As a reapplicant one can assume you want to know what went wrong with your original applications. Kathryn took the time to review in detail all my essays and resume prior to having an initial call with me to discuss my plan of action. It was clear to me that I had to tighten up my story. I chose to work with SquareOne because I felt that the team had genuine confidence in my profile. This was not the case with several other firms I spoke to. Together with Kathryn and Katherine, we discussed in DETAIL how I can focus my applications and shape my career aspirations whilst staying true to my own voice. Admittedly, I struggled with this and it took team effort to express my vision effectively. Finally, I want to highlight the value of having over 20 successful sample essays to read per school of choice. One gets a feeling for the necessary variations in style.

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Coming from a non-traditional background, I knew that I would need guidance throughout the MBA admission process. I managed to prepare for the GMAT by myself, but I was clueless regarding the other pieces of the admission forms.

My salary as a civil servant meant I couldn’t afford the premium rate of admission consultancy firms. One day, I noticed that SOP offers a 3-schools free package for 2 applicants based on their need and merit. I ended up being one of the 2 lucky folks. To my knowledge, SOP is the only firm that does this.

I cannot begin to describe how valuable Kathryn and Krasina’s help has been to me. It wasn’t easy though; SOP pushed me further than I expected. My consultant’s advice was critical to my success. The introspection and the career narrative process made me ask myself the right questions. I never would never have been able to do this by myself. I believe that going through those steps with SOP will even help me in my future career!

On top of strategizing with me, SOP also made sure that my resume, essays and interview shine without sounding off. Thanks to SOP, I was admitted to Judge with merit scholarship and INSEAD.

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Given the time and monetary commitment that an MBA demands, I was very clear that I wanted to apply only to the top B-schools. After talking to 2 consultants, both of whom had suggested going with ‘safer’ options, I was a bit disappointed. The initial consultation with Kathryn stretched well beyond the designated time, during which she talked realistically about my case, yet reinforced my confidence in my application. I realized that with SOP’s help, I stood a chance at my target schools. She helped me come up with a strong strategy around which schools to apply to.
Melissa got on a 3-hour call with me to thoroughly understand my background. We then methodically brainstormed each element of my application – resume editing, building the career narrative, recommendation strategy. She helped me refine all parts of my application – with very quick turnaround times – which left me with a lot of time to work on my essays. She patiently guided me through the process (with each essay undergoing several iterations) and helped me transform facts and figures into interesting narratives. The several mocks Melissa and I did prior to my INSEAD interviews made the actual interview experience much smoother.
In the end, I secured a place at INSEAD – thanks to SOP!

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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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After deciding to apply to b-school with less than a month before deadlines and with an extensive target list of schools, I quickly was overwhelmed with the application process. I reached out to Square One and from the initial consultation through each school's deadline, I was impressed with their ability to help me navigate this complicated journey. Kathryn and Collin provided honest and real feedback (with a quick turnaround at any hour), while consistently making sure that my application had a clear narrative that uniquely represented me. Their ability to help me connect a career trajectory that was disjointed along with their ability to push me to think past the superficial details of my experiences enabled me to not only grow personally, but also prepared me incredibly for business school. I could not have asked for a better partner and I highly recommend them.

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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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I shopped around quite a bit before choosing SOP and working with Kathryn and Kunal, and I am 100% sure I made the right choice. Thanks to them, I got interviews at all 5 schools I applied to (HBS, Stanford, Wharton, Booth, Haas), and I got into 3 of them (Wharton, Booth, Haas)!

Some highlights about my experience:
- Going in, I did not really have a clue about why I wanted to pursue an MBA, or what I wanted to do longterm. Kunal and Kathryn took an incredible amount of time to get to know my story - personally and professionally - and helped me brainstorm in order to get to fundamental truths about myself and what I was passionate about. This then led to a much more compelling story I could tell in my application, with pride and authenticity.

- Kathryn planned a thorough schedule and really helped me stay on track so that I would not be scrambling last minute to submit applications. As someone who is a compulsive procrastinator, I was particularly impressed by how they were able to push me to meet their deadlines and make sure I wouldn't be overly stressed as the school deadlines approached.

- Kathryn and Kunal provided honest feedback on my essays throughout the process, and only signed off on something when they thought it was truly ready. In one case, I had to go through 7+ essay revisions before they were happy with the product, and that made me feel very confident in what I was submitting.

I highly recommend working with SOP - they helped transform my candidacy into one that was competitive for the top schools, and they helped me learn valuable insights about myself in the process!

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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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I made a last minute decision to apply to business school in September of last year – and given how much I knew I’d have to hustle in a short time frame to get solid Round 2 applications in (I hadn’t at that point even taken or studied for the GMAT/GRE, and I ALSO knew that I only wanted to apply to my top two schools, HBS and MIT Sloan), I knew I wanted to work with a consultant to make sure that my application was as strong as it could be! I did a few free consults with a couple of other MBA admissions consultancies, but found myself very disheartened by the response I was getting; most encouraged me to spend several months studying for the GMAT/GRE and applying in the following year and seemed eager to get off of the phone and move on to their next free consult that they had lined up.

One of my good friends had used SOP the year before and encouraged me to try out a free call with Kathryn, and it was honestly the best decision I could have made for myself. During our free call (which went well over the 30 minute time limit) she asked probing questions about my background, motivations and goals, and I felt she really tried to get to know me on a personal level. We left the call with her encouraging me to start studying for the GRE, and she even recommended various study resources for me, which I found so helpful. A few days later, she sent me over a detailed timeline and schedule that I could expect if I were to work with SOP. That was the first, of many, instances in which SOP went above and beyond to put me on a track to success.

I ultimately chose to work with Julia who has a similar social entrepreneurship background to myself, and who from our first intro call I felt could help me leverage my application to be its strongest (plus I immediately liked her a lot!). She provided constructive, detailed feedback and edits on every aspect of the application, whether it was my resume, letters of recommendation, essays (for all of these, we had at least 5-6 drafts of edits before sending it along to Kathryn for final review!) not to mention nonstop encouragement along the way anytime I doubted myself. Even when I was simultaneously juggling studying 4+ hours a day for the GRE with writing essays and getting my recommendation letters sent in, Julia provided the motivation to keep on going and answered any questions I had with a super quick turnaround (and I definitely had a lot of questions throughout the process!). I was incredibly excited to get interviews at both schools – and Julia prepared me extremely well. She ensured that I researched the different aspects of each school’s program thoroughly, and helped me strike a balance between preparing for commonly asked questions, but ensuring that my responses were candid and authentic.

I hit a snag when I was waitlisted at both schools, and immediately began regretting my decision to only apply to my top two. Julia and Kathryn immediately dispelled this thought, and reminded me how impressive it is to have two top schools to be seriously considering me given the sheer number of applicants. They both immediately set up a call to discuss my waitlist strategy, including who I can have write me reference letters, and brainstorming content for waitlist reply essays. This two-month process was the most grueling in terms of the waiting game – but Julia was there to support me every step of the way, from the emotional support to really having me focus on why I wanted to attend each school and provide thoughtful responses in my essays. I am thrilled to say that I just found out that I have been accepted to Sloan, and it’s a dream come true!!

I am so grateful to SOP for their incredible help over the last 9+ months of the application process. I feel that Kathryn and Julia not only set me up to be the most successful I could be, but also pushed me to learn more about myself, my motivations, and what I really want to get out of business school. I am incredibly excited to start school in the fall and could not recommend SOP more to anyone else who wants to take this next step on his or her professional journey!

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