“Sorry but top 10 schools are out of your league” – this what I heard every time I talked to an admission consultant until I found Square One Prep.

From the beginning I knew I would need some help with my applications. First, I have never written any essay in my life; the education system in my country was very focused on exams and tests rather than essays. Second, my extra curriculums where rather weak as students clubs did not exist at my university. Finally, I am not acquainted with any MBA alumnus or alumna meaning that I would be totally alone going through the whole process.

For some months I had a list of my top 3 dream schools on my mind – Berkeley, MIT and INSEAD. Before I chose SOP I talked with at least five different admission consultant companies including those big ones. They all told me that with my profile (an engineer, week extra curriculum, working in a startup) there is not a slightest chance getting into any of above mentioned schools. They were happy to work with me but if I choose schools from the top 30. Because I am not the youngest candidate I believed that only a top school will get me closer to my goals. Kathryn was the first and only person who really believed in me although she acknowledged that it would not be an easy ride.

I was offered four consultants to choose from, but after talking with Kunal, I felt chemistry between us. I was sure that with him I can’t fail! He was very devoted – on a few occasions he called me at midnight his time, due to time difference. When many other consultancy companies offer you up to four reviews of an essay Kunal went thru some of my papers over ten times. He was not only an advisor but also a mentor for me and he was as much involved into the whole application process as I was.

Honestly, I never thought I would have a privilege of choosing between Berkeley and MIT. Thanks to Kunal, Kathryn and Square One Prep team I was admitted to both of them.

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When I started my MBA application journey, I was cognizant of the glaring weaknesses in my profile – my sub-3.00 GPA and seemingly disjointed work experience (experience in ~3 industries). I reached out to different consulting firms and had intro calls with a couple of senior consultants. My biggest observation is that the other firms are quick to lump you into a bucket based on your weaknesses. In my case, I was immediately advised at the start of our calls to aim for lower schools because of my background, without even giving me a chance to talk about my story.

Enter SOP – upon my intro call with Kathryn, I was very impressed by the fact that she gave me a chance to talk about my past experiences and why I wanted to do an MBA, before giving her expert assessment. She was very honest in telling me that certain schools may be a far “reach” for someone with my profile, but that my story had enough substance in it to get into some of the top programs I had selected. We identified a consultant (Joan) I would be comfortable working with, and mapped out a time table for the whole process. I had decided to engage their services quite late (a month before my first deadline), so I’m thankful their turnaround was quite fast. From fine-tuning my story (over 10 edits per essay!), to selecting my recommenders, identifying which achievements to disclose in my resume, and prepping for my interview, Joan and Kathryn made sure I included things that will help tell my story, and left out those that didn’t. All the hard work paid off. I got into my no. 1 choice, an M7 school, with a generous fellowship to boot!

I can’t recommend SOP highly enough. If you’re looking for a partner who will be as driven as you are to get into your dream program, who will look beyond the numbers and understand your personal motivations, reach out to SOP and get on an intro call with them. You won’t regret it!

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Reaching out to Square One Prep was without a doubt the best decision I made during my long and challenging MBA application journey.

I reached out to Kathryn months before I was ready to apply (I was actually still preparing for the gmat).She had helped a friend succeed the prior year, so she came highly recommended and didn't disappoint. She made herself available right away for a call , I told her that my dream school was Wharton and that I needed help. She honestly told me that I needed to improve my gmat score and even provided me with gmat prep tips!
I was not even committed to Square One Prep yet, but Kathryn freely offered advice and did check-up calls with fme or months. Once I got a decent score, the time to put my application together arrived, and I can tell you, Kathryn and Crystal were as committed as I was throughout the whole process. always available , rooting for me and helping me every step of the way. Without them I never would have crafted a career narrative that had such thoughtfulness, ambition, and honesty. I knew what I wanted to do generally. but I didn't know how to materialize my goals to help my home country using my background skills. With Kathryn and Crystal's help, I came up with the perfect solution. They pushed me to really dig deeper and introspect, not just with my narrative but with all aspects of my application.

When I got the interview invite , Kathryn and Crystal were there up until the night before the interview to tell me that Icould do it and help me prepare.

Today , i have been admitted to my dream school , Wharton-Lauder !!
It simply would not have happened without Square One Prep.

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I had a great experience working with Square One Prep. Square One stood out during my search for an admissions consultant as one of the only firms that offered real, meaningful feedback on my initial consultation calls. Kathryn and Donna went far beyond the superficial sales pitch offered by most firms and really took the time to learn about my background and my goals. I appreciated how straightforward they were and that they were willing to challenge my thinking about the MBA process.

Once I committed to partnering with Square One, it was clear that they were totally invested in my success. Kathryn built a comprehensive schedule for all of the schools that I was applying to, even those that I wasn’t partnering with Square One on. Donna and Kathryn really went the extra mile when building my career narrative. I had a vague notion of where I wanted to go with an MBA, but it was clear after a call with them that I hadn’t totally thought through my goals. With their feedback and coaching, I was able to build and communicate a compelling career narrative and convincingly articulate my goals.

I partnered with Square One on applications to Booth and Sloan, two schools with very open-ended essays. Donna did an excellent job of reining me in and getting me to focus on the approaches that were most likely to be successful. She was incredibly patient as we went through countless drafts until the final product was in great shape.

I also found interview prep to be very helpful. I thought that my experience interviewing for jobs in the past would be sufficient to be successful. My mock interview proved that this was not the case. I totally bombed my mock and struggled with even the most basic business school interview questions. Donna was again very patient and coached me through the issues that we had identified. By the time the real interviews came around, I was confident and prepared.

Ultimately, I was accepted to both Booth and Sloan with fellowships. I’m ecstatic with the outcome and very thankful for all of the support that Square One Prep offered. Kathryn and Donna were both instrumental in the success of my applications and made the process as low stress as possible. The only regret that I have is that I didn’t partner with them on more of my applications!

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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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Square One Prep - One thing I like about them is the freedom of choice they would allow their candidates to think about school fit and career narratives.

From the start of the conversation either with Kathryn or with Dione, they were friendly, open-minded, collaborative and of a helping nature. They took that extra effort to understand my story and gave me suggestions.

While working with Dione, I always felt that personal touch to my application and clear response to my queries. It was evident that she was clearly thinking from my perspective. She took that extra effort to give me suggestions that would increase my overall chances of succeeding not only with the application process but in the real world, in my career.

GMAT - This is one factor on which the overall process is heavily dependent. It is in the candidate's remit to improve the score. I had the support I needed for my preparation, and I also hired a personal trainer based on Square One Prep's timely suggestion which allowed me to reach my target score on time.

School Selection - Initially my ambitions or goals were very high, and my ask was not realistic. Now, when I look back I can realise the patience both Dione and Kathryn had to get on calls with me to educate me at my pace about what schools were good fits and what schools were not as well as why. I was happy to change my school selection as we worked to build the narrative and as Square One learned more about my background.

Timely Response: Across the overall process, Dione put extra hours in to understand my narrative. She would respond to my emails quickly and always got work back to me within 24 hours. She would drive and urge me to save time and work on my application. I would have lost time and may have missed my application deadlines otherwise.

Admitted to Cornell - Finally, Dione was and is still in touch with me. . Her timely advice, her accurate reflection of my application, her suggestions and feedback were above and beyond all that I could expect as part of the services.

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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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Coming into the process with Square One, I was very concerned that I had little going for me outside my GMAT. I came from a small country, a university that wasn’t even regionally recognized, let alone globally, and had a middling GPA. However, talking to Kathryn and Natalie gave me confidence that my story was M7 material. I worked with Natalie for three schools and was able to apply what I learned through the process for a few more.

Natalie first got on a 3-4 hour call with me to discuss my positioning, strengths, and weaknesses. Afterwards, she provided me a detailed document analyzing each aspect of my application and action items to improve on, particularly me doing the legwork on research for the three schools we were working on. From this launch point, we worked on my resume, going through something like 13 passes to ensure everything was ironed out before moving on to my first school.

For each school, Natalie and I crafted answers not just for the essay questions, but also the short answer prompts on each application form. I have to give a ton of credit to both Natalie and Kathryn here. I found that I tended to gloss over a ton of things in my writing that would have been very meaningful and impactful had I expounded. Natalie found a way to make room for those items while cutting down on the clutter and helping my writing be more concise. Kathryn, on the other hand, gave me the tough feedback I needed to know and made sure that everything in my essay was bulletproof. She made sure everything I wrote was clear and impactful. Their one-two punch was incredibly helpful in ensuring that my essays were not only well though-out but also reflective of who I was and what they knew about me.

With their help, I was able to secure interview invites to 2 of the 3 M7 schools we worked on (with Harvard being the other). Interview prep was also excellent. Natalie gave me a thorough list of common interview questions to prepare for and gave me a mock interview and feedback session. In the interview proper, Natalie also threw me curveballs in the form of questions she didn’t have me prepare for to underline the need to be on your toes and thinking on the fly. With this, I felt like I was able to ace both interviews.
However, what really stood out to me was the concern SOP displayed. There were nearly 2 months between my interviews and decision release dates for the 2 schools we worked on with active applications. Despite this, Natalie was very active in checking up on my application status on even the schools I applied to independently.

Come decision day, I got a waitlist for 1 M7 and instead of letting me wallow in not getting accepted, Natalie and Kathryn immediately got down to business and let me know what the next steps were towards getting off the waitlist. Without a second thought, I had all their waitlist essay prep materials on hand and ready to help me prepare. While we’re still working on those essays, I have to say that I’m very pleased with our working relationship. They strike the right balance between care and concern and directness that keeps you working at optimum efficiency. I’m pleased to say that I got admitted to the 2nd M7 I interviewed with and I’m currently getting ready to place my deposit and secure my slot. While I don’t know if I would have gotten in without Kathryn and Natalie, I do know that they made the entire process much easier to navigate and gave me a lot of peace of mind in the midst of such a daunting process.

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