Hourly Service Reviews

I was late into the application process and was anxious if I could prepare a strong application in time. On the recommendation of some of my seniors who had great experiences with SOP, I decided to choose the same. Right now, with admits from both Tuck and Haas with good scholarships, I'm confident I made the right choice with SOP. I worked with Matt Hartford, who has been a great listener and advisor. He helped me peel back the layers on my many experiences and connect them to create an impactful story and a well-rounded application. I recommend SOP to anyone getting into the B-School application process. There is so much to the process than just listing out your achievements and SOP will help you realize it! My partner also worked with them, applying to only one school, Tuck. Despite the riskiness of a 1-school application strategy, I’m thrilled to say she and I BOTH celebrated offers!

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Rahul, Kathryn and also Anna in particular are exceptional professionals who know what they are doing, and I couldn't recommend them enough.

I applied to only a single school (the most selective one in its field). Although I had prepared the entire application myself, I decided to ask SOP for help in reviewing my essays and my narrative. Honestly, I was expecting them to be impressed – they were not. Kathryn in particular told me that my favourite essay was making the adcom's decision easy (as in that they would reject me with no hesitation).

With the deadline being ~10 days away, I opted for the hourly service. We made my narrative easier to understand and worked on some of the essays. Occasionally I disagreed with some of their comments, but overall we arrived at a result that I was very happy with, which clearly improved my admission chances. Everyone was also very available throughout the process.

The end result was that I got into my dream school with a full ride.

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My experience working with Kathryn, Allison, and Horatiu at Square One Prep was invaluable to my MBA application journey and admissions success.

I had a pretty short timeline to apply to schools, and the team at Square One Prep gladly opened their schedules to me in the middle of the busy first-round application cycle. They spent hours with me understanding my background, achievements, and goals, and were always quick to communicate valuable feedback about each piece of my application, while encouraging me along the way. Working with them helped me clearly articulate my full story to admissions committees and it gave me the confidence I needed when tackling, what would have otherwise been daunting, admissions interviews.

With help from Square One Prep, I was accepted to all of my schools with several full-tuition scholarship offers, Graduate Assistantship offers, and fellowship offers.

I would highly recommend working with Square One Prep to anyone who is considering applying to business school! Looking back, I would definitely work with them again.

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I opted for an hourly service with Square One Prep - and I am very glad that I reached out to them at an early stage during my applications.
Kathryn went above and beyond in our first "introductory" call as well and gave me so many tips that other consultants would probably not have. She listened to my stories and gave me advices on schools I should target. The call went on for more than an hour - and I felt comfortable sharing my personal stories with Kathryn. On our first call itself, I was sure I wanted to work with her. I went ahead for the hourly service.

Kathryn provided diligent and candid feedback on my previous work - my essays and resume. Her feedback was crisp and actionable. The greatest benefit I got was Kathryn completely quashed my main essay - and rightly so. It got me thinking in the right direction- and now I am telling a completely different story in my next drafts. In fact, some of the stories I had thought were not super useful are the ones which actually highlighted my strengths. Such introspection has turned my application 360 degrees - the different "components" are still there but arranged very well and telling a cohesive story.

Kathryn was very knowledgeable when it came to resumes too. She clearly pointed out my shortcomings- the places where I was "spoonfeeding" too much and the places where there were mysterious blanks.

All in all I would highly recommend Kathryn! If you are looking for someone to get you into your dream school, I would not think twice before choosing Kathryn.

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Kathryn and the Square One team were instrumental in my success with business school applications. Kathryn spent 2-3 hours with me over multiple phone calls answering my questions even before I had committed to working with her company. Her willingness to go above and beyond on the front end is the reason I chose to work with her firm. Once I had officially signed up with Square One, I was on a very tight time frame for second round application deadlines. I purchased an hourly package and was advised by Matteo. With Matteo’s day-to-day guidance and Kathryn following along and diving in when needed, we successfully got three applications submitted. In an extremely short time frame during the holiday season, Square One amazed me with the fast paced and detailed feedback they gave me on my application materials. I was fielding and responding to emails and calls with Matteo on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and New Years Day. Square One truly cares about their clients and makes themselves more than available at ALL times. I am pleased I chose Square One and would strongly recommend them to any business school applicant considering hiring a consulting firm.

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I highly recommend Square One Prep to anyone that is in the process of applying to business schools. I initially decided to hire Square One Prep after being waitlisted by my preferred schools and decided to work with Kathryn and her team at Square One Prep to improve my chances of being accepted. During my initial consultation with Kathryn, she took the time to analyze every part of my business school applications and provided a thoughtful explanation as to why I was waitlisted. I really appreciate her candor about the weaknesses within my applications and what I needed to do to improve my chances of getting off the waitlist. One of Square One Prep’s consultants, Luis, worked with me extensively to clarify and refine my career goals and reasons for attending business school to craft a professionally written career narrative. Another consultant, Mike, worked with me for over four hours to improve and restructure my resume to make it more business school friendly. This proved to be an invaluable asset as I come from a nontraditional background (military) and had no idea how to write a business school resume. Overall, I enjoyed my time working with the entire team at Square One Prep as I found that they were all extremely friendly and dedicated, always going above and beyond to ensure I was able to drastically improve my chances of receiving a matriculation from my top choice for business school.

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I began working with Kathryn after getting waitlisted from the two schools I interviewed at during Round 1. The waitlist process felt like a demoralizing black box and I did not know how to navigate it strategically. Moreover, I was afraid that after months of work on applications and interviews, I would not get in anywhere.

In our first session, Kathryn described what she saw as the key points I needed to clarify in order to go from the waitlist to an admit decision. Through her feedback, I was able to recognize some key flaws in my application, as well as how I could take action to clarify them. She not only helped me develop my narrative for business school, she helped guide critical thinking about what I really wanted and what was realistic with my background. I believe that her process was useful not just for my application, but for business school itself.

Not only was I immediately impressed by Kathryn’s incisive and experienced feedback, I was also very comforted by her efficiency. For those who are concerned by the price of a consultant, I would highly recommend Kathryn and engaging her early on. Firstly, I believe that if I had worked with her from the beginning, I would not have gotten waitlisted and had to spend all the additional time and money associated with that process. Secondly, when Kathryn works with you, she is quick and thoughtful in her feedback. Her efficiency in reviews made me feel like I was getting incredible value for the investment I was making.

Getting into business school is not easy, and I feel lucky to have been recommended Kathryn. Now, I am attending my dream school in the fall, and even received a fellowship.

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I worked with Square One Prep on an hourly basis starting about a month before my round 1 application deadlines. Kathryn is obviously a seasoned expert when it comes to business school admissions but I was most impressed with her ability to understand me and my motivations after just an introductory call. It was really easy to open up with her. The most valuable service that Square One Prep provided was career narrative help. I didn't realize how important it was for me to not only have a long-term and short-term goal after business school but also to have pretty specific details outlined. Kathryn and her team were honest and really helped me craft a narrative I used in all of my applications and all of my interviews (and even casual conversations). The narrative, importantly, was also authentic to myself and not something that we just made up to sound good to admissions. I think it will help me have a north star as I actually set out to do my MBA and surely encounter a lot of distractions/shiny opportunities. Additionally, my work with SOP definitely contributed to being offered a full-ride to Haas and a partial scholarship to Kellogg (my top two choices) which is obviously a huge plus!

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I have to say that I was lucky to met Kathryn and Lee in the late December of 2018 (approxmitely half a month before the application deadline of my dream school) after the frustrating work with another consultancy. Square One is totally different from my previous consultancy which treated me as a product and tried to package me as a typical kind of applicant for business schools. Kathryn and Lee really cared about my past experiences and were willing to know my thoughts and concerns during the application process.

As I have a quite twisted and untraditional background(law and entrepreneur), Kathryn and Lee spent great efforts to help me comb through my past experience and bring out the best part for my application. They helped me to know myself better by digging into my stories and this is especially helpful for my whole essay writing process.

Though I took hourly service from them, Kathryn and Lee did more than what should have been included in the package. They taliored a time table for me to complete applications for 4 schools within 18 days. Lee was quite considerate to adjust her time and give me response within a day as we had 12 hours time difference. Even after the application process was end, Lee shared with me insights and opportunities about the industry I pictured in my career goal.

My overall experience with Square One is super excellent, especially compared to the other consultancy I previously worked with. Kathryn and Lee are true experts on the application process and requirements of each schools. They are the persons you can totally trust and finish your business application together with!

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My process was a bit different. After unsuccessful applications in Round 1, I knew it was time to switch consultants - I must have interviewed over a dozen but Kathryn and the team at Square One prep stood out like no other. The first conversation with Kathryn was revelatory - from the length and the content of the discussion, it was obvious that Square One was invested in my success. This was a really refreshing change!

I was so impressed that I selected Square one prep even before learning of their program for candidates in need of financial support. As someone from a development background, I was so grateful when I found out that Square one offers a discount to candidates in low income brackets.

Working with Kathryn, Lara (my consultant), Wendy (my career advice expert) and the rest of the team was an incredible experience. I’d worked with a consultant before but Square one was clearly miles ahead and helped me transform my narrative, my essays and my resume! The level of responsiveness combined with the in-depth knowledge on the admissions process Square One brings to the table is truly unmatched.

With Square One’s help, I’m happy to report I was accepted into three schools of my choice (one on a full scholarship!) and now face the difficult but fortunate situation of deciding. I had a 100% acceptance rate in Round 2 of my MBA applications and I couldn’t have done it without Kathryn and her team!

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