Status: First-time applicant
Pre-MBA industry: Software Engineering
Years of experience at time of matriculation: 6
GMAT/GRE score: 760 (V: 42 Q: 51)
Undergraduate GPA: 9.41/10.00
Admitted to: Wharton
I cannot thank Square One Prep enough for all that they have done for me. With help from the magic team of Ram, Kathryn, Bailey and Wendy, I got into Wharton. I would highly recommend SOP to any aspiring MBA applicant.
What stood out for me from the get-go was how invested they were in my success. When I first reached out to Kathryn, I got a response almost immediately and the entire team showed the same level of responsiveness and commitment throughout the process.
Though the application process was quite daunting at first, Square One’s structured approach helped make it easier to navigate. When I started out, I wasn’t very clear on whether I really wanted to do an MBA. But the career narrative exercise with Wendy, Ram and Kathryn, where we talked about my long term goals and the steps that I could take to achieve them, helped me gain this clarity.
After the career narrative exercise, I worked primarily with Ram who was my main advisor. Working with Ram was an absolutely wonderful experience. Ram is not somebody who only wants to help you get into the best business school. He is somebody who really wants to help you succeed in life. This was evident right from our first interaction where he spent hours getting to know me better – my background, interests, aspirations, accomplishments and even my failures. He constantly pushed me to dig deeper, introspect and reflect, so that I could understand myself better and craft an authentic and compelling story in my essays.
Ram is also someone who doesn’t want to settle for anything below the best. There were some essays that we went over more than 20 times, brainstorming multiple ideas until we landed on what felt right! He was always available over phone and email if we had anything to discuss. With his vast experience mentoring people, Ram almost always had the answers to any questions that I had around how I should structure my essays. However, what I really liked was that he never directly handed the answers to me. Rather, he kept nudging me in the right direction so that I could come up with the answers myself. This helped me craft a story that I truly believed in, and also served me well in the interviews.
Ram’s writing skills are phenomenal. He has the ability to take any sentence you write and rephrase it in the most succinct way possible so that it can have maximum impact. He also has the ability to convert a seemingly mundane idea into something special.
All in all, I had a great experience with Ram, Kathryn and the entire Square One team. I could not have done this without them, and would strongly recommend them to any aspiring MBA applicant.