Lara Avsar

Consultant Bio

Lara Avsar is passionate about storytelling, a skill she developed during her childhood in Alabama where details of everyday southern life are made exciting through descriptive words, poetic lyrics, and powerful prose. She applies her “way with the word” to help her Square One clients find their voice and curate their life experiences in ways that captivate admissions committees.

In her life, Lara has applied to only two schools (Barnard College and Harvard Business School); she credits her 100% acceptance rate to her time spent introspecting and asking herself the right questions to ensure well-crafted, compelling applications. These days she asks her clients the right questions with the aim to give them similar odds with programs. Far from perfect, Lara embraces vulnerability and helps her clients feel immediately comfortable as she guides them in a supportive, but direct manner.

At Barnard, Lara was president of the student body and majored in Mathematics-Statistics and Middle Eastern Studies. Her professional background is in management consulting and entrepreneurship. Lara was a non-traditional HBS student (she took a year off between her first and second year to start her own business!) and believes in the power of a non-linear career (and life) journey.

Lara recently moved from New York City to Alabama and, on weekends, can generally be found doing yardwork outside her new house and attempting the New York Times crossword puzzle. Lara also spend much of her free time mentoring young women (as witnessed in her TEDx | Let’s stop the half-truths we tell young girls).

Company Information

Square One Prep has partnered with 1200 clients since 2009. 90% have succeeded; 35% have secured unsolicited scholarships (avg.: $91,000 as of April 2022) due to the quality of their applications.

Our clients come from all types of professions – from financial services, product management, engineering, operations, and consulting to professional sports, entrepreneurship, non-profit, family businesses, and teaching. They come from all parts of the world; 54% are from outside the US. They’re all imperfect, as there’s no such thing as a perfect applicant. And they’re all unique, with compelling stories to tell. So are you, even though you may question that right now. With an unmatched team and approach, we’ll guide you through the increasingly competitive application process and make the time you spend on applications transformative so you grow in ways that benefit you far beyond getting offers. Hard to imagine, right? Trust us. Take a deep breath and relax.

Top business schools teach that diverse teams create the most impactful solutions. Our diverse team ensures our clients craft the most impactful applications. In addition to being the most diverse among admissions firms, our team is the most rigorous and hands-on.

We are selective about who we guide, as our focus isn’t revenue; it’s you.

Menu of Services and Associated Costs

OUR SERVICES:
Comprehensive Guidance
Hourly Support (on any aspect of your applications)
Ding Analysis
HBS Mock Interview Package
Career Coaching
Roadmap To Your Apps

With comprehensive guidance, we offer two service levels: PREMIUM (P) and PREMIUM NEED-BASED (PNB). Whether you choose P or PNB, your team will have 30-80 years of diverse, expert experience.

Top business schools teach that diverse teams create the most impactful solutions. Our diverse team ensures our clients craft the most impactful applications. In addition to being the most diverse among admissions firms, our team is the most rigorous and hands-on.

With PNB service, your team is:
– An Advisor (a top MBA with proven coaching and writing skills)
– A Career Narrative Expert (a current/former MBA Career Management professional)
– A Former MBA Admissions Officer (no further description necessary)
– An Editor (a writing professional with a creative writing MFA)
– A Partnership Manager (an MBA with operations and client relations expertise)

With P service, your team is everyone above, plus:
– A Current MBA Admissions Officer (yes, you read that right)
– Square One’s Founder (to amplify your relentlessly supportive SOP team)

You may choose a standard advisor (has 1-4 years advising experience) or a senior advisor (has 5+ years advising experience). Some of our advisors do this fulltime, some are entrepreneurs, and some have traditional 40hr/wk careers. Some clients want their advisor to be dedicated to this fulltime while others value their advisor having a wider spectrum of present-day expertise than admissions. None of our advisors work with more than 6 clients at a time. Most work with only 1-2. Again, our focus isn’t volume; it’s you.

There is one more asset on your team when you work with us: our portal. It includes your customized, dynamic, day-by-day schedule, which is always in real-time, reflects your bigger objective (not just the schools you’re building with us), shows your actual pace, captures everything you must do or have done
as it regards your application effort, and includes embedded samples of everything imaginable as well as school data to help you. We give you transparency while guiding you proactively.

OUR COVERAGE:
Assessment of your candidacy
School selection
Career narrative strategy
Resume development
Essay topic selection and essay development
Recommender selection, letter of recommendation (LOR) package development, LOR construction
Online application
Interview preparation (includes pre- and post-interview essays/videos)
Scholarship negotiation
Waitlist work (if necessary)

OUR PRICING:

PREMIUM PACKAGES

1-school | Standard Advisor $6,900 | Senior Advisor $7,700
2-school| Standard Advisor $8,750 | Senior Advisor $9,650
3-school | Standard Advisor $10,600 | Senior Advisor $11,600
4-school | Standard Advisor $12,450  | Senior Advisor $13,550
5-school | Standard Advisor $14,300 | Senior Advisor $15,500
Hourly | Standard Advisor $390 | Senior Advisor $390

PREMIUM NEED-BASED PACKAGES

1-school | Standard Advisor $5,050 | Senior Advisor $5,900
2-school | Standard Advisor $6,450 | Senior Advisor $7,500
3-school | Standard Advisor $7,850 | Senior Advisor $9,100
4-school | Standard Advisor $9,250 | Senior Advisor $10,700
5-school | Standard Advisor $10,650 | Senior Advisor $12,300
Hourly | Standard Advisor $285 | Senior Advisor $285

Location: New York, New York, United States

Phone: 917-841-6833

Email: lara@squareoneprep.com

Website: https://www.squareoneprep.com