I am grateful to Square One team for their help in my lengthy process of MBA preparations. The process is built in such a way that, as a candidate, you are going through a deep phase of guided introspection, which helps you to calibrate your goals and expectations and lay out in essays your absolute best. You will first select a primary advisor out of a very talented pool, who will be 100% dedicated to you and your case, - you will work with the advisor on each an every element of your application until its almost perfect - then a pool of senior advisors steps in to ensure your papers stand the test of constructive criticism and address all the tricky questions that adcoms may have. I found the process challenging - in a way that the questions raised by Square One team made me think very deep inside my story and into what I want to do and where I want to be - without such guidance I would not have been able to go that far in my writings and probably would have sooner surrendered and accepted just 'good enough’ drafts - but which would not probably have allowed me to get into my school. Special thanks to the Chief of Staff who relentlessly kept on track every due date in my application process and sent friendly reminders which gave me a feeling of the entire team backing, and allowed me to focus on the needed aspects of my essays.

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When I first started the search for admissions consulting services, I searched online and read review after review. Every single review I read seemed to be the normal response..."I couldn't have done this without their help, etc". I called a few consulting services for their free evaluation but I always felt like they were interviewing me to see if I fit inside their box as if they had a formula to follow. I wanted to find a service that had a proven formula but also one that was unique to me. I stumbled upon Square One Prep and with each review I liked them more. I reached out and spoke to Kathryn and after one phone call I knew Square One Prep was the one.

You get to choose a few consultants to interview before you are paired up and after speaking to Jeannice Tse, I wanted to work with her. I can't say enough good things about her. She was with me from start to finish.

The application process is long and tedious especially if you are applying for multiple schools. There were peaks and valleys . When you get an essay full of red scribbles or an email that says scrap this and start over, you start to second guess if this was the right choice. They are there to fully support but they do give honest feedback so know yourself and your style beforehand I followed Jeannice and Kathryn's lead and I couldn't be happier.

Trust me on this. Square One Prep. You won't be disappointed. They are the real deal.

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I am very glad that I took the decision of working with SOP team. I have scheduled a free 30 min. consultation call with Kathryn. The call lasted for over 50 minutes and she did not hurry up and gave sufficient time to understand my background. I was very impressed by the in-depth knowledge that Kathryn has about the important things we should focus to make our application stand out. I have worked with Kathryn, Lee, and Louis and it was a dream team that anyone can have to reach the finish line. They were always persistent and will push you to get the best out of you. I am very thankful to them for their guidance and that helped me to achieve my goal of admission in Kellogg.

I would highly recommend SOP team for the help of your admissions. They will always be there for you in your application journey and give more than 100%

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I enjoyed working with Kathryn throughout the entire application process. Her experience dealing with both students and admissions committees was invaluable and definitely gave me the edge I was looking for.

Kathryn and her team have an ability to compartmentalize the administrative part of the application process, while also supporting in the creation of the applicant's story for the writing sections.

While the fees are high, I believe that working with Kathryn was a worthy investment - especially when considering the entire tuition and non-tuition fees of a program. I truly believe I would not have gotten accepted into my program without her help.

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I have only positive things to say about Square One Prep. I was a re-applicant to business school and recognized how important SOP would be to my success. My experiences were sort of all over the place and my team, consisting on Kathryn and Darcy, really helped me craft a good narrative.

SOP really is a finely tuned machine. They are incredible at giving honest and essential feedback and do so in an extremely timely manner. I think Kathryn and Darcy truly cared about my success and helped me in all facets, not just my application but in my confidence as well.

I really am in debt to SOP and their team for helping me throughout this process. The MBA application process is a beast but SOP made it feel like it was very manageable through a very regimented and structured process.

I can’t thank Darcy and Kathryn enough for working with me. I really had no confidence prior to this process and now I’m ready to soar into my MBA.

Thanks for everything team SOP.

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I spoke to several admission consultants before signing up with one and chose to go with Square One. Kathryn spent more time than the stipulated 30 mins, and didnt spend a single minute hardselling her firm or badmouthing the competition, but rather understanding me as a person and my motivations / story. She actually asked me hard questions to rethink the reason for doing an MBA, and I only signed up some 6 months later when I was more informed of the path I was choosing.

I worked closely with Lara Avsar, and it was an absolute pleasure working with her. We hit it off from the first call itself, because of some common elements in our backgrounds and experiences. Lara took time to thrash out the story with me, and often pulled out elements that I would’ve downplayed or overlooked. She did a great job pushing me to think deeper and also meeting deadlines, in order to get the essays out on time. We did the application set for 4 schools in 4-5 weeks and I couldn’t have asked for a better partner to have worked within such tight deadlines. Interview prep was also very useful since Lara pointed out very specific areas of improvement before my final interview.

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When I was looking for an MBA admissions consultant, I set up multiple successive intro calls so I could do my due diligence before making my decision. Kathryn from Square One was my first call but before the conversation was over, I'd already made up my mind to work with her and her company. She was kind, considerate, let me ramble on about my uncomfortable life story (taking up MUCH longer than the free 30 min consultation!). But she took the time to understand me and my objectives, and was very honest about my chances of getting in given my unique context . I emailed the other consultancies as soon as I hung up and told them I’d be happy to keep the appointment but in order to be respectful of their time, I wanted to let them know that I'd almost surely decided to work with someone else and it would be hard to change my mind. They all kept the calls, and to be honest, all of them were fantastic and gave great insight so would have been a no-brainer had I not already met Kathryn. But I had already met her and she’d set the bar far too high for them to pass it!

Choosing Square One Prep was the best decision I made. You're a person to them, not a number. They know you, they know your story, they will challenge you and push you to be a better version of yourself and to present a better version of yourself that authentically represents who you are to the adcoms.

Anxiety is a huge part of this process and Kathryn appeased my anxiety about the process from that first call. Her entire team is phenomenall - I once had a stressful morning when I learned of some info that may affect my chances of being considered at some of the schools I was applying to given my unique context. Bailey (the amazing Chief of Staff) ) emailed me right away to let me know that she would spend the morning PERSONALLY CALLING each of my ~10 potential target schools to discuss the situation and clarify. So II went into my morning meetings reassured that she was on top of it and came out a few hours later with a vert clear answer and path forward. This isn't really part of any package, but just an example of how Square One will go above and beyond to make this process as easy as possible for you!

And after choosing SOP, I suggest LISTENING to their advice them~ Kathryn tried to warn me about some of the mistakes she could see me about to make, but I thought I could push myself, as I’d always had, and could do it all anyway. But I had an incredibly stressful job that was unsupportive of my application to B-school and my optimistic plans were prone to chaos, as they always are - things can go wrong, stress increases your propensity to sickness, sacrificing sleep = sacrificing quality of output, etc. All culminated to an incredibly stressful time where I had to deal with a full time job, made sure my personal life didn’t implode and finish the MANY things required to finish a stellar application. But once again, Square One Prep was there for me every step of the way.

Another piece of advice - start engaging with them early! It may seem like you'll only need a few months but the truth is, the more you build in time to reflect and introspect, the better things will be. Some of the essays are quite personal and if you need to reflect on challenging and difficult times in your life and how they’ve shaped yo, it can be psychologically exhausting and emotional experience that will further exacerbate the stress. But having the fantastic Square One team by my side, ready to answer any question, ready to appease my anxiety, encouraging me and supporting me every step of the way, made ALL the difference!

Tl, Dr: Square One Prep is your personalized coach, buddy, confidante, mentor. I knew exactly what I needed to do and when, they were with me through every step of the way, they challenged me to write better and think deeper, and they were there to check it twice. If you have no idea where to start or you think you know exactly what you need to do, you need Square One. You have no idea how hard this process is going to be, but THEY do and they will guide you and support you every step of the way!

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I went into the application process feeling overwhelmed about having to craft tailored essays and other materials for several schools, while also balancing work and volunteering. Kathryn, Rahul, and the team were very helpful in keeping me organized and sharing their deep understanding of the nuanced differences among all the schools to which I applied. Their guidance around how to write, rewrite, and edit essays seems stressful at the time but worth the gain in the end. I am grateful for the team at SOP for guiding me through crafting my narrative, keeping me on track, and making sure my submissions were of the highest quality!

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If there is one thing I have learnt in the three years of applying to US B-schools is that, no one understands the application process and each school’s requirements as well as Squareone prep does. I was frustrated of not being able to land admission in a top school despite of having a 720 in my GMAT and considerable international experience.
My first call with Kathryn put me at ease and made me believe that I could get into a top school. Squareprep one totally changed my perspective and approach towards the application process. The process of developing a career narrative with Kathryn & Wendy in the most intense , thought provoking part of the application process. This process sets the tone of the entire application and helps you greatly in the school interviews.
My advisor, Matteo was patient, supportive and right kind of strict with me. He would respond back to me on very short notices. My work was very hectic during the applications and Matteo was very understanding of that and helped meet the deadlines despite of me signing up very close to the
deadlines. Kathryn and Matteo helped me review my earlier applications and find out my areas of improvement. I would recommend SOP to anyone who is nervous about the application process and wants put their best B-school application forward.

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I am very pleased with Kathryn and her team at Square One Prep! When I began my application process, I had significant time commitments at work and tight application deadlines. I needed an MBA admissions consultant who could provide candid advice, help me work quickly and efficiently, and bring out my strongest qualities. Kathryn, Teresa, Bailey, and Wendy delivered! They are very knowledgeable about the admission process and their work is extremely thorough. Rest assured they will challenge your work through as many iterations as necessary to make your application strong and convincing. Throughout the process, I was impressed by how responsive and supportive Kathryn and her team are. This was important to me given my tight deadlines. I highly recommend Square One Prep. Jump on a call with Kathryn for your free consultation and you will quickly see how Square One Prep stands out from other consultancies.

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