GSB Admission - Thank You SOP and Lara!

I had an excellent experience working with Square One Prep and cannot imagine having gone through the MBA application process without them. I was fortunate to be admitted to my top choice, Stanford GSB, in Round 1, and I genuinely believe that outcome would not have been possible without the Square One team.

My experience with Square One was strong from the very beginning. When I first reached out to Kathryn, the founder, she responded almost immediately and mapped out a tailored, day-by-day, multi-month plan on Square One’s customized online portal (this was on our intro call, before I was even a client!) Her continued involvement until I received my acceptance added clarity and polish at key moments in the process.

While Kathryn was my first interaction at Square One, I had a full team supporting me, which was incredibly helpful and left nothing uncovered. Lara Avsar served as my primary advisor and led the day-to-day of my process, from resumes to essays to interview preparation. Additionally, Wendy focused on my career narrative development, Pat managed logistics and deadlines, and Kathryn provided strategic oversight and a second set of eyes throughout.

More specifically regarding Lara, she was absolutely exceptional, and I would recommend her without hesitation to anyone. She is extremely smart, creative, and genuinely kind, and she consistently challenged me to think more clearly and deeply about how I framed my experiences. This is critical to note – this was not a quick process, as Lara pushed me heavily by challenging assumptions, digging into details, and consequently helping to meaningfully elevate the quality of the narratives I was conveying throughout my application. This was possible for her to do because she, along with the other Square One advisors, take on only a handful of clients (no more than ~5-6) per application cycle. This was highly differentiated relative to what I saw from other advisors I had looked at, and it was what I believe drove a material amount of the value in working with Square One.

Overall, Square One is a unique, high-touch team, and I would strongly recommend them, and specifically Lara Avsar, to anyone serious about applying to competitive MBA programs!