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New Happenings at AdmissionsConsultants
Current Status
Congratulations to our many admitted applicants!
They worked very hard and, with guidance from
their consultants, were able to analyze their
school selections, identify their unique life
stories and themes, select essay topics that
effectively communicated those ideas, prepare the
best possible applications, and finally deliver
their finest interview performances.
I am very proud to say that we have helped
applicants gain admission into all of the Ivy
League schools again this year, as well into as
many other fine universities and colleges. I would
also like to congratulate the many applicants who
won significant scholarships (representing over
50% of tuition) to their 'stretch' schools.
While we will not conduct an official tally for
another few weeks, it appears very likely that we
will have an admittance success rate similar to
last year’s, when over 80% of our 3 application
clients and over 95% of our 5 or more application
clients received admission offers to at least one
of their top-choice schools!
Special 'Head Start' Offer
As a professional services firm, we do not believe
in running lots of 'specials' at
AdmissionsConsultants. However, we do have a
current special that we believe will be incredibly
valuable to those of you planning to apply to
business school, law school, or medical school
this coming year. We invite you to sign up for a
one-hour 'pre admissions' consultation. These
consultations are custom-tailored to each unique
individual and contain, in addition to
brutally-honest and candid assessments of your
chances at various schools, valuable positioning
tips you will not find in any books or group
seminars. Your candidacy is different from
everyone else's and the advice you receive should
be different as well.
So, why exactly is this a special offer? Because
we will allow you to deduct the price of this pre
admissions consultation from a multiple
application package should you decide to retain
our services for a fixed-fee multiple application
package. These packages are comprehensive and
include unlimited telephone support and unlimited
essay revisions as well as comprehensive help that
cover letters of reference, resumes/cvs,
application completion, and interview preparation.
We leave no stones unturned and this comprehensive
approach, combined with our unique qualifications
as former admissions committee members who made
accept/reject/waitlist decisions, has produced an
astounding 95% success rate.
We only require a minimum one hour retainer fee
because we are so confident that you will be happy
with our services and you will voluntarily return
to us for additional help with your applications.
With this offer, in addition to getting our
signature, comprehensive service for your
applications, you will also have several months to
implement a detailed action plan to optimize your
positioning and further increase your chances of
gaining admission to your top-choice schools.
Essentially, you will get a free initial
consultation if you retain us for a fixed-fee
multiple application package and the extra months
to implement your positioning will further boost
your admissions chances!
Let's face it. We know that your service will only
be as good as the consultant with whom you work.
Our consultants earn far more than their
counterparts elsewhere and our prices are very
competitive because we choose to spend our money
on top-notch consultants instead of advertising.
If you take advantage of this special offer, you
will be helping yourself and, when you are
successful at gaining admission to your top-choice
schools, you will be helping us as well!
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Business
School Admission Calendar
Many business schools have already sent admissions
offers to prospective fall 2005 students.
Congratulations to those of you who were accepted
to your preferred schools! Try to find some time
for vacation or relaxation this summer, before you
report for classes. Once your program begins
you’ll find yourself hard pressed to arrange any
down time – so try to take vacation while you can.
Were you ‘Dinged’ by your Top-Choice Schools this
Year?
Those of you who got disappointing news from their
chosen schools have several courses of action to
choose from. One is to look at other MBA programs.
European business schools have later deadlines
than U.S. schools do, and several good programs
are still taking applications. There are also some
well-regarded U.S. programs that are still taking
applications on a space-available basis (Purdue’s
Krannert School of Management has a final deadline
of May 1, and the University of Rochester’s Simon
Graduate School of Business Administration has a
June 1 round IV deadline). Other schools, such as
Columbia Business School, have fall deadlines for
MBA study beginning in January. These options are
certainly worth consideration by anyone who is
sincerely interested in what these programs have
to offer.
For many applicants, however, the better course of
action is to take a cold, hard look at why you
were ‘dinged’ by the school you hoped to attend,
and to begin repositioning yourself as a
reapplicant for next fall. The crucial step in
this process is to understand what facets of your
application led to its being declined. Our
consultants can help you do this by reviewing your
applications and giving you a candid assessment of
what would have to be strengthened or improved to
make you a stronger applicant. They can also tell
you whether you have a realistic chance of gaining
entry to the programs you have targeted. Keep in
mind that reapplicants are judged by a different
set of standards than first-time applicants. We
offer a special fixed-fee ‘ding’ analysis to help
clients maximize their chances of success as
b-school reapplicants. Call us today at
703.242.5885 or
email us to find out more.
Spring is the Best Time to Take the GMAT
Admissions consultant Angie Moster advises
b-school applicants that “the
months of May,
June and July are the perfect months to
focus on preparing for, and then taking, this
test! You will feel so good to have the GMAT out
of the way, well in advance of beginning your
applications. You will want the extra time and
energy during the late summer and fall to write
the essays for each school you’re applying to.
Additionally, knowing your GMAT score helps in
answering the big question: ‘Which b-schools
should I shoot for?’ In working with clients to
answer this question, I always want to take the
GMAT score into consideration - so having your
GMAT completed is a huge help.”
Angie Moster earned her MBA from Cornell
University’s Johnson School of Management, where
she was a Park Leadership Fellow. She served on
both the Johnson Admissions Group and the Park
Fellow selection committee.
In addition, Angie notes, “if you take the test
this summer and are still unhappy with your
result, you will have more time to re-take it
again in the fall.”
MBA Job Market
There was lots of good news for business school
students in the Graduate Management Admissions
Council’s most recent Corporate Recruiters Survey.
The study found that the job market for MBAs was
growing rapidly, and predicted a further increase
in demand for MBAs in 2005. Only 55% of recruiters
surveyed said they would describe the U.S. economy
as weak (compared to 99% in 2001-2002, and 82% in
2003-2004). Moreover, only 30% of the recruiters
who characterized the economy as weak said it was
a factor putting the brakes on their company’s
recruiting (compared to 69% who said so in
2001-2002). Recruiters for financial services and
consulting companies were especially optimistic,
with 79% of recruiters from financial services
firms and 82% from consulting firms saying that
the state of the economy was not constraining
recruitment.
The GMAC survey also found that MBA starting
salaries had increased. The estimated average
starting salary for 2005 MBAs was $78,040,
compared to $72,021 for 2002 grads. The other
hiring trend was that internships continued to be
a strong factor in recruitment, with almost a
third of 2004 MBA hires going to companies where
they had interned.
Berkeley’s Haas School of Business also had good
news on MBA job prospects. Its MBA Career Services
office saw on-campus interviews increase by 35% in
late 2004, and the number of interviews for summer
internships go up by 40%. Meanwhile, Fast Company
magazine, on the basis of recent Department of
Labor statistics, predicted that management,
marketing, and financial analysts and consultants
– all professions drawing on MBA training – will
be among the 25 jobs in highest demand for 2005.
As we mentioned in an earlier newsletter, the
slowdown in hiring of the last couple of years
left companies with personnel gaps that would
eventually have to be filled. Consulting firms are
especially in need of more junior consultants.
This news from the GMAC survey and from Haas and
other business schools may mean that an overdue
rebound in MBA hiring is finally under way.
News US News Rankings
US News & World Report
released its newest rankings for business schools
at the beginning of April. As usual, there was a
bit of shuffling around in rank order but no real
surprises. We encourage you to take the US News
rankings - and all rankings for that matter - with
a grain of salt. The rankings inflate the
importance of things that can be counted at the
expense of things that can’t. (What do you think
will be more important to you in the long run –
your classmates’ median GMAT scores, or the
quality of teaching and career services?) Also, as
school officials note, many of the factors that go
into USN&WR rankings are beyond their control, and
change from year to year for no significant
reason. It would be foolish to choose one school
over another solely because it is ranked a point
or two higher at one particular moment in time.
Besides, how foolish would you feel if the
rankings reversed when you graduate?
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We provide professional assistance to all high
school students. Our college admissions news is
organized by high school class.
High School Seniors:
By the time you are reading this newsletter, you
should hopefully be reviewing your acceptance
offers and enjoying the last few weeks of your
high school career. Most schools have May 1
response deadlines to their offers. Don’t forget
to respond by the deadline!
With any luck, you already know exactly which
school you plan to attend. If you are still
undecided, we strongly encourage you to schedule
visits to the schools. Even with high-tech
websites loaded with video images, the best way to
decide which school is best for you is still to
physically visit the campus and interact with
students and faculty. Try to do this as soon as
possible, before colleges and universities get
caught up with finals and commencement ceremonies.
High School Juniors:
Register for the next
SAT
and/or
ACT
exam date and begin – if you
haven’t already – thinking seriously about the
college selection process. This spring and summer
are also a good time to continue positioning
yourself for this coming fall’s applications.
Think about taking summer classes or getting
involved in extracurricular activities that could
round out your undergraduate record and fill any
gaps in your profile. Don’t hesitate to contact us
directly if you would like to schedule a pre
admissions consultation with one of our
highly-qualified consultants.
Sara Hernández, a college admissions consultant
and former Assistant Director of Admissions at
Cornell University, states, “It’s all right if you
don’t do as well as you would like on the spring
exams. Taking them (the SAT or ACT) in the spring
allows you to get a sense of your strengths and
weaknesses. That way, you can use your time wisely
in preparing to retake the exams in the early
fall. Keep in mind that college admissions
committees typically consider your highest
subscores from the exams to obtain your highest
possible composite score.”
Sophomores, Freshmen, and Eighth Graders:
We strongly encourage you to register for the most
competitive curriculum for which you are prepared.
Now is also the time to begin looking at summer
enrichment programs. You can better position your
future college candidacies by engaging in
extracurricular activities that provide the ‘wow’
factor to your profile. The ‘wow’ factor will come
in handy when you apply to colleges. It can be the
thing that successfully differentiates you from
the many other applicants to top colleges who will
also have high grades and test scores.
Were you ‘Dinged’ by your Top-Choice Schools this
Year?
Every year we get calls from parents who want
advice on where their kids went wrong in the
college application process. They can’t understand
why their children’s applications were rejected,
even though the kids had GPAs and test scores
above the medians of selective schools. We find
different explanations for this when we do ding
analyses of unsuccessful applications. The problem
tends to have something to do with the application
story or theme chosen by the applicant, or the way
in which it was presented. Most of the time we
find that the applicant was in fact competitive
for the tier schools they unsuccessfully targeted
– the problem with their applications was strategy
or presentation, not that the student was
under-qualified. We offer a fixed-fee ding
analysis package through which one of our
consultants will review the rejected application
and advise the client on what to do next. The
consultant can help a client decide whether they
should accept an offer to attend another school,
with the goal of gaining admittance to the
preferred school as a transfer student in a year
or two; or whether they would be better off
spending a year in non-college activities that
would strengthen their applicant profile.
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Considerations for Fall Applicants
This is a time of year when many prospective law
students are considering whether or not they
should re-take the LSAT. Admissions consultant and
former Associate Director of Admission at Penn Law
Renee Post suggests it may not be worth the
bother. “Too often applicants believe they must
retake the LSAT, because they are 1 or 2 points
off the median for their target school, rather
than view this test as just one piece of the whole
application,” she says. “While the LSAT is an
important part of the admissions process,
applicants often overlook the value of a
well-prepared application, including the personal
statement, letters of recommendation and resume.
It is the
entire application that will make or
break a candidacy. An accept/reject/waitlist
decision is rarely based on one factor."
Law School Admissions Numbers Hold Steady
It appears that the number of applications
submitted to top U.S. law schools for fall 2005
was about the same as the number submitted for
fall 2004. Yale, Harvard, and Columbia all
reported only minor changes in the size of their
applicant pools. A Law School Admissions Council
spokesperson noted that the level of law school
applications seems to have leveled off
nation-wide, following several years of growth.
LSAT Tip
Law school applicants who have not yet taken the
LSAT should consider this advice from LSAT expert
Bara Sapir: “To maximize your performance on
the critical reasoning section of the LSAT, you
will need to accept the logic presented in the
short paragraphs as gospel truth and read both the
question stem and the argument with absolute
precision. Because the LSAT is supposed to
simulate real world skills, they measure your
ability to absorb facts and arguments, and then
apply them with strict accuracy and precision. It
is especially useful to identify the assumptions
that lay behind the argument and then ask
yourself, what is this question really asking?
Some questions require you to draw an inference
and arrive at a logical conclusion based upon the
facts and reasoning presented. The more sensitive
you become to nuances of language and logic form,
the easier it will be for you to master the
critical reasoning sections.”
Are You Waitlisted?
If you’ve been waitlisted, be proactive and keep
your name in front of the admissions committee.
Sadly, many waitlisted applicants will do nothing
or do one or more of the wrong things. The good
news for wise applicants is that this greatly
increases their chances of being admitted off
those waitlists.
New
US News Rankings
US News & Word Report
released its newest law school rankings at the
beginning of this month. This year’s list
generated even more news than usual, due to a
change in the statistical methodology used by USN&WR
to rank schools. The new methodology means that a
small number of low test scores will have a more
significant impact on a school’s overall ranking
than they would have in the past. Observers fear
that the change may lead to diminished diversity
at law schools and in the legal field by
discouraging schools from accepting applicants
with lower LSAT scores, as doing so would hurt
their overall rankings.
As one commentator put it, this is an example of
numbers run amok. It’s also a good example of why
we encourage you to take the US News rankings -
and all rankings, for that matter - with a grain
of salt. Minor, and often uncontrollable, factors
can cause disproportionate moves in the rankings.
It would be foolish to choose one law school over
another solely because it is ranked a point or two
higher at one particular moment. You’re much
better off considering what you want to get out of
law school, and then identifying the schools that
fit your needs and interests. Besides, how foolish
would you feel if the rankings reversed when you
graduate?
Take Advantage of Our Special 'Head Start' Offer!
Having made that point - now is the time to begin
thinking about which law school will best help you
meet your educational and career goals, and how
you can best position your application to gain
admittance to that school. We can help you do
that. You can sign up today for a highly
customized 'pre admissions' consultation, and we
will allow you to deduct the price of this
one-hour consultation from a multiple application
package should you decide to retain our services
for a Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond
application package. We only require a minimum one
hour retainer fee because we are that confident
that you will be happy with our services and you
will voluntarily return to us for additional help
with your applications. With this offer, in
addition to getting our signature, comprehensive
service for your applications, you will also have
several months to implement a detailed action plan
to optimize your positioning and further increase
your chances of gaining admission to your
top-choice law schools.
Back to top
Medical
School Admission Calendar
The April MCAT exam is being administered this
weekend and ambitious applicants will soon begin
working on the primary applications. Right now, we
are working with applicants on last-minute
positioning and story and theme formulation. We
are building our summer roster and some of our
consultants are getting close to full capacity.
2006 Applicant Considerations
“Use
your time wisely between taking the MCAT in April
and receiving your scores in June,” advises
medical school admissions consultant and former
NEOUCOM Associate Dean of Admission Bonnie Jones.
“This window is the perfect opportunity to (1)
develop a draft of your AMCAS application, (2)
write your essays, and (3) decide on your
recommenders."
New
US News Rankings
US News & Word Report
released its 2005 rankings at the beginning of
this month. Once again this year, the rankings are
broken down into two categories, primary care and
research. If you consult the rankings, be sure you
look at the list that reflects your career
interests. We encourage you to take the US News
rankings - and all rankings, for that matter -
with a grain of salt. Rankings often vary for
reasons that are beyond the schools’ control and
that have little real impact on the quality of
education. You should not choose one school over
another solely because it is ranked a point or two
higher at one particular moment. Instead you
should think about your interests, needs, and
career goals, and pick the schools that best
complement them.
Back to top
AdmissionsConsultants
is a full-service admissions consultancy that
maximizes its clients’ chances of gaining
admittance to their programs of choice. Our
consultants have admissions committee experience.
They have made accept/reject/waitlist decisions
themselves and, therefore, truly have expert
knowledge of the application process. It is this
admissions committee experience that enables us to
recognize exactly what differentiates successful
from unsuccessful applicants, in all steps of the
admissions process – including strategies,
essays/personal statements, letters of reference,
resumes/cvs/activity statements, applications, and
admissions interviews. We understand that
admissions committees care about more than just
typo-free essays. Our sincere desire is to
maximize our clients’ chances of achieving their
educational goals. That is why we have offered
comprehensive services since our company’s
inception over 8 years ago.
Last year, we assisted a former undergraduate
admissions officer with some graduate school
applications. She chose us because she recognized
she would benefit from the expert advice of
someone with the appropriate admissions committee
experience. We offer this same expert level of
service to you.
If you would like more information about our
services, you can
visit our website,
email us, or call us at 703.242.5885. We will
be glad to advise you through the application
process and ensure that you maximize your
admissions chances!
Back to top
Support our Feature Sponsor
AdmissionsBoards is the premiere discussion board
for admissions-related topics. It is also
vigilantly moderated so you can enjoy
intellectually-stimulating debate without being
harassed by flamers and spammers. Stop by, ask a
question, and make some new friends. Visit us at
www.admissionsboards.com.
Support the Featured Non Profit Organization
AdmissionsConsultants
believes in good corporate citizenship. We intend
to lead by example. While you may not choose to
support the particular charity we have profiled,
we do strongly encourage you to give back to your
community however you can.
Direct Relief International is recognized as a top
humanitarian charity for efficiency, providing
medicines, supplies, and equipment to locally-run
health programs around the world and during times
of disaster. It continues to collect funds to
support tsunami relief and recovery in South and
Southeast Asia. Learn how you can help by visiting www.directrelief.org.
Copyright
Copyright 2005
AdmissionsConsultants, Inc.
All rights reserved. While we ask that you not
reprint or host this newsletter on a web site
without our express written permission, we do
encourage you to e-mail any friends or colleagues
whom you believe may find this newsletter helpful.
Information provided in this document is provided
"AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either
express or implied, including, but not limited to,
the implied warranties of merchantability and
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