Status: First-time applicant
Pre-MBA industry: Engineering
Years of experience at time of matriculation: 5
GMAT/GRE score: 750 (V: 41 Q: 50)
Undergraduate GPA: 8.68/10.00
Admitted to: Booth, Kellogg, Wharton
Scholarship(s): $120,000
To talk about my experience with SOP I’ll have to go back to Square One.
I learned about Square One Prep from a close friend who had worked with them. I spoke with several admissions consultants but I could tell that SOP was different during my very first call – Kathryn just wanted to understand who I was and asked me questions that made me think deeply about why I wanted to get an MBA. While other consultants told me that I ought to re-take the GMAT to get into my dream schools, Kathryn explained to me the importance of differentiating myself through all the other aspects of the application process. She went beyond our stipulated 30-min to explain how the process worked. At the end of the call I received a customized plan and just couldn’t wait to begin.
The Square One Team and their process are incredible. Kathryn was available at every step of the way; she is incredibly thorough, always available (I mean ALWAYS, I don’t know when she sleeps!), and does not settle for anything less than perfection, even if it meant 14 iterations on one essay. Wendy helped me build a strong career narrative by asking me pointed questions that led me to explore career paths and set ambitious career-goals that I would become truly excited about. Bailey regularly tracked my progress and updated my schedule on SOP’s excellent online portal, without which I would have never been able to stay on track as I was juggling both work and the applications. I’m also very fortunate to have been able to work with Lauren, my advisor, who was genuinely interested in my story and truly cared about my success. Lauren listened to me patiently as I narrated my experiences and gave me excellent ideas to build a compelling narrative that I believe played a massive role in my success. I’m so glad to have had America’s next great novelist as my advisor (read Lauren’s bio!)
In the end I got interview invites form all the schools that I’d worked on comprehensively with Square One. I made the interview waitlist at HBS and was admitted to Kellogg, Booth, and my dream school – Wharton – with a $120K scholarship. I can’t thank the Square One Team enough.
If you’re looking for a consultant, your search should end here, I highly recommend that you go with SOP, you simply can’t go wrong.