Allison Nelson Reviews

I chose Allison at SquareOne for my reapplication to HBS as I was not particularly satisfied with my previous consultant from another top-rated firm when I applied a couple years prior. The difference was night and day, I have no doubt Allison played a key role in getting accepted to two of my target schools, HBS and Wharton! While previously I was one of thousands of clients (each file had to be named in a special way, consultant was available only at specific times, feedback felt generic), with SquareOne it felt far more personal. Allison was always available, and super helpful. For example in drafting the HBS essay, I struggled with picking between a couple of concepts and she was immediately available for a call to give me guidance and principles on which I should chose my topic. The highlight for me was the choreographed preparation of the post-interview reflection for HBS. I received an hourly schedule ahead of time of exactly how we go from me finishing my interview, through rounds of edits, to the final product in less than 12 hours. The support gave me confidence even heading into the interview.

One other aspect of SquareOne I would point out as uniquely cool is the career narrative. I haven't seen this anywhere else and initially thought we were wasting time spending days working on a document explaining my career vision when this was not a deliverable for any school. However, I ended up going back to this document regularly when building my applications for all 4 schools to which I applied. It gave me a framework for what my story is, and forced me to develop a clear idea of what I want to do post-MBA such that I could confidently talk about it in essays and interviews.

Last but not least, it was super helpful to have drafts go for an additional review with Kathryn. Getting a fresh set of eyes on the materials helped us catch some gaps in the story multiple times, and her insight was super useful. I particularly appreciated her openness to challenge ideas which she believed weren't right, that way forcing us to rethink some parts of the materials to make them work better.

The whole team were great and I can't recommend them enough!!

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Square One is incredible. The entire team has deep industry knowledge and is exceptionally dedicated to their clients. They are patient, happy to answer questions, and engage in lengthy discussions. They work nights and weekends. Most importantly, they will push clients to be introspective and will provide you with their candid thoughts. They also take the time to get to know you personally - no one feels like a cog in the system. This is evident even from the free consultation that they offer. I highly recommend Square One. They are excellent; their expertise and dedication is second to none!

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Working with Square One Prep was amazing. Horatiu helped me think through my career goals and tie them to my past experiences. We explored two different paths I was interested in and ultimately decided on a healthcare route. Even though the purpose was to create a story that made sense for applications, I actually learned a lot about my own strengths and career goals and am much more prepared for business school.

Once I finished the career narrative, Allison helped me write amazing essays. It took many attempts and I changed topics multiple times, but we landed on a great story that helped me get interviews at 6/7 schools.

I’m excited to attend Chicago Booth next fall on a full ride scholarship! I couldn’t have done it without Square One. Thank you Kathryn, Allison, and Horatiu!

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From the beginning, Square One Prep really impressed me. They took time on the front end getting to know me and sharing strengths and weaknesses about my application. Before reaching out to SOP, I felt so lost and indecisive about my application, but when SOP entered the picture, their confidence and decisiveness truly made the process stress-free and enjoyable. They have incredible professionalism, care for clients, competence, and structure. At any point, I knew my timeline and what next steps were required. SOP kept me accountable with reminders so that I din't fall behind. Also, the order that we went through each aspect of my application was super helpful, making the entire process served as a a very powerful reflective experience. Through a combination of Zoom calls, phone calls, and emails, SOP was very responsive and always guiding me with confidence. In hindsight, I can’t imagine having applied without the experience and help from SOP--worth every single penny! Before getting accepted, I felt so proud of my applications and felt that nothing was held back; I portrayed my authentic story, and if ADCOMs didn't like it, then at least I was confident that they know who and what they’re saying “no” to. All thank to Kathryn and Allison at Square One Prep for helping to synthesize my story and my future in a concise, meaningful way. I will be referring every single one of my friends to Square One Prep and if you're reading this, stop what you're doing and reach out ASAP!!!

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In my first "supposedly" 30-minute free consultancy meeting, the founder, Kathryn spent 1.5 hours discussing every "raw material" I had such as work experience, leadership activities, and goals. That's why I chose SOP over the top 5 companies that have the highest numbers of reviews on GMAT Club that I have talked with.

Then I work with Allison on my application and interviews, Horatiu on my career narratives, and Kathryn on school selection, and final essay drafts.

I think the service of SOP is top-notch for 3 reasons.
1. Structured approach.
- Kathryn and Allison helped me to build the school list that fits my risk appetite and then proposed a clear timeline to complete all the applications
- I got detailed guidelines for every part of my application, with tons of examples from other admitted students

2. Candid and helpful feedback
- In everything from career narratives, resumes, and LOR to essays, Allison and Horatiu pushed me over my comfort zone and achieved the best of what I could do.
- Horatiu gave me a clear view of how I should build my career story, which I definitely could not build by myself. He had practice industry experience along with high-admission consulting for many students
- Allison is an excellent writer who spent a lot of time brainstorming topics with me, gave me prompts to write the idea more clearly, and helped me to fine-tune my points in beautiful ways.

3. Impressive turn-around time
- Allison gives me feedback in 12-36 hours, most of the time, even on holidays. This high-intensity support really helped me to complete all the materials I need.

Results:
- I worked with SOP at 3 schools and got admission to all of them: Judge, Yale SOM, and Kellogg. Even my manager did not think I could get into M7
- With the materials on hand, I applied to other schools and got admission from Ross with a full ride of $170K.

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I could already feel the attentiveness and guidance that would characterize my entire experience working with Square One from my first phone call with Kathryn. When I decided to engage a consultant, I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with Kathryn, who drilled down beyond the usual surface-level chat in a preliminary call, and spent a lot of time to hear out my goals, ambitions, and desires while being honest and realistic.

I loved the Square One approach of having a full team as a multi-layer review on every piece of work that we developed. The structure, that initially may seem daunting, is all deliberate and sets you up for success. I was certainly challenged by some of the deliverables, such as the career narrative, but it paid dividends as I got into application work, and in interviews.

I worked with Allison, who I cannot say enough amazing things about. After giving my life story, of both ups and downs, we developed a framework of my unique perspectives and traits that could serve as potential essay topics. This framework, along with the career narrative all fed into the essay work, which ended up becoming much easier than I had thought possible. Allison and Kathryn gave me wonderful feedback that resulted in introspective essays I am extremely proud of. I simply would not have been able to get to this point by myself. Allison was incredibly attentive, and always had thoughtful feedback on my work in a very timely manner. She also helped me prepare for interviews with rigorous mocks that helped me figure out how to effectively convey my message. And generally, whenever I had questions, Allison was easily reachable and responsive to address any and all of my (many) questions.

The Square One team also truly has your best interests at heart. They suggested specific schools to be done comprehensively or hourly depending on the overlap and cost-effectiveness of each application.

Beyond the applications themselves, Square One taught me how to bring the best of myself and how to think about how to represent yourself and highlight your most meaningful qualities. I was kept accountable, received support, feedback, and wisdom. I am so happy that I worked with Allison, Kathryn, Cristina, Wendy, and the full Square One team on my applications. I had the support of so many wonderful experts that are invested in my success.

I’m delighted to say that the process paid off with the added bonus of meaningful scholarship, which was never in my wildest dreams!

But my story doesn’t end there. After applying to all my selected schools, I found myself waitlisted at two schools. Allison and Kathryn heard me out on my desire to convert these waitlists to admits and came up with a plan. Just because I had already received admits did not mean that Square One rested on their laurels and moved on to the next client. We developed how to effectively provide meaningful updates to the programs and Allison and Kathryn helped me convert an M7 admit! Just writing this brings such a huge smile to my face!

I’m so delighted to start the next chapter of my life and look forward to matriculating in the fall!

I was so convinced that Square One is the ideal consultancy to work with, I referred friends while still going through the application process. Like me, they have been very successful in their own processes, securing admits AND scholarships too!! I have and will continue to recommend Square One without a doubt to anyone who is committed to applying to business school. Like the Square One website says, “take a deep breath and relax,” you’re in great hands!

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Since I signed up with Square One, I have received great support and partnership in my MBA application journey! I started working with the team within two months of R1 deadlines, and the whole team, Kathryn, Allison, Cristina and Horatiu, crafted a workable timeline, consistently held me accountable for all of my applications as well as pushed me to challenge myself in terms of content for my application materials. As a result, we put together five applications in this short time period!

I have appreciated Allison's direct communication method and her honest feedback. I valued her and Kathryn's honest approach about why you are applying, finding meaningful anecdotes to discuss on applications, as well as helping me figure out any unexpected changes along the way. There were times during the application, for example one of my video essays, where I thought my video was good enough, but Allison and Cristina pushed me to keep working and submit my best work product. The interview process can also be emotionally draining and fatiguing but Allison encouraged me to stay positive.

I am happy that I chose SOP as in retrospect, there were so many moving pieces over the course of many months. It truly felt like a marathon and I could not have achieved my outcome without the consistent push and support from the SOP team! I am happy to have gotten into many of the schools I applied to and some with very generous scholarships!

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I was referred to Square One by a friend pursuing his MBA at Wharton, and working with Kathryn and Allison was pivotal in me securing admission offers and scholarships from Booth, Kellogg, and Stern Business Schools.
From our very first interaction, the energy and meticulousness that Kathryn and Allison brought to the admissions process amazed me. I initially had no idea what I wanted to do with my MBA, but Horatiu and Allison helped me explore careers that interested me and then craft a narrative based on it. I also had no practice in writing for almost a decade so I needed a lot of hand holding that Allison graciously offered. By the end, I was able to independently write my essays that got me an interview from the Wharton EMBA program.
In the middle of my application process, I had a family issue followed by my own illness, which prevented me from working on my applications. Throughout the challenges, the team was always empathetic and supportive of me that helped me get back on my feet successfully.
I also found the application process in itself to be incredibly enlightening. The deep self-reflections that Allison and Kathryn guided me through while writing my essays helped me develop a clarity of purpose and confidence in my own abilities. It has helped me take better charge of my career and perform outstandingly well in my current role.
Square One truly feels like a family that helped me improve continually and I highly recommend working with them.

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I worked with SOP for Round 1 applications (Fall 2023 intake), on a Premium package for 1 school. I thought Allison, Kathryn, and Horatiu were good partners and found their process and advice very helpful for managing the various parts of the application, especially my recommenders. I was admitted to the M7 school we worked on together, and much of the work we did together helped me get 2 other offers (T15) and a waitlist (T10) in R1. I also applied to 2 more M7s in R2 (HSW), and received one invitation to interview (TBD on the remaining school).

Things that were great:

1. SOP's work on my resume was excellent. I would have not considered crafting my resume the way we did together (b-school resumes are very different from professional resumes), and the upfront work I did with SOP carried through to all my applications across rounds 1 and 2. As a corollary, the discovery call and worksheets that I completed with my consultant were helpful both for self reflection and for getting specific advice/input from my consultant throughout the process.

2. I loved SOP's recommendation management process. Again, I wouldn't have thought to organize the process in the way SOP did, and it saved me and my recommenders a lot of time and hassle. Both my recommenders had to write letters for 6 schools, some of which had no overlap at all, but SOP's structure made it easy to navigate and feel confident about what my recommenders were submitting.

3. The career narrative work was excellent. We did this very early in our process, and at the time I didn't necessarily view this as a very important exercise. But having a detailed, data driven career plan before I even started writing my first essays made it very easy for me to answer all career related questions in applications and interviews throughout the application cycle.

Areas for improvement:

1. Iterating on written work was sometimes a struggle - I personally work better with live feedback and discussing why something works/something doesn't work, but I typically received feedback as track changes in my word doc. As a result, I sometimes received edits that changed my intended meaning, and the back and forth slowed us down. I would've preferred comments and actionable advice over inline edits, which would've allowed me to absorb the feedback and implement it in my own way. Along the same lines, I wish we'd spent more time brainstorming on essays before starting to write - I work better that way.

2. SOP's document library is massive, but difficult to navigate. I would've liked to have a smaller selection of curated essay/resume samples, or at least to have gotten a few relevant highlights for me instead of trying to skim through 50-70 files by myself.

I recommend SOP, and specifically applaud them for their methodical approach to applications. I think applicants who have some familiarity with the MBA application process, and already have a somewhat strong POV about their candidacy, stand to benefit the most from working with Allison and Kathryn. Best of luck on your B-school application journey!

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Square One Prep is unlike any other admissions service. There is immense value in having an entire team help you with your application. A career narrative coach worked with me to help me define my career vision and really pushed me to hone and improve both my ideas for next steps and the ways in which I articulated them. Then, Allison's responsive, dedicated expertise, combined with Kathryn's final approval and input on all of my application materials, set me up to have a bulletproof application. I am so so thrilled with my school acceptance results and my scholarship packages and I have the incredible SQ1 team to thank for it.

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