What we offer…

90% of our students were admitted to their first college choice last year…Be our next success story!

Our services cover all aspects of the graduate school admission process. Below is a list of many of these services as well as some examples of exactly how we add value for our clients. The following list is by necessity not comprehensive since there are many other items on which we consult our clients that either do not require much time (and hence we do not offer as stand-alone services) or are closely related to the other services outlined below. Additionally, we also work with many “nontraditional” clients who have unusual backgrounds or experiences as well as clients who are working to be admitted from waitlists.

As you read through this list, please keep in mind that we recognize that each applicant is unique and, therefore, has unique admissions consulting needs. Accordingly, each client receives customized advice from his or her personal consultant. The list of admissions consulting services we offer is quite extensive. While we have consulted clients through the entire grad school admissions process, we only wish to provide our insight and guidance where it is desired. With our hourly rate, you will always know exactly what you are paying for – professional advice from a personal consultant who has graduate school admissions experience.

Graduate school selection

We firmly believe this is one of the most overlooked steps in the graduate school admissions process for most applicants. Quite simply, if you rush through this step and you don’t apply to your best-fit grad school programs, you are not going to get nearly as much out of your education as you would have if you had spent a little more time on this very important step. Additionally and fortunately, your best-fit graduate programs are also the same ones that will be most likely to admit you.

We have helped applicants gain admission to a diverse selection of graduate school programs including law schools, Ph.D., engineering, fine arts, journalism, and math and science programs.

Admissions strategies

We help each of our clients develop a personalized admissions strategy that will determine the over-riding theme of that client’s applications. We will also determine the optimal way to highlight the applicant’s strengths and address any weaknesses or “holes” in his or her academic background or work experience.

Essays

We advise our clients on what to include in their essays and how it should be written. This will ensure the essays strike the proper balances the admissions committees want to see. During this process, we use our intimate knowledge of the admissions process to carefully scrutinize each essay for opportunities to advance our clients’ cases to the admissions committees. We want to ensure we hit upon all the proper “themes” in their applications. We also review our clients’ essays to ensure the content adheres to the clients’ personalized strategies and the essays do not become sidetracked. Finally, we review the essays for grammar and punctuation.

Interviews

We regularly advise clients on the graduate school interview processes. Our advice includes what to expect, how to prepare, the differences between the on-campus and off-campus admissions interviews, what to say, and how to say it. We regularly conduct mock admissions interviews with our clients and we constructively critique their performances. We feel that in addition to the learning benefit our clients gain, these mock interviews also help our clients relax and perform better when they are actually interviewed by their top-choice grad schools’ admissions committees.

Evaluating options

We have consulted clients on their options when they have received multiple admissions offers from their top-choice programs. (Please see our FAQ for a discussion of our success rate.) We have helped them properly analyze such factors as career opportunities and financial aid into their admissions acceptance decisions.

Pre admissions consulting

We occasionally work with individuals who want to know what they can do in the 1 to 3 years prior to when they wish to attend graduate school to increase their chances of being admitted to their top-choice programs. We advise them on full-time work experience, networking opportunities, GRE preparation, and extracurricular pursuits that will enhance their applications and make them more attractive to the top grad schools.

Other graduate school admissions services

Some of our other consulting services include:

• Advice on the GRE
• Information on your future career opportunities
• Guidance on obtaining good letters of reference

Stress relief

We have been told on numerous occasions by our clients that we have helped them tremendously just by being there to answer a quick miscellaneous question or to give them ideas for essays when they were spinning their wheels. We do recognize that the graduate school application process can be quite stressful. While we view ourselves as admissions consultants that help our clients maximize their chances of getting accepted into their top-choice programs, we do acknowledge that stress relief is a valuable byproduct for many of our clients.

One final note

This list is not all encompassing and we have consulted clients on many other graduate school related issues. We field many short 5 to 15 minute phone calls from our clients on a variety of grad school admissions topics. Chances are if you’re facing an admissions issue, we have seen it before either with a client or through our own experiences as former graduate  school applicants.