Square One prep has been instrumental in my efforts to help me land an admission offer into a top business school program. Kathryn has amazing knowledge about all the programs and has a very quick judgment on your candidature. She's able to use the two to give critical advice on school choice, career narratives, advisor selection etc which set the tone of the process. Lara Avsar was my advisor who I worked with on a weekly basis. She is a miracle worker when it comes to telling a story. She's uncompromising and relentless in making sure your story is told in an authentic manner. I felt we had very compelling applications given my profile. Despite not landing the offer into my top choice programs, Lara and Kathryn were instrumental in picking me up and showing me my options in an objective manner. I wouldn't have gone through with the rest of my applications without their support. I was able to finally land a spot at a program that was best suited for me and am glad I had Lara and Kathryn along the way.

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Knowing I had to overcome several concerning areas (low GPA/GMAT, job gaps), I started researching consultants to help strengthen my application. After my initial call with Kathryn at Square One Prep, I could tell that their personalized approach was exactly what I needed to get into my top choice Columbia. Before committing to SOP, the team even sent through a clear working schedule in order to hit my ED deadline.

Once I started the process, I immediately knew I made the right decision. Within the first week, my consultant Gary spent hours getting to know my background and ways to better showcase my story. His guidance, along with Kathryn’s, were crucial in pushing me to create a unique and authentic application. I felt most challenged throughout the career narrative process, which felt discouraging at that time, but in hindsight, was the most rewarding part of the entire program. Through Kathryn’s feedback, I was able to showcase my strengths and clearly articulate my goals in an organized, logical manner that made the essay and interview portion much easier. She made sure that my application highlighted the best parts of me, my experiences, and my aspirations. Throughout the process, everyone on the SOP team answered any and every question I had, all within a moment’s notice. My consultant Gary was very responsive and constantly worked to keep me on track with my schedule, even when I fell a bit behind at certain points. Wendy, the career narrative expert, was also instrumental throughout my time working with Square One Prep. I felt extremely prepared from the resume, to the LORs, to the essays and was very proud of what I submitted in my application.

Overall, I would highly recommend Square One Prep to anyone looking for a comprehensive, strategic approach to the admissions process and don’t believe I could have done this without SOR’s expertise. They not only helped me achieve my goal of getting into the Columbia EMBA program but also helped me prepare for success in business school.

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I would not have been able to be admitted to Columbia -- let alone have received a full tuition fellowship -- without Square One's help and guidance, and for that I'm eternally grateful.

Square One added incredible value at every step of the process, from helping me realize that Columbia was best suited to my goal of receiving a substantive scholarship at an elite school with a strong media & entertainment program, to working with me to rewrite my resume to better fit the business school admissions committee rather than a prospective employer, to making my essays much more compelling, and much much more.

I received the Square One recommendation from a close family member, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to family or friends in a heartbeat

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As an EMBA applicant with a non-traditional career path, I wanted to make sure I was working with a team of professionals who would help me put my best foot forward. I interviewed multiple consulting firms but chose Square One Prep because of their clearly-outlined approach, Kathryn’s background (similar post-MBA industry), and the fact that Kathryn believed I was a great candidate for the schools to which I was applying.

As expected, the process was exacting and the hardest part for me– and also the most rewarding– was the Career Narrative. If you don’t know exactly what you want to do and why, Kathryn and Wendy, SOP Career Narrative Expert, will make sure you get there within a handful of phone calls. But be prepared: no one makes rapid progress without a little stress. Ultimately, crafting the Career Narrative significantly improved the quality of my essays and gave me clear direction.

I worked directly with Mary Winograd, who was fantastic. She turned around documents much faster than expected and her edits/comments always pushed me to dig deeper. She was very accessible and made sure to check in and push me the two times I fell behind. With Mary’s help, I crafted an application that I was very proud of.

In the end, I received an acceptance phone call from Columbia within a week of interviewing and I’ll be enrolling this fall. I’m not sure how it would have ended up without Square One, but I know I wouldn’t have put together as strong of an application without them. I’ll be recommending them in the future.

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I chose SOP because of great feedback from a friend. And I was not disappointed.
I worked with Kathryn, Crystal, and Haig. All were very passionate about my application and my success.
There were many times when I felt stressful and could not produce the work as agreed previously.
They encouraged me to try further and allowed me more time, which means that they needed to reschedule their own time.

When I decided to buy another school package, within only a few days, Crystal helped review my application even though she was on her holiday! I felt so grateful for that. In the end, I got an almost full scholarship from this second school. Thank you so much for your help, Kathryn, Crystal, and Haig!

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Knowing I had to overcome a low GPA, I started researching consultants to help strengthen my application. I called over 10 different companies and was wary about committing before I spoke to Kathryn at Square One Prep. I was instantly impressed. I had a list of target schools (rank 12-20), and on the introductory call with Kathryn she immediately looked over my profile and asked what I was thinking not applying to schools in the M7. I honestly thought I wouldn’t be competitive at those tiers of programs, but Kathryn convinced me to aim higher.

Fast forward to December 12th and a phone call from Kellogg offering me admittance, with a scholarship, to their MMM program, and I couldn’t be happier with my choice to work with Kathryn and her team! Still waiting to hear back from other schools, but I was also invited to interview at another one of my top picks.

Kathryn, Bailey, and my personal advisor Teresa, worked with me every step of the way and answered a million questions and concerns I had throughout the process, and helped me hit deadlines I would never had hit without their help given my work and travel schedule. With their guidance, I wrote and finalized an essay the day before the Kellogg submission deadline. While I didn’t use them for every school I applied for, I was able to leverage the materials for other schools, confident in the stories and information they helped me to craft.

Overall, I was really impressed with SOP and would recommend them to anyone who is unsure about the process. Was it expensive? Yes, but I worked it into my budget, and the return of being admitted to an M7 program with scholarship is a no brainer. Would I do it again? Without hesitation. Thanks so much to my SOP team!

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I’m so glad I had support from SquareOne. Even during the free consultation, Kathryn spent hours to learn about my background, provided honest feedback and discussed her approach on how she would present my package. I knew instantly I didn’t have to shop around.



I chose Crystal as my consultant. As a Wharton graduate, she was able to share valuable insights on how to present my personal achievements and career narratives in the package. It was an overwhelming experience when I was constantly challenged and pushed to open myself up and show the authenticity in the essays, but that’s what adcom appreciates and made your application stand out in front of the committee. Have fun with it!



I didn’t have a great gmat score to show for, but I got interviews from all of the 3 M7 schools that I applied to. I still remember the night before my first interview, I had mock interview with Crystal for hours till mid-night. After I was waitlisted from one of the M7, SO team worked their magic again. They have a structured strategy to help you get off the wait list. And I did!



With years’ experience, SquareOne has a comprehensive structure to guide you through varies steps including school picking, narrative building, interview prepping and managing waitlist situation. I can’t appreciate enough of what SO has done for me. I would highly recommend Kathryn, Crystal, and the whole SO team to anyone looking to work with an admissions consultant.

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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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Because I was applying to only two M7 schools for geographical reasons, getting genuine and tailored advice on my applications was a must. When I first spoke with Kathryn during our initial free consultation, she stood out above all others due to her authenticity, frankness, and approach. Our conversation lasted over one hour during which she answered every question I asked her. Her responses showed that she thought intently about my profile before even hopping on that initial phone call; I knew I was not going to get a run-of-the-mill experience with SO.

I chose to work with Eva for both schools, who provided amazing insight into what adcoms are looking for, how to best get across my accomplishments on paper, and most importantly, how to craft a succinct and logical career narrative. Looking back at the ideas I had about what a great b-school application looked like before working with Eva, I would have crafted a fairly trite application. Eva and the SO team helped me focus on the elements of my personal and professional history that would attract an adcom’s attention.

I got the sense that other admissions consultants were looking to feed me narratives that worked for their other clients; SO will not do this. I think this is what made them stand out initially and the reason that the application package I submitted felt very personal and introspective. Their process forced you to dig deeper to get across the person you actual are rather than the archetypal MBA candidate. There are not any shortcuts to getting this across to the adcom, but you can be assured that SO will let you know when you are coming across unauthentic or trying to emulate what you think is the “right” thing to say in an essay. For me, their feedback on my ideas was the most rewarding process and invaluable.

SO was there with me through every step of this, and I felt comfortable knowing I had them in my corner for the big decisions (essay topics) down to the most minute of details (grammar). I would highly recommend Kathryn, Eva, and the whole SO team to anyone looking to work with an admissions consultant.

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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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