During the last few months while applying to business school, my best friend has been Kathryn Lucas. Kathryn goes above and beyond the role of a typical business school consultant. She becomes your editor-in-chief, confidant (who you can cry to), therapist, and best friend. I can say with full confidence that she was an integral part of why I was accepted into HBS, the GSB, and Wharton.
If you are looking for sugar coated feedback, do not work with Kathryn. She is honest and will only tell you the truth, not what you want to hear. Her critiques pushed me to write many versions of each essay until it truly told my story. She reviewed draft after draft responding to emails and phone calls any time of the day or night.
Arguably, the most valuable part of working with Square One Prep is their immense knowledge of the business school application process. Kathryn prevented me from making many mistakes that typical applicants would. She encouraged me to submit an application that demonstrated who I was rather than who I thought the business schools wanted me to be. Her wisdom and coaching were invaluable.
I wholeheartedly recommend working with Square One Prep. I cannot imagine going through the process without Kathryn!

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I received a very strong recommendation for Square One Prep and knew that I wanted to use SOP, and specifically Kathryn’s services, for my business school applications.

From our first introductory call, I knew that Kathryn was going to be tough on me in the best way possible. From shaping career goals to brainstorming essay topics, Kathryn pushed me past my comfort zone and forced me to dig deeper in order to arrive at career goals I felt passionate about and meaningful stories for my essays. I truly believe that this introspective work at the beginning of the application process was crucial in my success with admissions and allowed me to set myself apart from other applicants.

I applied to a very aggressive number of schools but with Kathryn’s schedule, encouragement, and deadlines, I was able to stay on pace working throughout the summer and finishing all my Round 1 applications without feeling rushed to submit. Even when we had essays for multiple schools going back and forth, Kathryn was organized and incredibly responsive, always making time for calls and making me feel like I was her top priority. When I received interview invites, Kathryn continued to help me with individual mock interviews and specific advice about how to improve.

With her help, I received multiple acceptances (including a scholarship!) and look forward to starting at a top business school in Fall 2018! I highly recommend Square One Prep and Kathryn’s services for anyone who is serious about gaining admission to a top business school program and ready to put in the work to make it happen.

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Going into the process my top school was Wharton. I spoke with a number of admissions consultants, but felt like SOP would in the end be most interested in helping me achieve my goal and I was correct. Kathryn was encouraging, but also realistic when it came to my chances of getting into the schools I applied to and I didn’t get the same sales pitch to lower my bar that I received everywhere else. The SOP team was genuinely interested in seeing me succeed at the school of my choice and this was clearly highlighted throughout my process.

I knew going in, that as a male in finance without any real cultural diversity, it would be particularly challenging to differentiate myself and stand-out. I also didn’t have an “inside track” or advocates for me at the schools I was applying to.

In my first attempt, to my and SOP’s disappointment I was not invited to interview at any of the three schools I applied to. Prior to signing up with SOP, Kathryn explicitly made me aware of the risk I was taking by setting the bar so high, but also worked closely with me over the next year to improve my story so I could re-apply this year with much different results. This time around I was accepted into two of the three schools, including my top choice where I will be starting this August. The process taught me that getting into a top school is a far more competitive process than I initially thought and having a team like SOP with me throughout was critical to my success. I would highly recommend their team to anyone embarking on this journey, especially if you are trying to get into a top program.

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I was initially hesitant to work with a consultant because I was concerned that the incentives for consultants were skewed as they get paid regardless of where you are admitted so have an incentive to undersell your potential and often ask you to adjust down your expectations. After reaching out to 6 consulting services (many of whom told me not to apply to my dream school), I found Kathryn was the only one I spoke with who actually took the time to understand my background. I knew for sure I wanted to use her services when I asked her “Based on my profile where do you think I should apply?” I asked this of all consultants, because it was my gauge for how aligned their incentives were with mine. She said I should only apply to schools I am excited to attend and that she would never presume to know which schools I should apply to. (she also said I hadn’t done enough work into answering this question for myself, which was a dose of the refreshing honesty I needed).

In terms of the key areas in which her assistance was crucial:

I have a nontraditional background, so was scared about how that background would be perceived by adcoms. She helped me incorporate that background into my optional essay in a way that was concise but effective (Had I not worked with her, I would likely have written something far more verbose and likely not what the adcom would like to read).

My goals were too vague and after discussing with her, I realized I needed to be more introspective and specific with my goals. Also, my resume was written with too much industry nomenclature and needed to be revised.

I had several questions along the way (should I fly to the schools to show interest in the programs I was interested in? What are admit rates in different rounds pre and post interview? Will my older age be a hindrance?) She quickly addressed all these questions and more which I would have struggled answering on my own. TBH, she provided almost as much value assuaging the emotional tension of applying to MBA programs as value provided by helping me sculpt my MBA applications.

Most importantly, she worked with me through the essays to help me find the information that most expresses who I am and what I contribute to a program.

At the end of the day you are paying a consultant to help you put your best foot forward. Kathryn helped me realize when I was falling short and therefore needed to put in more effort.

I was admitted to Columbia Business School and will be attending in the fall! I couldn't be more excited, since it has been my dream to attend CBS.

An additional note, one of my coworkers applied a year ago to the same program I was admitted to and had slightly better stats (better GPA from better school, more extracurriculars, but slightly lower GMAT). He was not offered an interview invite. I truly believe the difference was Kathryn’s guidance.

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Summary in one sentence: without Kathryn my MBA application success would not be possible.
Before I started my MBA application with Kathryn, my target school was any of the S16 schools.
But at the end, I received Columbia Business School's admission!

I did research on many consultants and used their free consultation. Kathryn was the first one I contacted. During the 40 minutes of the consultation, she didn't waste even one minute talking about her or her company: every minute was spent on me, on MY case. She listened carefully when I talked about my background, career goals, target schools and so on, taking notes. And her immediate responses on my case were already deep and thoughtful. Most importantly she provided her truthful analysis without any hesitation, even I was not her client yet.

Later on, I contacted at least 5 other top rated consulting companies on gmatclub for free consultation, expecting the same kind of services as provided by Kathryn. However, none of those free consultations came even close. For some of them, they might spend the first 15-20 minutes talking about their "superb" services and then another 10-15 minutes asking about me. For one of them, the consultant was only selling their services for almost 30 minutes! And I had to interrupt to redirect the discussion to my case!

At the end, the choice was quite obvious. I contacted Kathryn again to use her service. When Kathryn asked me if I would use her or one of her consultants, I said "you" without any hesitation, although her price was quite a bit more expensive, because I knew she was the only one that I can trust 100%!

The choice proved to be absolutely correct and worth it. From the 3+-hour deep walk-through of experience, to resume editing, to essay brainstorming and editing, to recommendation strategy, to interview mocks, every single time, Kathryn was so professionally accurate, sharp and efficient, with great care and thorough understanding of my case. She made sure my story is complete and logically making sense, and I don't divert from it, especially in my interview. I think this focus made the core message much stronger to the admission officers and the interviewer, a key to our success.

At the end, I would like to thank her again. As I said, without her, CBS is not possible for me. And I would recommend her to any MBA applicants without any hesitation, as actually I already did to a couple of potential applicants in my real life.

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I hired Square One after doing due diligence on 6 different admissions consultants (Scott at Personal MBA Coach, Debbie at MBAMission, Judith at Fortuna were the other top contenders for me). I needed help telling my story in a concise way (public ivy, 5 years in consulting and tech, 3.4 GPA, 740 GMAT).

I'm happy to report that, with Square One's support, I was accepted into Wharton's Lauder program (MBA/MA International Studies joint degree). This is a program I've been dreaming about for the last 5 years, and they made it happen.

Before Square One, I actually started working with Stacey Blackman, who set me up with Paul, one of their veterans. The guy was totally unprepared for our first call - he was late, did not set an agenda, and was reading my resume for the first time as he rambled. I bailed after he completely missed our second call. Unforgivable at $300+ per hour.

Thankfully, Square One was another level of professionalism. I was set up with Josh, who was really patient and spent hours with me to refine my business school story.

Key areas that he excelled in, in order of importance - helped set up my recommenders so that their letters could thoughtfully add more to my story, completely reformatted my resume, and shared essays from a ton of previously successful admits to my top choice schools (inspired my own writing).

Key areas that he needed to improve - Josh wasn't a huge value add for my essays. Writing these are more of a personal journey anyway, but it would have been better to have his frequent input. Josh became less and less available as time went on, often taking days / up to a week to respond (when we started, we were in touch over text and he would have updates for me within literally seconds), as he had a side business that he worked on while advising me. When Kathryn got this feedback, she let Josh go. I then worked directly with Kathryn, the founder. She helped me get through the finish line, and she is by far the best admissions consultant I have worked with. Her insight on what's important to the schools really showed. If you have the chance, work with Kathryn.

One area that I went to someone else for - Judith at Fortuna ran an incredible mock interview for Wharton's Team-Based Discussion. Judith previously worked at the Wharton adcom, and it showed. A group of us jumped on a conference call, and walked through a real-life TBD facilitated by Judith. She gave us really solid individualized feedback after the fact. If I had not done this, I would not have had nearly the same confidence in the real TBD. Kathryn at Square One did not offer this service - I wish she did!

Final takeaways - I think the polish on my rec letter requests, resume, and interview prep all contributed to getting my acceptance letter. My advice is to spend a lot of time finding the right consultant who is backed with the right resources. I found that with Square One, and am pretty thankful for it.

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Prior to working with Square One Prep I interviewed numerous other consultancies and went with SOP as it was clear that it was the best place to get the most individualized advice to get into my dream schools. I cannot reaffirm strongly enough that my initial rationale was validated after working with the SOP team. I worked numerous hours hand-in-hand with both my consultant and Kathryn herself. This includes spending hours on the phone with Kathryn from my hotel in Evanston the night prior to my interview with Kellogg. I can unequivocally say that working with Kathryn helped me open the doors to getting into my dream school. I received such tailored advice to highlight the uniqueness of my qualities despite coming from an overrepresented demographic. I was pushed to soul search and write truly genuine essays that actually helped me progress personally, in addition to getting into Kellogg.

Key takeaways:

I had subpar performance on my GMAT and was able to get into Kellogg despite the unflattering score. Kathryn helped me articulate my unique story in such a way that adcoms were able to look past my GMAT score to see the valuable addition that I would be to their class and their alumni base.

I was waitlisted originally yet, once again, Kathryn gave me the insight to navigate the process from everything to writing follow-up correspondence with the admissions department to getting additional and follow-up recommendations. Had it not been for her guidance, I am confident that I would have made missteps that could have resulted in me not getting off of the waitlist.

I cannot recommend a partner to help you navigate the entire process from resume construction through waitlist follow-ups more strongly than Square One Prep.

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Yale SOM!! I still can’t believe my dream has just come true!!

When I started thinking about my business school application, I knew the process was not going to easy. Fighting the battle yourself could be very intimating; therefore I decided to work with a consultant. I did weeks of research and due-diligence, calling more than 10 admissions consultant firms. I finally decided to work with Square One Prep! Starting from the first call, Kathryn is the only person that showed genuine care about my application. I felt confident like never before going into my application. Just by speaking with me for 30-40 minutes, she spotted highlights in my life/career and came up with a great theme for my application story.

Here are a few instances that show Kathryn and her team is unbelievably amazing:

1. Coming in with a fairly strong academic background, I thought I was not going to have any problems with the GMAT. Turns out that was not the case. I took the GMAT several times and the highest score that I could achieve was still about 40 points below the average at the schools that I wanted to apply to. While other firm consultants may advise you to go for a less competitive school, Kathryn encouraged me to still apply to my interested schools! Both Kathryn and Faryn worked with me to strengthen all other components of my application and minimize my weaknesses. At those extremely competitive schools, there is usually no room for errors. Kathryn reviewed everything Faryn and I created and definitely made sure that my applications were as perfect as they could be!

2. Waitlist Experience – Another wonderful experience with Square One Prep! Kathryn and her team never, never give up on you!! Kathryn, Faryn and I immediately jumped into action! There were hours spent with me during the 4 months of waitlist period for additional interest letters, and waitlist advice! Not once did I feel like they were giving up on me. I had submitted several various updates to the school and every single one was right on time, before the school conducts another waitlist reductions. Kathryn’s guidance on timing was just incredible! And the additional materials that I submitted were all high-quality (my admission confirms it). They really meant it when they said they are there to guide me to success. Their sole purpose is to help clients reach success, not to beat around the bush and try to earn more profit.

For business school applications absolutely go with Square One Prep!
In the years to come you will realize that it is one of the best decisions you have made for yourself!

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Square One Prep was the only firm I wanted to partner with through the MBA application process. Their personal and tailored approach to working with candidates was exactly what I needed.

I knew I wanted to work with Square One even before the end of the free 30-minute consultation. Kathryn, the founder, asked me thoughtful and prodding questions about my work experience and post-MBA goals. She had an incredible ability to immediately identify gaps or weaknesses in my story/progression that I hadn't even considered. On our call alone, she pushed me to explore the "why's" and the "how's" and wasn't satisfied with canned answers. It was the wake up call I needed before sitting down to put together a thoughtful application.

Once I started the process, I felt like I was Square One's only client. My Square One partner answered every question I had -- from the broad strokes ones to the most minutely detailed ones, the anticipated ones to the emergency-late-night-pre- submission-button-click ones. She kept me centered, motivated, and on target. She was always incredibly responsive and proactive, ensuring I was staying on schedule. Even when I realized I had overlooked something on one application and made a last minute decision to apply to an additional program, she continuously delivered the highest quality of service.

Applying to MBA programs is a mentally grueling, exhausting, and often painful process. Square One's infrastructure made the process as seamless and user-friendly as it could be. I felt prepared and supported every step of the way with a personalized schedule. From the resume, to the LORs, to the essays, it was like I had a whole "team" behind me. I write "team" because it's all of the on-demand information, expertise, and infrastructure you could ever need to support you as an applicant -- but the end product is 100% you and your voice. Square One Prep's value is ensuring that your application shines the best light on who you are, what you've done, and what you want to do. Because of my partnership with Square One, I know that my application showcased the best version of me.

I was hoping to be the last pick of each school I applied to -- the one who snuck into the accepted class. With Square One, I got a full ride to one top five MBA program and an $80,000 scholarship to another!

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I applied to 9 top MBA programs in Round 2. My numbers were below average for M7 schools, so I applied to a wide spread of schools (#1-20). Kathryn and my Square One Prep advisor helped me with 1 comprehensive application, but the service was useful in crafting all others. I got 4 acceptances and 2 waitlists. One of my waitlists was my dream school (a top 2 program) and I was recently admitted!!

Here are some highlights from my experience with Square One Prep:

- My SOP advisor was a great match. He was an alum from my desired program and had lots of experience coaching MBA candidates. He really understood my values, passions, and goals, and helped me identify the best stories to put together compelling essays.
- My resume was significantly improved. I had a very good initial draft, but SOP helped me make it solid. I was able to say so much on one carefully crafted page. And I was able to use the same resume for all applications.
- On all documents for my desired program, it was great to have the constant reviews of my SOP advisor and Kathryn’s additional feedback. Both of them were super honest and thorough throughout the process.
- I had to explain extenuating circumstances that affected my academic performance. SOP gave me the confidence and support to deal with this successfully.
- I had interviews with 6 MBA programs. I spent 2 hours on Skype with Kathryn preparing for one of them: 30 mins of mock interview and 90 mins of feedback. This was SUPER helpful!
- I was waitlisted at two of my top 3 programs, including my desired one. Kathryn helped me put together a strategy and I was admitted in Round 3. I cannot emphasize enough how helpful SOP was during the wait list process. The last two months made all the investment and previous work worth it.

If I had to do it all over again, I would hire Square One Prep earlier in the process and I would apply in Round 1!

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