Square One Prep is simply the top admissions consulting firm in the business today. Originally referred by a former client of Square One Prep who was admitted to a top business school, I got to know Kathryn through multiple points of contact over hours of conversation that took place over years before I finally became a client. I am happy to say that throughout my interactions with Kathryn, I never once felt as if I was in the wrong hands given her truly limitless creative powers and unmatched attention to detail. At every stage in the process - narrative formation, resume preparation, essay crafting, and mock interviewing - I was completely blown away by the methodical approach she used to prepare me in the best possible way for success. All of our hard work paid off in the end, as I was admitted into multiple top-ranked schools as an unconventional, international applicant with more than a few blemishes on my profile, having ultimately accepted an offer at an M7 program. I would never have had the confidence to make it over the finish line without the coaching and mentoring of Kathryn, and will be forever grateful to her and Square One Prep for helping me achieve this major milestone objective in my life and career.

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Kathryn and her team were extremely helpful in setting up a framework for me to be successful in the MBA application process. As someone with a fairly generic profile, Square One worked with me to develop my story and create a resume and essays that allowed my strengths and accomplishments to shine and set me apart from other applicants. The team at Square One believed in me and pushed me to apply to schools I never thought I could get in to. There is a lot of ambiguity in the application process, but Square One’s deep knowledge of MBA admissions helped me feel confident in the work I was creating. Their help in school selection was paramount, as I was accepted in multiple top programs programs, including one with a scholarship!

I couldn’t imagine going through this process without Square One!

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Kathryn Lucas was incredibly helpful in guiding my through the process. From the beginning, she took the time to speak with me as well as provide several former clients as references so I could make sure that Square One was the right fit. I was familiar with the process and started my application in advance so I wasn't pressed for time. I thought I was ready for the process, but Kathryn was invaluable.

On our first call she listened and took detailed notes on my "story." This was incredibly helpful in the first step of crafting my resume and informed the rest of our conversations. While I thought my resume was in decent shape, Kathryn re-tooled it for business school applications (as opposed to job searches). I would not have thought to make several of the edits or include some of the activities / descriptions that she did.

For my essays, Kathryn helped me brainstorm and review numerous drafts. She was always quick to turnaround edits and point out what she thought didn't work. Her advice was always direct, honest, and usually correct (though it sometimes took me a while to come around!).

I needed Kathryn's help the most on strong letters of recommendation and the interview. Kathryn was able to strengthen the letters of recommendation just by changing a few key words and without changing the content. For my interview prep, she gave me question-by-question feedback after a mock interview. She took the time to do a second mini-mock interview and even commented on the difference her advice had made.

With Kathryn's help, I was able to get into my top choice! I would absolutely recommend Square One Prep. Knowing I had Kathryn throughout the process and could email her with any questions I had (down to asking what time acceptance emails would be sent!) was incredibly helpful.

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When I first began thinking about applying to business school, I felt completely overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. Fortunately, a good friend had worked with Square One Prep the prior year with great results, and put me in touch.

Right away during our initial call, I could tell that Kathryn “got” me in that magical way you hope a consultant will. She understood my career progression and accomplishments of course, but she also understood the subtle qualities that make me unique as a professional and as a person. That’s the SOP difference—the ability to hone in on, fully embrace, and express what makes you special to an adcom. For those of us coming from overrepresented industries, that’s a game changer.

Working with a consultant should feel like a seamless partnership, and that’s exactly what I experienced with Kathryn. She spent countless hours with me brainstorming content and revising drafts together until we were both satisfied with the final version. She was available 24/7, even late at night or on the weekend, which was ideal (I have work days that regularly extend past midnight). Her responsiveness was incredible too, always replying within minutes regardless of the hour. 
Kathryn constantly challenged me to push harder and dig deeper, not just with my applications but also my career goals. I learned so much about myself through the process, and felt completely taken care of. For a grade-A overthinker like me, Kathryn was a lifesaver. 

With Kathryn’s guidance I was able to craft a clear and compelling narrative that expressed who I am. I will be heading to HBS in the fall, and fully recommend SOP!

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The help that I received from Square One Prep transformed my application from mediocre to great in just a matter of weeks. I thought I had it covered, but minutes into my initial phone evaluation, it was clear that my application was disjointed and I lacked a vision. Immediately, Kathryn, put together an action plan outlining the steps that I needed to take to strengthen my overall application.

We started with my resume. When I look back at what I was planning on submitting to my dream school, it’s embarrassing. Not only did I lack the specificity needed to demonstrate the impact I had throughout college and my career, even the format was horrendous. Kathryn was able to share a large quantity of successful resumes (with personal information removed) so that I could understand what business schools expect. After a few revisions, my resume was ready for primetime.

She then proceeded to review my letters of recommendation and gave incredible advice on how my recommenders could make them even better. This was really critical for me because one of my recommenders had never written one before. While my recommendations highlighted that I would be a great candidate, at times the language and examples were not specific or powerful enough. She gave concrete feedback on where the letters needed to be reworked so that admissions officers could attain a better picture of my potential.

With the essays, she gave me the hard feedback on when I lacked a clear vision, was not using my authentic voice or went too far and no longer seemed practical. She also questioned whether some ideas were right for the questions I was asked to answer. Her guidance helped me be true to myself while answering the exact questions from the school.

Lastly, the interview prep was so helpful! She gave me a list of 50+ questions to practice with. After our mock phone call she provided the critical feedback I needed to hear so that I could knock the real interview out of the park. She also gave tips on how to handle certain situations should they arise on interview day.

I highly recommend Square One Prep for anyone who wants to put forth their best application. Even if you think you are covered (like I did), I have no doubt that they would take your application to the next level. Without their help I would not have gotten into my dream school (Stanford!).

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I have nothing but positive things to say about SquareOne Prep, Kathryn in particular.

From the very beginning of my process (which started a year before I actually applied), Kathryn spent an enormous amount of time with me on the phone addressing my concerns, reassuring me and giving me extremely honest advice about how I should think about my candidacy. This was before she even signed on as my advisor. After multiple phone conversations, we agreed that I ought to wait, re-take my exam (I was barely crossing 300) and strengthen my profile for first round the following cycle. When it was time to kick off the application process, Kathryn reached out to me unprompted and asked if I was ready to begin our work together. Initially I was wary about hiring an advisor but after speaking with Kathryn and learning more about her curated approach to the application process, I knew I would greatly benefit from her coaching and acute knowledge of the admissions committees. I could tell she was truly invested in my success and was as intent on me getting into the school of my dreams as I was.

After our first official introduction conversation, for the first time I was excited about the cumbersome journey of the b-school application process. Kathryn made the process seem less daunting and more of an exciting road that we would be on together. Kathryn always made herself available, even if it was just to hop on the phone for 5-10 minutes. She gave me encouraging, honest and incredibly detailed feedback about each aspect of my candidacy – where I was strong and where we needed to strengthen. After taking my exam multiple times and still receiving a low test score of 305, I was convinced that going to a top b-school was not a reality for me. Yet, Kathryn believed in my potential and promised that we would overcome my low score by strengthening the rest of my application. When I was doubtful about applying to only top schools, Kathryn pushed me to go for it because what she believed in what I had to offer. With a strict timeline and thought out plan, I began my applications very early which eliminated last-minute haste and stress. Ultimately, I got in early to my top choice program – Columbia—and owe much of this success to Kathryn and Square One Prep.

I highly recommend Kathryn & SquareOne Prep to anyone going through the b-school application process, it is a wise investment.

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As someone who was looking to transition careers post MBA and with just over 2 years of work experience at the time of application ( not to mention the fact that I belong to the most competitive application pool ), I knew I needed help to differentiate myself and present the best version of myself to the adcom.

After much research and many free profile evaluations with several agencies, the call with Kathryn was a breath of fresh air. I was looking for someone that really understood me as a person and my motivation for this degree and could help me build an application around that. Square One was the perfect match. My career path post-MBA is fueled by my passion for a particular industry that isn't a tradition one for business school. Still, Kathryn was able to help me understand how I could channel that passion to create the perfect B-school application. Even during our free consultation, we spoke for over an hour ( was supposed to be a free 30-min consultation ) and Kathryn gave me some great feedback. In fact, Kathryn readily hopped onto Skype sessions for free for well over two hours in total even before I decided to work with Square One.

I think the Square One system of working with one consultant full time and then getting a second pair of eyes in the form of Kathryn to provide fresh perspective/feedback is excellent. I worked with an SOP consultant on my applications and he made the entire process so much easier. He tells it like it is and is incredibly patient from start to finish. As someone who was introspecting through the process, I found that immensely helpful. He encouraged me take my time with the essays ( I started the application process fairly early ) in order to get my content just right. Even when it sometimes took over 20 revisions to get my essays right, he would never lose patience with me and made sure the essay was exactly that, just right. His ability to take every sentence and transform it into impactful text made a huge difference in every essay. Additionally, I was particularly impressed with the finesse that I was able to gain on my resume with his help ( Nailed a few job interviews with this too! ). I distinctly remember sitting down to compare the first draft of my resume and the final version and the difference was remarkable. Kathryn is a stickler for authenticity and this not only speaks for the kind of work Square One does but also helps build the perfect application in my opinion.

My process was certainly not straight forward and I received a ding in R1 from a top 4 school. Kathryn was extremely supportive in making sure my head didn’t drop and reassured me that I was a strong candidate and that I would definitely get the call I deserved. It didn’t take long for that call to arrive! I got admitted to Fuqua EA ( Class of 2019 ) and I could not be happier! Fuqua was a dream school for me and to matriculate there next year is a dream come true. Safe to say, I would not be in this position if it wasn’t for Square One.

You guys are the best!

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I started my round 1 prep very late - just 20 days before deadline. Although I had a lot of experiences to share, my biggest challenge was to put it in writing and weave a story out of them. More importantly I did not recognize that some of the experiences I had could be pitched in a very powerful way.

I wanted to apply to Booth and Haas in round 1. I called Kathryn to discuss which image to use for the Booth essay. She patiently listened me talk about my experiences for one hour and came up with a much better framework than what I had for the essay. We even selected a different image. I was fully convinced of the direction she gave me and started working on it. I couldn't give a lot of time for the essays as it was a very hectic period at the office. So I wrote a document that had almost 4000 words of various experiences. Nothing tied them together. Kathryn helped me greatly in editing the essay and making a sensible and convincing story. It's amazing how she internalized my entire life journey and brought out all the important elements and created a cohesive story, much better than I ever could.

Time zone difference is no barrier while working with Kathryn. I got a feeling that she was working all 24 hours.

After applying for Booth, I just had a week to prepare Haas. Unfortunately I fell sick and had to be hospitalized for 2 days. I was surprised by how much Kathryn understood my profile when I called her to discuss Haas essays 4 days before the deadline. She suggested the right stories to use even without me reminding her one bit about my background. Kathryn was as equally committed to my application as I was.

When I began working with her, I was apprehensive of the expensive pricing. But as I worked with Kathryn, I was fully confident that her output is worth every dollar spent. It was a pleasure working with her and I would eagerly recommend her to prospective MBA applicants.

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I was looking for some help while reapplying after getting waitlisted/rejected at all the schools I applied to last year. I reached out to Kathryn, the firm's owner, on what she thinks my chances are. She was the first consultant I spoke to who was genuinely interested and had sufficient time to hear me out. She gave me confidence that I could do better; she told me some flaws in my existing application, which I completely agreed to and I decided I definitely needed help. She talked to me for close to 1.5 hours and she even edited one of my letter I needed to sent out to an adcom member when I hadn't even signed up. Even though I ultimately decided I wouldn't use her services, I would highly recommend Karthryn to anybody who is looking for stress- free and insightful journey to their dream b-school.

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I worked w Kathryn, the head of the Square One Prepp, on my MBA applications for entry in the fall of 2016.
Kathryn knows the process for the different schools very well, and was able to provide me with detailed guidance on how to approach the application process for each program.
Even more importantly however, Kathryn was an amazing mentor and helped me find my own voice through the challenging essay writing process. The essays I ended up crafting came out very authentic and truly representative of who I am and what I am after! And the Wharton adcom recognized that too!

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