I was initially hesitant to use an admissions consultant, but after speaking with Kathryn I knew it was the right move. Unlike other consultants who use free consultation calls as a means to sell their services, Kathryn used the intro call to get to know me and provide thought provoking insight into my candidacy. After speaking with with a couple of Square One Prep consultants, I decided to go with Joey Siesholtz. To be clear, Joey was my main point of contact at Square One while Kathryn provided a second set of eyes and comments on all of my essays.

The rationale for selecting Square One Prep is quite simple:

They make the process manageable: The personalized schedule Kathryn and Joey made for me was invaluable throughout the process. If you’re like me and are working full-time while applying to school, the personalized schedule is an extremely helpful tool that helps ensure you’re on track to meet application deadlines. The personalized schedule also breaks down each application into manageable workloads.

They push you to dig deep: If you’re coming from a traditional background like me (e.g., finance), it’s extremely important to highlight the qualities and experiences that set you apart from the rest of the herd. Both Joey's and Kathryn’s rare ability to ask the right questions will help you do just that. I came away from our 3+ hour assessment call with tons of ideas on how to differentiate myself from the rest of my finance peers.

They are experts: If you’re like me and struggle to truly understand what admissions committees are looking for in applications, you’ll benefit from having seasoned veterans in your corner. Both Kathryn and Joey are extremely knowledgeable about all that goes into applying to b-school.

They are always available: When they say they’re available 24/7, they mean it.

For all of the reasons mentioned above, I highly recommend Square One Prep to any applicant trying to get into a top school. I can say without hesitation, I wouldn’t have been admitted to a top MBA program if it weren’t for the help of Kathryn and Joey!

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I interviewed several admissions consultants and Kathryn immediately stood out for how much time she took to get to know me and the insightful questions she asked in our initial call. These questions (describe one of your happiest moments/describe one of your saddest moments) were key in setting the tone for the self-reflection that informed my business school application process. She also gave me the confidence to apply for my dream school, HBS, with her frank assessment.

I worked with Melissa on applications to Wharton and HBS. Melissa gave thoughtful feedback and kept me on track despite illness/crazy work. Melissa was instrumental in helping me clarify my story and reason for applying to business school through the MANY drafts we did of my Wharton essays. I am not an inexperienced writer, but her feedback and revisions made my essays truly shine and took them to the next level.

The thing that stood out to me most about Square One was their care. I decided not to apply to Lauder very late (mid-Dec - after finalizing my essays!), and both Kathryn and Melissa took time to understand my thought process and for me to feel 100% comfortable in my decision even though this meant completely revising my application for Wharton.

I'll be attending HBS in the Fall and am very grateful to Kathryn and Melissa for their help in getting me there.

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Square One Prep was very helpful and a great resource throughout the application process. I started working with them in November and they helped me get together 6 applications for round 2 deadlines; which I wasn’t even sure was possible. During my introductory call with Kathryn, she pointed out some holes in career story and how I might struggle with a 690 GMAT score. These were useful, necessary things for me to hear.

I worked with Anya throughout the process and she was great. We got along very well and she was on call for me 24/7 during those 2 months. She helped me craft great stories for my essays, radically improved my resume with a lot more detail and always provided useful comments. By the time interviews came around, I felt confident and very prepared.

I ended up getting into 2 of the 6 schools with substantial scholarships, and being waitlisted at 2 others. I was very happy with the result and am eager to start in August. I know that I could not have completed all of the applications with such diligence without Kathryn and Anya’s help.

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I recently found out that I was admitted to my dream school, NYU, and I couldn’t have done it without the help of Square one Prep starting with the founder, Kathryn Lucas. Since the day that I inquired about the services that Square One provided and even though I didn’t end up using her services at the time, she stayed in touch with me and was a soundboard to me for the next four years - all for free.

When I decided to start the grad school application process, the first person I thought of was her, and although I didn’t immediately contact her she followed up with me, and her timing of reaching out to me to see how I am couldn’t have been more perfect.

I knew that I was in good hands from the beginning of the application process till the end making an overwhelming process easy to navigate. I was matched with an excellent consultant, Kunal, and he was nothing but encouraging and excited to work on my application. He took his time to understand my background in order to help me create the right tone for my Statement of Purpose. I could not be more thankful to him for keeping me focused and for providing invaluable advice and feedback as I crafted my essay and resume. He was also indispensable in guiding me and my recommenders through the LOR portion of the application, which was much trickier than I thought it would be.

I’m so happy and beyond thankful that I never lost contact with Kathryn and that she never lost interest in following up with me, a true display of rapport that speaks volumes of her and Square One Prep. Thank you Kathryn and Kunal for helping me reach my long term goal at my dream school!

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When I first began my search for a consultant, I interviewed several companies including Square One Prep. While most consultants I spoke with kept our conversations brief and mainly told me to improve my GMAT/GRE scores, Kathryn spent nearly 45 minutes on our introductory call to provide an in-depth analysis on my candidacy and strongly encouraged me to apply to schools that were ambitious yet achievable. After our conversation, I felt that Square One genuinely cared about my success and saw much more than just a test score in my application. Despite my budget constraints, Kathryn worked with me to find a flexible option that best fit my needs and worked for me financially. She also provided a number of additional helpful resources to ensure I was set up for success.

I moved forward with the hourly option to focus on essay reviews and was paired with my consultant, John. While I had a general idea of how I wanted to share my story, John was able to help me narrow down the main points and tell it in a succinct and compelling way. He was efficient with our time and I was happy with his quick feedback and response. Thanks to John's numerous edits and reviews, I felt confident submitting my application.

I was accepted at USC (w/ scholarship), Emory (w/ scholarship), UT Austin, Foster, and waitlisted at Duke. I am thrilled to share I will be attending USC's Marshall School of Business this fall as a Consortium Fellow and with a full scholarship!

I am so grateful for Square One Prep's support throughout the application process and would recommend it to anyone looking for an admissions consultant. It was absolutely worth the investment!

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I first contacted Square One Prep, and specifically its owner, Kathryn, on the recommendation of a friend. I was initially skeptical as the fees seemed high especially considering that I am an Indian applicant. But after my first discussion with her, I knew, if I had to hire an admission consultant, it would have to be her. There were consultants who tell you what to write in your applications based on what you think the Adcom wants to hear (the polar opposite of what Kathryn told me to do)! Kathryn asked me to dive deep and think about why I really want to do a MBA and tell my story based on being authentic, real. She carefully listened and analyzed my profile to provide me a path ahead for my apps that actually aligned with my passions for what is happening with the automation revolution in manufacturing. Before I talked with Kathryn I was going with the "strategy consulting" angle that other consultants had told to go with even though I couldn't really create ties to my background or excitement about the direction.

Kathryn was encouraging and positive throughout my application process. The process is stressful enough and there were times I was apprehensive about proceeding ahead. But she was always just a call or mail away to support me when required.

But even after all this, I wasn't actually successful in my first attempt in R1. But she kept my hopes up even after that. She kept guiding me on my apps for R2 and constantly checking up on me. She even offered to look at several schools essays for free because she knew I couldn't afford her, but wanted me to have the best shot. She spent hours on my work - for free. My efforts and her dedication to my efforts and me finally paid off and I got into one of my target schools!

Her moral encouragement during my initial failed attempts kept my spirits up and helped me focus in R2. She went above her role as a consultant and rather acted as a guide. She made this incredibly exhausting process worth it. had she not helped me, I would not be heading to McDonough in the fall.

I suggest anyone thinking of hiring a consultant to just set-up an initial call with Kathryn and then...I trust that will be enough for you to know that Square One is not like other companies. You will find making your decision to work with them easy.

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Square One Prep was instrumental throughout my application process! I started the applications under an extremely tight timeline and extra pressure from transitioning into a new job. I knew I wanted to apply for b-schools during round 1, but was very lost and had no idea how to achieve my goal. Kathryn convinced me that submitting my applications during round 1 was possible, crafted a detailed game plan and gave me a lot of confidence about myself. Not only is she amazingly knowledgeable about every step of the application process, she is also passionate about admissions consulting and stepped out of her way to support me throughout the process (including the pep talks that I'm so grateful for!).

John was my advisor and was also fantastic to work with, as he is a talented story-teller and really helped me to reflect and present my own story to the adcom. He was also amazingly calm, patient and approachable throughout the stressful application process. I couldn't imagine applying without SquareOne's support. Thanks to their partnership, I am now happily looking forward to attending a top b-school - with a partial scholarship! I'm forever grateful.

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Coming into the business school application process, I was a bit overwhelmed. With so many fast moving and detailed components that come with this competitive process – shaping your personal story, selecting the right schools, highlighting your unique strengths on your resume, choosing and managing recommenders, writing original essays, keeping track of various deadlines, and more – I needed an experienced, objective and insightful guiding hand to keep me on track and help me be successful in this journey. Square One Prep (and specifically, Kathryn) was just what I needed.
We started out with an in-depth conversation, where Kathryn was really able to get to know me personally and professionally. By understanding what was important to me, what professional and community experiences I had, what my career goals were and what my strengths and weaknesses were, together we identified areas to stress throughout my application as well as areas to mitigate or explain further. Coming from a background in management consulting, which is not especially unique in the business school applicant pool, it was very important to identify how to standout and Kathryn helped me do just that.
Next, Kathryn helped me assess which schools would be the best fit for me based on my interests and helped pull together a very useful timeline that would allow me to take a methodological, step by step approach to the application process. Over the course of the next few months, Kathryn worked diligently with me to stick to our timeline, answer my questions and craft six applications that I felt confident submitting.
When it came time to start preparing for interviews, again, Kathryn was there for me. We conducted several mock interviews, where she prepared me for any questions that might come my way and gave me honest and direct feedback about the strength of my responses. This was truly invaluable in allowing me to feel confident going into the live interviews.
There were many times throughout the entire process where I thought I knew almost everything on my own about a specific component of the application, for example, what a good essay topic might be, but then Kathryn helped me to think outside of the box and push myself to come up with something even better. She was a sounding board I could rely on to bring out the best of myself in my applications.
The results of our work together, I believe, speak for themselves – I was admitted into three of my top choice business schools (Fuqua, Tuck, and Columbia). I would highly recommend Kathryn and the services of Square One Prep to anyone who is going through this process.

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I was initially very unsure if I wanted to hire a consultant to help me through the MBA process. I had a number of coworkers that were graduates of top MBA programs that offered to help when they could and I had heard mixed reviews on the value consultants actually add. I was skeptical if they would be worth the money.

I did a number of free consultations with many of the bigger admission consulting firms and Square One Prep was a clear stand out in my mind. From the first call with Kathryn I could tell she cared about her clients. She was very flexible in finding a time that worked with my crazy schedule and spoke with me for over an hour during our "30-minute" initial consultation. I appreciated her candid evaluation of my profile and how she identified weaknesses. I walked away from that call knowing what schools are seeking and feeling like an M7 school was well within my reach if I tackled the applications with Square One's help.

My Square One consultant was great. Kash worked hard to understand my story and by the end of working together I felt like we had become good friends, despite never actually meeting in person. Although it may seem minor, he was also able to offer much needed encouragement and motivation when I was feeling overwhelmed by the process. He helped me organize and present my story in a clear, compelling way that highlighted my strengths and what I would bring to the program. His help on my resume was invaluable. He was able to assist me in crafting bullets that clearly explained my impact to people who weren't at all familiar with the niche industry I work in. On the essays he helped me make sure each sentence made an impact and that I was not wasting precious space. Having Kathryn do reviews of the work was also extremely comforting. As a team, Kash and Kathryn made sure I was doing all I could to present myself sincerely and effectively.

Working with Square One Prep was wonderful and I have no regrets, despite initial hesitations about consultants in general. I ultimately got into one of my top choices, Haas, and I could not be more excited!

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I will begin by saying that I was accepted into each of the six schools to which I applied including Stanford, Harvard and Wharton. I was apprehensive about using an admissions consultant because of the cost and what I perceived as an impersonal formulaic approach. All of my fears we assuaged after I spoke with Kathryn, the founder of Square One Prep, for a free consultation and fully understood the value of the Square One Prep process. Kathryn was completely real with me about the difficult journey of achieving my goal of getting into a top business school with a lower than average GMAT score but she was encouraging and immediately able to pick up on my strengths versus peers.

For months I worked with my advisor, Joan, to dig deeper on my story and career goals. It was not an easy process. I worried about my narrative not being good enough, I cried when sharing personal stories and I spent a significant amount of time reworking my essays. During this entire period both Joan and Kathryn were there every step of the way, providing thoughtful feedback and getting back to me quickly so we could meet deadlines. Their advice and structured process was invaluable to ensuring I met deadlines for school applications and felt confident when hitting submit.

Ultimately, as I stated initially, I was accepted into all of the schools to which I applied. I received a $75,000 scholarship to Kellogg and $95,000 fellowship to Wharton. Schools were interested in me due to the strength of the applications that Square One helped me to hone despite my lower than average GMAT score. I am overjoyed to say that I will be attending my dream business school, Stanford, in the fall!

If you're considering Square One, do it! There is no better investment you can make in yourself and the process of getting into the business school that best fits you.

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