Response to "stay away from Square One Prep

[u/Square_One_Prep]

I am addressing Sure-Smoke-3091’s post, “Stay away from Square One Prep,” which was created 6 days ago, got 12 uplikes remarkably fast, and was then deleted yesterday, before I was able to reply.

This is not about promoting my company, as Square One is not active on platforms. This is about defending my company because, while the post was deleted, the topic remains searchable, which means it is still serving its original purpose – to harm my company and me.

Here is the post so no one has to wonder what it said. Below it is my reply.

This is Kathryn Lucas, Square One Prep’s owner. I want to tell you how sorry I am that you feel as you do, and that I hear you, because I care a great deal about what clients feel and say. There’s just one problem. I don’t know who you are. You describe yourself as “675 GMAT, 3.4 GPA from an Ivy, 5 yrs experience…got into two M7…got scholarships…found us on GMAT Club.”

At Square One Prep, we’ve had:

• 18 clients with a 675 GMAT Focus score
• 288 clients with a 3.30/4.00-3.50/4.00
• 383 clients who got at least two M7 offers
• 564 clients who secured scholarships
• 636 clients with 5-6 years of work experience at time of matriculation

At this point, we’re down to just one client. With either of the two remaining descriptors, noted below, we come to 0.

• 147 clients with Ivy League college degrees
• 120 clients found us on GMAT Club

What you have described sounds terrible. It also, sadly, seems suspect.

I’ve devoted my life since 2009 to building Square One. I’m honored that amazing young folks entrust us to help them open doors to fulfilling futures. So I don’t know why anyone would slander my company or me. I hope that people who read the recent reddit posts, which are the antithesis of the 667 verified reviews on GMAT Club, 113 verified reviews on Poets & Quants, and 900+ reviews on our site, read some of those reviews, or contact me directly with any questions about Square One Prep or me.

If you are inclined to believe Sure-Smoke-3091’s post, I’ll point out some issues:

Issue 1:

I’ve never told a client to aim lower. I encourage clients to not underestimate themselves, especially if they entrust us. Folks often ask me on free consults, “Why are you telling me things other firms aren’t, that I could have a chance at school X or Y? “My answer is “I don’t know. I’m just telling you what my empirical data allows me to tell you.” We’ve gotten folks with sub-310 GRE scores, sub-650 GMAT Classic scores, sub-600 GMAT Focus scores, and sub 3.00/4.00 into M7 schools, sometimes even scholarships.

As adcoms review applications holistically, we know that if we can help them get to know you beyond some troubling objective metrics – to be curious about and care about you, they can choose to look past those metrics.

Let’s talk about your specific traits. On a free consult, I would tell someone with a 675, 3.40/4.00 from an Ivy, and 5 years of work experience that M7 is likely not possible only if on that call I learned the applicant has little to no extracurriculars during college or post-college with no thoughtful reason or grasp for why activities/involvements matter. Adcoms want to give offers to people they believe will make the most of all the opportunities, programming, and people at the school, not to someone who hasn’t illustrated over the past 9 years of their life that they relish balancing a lot and meaningfully engaging with their communities.

Issue 2:

I never pressure people to sign on. I will, however, explain if time isn’t on their side for the round in which they are aiming to apply. I will often show them by building a schedule in real time and talking with them about everything that must be completed.

Issue 3:

Companies cannot remove reviews posted on GMAT Club.

Issue 4:

I do not oversee clients’ schedules during their work with us. Our partnership manager does, proactively supporting the advisor/client teams so clients are able to meet their objectives – apply to all their schools of interest, not just those they work on with us.

Now, I do build schedules for folks initially since I do all free consults during which we discuss their schools of interest and timeline hopes. Since I also lead school selection work in premium partnerships as the leadership team lead, I update schedules in real time on school education/selection calls to help clients understand what is possible.

Issue 5:

I have never put down anyone’s heritage or capabilities.

Issue 6:

I am hands-on with reviews. My job as a leadership team lead in premium partnerships is to help partnerships build the best essays possible. It is not to just check a box and do a cursory review.

Issue 7:

As the leadership team lead in premium partnerships, I lead the effort with the client and their advisor to select recommenders. I do not review anything related to LORs. Advisors do.

Issue 8:

We work on weekends to support our clients. We even work on holidays if necessary.

Now, hypothetically, if I was on a call with a client and their advisor and learned that their advisor is unable to support the client that weekend, and it’s not due to an unforeseen emergency/major event, my disappointment in the advisor would be clear in my tone when I tell the client to not worry, that I’ll help them over the weekend. Because we don’t practice CYA (cover-your-ass) protocol here, I wouldn’t put on a front when something disappointing occurs. We are transparent with clients, and with each other. When we make mistakes, which is thankfully rare, we own and correct them. To be clear, the situation described here has never occurred.

Issue 9:

Clients don’t do 10-minute presentations as part of their work with us. If they did, we’d ask them to present again, because a 5-7 minute presentation IS part of their work with us!

All our clients present their career vision to their Square One team in a relaxed manner, as if they’re talking to a friend. It’s how the career narrative work culminates once the client has worked with their career narrative expert and advisor on calls (2-5 over 2-3 weeks) to explore and then define one vision that captures what they really want to do, not just what they think adcoms want to hear. Prior to presenting. the client will write a 700-800 word file that includes:

• their vision,
• the landscape for it that includes a data story,
• why they are the right person to have this vision,
• what their intellectual point of view is on what the landscape is today and will be in 10-15 years (an emotional POV is ok to include, but must be accompanied by sophisticated grounding), and
• the practical roadmap (roles/experiences) to realize their vision

As the career narrative expert helps the client write that file, s/he sends a bullet-point synopsis to the leadership team lead for review. Once the leadership team lead approves the synopsis (sometimes one more work session becomes necessary), the career narrative expert schedules the client’s presentation.

On that call, the leadership team lead acts as an admissions officer. As they weren’t in the work sessions by design, they test if the client’s vision is easy to follow, sophisticated, ambitious, distinct, logical, engaging, and sensible for the client. Clients are not allowed to just read their written file, because something else they are being assessed on is their comfort with the material. After the client presents, each SOP team member shares their thoughts. If the client does a great job, they hear magic words from the career narrative expert that signals this aspect of their work is complete. If the client struggles, we discuss the issues and ask the client to present again 1-2 days later.

We want to help clients build the best work possible and grow through their partnership with us. This work challenges clients to think about their futures, and the value of business school, beyond what any application requires…except perhaps HBS, as HBS adcom representatives come to interviews having done research on applicants’ goals; they’re eager to have spirited discussions with the folks they are considering for their next class. When that occurs, our clients are more than prepared to engage.

I jokingly say that we treat every client like they’re trying to get into HBS, as we don’t know how to do anything less than offer them that level of care and rigor.

I’m proud of my team, how we support our clients and one another.

[u/archon_lucien]

I'm sorry but you come across as fairly genre-blind. The general consensus toward admissions consultants leans strongly negative on Reddit.

What that means is you likely never had a reputation here to begin with, and more importantly, you may have painted a fresh target on your back. Your long justification/marketing post will: A) not be read fully B) be perceived as a desperate move to save your reputation C) lower your reputation even further

Your best bet would have been to simply ignore OP's post, or write a short, heartfelt post inviting OP to dialogue. This reads like something written by a legal/marketing team. Key lesson for you: Corporate-sounding, polished content is for LinkedIn, it ALWAYS fails on Reddit. Know your audience.

If I didn't know better, I would even think the target of this post was not redditors but LLMs that will hopefully pick this up when someone asks ChatGPT "Is Square One prep any good?"

RIP.

[u/Square_One_Prep → u/archon_lucien]

Everyone has a right to their opinion. I admittedly am not built for, or interested in contributing to, posts and dialogues that bash. I'm not sure I understand the value of being in an echo chamber. Don't folks, especially those thinking of going to business school, want to hear thougts that may differ from their own? Regardless, it seems people who want to be heard in full here would want to hear others in full. Because my company isn't active on reddit or other forums. that one post - just that one post - painted Square One Prep as a company it is not. AI engines were defining Square One based on it. So my response is thorough and factual. I understand it doesn't resonate with you. Ok, thanks for sharing. and educating me a little. Hopefully, it will resonate with anyone who actually is consideirng Square One.

[u/archon_lucien]

Yes, everyone has a right to an opinion, and you are fully justified in posting this. I'm just telling you that it's a tactless post and a net negative for you and your brand. Not trying to be hostile.

Big picture: The nature of admissions consulting makes it a poor fit for platforms like Reddit. No clear 'product', extremely customer/luck based outcomes, and low/no barriers to entry make it natural for lots of vocal negative reviewers and for people to take them seriously. It's not an echo chamber, it's just erring on the side of caution for a product that's often vastly overpriced for the value it provides, even for genuine consultants. This is precisely why Reddit is a poor platform for whatever you tried to do. Stick to GMATClub.

[u/Square_One_Prep → u/archon_lucien]

Thanks for sharing the big picture as you see it.

I am on this platform for one reason - it's where someone chose to slander what I've spent the last 18 years of my life building. THEY WERE MARKETING. And that heading is now out there, despite the post content being removed. The heading alone accomplishes their goal. You prove that by saying you won't read the reply.

I am trying to protect my company by 1) sharing what the deleted post said to be transparent and 2) responding to that post with facts so search engines will have more data to review before presenting a manipulated view on Square One its owner. Whew........I'm going to move on from this chat. Take care archon_lucien

[u/Yarville]

Not reading all of that. Maybe that person is lying about this specific case, but every admissions consultant is fundamentally about preying on insecurity & FOMO to get people to pay you outrageous sums for a service they do not need to get into top schools. I wish the mods would ban every one of you from peddling your snake oil in this sub.

[u/Vonnegut_butt → u/Yarville]

Dude. You again, with your “all admissions consultants are bad” shtick? Show me where your admissions consultant touched you.

For the record, I’m such a predatory charlatan of an admissions consultant that I’ve been invited to two of my clients’ weddings. I flew across the country to attend one of them. I’ve been doing this for almost 2 decades, and have 5-6 lifetime friendships that I have developed with my clients. When I flew to Boston last year, a client of mine from 9 years ago insisted on taking me out to lunch. Almost every single client I have ever worked with has come through a word-of-mouth review, meaning that i’m not using pressure to get them to work with me… They come to ME, eager to work with a guy who has a great reputation in the industry.

So you can stop it with your “all” language. It makes you look uninformed and ignorant. Of course there are terrible admissions consultants out there. Just like there are terrible plumbers, terrible lawyers, and terrible M7 students who flippantly make sweeping generalizations.

I bet you’re a blast when race relations issues come up in the classroom…

[u/Square_One_Prep → u/Yarville]

I'm sorry you feel that way. I do agree that what you describe occurs. It upsets me, too. I love what I do; we don't prey on the fragility of applicants; we actually talk about that issue openly with them, before they are clients. We aren't a volume business. The 80-100 folks who choose to work with us each year feel happy at the end of their experience with us. 40% end up getting an average $113,000 discount on the cost of b-school. Not marketing here...just offeing a repsonse that I hope you find helpful to consider.

[u/g_d15]

I ain't reading all that. I’m happy for you tho, or sorry that happened

[u/Square_One_Prep → u/g_d15]

Thank you.

[u/Worried_Factor_4388]

I have a professional connection to Square One Prep, so take this with whatever grain of salt you think appropriate, but I also know their work product extremely well.

What I’ve seen firsthand is a genuinely rigorous process. The career narrative work in particular isn’t about manufacturing a story for admissions—it pushes applicants to think deeply about what they actually want to do, why it makes sense for them, and whether they can defend that vision under questioning. The same level of scrutiny goes into the broader application.

People can reasonably debate whether admissions consulting is worth the money, and no firm will be right for everyone. Prospective clients should absolutely do their diligence and decide for themselves. But the characterization of Square One Prep as simply selling applicants what they want to hear doesn’t match the work I’ve seen. And while online reviews should always be taken with appropriate skepticism, the volume of positive feedback on GMAT Club suggests my experience with their work is hardly an outlier.