In 2021, I was laid off after having worked in the company for 5+ years. I decided to pursue an MBA on a whim, with only 4 months left to get a competitive GMAT score and submit a competitive application to a top MBA program. With no room for “what-ifs” and “maybes”, my friends suggested that I engage an MBA Admissions consultancy. Square One Prep was the clear choice after my free consultation with Kathryn because of her experience, warm personality and commitment to answering all questions without ever looking at the clock. After a few introductory calls, I picked Kathleen as my advisor to guide me through the process.

As my decision to pursue an MBA was made on a whim, the struggle to fully crystallize my long-term goals felt insurmountable. Fortunately, I had Wendy who set a very high bar and didn’t settle for a run-of-the-mill narrative template. My thought process and ideas were critiqued until I backed up every assumption with industry research and data. Eight drafts later, I not only had a strong logical career plan, but also improved awareness of myself and my target industry.

Such exacting requirements are Square One Prep’s trademark and were placed throughout the process, be it crafting the resume, shortlisting schools, or writing application essays. I’ll admit that there were times it felt disheartening to have my best drafts critiqued and sent back with comments. But Kathleen’s encouraging presence and commitment helped me persevere. Always available to talk, she even accommodated many last-minute requests, despite conflicts with her personal commitments and ensured that I stayed on schedule throughout the process.

And of course, everything occurred under the watchful gaze of Kathryn who never settled for even at-par and kept pushing until every deliverable met her exceptionally demanding standards. All in all, I can confidently say that without this grueling journey, I’d never have received admission offers from both INSEAD and HEC Paris.

Square One Prep is an onerous experience for sure. I However, if you desire to build outstanding applications and secure offers to top schools, while also growing as an individual, Square One Prep is a no-brainer. My only piece of advice: start early to make the most of Square One Prep’s amazing team!

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I decided to apply for an MBA in late June 2021, skeptical about my chances as I belonged to an overrepresented applicant pool, carried relatively low work experience and had little time remaining for my target college’s R1 deadlines (5 top M7 schools)

Before beginning the application process, I reached out to several MBA consultants, and mostly received the same feedback – to either tone down my expectations, or save the application for another year. But right from the first call with Kathryn, Square One Prep stood out from the rest. Instead of just evaluating my profile based on my background and test scores, Kathryn pushed me to open up about different experiences in my life through a series of introspective questions. She encouraged me to continue aiming for the best schools, somehow believing that I’d find a good story to tell.

I immediately signed up with SOP, and could soon tell that this would be the right call. The MBA application process can be an exhausting mental rollercoaster, so I was glad to have Annie, my advisor, share this with me. She became equally invested in my applications right from the beginning and provided much-needed honest feedback to help me deliver quality essays and prepare well for my interviews. Annie is extremely diligent, really approachable, incredibly supportive, and looking back – the very best person I could’ve had to navigate through the challenges of these applications. I also received tremendous support from Wendy, who spent several hours helping me draft a leakproof, ambitious yet well-grounded career narrative, that became the core for all my applications.

I went on to receive interview invites from 3 colleges, and finally got accepted into my dream school!

Square One Prep’s encouragement and support was critical in my journey, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND them for the MBA Applications. They’ve got an absolutely amazing team, who’ll have your back and put you in the best position to achieve your business school goals

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At SOP I've seen the advisors are rooting for your success and make sure that you're doing the best you can. Horatiu really helped me navigate through my career plans and carve out a precise career goal. Sooky was the constant cheerleader who was patient with my long lines of edits and redoings. Kathryn was always available and ready to help. In the short time that we spent together, I learned a lot. Alongwith the incredible people, the processes and the structure at SOP really helps you navigate through the ambiguity of the admission process with confidence.

My best wishes are with SOP :)

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I worked with Square One for Round 2 applications during the 2021-2022 cycle. I interviewed ~6 firms and consultants. The prior year, I had worked with a reputable firm and thought that I did not receive the support and quality of work I was looking for, so I was careful to choose the right consultant. After my initial conversation with Kathryn (founder), I felt comfortable in the hands of Square One. During the conversation, I spoke about my background and why MBA. Kathryn listened to my story, having a candid response about my candidacy and story that felt personal and empowering. I felt other firms were heavily focused on marketing or were boastful, but I did not feel any of this with Kathryn.

The next step was to find the right advisor that I would work closely with. I interviewed several advisors before talking with Lara. I believe all the advisors I spoke with were strong, but I immediately connected with Lara during our initial discussion. Her authentic style made me feel highly confident and comfortable partnering with her for my business school applications.

The Square One process was structured to move things along but tailored in helping me access my motivations and key moments of my story. The process started with school selection, which measured the risk of school admittance. I was a high-risk candidate, given my <3.0 GPA. Then, there was a narrative process with Wendy (narrative expert) and Lara, where I met over multiple sessions to talk about my ambitions and form a business case of what it takes to reach those goals. I found this process invaluable as I was not interested in developing a case just for admission purposes.

Then, I began working on essays with Lara over a few months, a process that was highly introspective and therapeutic. Her pre-writing calls and comments on drafts were insightful and helped direct my writing to be full and personal. During the semi-final drafts, my essays were sent to a team of editors, which included Kathryn, to make sure that my stories were clear, understandable, and ready. My writing came out real, professional, and passionate. The team was kind enough to work with me through tight timelines, even turning around comments on the day of application deadlines.

At the interview stage, Lara spent significant time with me, helping me understand my unique touch in interviews. At this point, I realized I had approached interviews wrong my whole life, almost as a test, but she helped me come as my whole self and communicate my thoughts in a clear spoken and sincere way.

Overall, I was accepted to Wharton. I don't think I could have had this successful outcome with any other group and am so happy I chose Lara and Square One.

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A friend referred me to Square One Prep and I cannot recommend them enough.
Telling my story took a few calls to nail down, but Cristina, Horatiu and Kathryn helped me stay on track with my applications, guiding me through the unknowns of the application process and ensuring I put my best foot forward. Our work from program selection, essay editing and interview prep to comparing offers helped me find my best fit. The team was not afraid to tell me when I was not doing my best in the process and pushed me to produce my most genuine applications.
I am very excited to be attending a wonderful program this fall with significant merit aid!
Thank you Cristina, Horatiu and Kathryn!

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Thanks to Kathryn, Annie, Horatiu, and the rest of the SquareOnePrep team, I breezed through the application process for business school. Their all-inclusive approach to helping me construct my career story helped me concentrate on what was important to me and enabled me to show my best self to business school admissions committees.

What is the rationale behind SOP?

I spoke with a few MBA consultants from various companies. As far as I'm concerned, I don't want to work with someone who either overestimated or underestimated my abilities. My first conversation with Kathryn from SOP was positive, but she also pointed me what I needed to improve upon based on the results of my application. Her words of wisdom were a great boost to my self-esteem and practical in nature.

The four key components of their services are Resume, LOR, Career Narrative and Essays.

Resume: Many hours of phone calls with Annie, my academic adviser, were spent developing my résumé, and she pointed out many aspects of my academic and professional achievements that I had overlooked. In the end, the resume that was created using SOP was quite thorough and compelling in its content.

LOR: Even though I had previously applied to a master's programme and submitted a professional letter of recommendation, this LOR prepared with SOP for MBA was very striking and had a number of personal & professional tales. The SOP presented my supervisor with a wealth of information to consider when making their recommendation.

Carrier Narrative: The nicest part about SOP is that they take 3-4 separate sessions to set short-term and long-term objectives. This encouraged individuals to look at various career objectives, companies, and the impact they had on society, and eventually a clear path post MBA short and long term goal was established.

Essays: Each of my meetings with my adviser was helpful and supplied me with a wealth of useful information, which helped me write more effective essays.

Overall, I'm glad I selected SOP for MBA consulting, and I know it would have been exceedingly tough for me to be in the place I am now if it hadn't been for their help. Thank you SOP, and thank you Kathryn!

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When I started my MBA application journey, I decided that getting an MBA Admissions consultant was worth the investment. I spoke to a few consultants at the large firms, and I settled with one advisor. Shortly after, I received an email from GMAT Club, and there was an ad in the email for SOP, saying that almost everyone that uses SOP highly recommends it. I was intrigued, so I checked the recommendations on GMAT Club, and they were glowing. I then explored the website, and I was shocked to find out that at SOP, a whole team looks after you - including SOP’s founder, Kathryn. This setup was unlike the large firms where the advisor you choose is the one you work with throughout the application(s). I was even more intrigued, and I decided to schedule an introductory call with Katheryn, which was unlike any other experience, mind-blowing and humbling.
Katheryn was more thorough than the several hours of calls I had already had with the other firm in just that first introductory call. She took such a deep interest in my story and knew exactly how to help me. I could tell from that first call how passionate Kathryn is about her work. I was so surprised by how she connected to me and my story in that call, and I knew right then and there that although it would be expensive to purchase a package on top of the one I had already purchased, I HAD to work with SOP. Katheryn is careful and thoughtful about the process - she even schedules a call with three different advisors that she believes will pair nicely with you/your personality/your story. This step makes so much sense, and it is entirely intuitive. The amount of work that goes into MBA applications is exhaustive, so it is great knowing that you ‘click’ with your advisor, who will be working most closely with you.

I am so lucky and grateful to have worked with Allison; she is friendly, efficient, and responsive. She pushed me to refine my work over and over. Sometimes I thought that a particular essay was good enough, but she suggested we change something to improve it.

The career narrative work with Wendy was one of the most valuable exercises that will be useful during the essay writing process, coffee chats with MBA schools, interviews… etc. I can’t emphasize how important and beneficial it is.

The editing team, the tracking system, the LOR process, and everything at SOP was efficient and yielded results. I am so grateful to Kathryn, Allison, Wendy, and the rest of the SOP team have helped me achieve a dream. Thank you so much.

After trying more than one admissions firm, I can confidently say that SOP is above and beyond. For any aspiring MBA student starting their MBA application journey reading this, I am not trying to convince you to use SOP right away, but I highly recommend you, at least, have a free consult with Kathryn - you have nothing to lose!

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Kathryn, Afiya, and the SquareOnePrep team were incredible in guiding me along my business school application journey. Their comprehensive approach to helping me craft my career narrative brought into focus what I cared about and allowed me to showcase my best self for business school. The collaboration and constructive criticism helped me hone my essays to a degree that I was humbly surprised by the essay’s strength! Lastly, and most importantly, SquareOnePrep did not give up on me even when I felt liking giving up on myself. When I really needed it, they worked with me to build a strategy for a waitlist and I eventually got into my top school.

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Square One handheld me through the entire application process: school selection, career goal building, resume/; essay development, and interview preparation. The team was always readily available to answer my questions and helped me create a story that grabbed the attention of all my top schools. The work we created enabled the admissions committees to look past a lackluster test score, which I was very nervous would lead them to reject me without an interview. I got waitlisted at 5 top programs and an offer with a full scholarship at Darden! Because of Darden's generosity, I didn't try to covert at other schools. There is no question that my applications were more robust and that I got more traction due to Square One's guidance.

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I chose Kathryn from Square One Prep for a premium comprehensive package. She is a great admission consultant who really understands how to communicate and distill stories for you to help you succeed. I would not hesitate to recommend Kathryn to you if you are serious about your applications! One thing to hightlight about Kathryn is that her help to you does not end at admission. In fact, the relationship extends beyond the admission offer letter! She also helps guide you all the way until you start school, sometimes even over a lengthy period of time to help you best communicate with the school. I highly recommend Kathryn!

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