vanessa to understand how to write business school essays. Once I wrote the first draft, they thoroughly checked it and provided input on how I could further enhance it.
Kathryn’s honest and straight-forward personality was a major factor in my successful business school admission process. She provided honest input on my weaknesses (no sugar coating!) and limitations. I could craft a realistic and practical strategy to target the right schools because of Kathryn’s invaluable input.
I would highly recommend working with SquareOne prep if you are looking for a great success in your business school application process!

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I had a pleasure to work directly with Kathryn on four applications to HBS, Wharton, Columbia, and Booth. An international student, I knew that despite an appropriate work background and good test scores, I had to deliver comprehensive and well-rounded written applications. That said, I had no concerns about interview stage. My goal was to come up with tight and neat essays, properly marketing my profile and story.

Those applying to HBS know that the school is quite random when it comes down to international students (particularly, HBS is notoriously known for admitting people from consulting from CEE, not IB/PE, for example), so I knew beforehand that there was no one to blame if I were dinged. However, I was positive that Kathryn and I could give the best shot to three other schools.

As a result, I was admitted to one of those three schools in R2 with 70k fellowship.

Due diligence: I reached to over 22 top consultants, finally choosing to work with Kathryn because of her experience with PE applicants, and because she identified key improvement areas with my profile during our initial consultation call (which made perfect sense to me – which was not the case with most other consultants)

Applications: due to time constraints (GMAT passed in early Dec), we had to work very fast given R2 deadlines. Kathryn was very accommodating of any requests and concerns I had, while she kept all work streams under her control to make sure I submitted applications on time. On average, turnaround time of files was less than 24 hours (1-2 days for first heavy edits), even as we moved closer to January. One of the things that I appreciate in Kathryn is her ability to push you out of the comfort zone (I didn’t want to do that extra work, but it was necessary for future success) while being very delicate and open to suggestions.

Interview: Kathryn supported me from Day 1, after interview invitations started arriving, offering two full-scale mock interviews and tons of interview tips. For Wharton team-based discussion task, Kathryn was very much involved in challenging my ideas to make sure that I came to the discussion well-prepared.

I believe that the quality of work and support that Kathryn offered was one of the best on the market. The actual experience was very smooth, and I’m glad I had Kathryn on board during my MBA journey.

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When I first reached out to Kathryn, I was ready to submit my applications for Round 1. I was working with another consultant in Brazil and thought I had everything ready, but wanted just to "double check" with that 30 minutes free consultation. Kathryn was extremely honest, literally saying I would not get anywhere with what I had, and I loved it! I knew I could do a lot better. I realized I needed someone that truly pushed me to the limits and was absolutely honest about my work. I decided to postpone the submission of my application for Round 2 and worked with Kathryn and Lara on my complete application. I got exactly what I wanted as both of them really made me get the best out of me! Trust me, you will not rest until you can do your best. This is what makes a difference. My written applications were outstanding. I got an interview for the 6 programs I applied to (Booth, Kellogg, Wharton, Yale, Berkeley and Stanford), and I am sure that my essays were great because Lara and Kathryn worked tirelessly with me to make them great. They would both write down things such as "this makes no sense", "sorry but I do not buy it for a second". You read first, get sort of angry, and then totally agree and change it, until it is a piece of art! I got admitted in 5/6 and with large scholarships in 3 of them.

Besides their professionalism, I must say that Kathryn and Lara's availability and quick response time is outstanding! They really do care about helping you out and answering your questions as soon as possible. Round 2 can be pretty stressful because deadlines are right after Christmas holidays. Having both of them answering my e-mails and reviewing my essays through this time is just an example of how committed they are!

I recommend square one prep with my eyes closed and will be forever grateful to Lara and Kathryn for the work they put together with me to get to my dream school.

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