Status: First-time applicant
Pre-MBA industry: Oil & Gas Site Engineering
Years of experience at time of matriculation: 5
GMAT/GRE score: 730 (V:39 Q:50)
Undergraduate GPA: 3.39/10.00
Admitted to: HBS, Ross, Wharton, Stanford(wl)
Scholarship(s): $150,000
Service Type: Premium Need-based
Since the day of signing up with Squareone Prep, I received tremendous support and guidance from Kathryn, Amalia, Cristina, and Wendy. The team ensured that I reached all milestones in the application process even though I started working with them very late in R2. Kathryn has set an amazingly streamlined process in place for all applicants to follow since Day-1. She and Amalia were extremely organized, and they were very dedicated in understanding my background prior to kicking off the work on the applications.
SOP team ensured that I built a very thorough long-term and short-term plan post-MBA via its Career Narrative lead by Wendy. I went to them with a very bleak/blurry vision, but after multiple discussions, the team guided me in building a very strong post-MBA plan. I really do not think I could have the vision without undergoing this process with the SOP team. Incredible execution by the SOP team, special thanks to Wendy – she is the expert!
Post career-narrative sessions, Amalia helped me pick the right stories to be incorporated into the essays. Amalia is super friendly, and she was always willing to hop on a call and listen without worrying about time. This is where SOP’s dedication in understanding my journey was super helpful. She was extremely emphatic while listening to some of the delicate aspects of my past and helped me to carefully draft my narratives. Amalia was also great at utilizing the time difference between our locations to our advantage and we managed to build the essays for both GSB and HBS within 3 weeks. While Amalia’s expertise added in simplify the back and forth in polishing the essays, the quality of feedback provided by Kathryn on the final version of the essays was just priceless. She was very open and honest about how she felt about certain aspects of my essays. She ensured that the best of me is reflected even when we were all working together tirelessly during the last couple of days prior to the deadlines. I absolutely loved her insights and her turnaround time!
Cristina was super supportive in ensuring that I adhere to the timelines set and she worked closely with Amalia and me to ensure all deliverables are ready on time. To add further, the dynamic schedule on SOP portal was absolutely useful even before I signed up with SOP. Prior to signing up with SOP, Kathryn demonstrated how to use this schedule and it helped me to always track my progress for the various schools I planned to apply. In fact, it also helped me to pick schools wisely in interest of time available then.
The team was always available to answer all my questions throughout the process. As a bonus later on, Amalia helped me navigate through my interviews smoothly too. She performed multiple mock-interviews for both GSB and HBS and did not stop until I was 100% ready. After each mock- interview, Amalia drafted detailed feedback and ensured that I improved after each mock. Even in times when I was feely low about my interview prep, she boosted me and went out of her way to bring back my confidence levels. She genuinely cared for my success, and I owe my performance in interviews totally to her.
I feel absolutely great and lucky to have had SOP’s back during this vital process. I would definitely recommend SOP especially for applications to the top B-schools such as HSW. Super grateful for all the guidance from SOP team! Thank you, once again.