Catherine Rolfe

Catherine makes the difficult, ambiguous process of applying to an MBA very manageable. I received 4/4 offers to HBS, Wharton, MIT and CBS and I could not have done it without Catherine. Catherine was always there not only to help with my application, but talk to me about the process, careers after an MBA, and benefits of applying. She was enjoyable to work with, and I could not provide a higher recommendation. Square One is a great service for anyone that is interested in an MBA!

It’s been a dream for me attend business school and I knew I had a very high risk appetite going in: applying to only m7 schools. No one in my family had gotten their MBA from a top business school and I wanted to ensure that I put my best foot forward. A friend of a friend had recommended Square One Prep, so I decided to book a free consultation with Kathryn. The meeting lasted well over the allotted time and it felt like such a natural conversation where she was trying to get to know me: my goals, my hobbies, what my passions were, and why I wanted to pursue an MBA at this time. I got to know more about how thorough and personalized Square One’s process was as well. I then was able to have conversations with a couple different consultants and decided to work with Catherine. She is incredibly diligent, empathetic, and a wonderful person to work with! She has a quick turn around time for edits on deliverables, kept me accountable for resume, LOR, and essay deadlines, and truly created a safe space for me to be vulnerable and share my voice through my writing. Catherine and the Square One team were my biggest cheerleaders even after I submitted my apps R1 and helped me prep for interviews, pre-interview assignments, and cheered me throughout all my acceptances. I got into MIT Sloan, U Chicago Booth, Kellogg, and Columbia because of the Square One team and I cannot thank them enough for their support throughout!

It is a rare privilege to have a mentor who’s willing to support you through what is arguably one of your most important life decisions the way Kathryn Lucas and her Square One Prep (SOP) team do.

After deciding to do an MBA in early December 2023, taking the GMAT a couple weeks later, I approached multiple consultants for assistance given the short timeline and the complexity of my 9-year work history (entrepreneurship, career pivots, etc.). In my free consultation call with Kathryn the day after Christmas, which lasted almost two hours, she took genuine interest in understanding my past¬, my future plans, and the effort I was ready to put into the applications in 10-20 days until R2 deadlines. The decision to choose Kathryn came easily. She was upfront about the realistic expectations I needed to have and, together with her amazing team, we went through a whirlwind of two ambitious R2 applications. I must tell you that she urged me to NOT apply R2, to instead wait and apply R1 — to be ahead of everyone instead of behind everyone. But I wanted to try, and I knew she and her team would give me the best shot.

Undeterred by the negative outcomes in R2, I worked with Kathryn and my brilliant advisor Catherine Rolfe over the next several months to piece together a game plan of things for me to do before R1 (2024-25) deadlines, including school research, preliminary essay drafts, student outreach, events attendance, etc. Assisted by Horatiu Stefan’s terrific insights into weaving a coherent career narrative (an actual written document!) from my terribly convoluted 9-year work experience, I worked with Catherine on applications in both R1 and R2, with Kathryn as the team lead. After deep dives during several calls and a highly iterative editing process, Catherine helped me bring the most relevant and consequential stories to my essays, tying them together seamlessly into a clear and authentic story for my applications.

Kathryn’s highly sophisticated schedule on the SOP website (accommodating my applications and other engagements), along with Catherine’s gentle push and sometimes tough love, kept me on my toes while managing multiple deadlines. They always had incredibly fast turnaround times and were happy to answer any questions I had about the whole process. Through Catherine’s meticulous analysis of my essays and Kathryn’s overarching vision-setting, I put my best foot forward.

I had great interview experiences with Booth, Tuck, Darden, Anderson, Ross, and McCombs, thanks to Catherine’s mock interviews where she helped me strengthen my weak spots through thoughtful feedback and patiently addressing even my silliest queries. As I await results from my R2 schools, I’m delighted to have received offers from Anderson and McCombs with scholarships, while also getting waitlisted at Booth, Columbia, and Darden. Catherine and Kathryn are right there by my side, helping me define a WL strategy and craft letters to the schools. They are just as focused on me converting as I am!

This over-a-year-long journey has been challenging due to some personal setbacks I had to endure. There’s not enough room here to fully capture how instrumental Kathryn’s mentorship was in getting me through it all — extending beyond her professional obligations to become a pillar of unwavering support and a vote of confidence, even when my own dwindled.

You might’ve heard adcoms say that the application process is one of self-reflection and it makes you grow as a person. I completely agree and can say without hesitation that with the SOP team as my anchor and personal cheerleader, I not only navigated this journey successfully but emerged from it with greater clarity, confidence, and a rewarding experience. I also developed relationships with Catherine and Kathryn that I never would have guessed would be so meaningful during my application process, but I now know will be so lifelong.

SOP has been instrumental in my MBA Journey. Kathryn and her team are very thorough in their approach; I was impressed by their involvement in every step of the process from the career narrative construction, essay brainstorming, to the prep interview. I am very satisfied with their professionalism, their commitment, punctuality and work ethic. Moreover, their platform has been very useful to keep all of my schools’ application processes (what must be constructed and submitted) organized; it would have been very tough for me to manage all the moving parts and requirements for each school, especially given that each school’s requirements are different. In addition, SOP’s emotional support in this stressful time has been invaluable. For example, I struggled with my GMAT grade, and they helped in several ways, from recommending a specialist, to giving me the confidence and strategies to approach the whole application process even if my grade was not ideal. I truly recommend them.