Square One Prep Admissions Consulting Reviews

I was looking for a strategist who can guide me to overcome a shortcoming in my candidacy. But after this journey, I realized that admissions consultants can not make you whole different person. All the idea, contents, and storyline has to be outlined by you. So, be honest and love yourself. You will never know until you try it.

I chose SquareOne Prep because Kathryn was very impressive to me. She doesn't look a sale person; she were genuinely interested with me, and willing to talk seriously even it was a free consultation.

My advisor, Manisha, was extremely attentive, organized, and very punctual. We communicated all most every day. We had struggled to come up with a goal - why MBA. I guess this was mainly because I was not clear about my vision, so we had to spend many hours to find a common ground.
Another hard part was school selection. I crunched all the data in spread sheet to compare schools, but all look same. I reached out several alumni as Manisha recommended me to do so, but I rarely got much insight.

We worked together for three applications in first round, which ended with disappointment. Manisha voluntarily revisited my vision and goal, and we decided to change goals and recommenders. After then, I worked alone in Second round, but I finally was able to get an admission from one of top schools after being waitlisted for several months.

I appreciate her dedication, and genuine care to support my entire process. Even I was not working with her in Second round, she has been always attentive and informative in various way.

As the person who passed quite bumpy road over the process, I realized this process is highly demanding, and you have to seek helps from many people. Admission consulting is one of the source, but can not be the only source. Get many reviews and discuss your idea with people. Trust yourself, and do not give up until the end.

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I worked with Mary and Kathryn from Square One Prep on my application to MBA Class of 2018 at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. As an international applicant, I felt like I could need some professional advice on the whole application process. By the time I reached out to Kathryn from Square One Prep, I had already worked with other admissions consultants on my applications to Harvard, London Business School, and INSEAD. However, I was not completely satisfied with my experience, so I wanted to try Square One Prep for my last application - which was probably also the most critical one (and the one with the least chances of getting in).

Before officially starting to work with Square One Prep, I had several initial conversations with Kathryn, the founder herself, about my profile. Kathryn's perspective was extremely valuable and her approach was very different to other admissions consultants, many of whom had quickly given me their sales pitch and were lacking a personal note. It's hard to describe in words, but I felt like Kathryn actually cared about my success - and that made me want to work with her firm.

Based on my profile, I was given a choice of three consultants and chose to work with Mary and this has probably been the best decision I made in the whole application process. Mary is a great consultant and with her help, I was able to craft two extremely personal essays. If you're thinking of working with someone, I would definitely give Mary my highest recommendations, because she is genuinely interested in your story and really pushes you to show your personality in your essays.

Since I have worked with a total of 3 consultants from different firms, I can say with certainty that my experience with Square One Prep was by far the best. And even though I ended up getting into the other programs I applied to, I chose Stanford in the end. Thank you Kathryn and Mary for helping me along the way - and for genuinely believing in me throughout the process.

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Why I chose SOP - As I was doing my due diligence, I had a initial consultations with all the major players in the Admissions Consulting business. For SOP, I discussed my aspirations and expectations with Kathryn, who also owns the firm. During that call itself, I was surprised to see how deeply involved I felt Kathryn was in assessing my needs and whether SOP could help me succeed (she really believes in this). I would really nudge anyone considering to hire admission consultants to have this free call with her and this is a benchmark the other firms need to raise themselves to.

Working with them - I worked with Manisha Shahane as my consultant. I started with just one school, but ended up working with her on all the schools that I applied to. Was this necessary? No, but she became such a trusted partner in my application journey that I wanted to involve her in any decision I took for my application and she was supportive right from Early Action till R4 dates. Manisha is highly competent and knows how to craft a compelling storyline for the top schools. Even though some of my timelines were aggressive, Manisha was always there to support me because of which I was able to put my best foot forward each time. Much of this work is creative as well as about respecting what the applicant's personal experiences are. Manisha is a thorough professional and understood where to nudge me to think deeper to bring out important nuggets of my experiences (and these are the real differentiators) as well as where to hold back so as not to influence the originality of my story. Workflow wise, she would always communicate the time-frame when she would send back the edits and I always had them back in that time. As MBA admissions have become so competitive with many variables involved, its really important to stay positive throughout the entire process. Manisha helped me there as well by keeping on motivating me throughout the process.

Another great benefit of working with SOP is their unique approach to handling LORs for multiple schools so that the process is not taxing on recommender's time. Kathryn's approach makes submitting LORs to multiple schools very straightforward and should be definitely emulated by all.

I wholeheartedly recommend SOP to everyone considering applying to M7 or even top-10 schools, as creating those schools' specific strategy is the best use of consultants like Manisha that SOP has.

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I was looking for some help while reapplying after getting waitlisted/rejected at all the schools I applied to last year. I reached out to Kathryn, the firm's owner, on what she thinks my chances are. She was the first consultant I spoke to who was genuinely interested and had sufficient time to hear me out. She gave me confidence that I could do better; she told me some flaws in my existing application, which I completely agreed to and I decided I definitely needed help. She talked to me for close to 1.5 hours and she even edited one of my letter I needed to sent out to an adcom member when I hadn't even signed up. Even though I ultimately decided I wouldn't use her services, I would highly recommend Karthryn to anybody who is looking for stress- free and insightful journey to their dream b-school.

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I worked w Kathryn, the head of the Square One Prepp, on my MBA applications for entry in the fall of 2016.
Kathryn knows the process for the different schools very well, and was able to provide me with detailed guidance on how to approach the application process for each program.
Even more importantly however, Kathryn was an amazing mentor and helped me find my own voice through the challenging essay writing process. The essays I ended up crafting came out very authentic and truly representative of who I am and what I am after! And the Wharton adcom recognized that too!

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In spring 2014 I was looking to apply to business school. I knew I was getting a late start and applying in late rounds, but I thought I was ready. Since I'm an international applicant, I decided to work with an admission consultant in order to help me with the twists of the process and to polish my resume and essays. I came across Square One Prep. They offered a free consultation, so I decided to take the opportunity and talked with Kathryn Lucas. The call lasted almost 1h30, during which Kathryn tried to understand my personality, my professional experience, my goals and my target schools. In addition we also discussed my GMAT score, which was in the low 600s. Surprisingly, after a 2nd call - also free, she suggested I retake the GMAT and target the 1st round of application for the following year instead. Even though hearing that advice was tough, it increased my confidence in Square One Prep, because it showed that they were interested in my success and not just in my money.

Following Kathryn’s recommendation, I retook the GMAT but I didn't manage to increase my score. Regardless, we decided to build a strong application and apply. I was paired with Manisha Shahane from Square One Prep as my admission consultant. Manisha helped me recall stories and actions from my childhood, which really helped me understand my personal journey. This was so crucial when it came to writing the essays. As a result we put together essays that were reflective of my personality and more importantly that told my own story with my own voice. In addition Manisha was so thorough and detail oriented that we needed seven drafts in order to come up with the final version of my resume.

After several months of hard work, I applied to three schools. As a result, I have been admitted to one of the three to which I applied. I have also been waitlisted by the others.
I essentially attribute my admission to Square One Prep. Their support, patience and knowledge of the twists of the admission process were tremendously valuable. I highly recommend Square One Prep for everyone looking to succeed with this process.

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When I first started thinking about business school applications, I remember scoffing at the idea of hiring a consultant - shouldn't these schools see the real me and accept me based on that? Now that I've worked with Kathryn and received admission to my top choice schools, HBS and GSB, I am immensely grateful and relieved that I hired her as a consultant. The problem with these applications is that there is limited space to convey who you are and Kathryn, with her special ability to discover the depth of your personality and years of experience with what these schools are looking for, is an expert at helping you craft together an application that conveys who you are and why you are interesting. I come from a "traditional finance" background and studied business as an undergrad, so I naturally felt that my deficiency was not being unique enough. However, in my first session with Kathryn, she spent over 4 hours simply getting to know me beyond just the resume and it became clear to her that there was more than just meets the eye. She has a great memory and takes detailed notes, and I felt comfortable getting advice from someone who I felt had truly gotten to know me as a person. She thinks about how every piece of the application, from the resume to the essay to the letters of rec, reveals a different side of you yet fits together. I had written a draft of an essay before I decided to hire a consultant and the difference between the before and after versions were startling: my before version was bland and impersonal and repeated professional accomplishments that were already mentioned in my resume. Thank goodness I found Kathryn who put me on the right track! She was also always available and would respond quickly, something I really appreciated during this stressful process when miscellaneous questions would frequently pop up. I am deeply grateful for Kathryn's help and would highly recommend her as a consultant.

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Working with Square One Prep and Kathryn was a game changer. As a typical ‘investment banker’ with limited extracurricular and community involvement, I knew it would be difficult to distinguish myself from the many other applicants with similar backgrounds. Square One Prep took the time to understand my background, develop my story, and guide me through the process from beginning to end. Their unique approach and unwavering support helped me complete 8 applications in just a month! The results speak for themselves – multiple acceptances at top 15 schools and in at my dream school and first choice, Fuqua! Thank you Square One Prep!

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Square One Prep was an invaluable resource in my getting into my top choice MBA program, and securing a scholarship. Specifically, Kathryn, helped me from day 1, with crafting my story, editing my essays and preparing packages for my letters of recommendation. She provided not only excellent insight and tips on how to approach each school, but more importantly, much needed structure and discipline into approaching the (quite hectic) application process! She is extremely dedicated with her clients and through a busy Round 1 process and a shoulder surgery(!), she never let me feel like she wasn't always there to help with my questions and edits. She was extremely helpful in honing in on my strengths and weaknesses as an applicant and how to best present them in my applications.

In short, I couldn't have done it without Kathryn, and I have and will continue to refer her to anyone applying to business school!

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If you thought the GMATs were tough, think again. The application process will push you, make you doubt your dreams, despise word limits, and feel unprepared to compete against thousands of other equally qualified candidates.

This is where Square One prep comes in. I’ve gone through 8 free consultations and didn’t feel confident with any of the other companies selling this “service”…that is until I spoke with Kathryn. Her passion to see me succeed was authentic as well as her desire to go above and beyond. While other companies were prompt to end the free 30-minute call, Kathryn and I must have spoken for over an hour.

My partner, as this is a partnership, Sarah was a key factor in my success. Don’t let her sweet personality fool you. I quickly found out that she’s surgical with her words and will push you and make sure that your “story” makes sense. She was always there to answer all my questions, most of them likely silly and trivial as I had no experience in applying to graduate schools. But she patiently guided me throughout the process to ensure that I don’t make mistakes – mistakes I would’ve definitely made without her.

Speaking of “stories”, I think this is one of the most important aspects of this process. Applying to school isn’t just about trying to impress the adcom with what they want to hear. This process, or rather journey actually should help you clearly define your goals, realistically, and put them into words so that others can understand them. Without Sarah, I’m not sure if I could’ve realized my own unique “story” to share with the adcom and now, with my future classmates.

In the end, I ended the first step of my journey getting into one of my top choices.

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