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We want
you to be able to make an informed decision; whether it is about working with us
or about applying to a specific college. Below are frequently asked questions
from our clients, and our responses to them. Though this list is fairly
comprehensive, please do not hesitate to call us (+1 703.242.5885) or
email us regarding
any other questions you may have.
What
differentiates your firm from other admissions consulting
companies?
Will
I receive an honest assessment of my top-choice
admission prospects?
What payment options do you offer?
Can you tell me about your proprietary database?
Why do your fees seem low?
Will you write my essays and personal statements
for me?
Who
will be my consultant?
How
will I work with my consultant?
Do I have to work with a consultant who lives near me?
How
did your company get started in the admissions consulting
business?
What differentiates
your firm from other admissions consulting companies?
AdmissionsConsultants employs only the most qualified college
admissions consultants. Our consultants
have previous admissions committee experience, and
undergo training with us when they join our company.
The schools our consultants have experience at include such selective
schools as Harvard, Columbia, Cornell,
Chicago, Northwestern, US Naval Academy and Georgetown. You
can call us at +1 703.242.5885 to find out which consultants
are currently able to accept new clients, and which ones
may be best suited for your particular needs.
We offer comprehensive admissions consulting
services. Our consultants are far more than
glorified proofreaders who check personal statements
and essays for grammatical mistakes. They make sure
that you understand and convey what admissions committees
want to hear. Grammatically correct essays by themselves
will not gain admission to the selective schools.
The acceptance rate at top-ranked colleges is as low as
10%; we can assure you that far more than 10% of
applicants to those schools submit grammatically correct
essays.
Our consultants will get to know you personally,
through one-on-one consultations, and will devise
the admissions strategy that will work best for your
particular circumstances. Simply put, we will maximize
your admissions chances at the colleges and universities you want to
attend.
We are so confident of the services we offer that we only require a minimum 1 hour
payment to get started. Over 95% of our first-time clients return
to us for additional services – and we are confident that
you will be as satisfied with us as they have been.
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Will
I receive an honest assessment of my top-choice
admission prospects?
Absolutely. While we can – and do – increase our
clients' chances of gaining admission
to their top-choice schools, we do not pretend to be
able to get any applicant into any program. We will not encourage
a client to apply to a college or university for which
he or she has no reasonable chance of gaining
admission. If a client can do something that would
make them a stronger candidate (take additional classes,
gain additional extracurricular experiences, etc.), we
will advise them accordingly. However, we strongly feel
it is unethical to encourage a client to put time and
money into a college application that has no realistic
chance of success.
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What payment options do you offer?
AdmissionsConsultants charges an hourly
fee of US$150. We also offer fixed-fee package options,
as detailed on our payment page.
We recognize that each applicant is unique and has unique
admissions consulting needs. Different clients will
want different things from our extensive list of
admissions consulting services, which includes school
selection, essay topic selection, essay editing, letter
of reference advice, application review, and interview
preparation. We have structured our billing to allow
clients flexibility in the kind of amount of services
they choose.
We invite new clients to sign up
for only one hour of services up front, at our
US$150 per hour rate, so that they can
see for themselves just what type of value our services
provide. To date, well over 95% of our first-time clients have
come back to purchase additional consulting hours.
You can apply the payment for that first hour
toward one of our comprehensive fixed-fee service packages.
We realize that both college admissions and personal
consulting services are new experiences for many
students, and that many or our potential clients are
therefore justifiably cautious about committing
themselves to any program or service. We are also well
aware that there are less than reputable firms doing
admissions consulting business over the Internet. We
feel the best way to put potential clients' concerns to
rest is to let them experience our services. Therefore
we do not require a large initial payment or extended
contract.
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Can you tell me about your proprietary database?
In addition to the strong body of collective knowledge of our college admissions consultants,
who have served on admissions committees for a wide assortment of schools and programs, we also
track the results of our clients' applications. We work with a statistically significant number of applicants
to each of the top schools. Analyzing our clients' acceptance rates increases our knowledge of schools'
admissions patterns, such as preferences for specific story themes, the most optimal application rounds to
target, and even degrees of flexibility with SAT and ACT scores.
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Why do your fees seem low?
Well, we're neither the cheapest nor the most expensive service. We really enjoy
what we do and if we did charge significantly more, we wouldn't be able to work with nearly as many applicants. This would
mean we wouldn't have the specialists and we wouldn't have the large proprietary database. Without these two crucial
elements, we would not have our very high success rate.
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Will you
write my essays and personal statements for me?
AdmissionsConsultants does provide extensive guidance
to its clients on the essay and personal statement portions
of their applications. We offer suggestions on both
content and expression where we see opportunities for
improvement, and proofread essays and personal
statements for spelling, grammar, and usage. However, we will not
write essays. These
essays are supposed to reflect your unique personality,
and only you can properly express your own self.
Moreover, we firmly believe that anyone who
includes a "canned" essay in a college application is
taking a big chance. The
people who serve on admissions committees are not naïve.
There is a very good chance that they will recognize
that your essays were written by someone else. Admissions officers at the nation's top colleges
review thousands of essays each year, and they learn
to spot canned essays. They also have far more applicants than they do openings,
and so are always looking for reasons to turn down
applications. Even a whiff of suspicion that an essay
was ghostwritten is reason enough to consign an
application to the reject pile.
Robert Alig, former director of admissions and financial
at at the Wharton School of Business, states, "If
the school feels any part of the application is not the
student's own work, they are immediately disqualified."
His statement is just as applicable to college
admissions as it is to business school admissions.
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Who
will be my consultant?
Your consultant will be a college
admissions professional who has admissions
committee experience and who will be able to answer all of your
questions and guide you through the application process.
We will be glad to give you your choice of consultants
when more than one consultant has available hours. Call us at
+1 703.242.5885 to find out more about our consultants'
specialties, and which
ones have current availability.
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How will I
work with my consultant?
Once you have been assigned to a
consultant, you will work together one on one.
You can speak directly on the phone, exchange emails and
documents, or (where possible) meet in person –
whatever you prefer. This method allows our consultants to gain
the deepest understanding of your interests,
goals, and circumstances. Your consultant may also take
your case to other people in the Firm for advice. Our
consultants network with each other regularly. This
information sharing process means that you benefit not
only from your consultant's own experience and
knowledge, but from that of the entire pool of
AdmissionsConsultants professionals.
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Do I have to work with
a consultant who lives near me?
No. As a virtual company, we are set up to provide seamless
consulting services by taking advantage of all modern communication mediums. We are proud
to serve a
diverse clientele of applicants hailing from North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia
and Latin America. Our client base knows no bounds.
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How did your company
get started in the admissions consulting business?
Before AdmissionsConsultants was formed, David Petersam, the
company's founder, successfully guided several friends and acquaintances through
the turbulent admissions process that guards the nation's elite business schools. After witnessing how
successfully his admissions strategies worked for
these individuals – and being told by these same applicants that he should
start an admissions consultancy – AdmissionsConsultants was formed. Soon
thereafter, we expanded into college admission
consulting, using the same successful formula of hiring only the most
highly qualified consultants and giving our
clients individualized service. In the years since
our founding, we have helped thousands of applicants
gain admission into their top-choice schools.
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Please do not hesitate to call us (+1 703.242.5885) or
email us if you still have any unanswered questions. We strive to provide a
personalized response to all inquiries within 24 hours including weekends and
holidays.
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