In case anyone is considering Critical Square, I thought I'd share my story with them:
I purchased a strategic package for 5 schools with Critical Square and I worked with Bhavik. Overall, I was very pleased with my experience. Bhavik and the rest of the Critical Square team are professional, prompt, and very easy to work with. Most importantly, the proof is in the pudding, and Critical Square helped me get into my dream school.
We started with an informal, but comprehensive interview to dig deep into my background and career goals to create a framework for the entire application process. From there, we delved into my school choices to come up with a straightforward plan of attack and a story that was always authentic but custom tailored for each program. With that information we created a recommender packet that gave my referees all of the ammunition they needed to write excellent letters while also helping them understand how seriously I was taking the process. When it came time to work on essays, Bhavik's patient willingness to serve as a sounding board was invaluable - I had a number of non-traditional essay ideas and Bhavik helped me evaluate which worked and which fell flat. His proofreads were consistently thoughtful and he helped me make my essays sing.
I had a pretty aggressive school selection with all five of my apps going to top-15 programs (three were top-10), but with Critical Square's help I was very fortunate and got into three programs, waitlisted after an interview at another, and invited for an interview at my fifth which I declined since I already got into my dream school. I'm headed to Tuck in the Fall.
While I'm very pleased with my experience with Critical Square, hiring any consultant is going to be an expensive endeavor and applicants will need to evaluate the cost tradeoff for themselves. In my case, it's very easy to say that the few extra thousand dollars in my bank account would be nice as I face the daunting tuition bill, but frankly I doubt I would have been granted admission to my dream school without such a great coach helping me along the way. If I had to do it over again I would absolutely still hire Critical Square.
I purchased a strategic package for 5 schools with Critical Square and I worked with Bhavik. Overall, I was very pleased with my experience. Bhavik and the rest of the Critical Square team are professional, prompt, and very easy to work with. Most importantly, the proof is in the pudding, and Critical Square helped me get into my dream school.
We started with an informal, but comprehensive interview to dig deep into my background and career goals to create a framework for the entire application process. From there, we delved into my school choices to come up with a straightforward plan of attack and a story that was always authentic but custom tailored for each program. With that information we created a recommender packet that gave my referees all of the ammunition they needed to write excellent letters while also helping them understand how seriously I was taking the process. When it came time to work on essays, Bhavik's patient willingness to serve as a sounding board was invaluable - I had a number of non-traditional essay ideas and Bhavik helped me evaluate which worked and which fell flat. His proofreads were consistently thoughtful and he helped me make my essays sing.
I had a pretty aggressive school selection with all five of my apps going to top-15 programs (three were top-10), but with Critical Square's help I was very fortunate and got into three programs, waitlisted after an interview at another, and invited for an interview at my fifth which I declined since I already got into my dream school. I'm headed to Tuck in the Fall.
While I'm very pleased with my experience with Critical Square, hiring any consultant is going to be an expensive endeavor and applicants will need to evaluate the cost tradeoff for themselves. In my case, it's very easy to say that the few extra thousand dollars in my bank account would be nice as I face the daunting tuition bill, but frankly I doubt I would have been granted admission to my dream school without such a great coach helping me along the way. If I had to do it over again I would absolutely still hire Critical Square.
