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Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
I recently had the pleasure of working with Square One Prep and I was thoroughly impressed with the level of professionalism and expertise they brought to the table. My team was Lara, (advisor), Wendy (career expert), Cristina (partnership manager), and Kathryn.
My goal is to get into one of the best business programs. As a candidate in a competitive industry and demographic segment, I turned to Square One for help. Lara and the team looked into every aspect of the application and helped me craft a strong and competitive application, which I wouldn't have been able to do by myself. My team was not only incredibly knowledgeable about the MBA admissions process, but also eager to share candid feedback throughout the entire journey.
I highly recommend this MBA consulting firm to anyone looking for top-notch guidance and support in the MBA admissions process.
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
I got exceptional application results with the Square One Prep (SOP) team. I applied to two schools (M7 and S16), got admitted to both and got a full scholarship from my dream school. Besides the results, the journey itself was transformative as well. The SOP team provided exceptional advice to strengthen my application, patiently guided me through every component and championed me to the finish line. Thanks to the SOP team’s work, I came out of the application more self-aware, communicating better and more confident, all of which are qualities that will benefit me in the long term.
It all started with the founder Kathryn and I cannot say enough how experienced and caring she is. I interviewed multiple MBA consultancies and many of them showed reluctance to take me as a client, given that I am an older applicant and came from a less-traditional background. But Kathryn believed in me from the beginning. She did warn me how competitive MBA admission can be, yet she believed that I have a good chance of getting admitted. This trusting partnership enabled me to be genuine, introspect and reveal myself in the application, which I believe was the key to my admission success.
In the middle of the application, my first advisor and I were not working well together, resulting in serious delays in my essay work. I asked for a chat with Kathryn and she quickly jumped on a call. She patiently listened to and fully understood my concerns and struggles. Within 2 days, Kathryn helped me find Lara, who became my trusting advisor.
Lara is very experienced in MBA admission, providing crucial advice to strengthen my application. Her attention to detail is exceptional. During our essay editing and LOR building sessions, she pointed out flaws in my drafts, big or small, with honest and actionable feedback. Sometimes we’d jump on a call to talk through the stories, trying to surface the deeper thoughts. In addition to the excellent advice for applications, Lara is also a life coach to me. She pushed me to think deeply on who I am and what I’m trying to accomplish with the MBA. All of the insights we discovered together were well presented in my application and the interview. I highly recommend working with her if you are also looking for a coach in your application journey!
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
I worked with Square One for Round 2 applications during the 2021-2022 cycle. I interviewed ~6 firms and consultants. The prior year, I had worked with a reputable firm and thought that I did not receive the support and quality of work I was looking for, so I was careful to choose the right consultant. After my initial conversation with Kathryn (founder), I felt comfortable in the hands of Square One. During the conversation, I spoke about my background and why MBA. Kathryn listened to my story, having a candid response about my candidacy and story that felt personal and empowering. I felt other firms were heavily focused on marketing or were boastful, but I did not feel any of this with Kathryn.
The next step was to find the right advisor that I would work closely with. I interviewed several advisors before talking with Lara. I believe all the advisors I spoke with were strong, but I immediately connected with Lara during our initial discussion. Her authentic style made me feel highly confident and comfortable partnering with her for my business school applications.
The Square One process was structured to move things along but tailored in helping me access my motivations and key moments of my story. The process started with school selection, which measured the risk of school admittance. I was a high-risk candidate, given my <3.0 GPA. Then, there was a narrative process with Wendy (narrative expert) and Lara, where I met over multiple sessions to talk about my ambitions and form a business case of what it takes to reach those goals. I found this process invaluable as I was not interested in developing a case just for admission purposes.
Then, I began working on essays with Lara over a few months, a process that was highly introspective and therapeutic. Her pre-writing calls and comments on drafts were insightful and helped direct my writing to be full and personal. During the semi-final drafts, my essays were sent to a team of editors, which included Kathryn, to make sure that my stories were clear, understandable, and ready. My writing came out real, professional, and passionate. The team was kind enough to work with me through tight timelines, even turning around comments on the day of application deadlines.
At the interview stage, Lara spent significant time with me, helping me understand my unique touch in interviews. At this point, I realized I had approached interviews wrong my whole life, almost as a test, but she helped me come as my whole self and communicate my thoughts in a clear spoken and sincere way.
Overall, I was accepted to Wharton. I don't think I could have had this successful outcome with any other group and am so happy I chose Lara and Square One.
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
I interviewed 7 different consultants as I was preparing for the business school process. The majority of them weren’t interested in getting to know me or my background – they wanted to fit me into a box (GPA, GMAT, career, etc.) and were quick to make judgments on my chances at certain schools. Kathryn, on the other hand, was eager to get to know me beyond my quantitative stats. Throughout the process, Kathryn, Lara, and the rest of the S1 team provided constant support and feedback to make sure that I was putting my best foot forward. I was fortunate to get into two excellent schools and am confident I wouldn’t be in this position without them!
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
The MBA application process is a grueling and stressful one, it is important to work with a consultant who not only helps you write great essays and put forward a competitive application but also one who helps you believe in yourself – SOP does just that!
Before speaking to Kathryn, I interacted with multiple consultants and the interactions made me feel stressed and underwhelmed. On our very first call, Kathryn spent nearly one hour getting to know me, my professional background, my requirements and posed thoughtful questions. This aspect was something that wasn’t done by any other consultant. Most importantly, Kathryn helped me see my strengths and persuaded me to apply to colleges I couldn’t have dreamed of! I eventually received an admit from a top program with a great scholarship!
During the process, the school selection with Kathryn was a highly comprehensive discussion with well-planned timelines. The mix of colleges Kathryn helped pick suited my needs yet pushed me to get out of my comfort zone.
For the career narrative, it was a pleasure working with Wendy, who helped me craft a compelling career narrative and helped me drill down my short-term and long-term goals with utmost clarity.
My advisor Lara was brilliant – she constantly challenged me to help bring out the best in my essays and provided clear, actionable feedback every step of the way. I couldn’t have imagined writing such strong essays without SOP’s help. The interview prep session with Lara was extremely fun and helpful. I am certain without the great interview prep session with Lara, my actual interview would not have been as impactful as it turned out to be (after receiving an admit, my interviewer actually emailed me telling me how remarkable and memorable my interview was).
Even after submitting the applications and receiving an admit, Kathryn and Lara have been extremely supportive and are available to provide realistic advice and encouragement every step of the way.
I would strongly recommend SOP to any MBA applicant (in fact, I’ve already recommended them to several friends)!
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
I'm glad I chose Square One Prep for business school applications! From the start, I enjoyed Kathryn's honesty in our consultation. Coming from a background with no experience & connection to business school, I wanted a team that would be honest about my chances and how I could improve my application. Before we started on application work, Lara and I did a very comprehensive review of my experiences & resume, pulling out themes that we eventually used for the essays. We also worked with a career narrative expert, which I thought was super helpful--I always had an idea of what I wanted to do in the future, but found it difficult to put into words. The career narrative work prepared me well for that. Then, when we started work on the essays, Lara was a great thought partner. I am glad she focused most of her time on the themes and messages within the essays and not the superficial grammar & punctuation errors (although she caught and fixed those as well). For example, Lara was not afraid to tell me to toss out the entire essay and start over when I was not properly answering the prompt. Lara and Kathryn's support was integral to my acceptance to my dream business school!
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
After interviewing several MBA Admissions Consultants, I finally decided I like the unique and differentiated approach from Square One Prep. From the outset, I liked their multi-person approach to consultancy, and they delivered. After an initial call with Kathryn, I met with Lara who I knew immediately would help me best understand my story and show it to ad-coms. Applying during an ultra-busy period of work, Lara and Square One Prep helped me stay organized and on top of my deliverables. Needless to say, I couldn't have done it without them. I applied to six schools and received interviews at five of them. I was waitlisted at three of them, and I was accepted to two of them (with scholarships). They did a fantastic job and could not recommend them any more highly.
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
I would highly recommend Square One Prep to anyone applying to business school! By the time I went to submit my applications, I had no doubt in my mind I was putting forth the best version of my application I could. The entire team at SOP is extremely thorough and thoughtful and does not leave any stone unturned throughout the review process. They really gave me great peace of mind from start to finish. I initially came to SOP because I had a lower quant score and they were able to help me position all of my materials in a way to showcase my quantitative strengths throughout other facets of my application. I ended up getting into both top ranked part time MBA programs I applied to and could not have done it without SOP!
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
I'll start with results - with good work experience, decent academics, great GMAT score, and non-existent extracurriculars, I was denied from 2 of HSW, waitlisted at 1 T10, and admitted to 1 M7, where I'll be matriculating in the fall!
I talked to 5 consultants on intro calls before picking SOP, and as many have noted, Kathryn blows them all out of the water. She spent over an hour with me assuaging my concerns, helping me pull out of a spiral with all that goes into the MBA process, and gave candid feedback that I was taking a high risk approach, but not one that was impossible to achieve (which looks prescient given my results!)
The consultant selection process was somewhat frustrating for me, so I'll try to save you some time - the massive advisors were pretty clearly not as invested in my success after putting the deposit down, while the small advisors seemed pretty disorganized. I narrowed to the more mid-sized providers of Veritas, Fortuna, and Square One Prep, but the differentiator for me was the specificity of SOP on how much time they will spend with you – and I think they actually may have underestimated that amount of time. This was never self-driven either – if an essay or career narrative wasn’t complete, we set up another call or another review. Lara, my day-to-day advisor, pushed me where I needed more help (essays and career narrative), while not wasting time where I was already relatively well prepared (resume and interview). She was equal parts taskmaster and champion, which made getting to the end of a difficult essay particularly rewarding.
Other Pros:
• Access to Founder – Kathryn read every essay I sent through to SOP and participated on every career narrative call. I’m honestly not sure how she finds the time
• Organization – Bailey really kept me on track and scheduled, which for someone that also has a busy work life was vital for staying focused. She actually created a proposed schedule for me while I was still deciding what consultant to go with as well
Cons:
• Costs – SOP is just more expensive than some of the other options out there. I personally think they do more with you relative to other consultants and make it worth it, but that’s a personal choice I was okay with.
• Career Narrative – I was encouraged to look at traditional post-MBA roles for my career narrative given my background. It’s impossible to know without the counterfactual, but I think I may have been more successful at getting an interview for some of my target schools if I had adjusted my career narrative toward something that would have more real-world impact, particularly for Stanford.
Overall, would definitely use SOP again, and have already sent a few friends their way!
Product Square One Prep Premium Service
Consultant Lara Avsar
Square One Prep came highly recommended to me from a friend who had also worked with Kathryn and team in the past. I wasn't sure where to get started with the business school application process, and Kathryn helped me understand what to expect and to prepare during our free consultation call. I was really impressed by Lara, Kathryn, Luis, and team on the dedication to help present my best self in my application. In 8 weeks, they helped me through resume-crafting, career narrative strategy, essay writing, interview prep, and more. I ended up getting admitted into both HBS and Stanford GSB, all thanks to Square One Prep!
