Status: First-time applicant
Pre-MBA industry: Communications
Years of experience at time of matriculation: 7
GMAT/GRE score: 331 (V: 165 Q: 166)
Undergraduate GPA: 3.57/4.00
Admitted to: HBS, Kellogg, Stern, Yale
Scholarship(s): $120,000
I have consulted with quite a few consulting services at the beginning of the process. At the time I felt very uncertain about how strong my candidacy was with a background from the arts in a startup environment. Time was ticking to hit R1 deadlines when I decided to apply. Kathryn and SOP were swift, honest, genuine in giving a thorough initial assessment and providing great insights right away on the free consultation call. She was generous with her time, educated me, and immediately instilled confidence in me, while some firms were really no shy of crushing your faith in yourself. It was so important to feel that your consultant sees you and has your back, with the support of experiences and insights.
My primary consultant Mike White was extremely hands-on and made himself very available. The response time is usually within hours the entire time. He adhered to a unique SOP process while adding his own perspective and professional input to sculpting your story. Rather than asking clients to submit a self-reflective questionnaire that requires a majority of the introspective heavy-lifting already been done, SOP’s process makes the crucial reflection process an active intake and conversation between the client and the consultant. To me, that takes a lot of psychological burdens off and makes it much less daunting to start the process.
I deeply appreciate the career narrative process with Wendy and Kathryn. They really challenge you, again and again, to think hard and deep, at micro and micro, personal and market-level on why a certain career path makes sense to you. Such work is so worthwhile and necessary that bleeds into everything that you write from there.
For anyone who seeks the sense of security that someone is always there for you at any moment (literally picking up a phone late a night if an emergency happens) and have the option to solicit opinions from multiple perspectives from your support system SOP is really a great choice.