Coronavirus Effect on Back to College

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August 28, 2020August 29, 2020 ~ drpaulloweadmissionsexpert

As students return to campus this fall there has been increased reporting of COVID-19 outbreaks on campus. Whatever the reasons, the reality is that outbreaks are occurring.

A recent study published in the JAMA Network Open, a monthly open access medical journal published by the American Medical Association stated: “In the midst of the deadliest pandemic since 1918, the question of how to reopen colleges safely after months of lockdown is of great concern. First and foremost, the strategy cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, the best-prepared colleges will use a multifaceted approach that leverages a range of public health strategies best suited to each institution’s resources, location, and culture. Containing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) requires testing; behavioral interventions to reduce the reproductive number (R_t), such as social distancing, masking, and contact tracing; and limiting the influx of new infections from outside campus.”

A Cornell University study, The Small-World Network of College Classes: Implications for Epidemic Spread on a University Campus revealed “how quickly COVID-19 could spread through ‘small-world’ campus networks if no precautions were taken. Course enrollment networks do not capture the many ways that students are connected outside of the classroom through advisors, friends, parties, athletics and other extra-curricular activities, or living situations.”

Here is a partial list of colleges/universities where significant coronavirus cases have surfaced after classes have recently resumed:

University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Notre Dame
University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa Campus
Central Michigan University – Mt. Pleasant Campus
Ohio State University
University of Iowa
University of Florida
University of Georgia
University of Texas at Austin
Texas Christian University
Baylor University
University of Michigan

As a result of the increases, many concerned students and their parents are contacting us to inquire about transferring to colleges. They have safety concerns where there has been documented outbreaks or where student on-campus and off-campus behavior ignores safety measures like mask-wearing and social distancing. Some are seeking an opportunity to transfer to ivy league and highly selective college and universities (even though they may have online classes) because of their prestigious brands.

Students applying during the 2020-2021 application season and their parents are also considering the consequences of COVID-19, previously accepted students have deferred admission or students may be taking a gap year prior to applying, thus increasing the applicant pool.

“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?” – Dr. Paul Lowe

“Parents hire us because they choose to pay an admissions expert who will help them avoid making mistakes.” – Dr. Paul Lowe

Dr. Paul Reginald Lowe, founder and managing director of Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group, provides comprehensive counseling advice, exclusively for admissions to top private schools; Ivy League and highly-selective colleges/universities; BS/MD programs; graduate and medical schools and top visual and performing arts programs. The admissions affiliate: Ivy League Admissions Advisors specializes in admissions to Ivy League and highly selective colleges, Dr. Lowe also specializes in helping students who have been wait-listed, deferred or rejected gain admission into their top-choice schools: College Application Rejected. and student who wish to transfer to another college: College Transfer Admissions Advisors

Your BS/MD Admissions Game Plan: Northwestern HPME Program Closed for 2020

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August 21, 2020August 29, 2020 ~ drpaulloweadmissionsexpert

“Your BS/MD Admissions Game Plan” is a blog series created by Dr. Paul Lowe that discusses BS/MD Admissions. With such a competitive environment and the immeasurable value and benefits of BS/MD programs, the need for an admissions game plan is ESSENTIAL.

At BS/ MD Admissions, we discern that many students and parents are clueless about what to do, when to do it, where to do it, who to contact, and why do it. They fail to discover what they are doing that’s wrong, or they discover what they’ve been doing is wrong when it’s too late!

Northwestern’s Honors Program in Medical Education also known as HPME has announced that it will not be taking applications in 2020! HPME is a 7-year combined medical program that admits students simultaneously into both Northwestern University in Evanston and the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Northwestern’s HPME is one of the top direct BS/MD programs. The program has no MCAT requirement, accepts international students and allows students to explore their passions beyond their coursework. The University has community partnerships and programs (in leadership, research, public health, global health and clinical volunteering, etc.) to support student goals.

Since HPME will not be accepting applications in 2020, the competition to gain admissions into BS/MD programs will now increase because there will be fewer programs.

Our BS/MD Admissions practice is specialized: Dr. Lowe and his team only work with parents who understand that the BS/MD admissions process is competitive, who desire help from an admissions expert and who see the value and investment in paying for expert advice through a detailed and ongoing comprehensive admissions advisory service for their child’s dream of becoming a doctor. He also specializes in helping international students in the BS/MD process. BS/MD Admissions Advisors – 2020 Acceptances. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter – “Doctor” when they are seniors in high school.

Dr. Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director of Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group network. He and his team of admissions advisors, through the admissions affiliate, BS/MD Admissions Advisors, help high school students get accepted to BS/MD programs.

Coronavirus Effect on Back To School

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August 20, 2020September 1, 2020 ~ drpaulloweadmissionsexpert

It’s Back-To-School season! As we enter the seventh month of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary education, many of our clients, private as well as public school administrators and teachers are reporting to us their potential approaches to education in the current COVID-19 environment.

Some parents are forming learning pods. Some parents are hiring tutors to supplement online learning at schools that are fully online. Some parents are forgoing traditional schools that will be open in favor of homeschooling. Some parents have elected to build on their lots to provide their own “private” schools with virtual classrooms

We are also seeing parents who have sent their children to suburban public schools switching to private day and boarding schools, many of which have spent the late spring and summer busily preparing new rules, procedures, and protocols, while improving HVAC systems and technology for the new term.

Many elite private day and boarding schools, with their immense resources, have adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic with online classes, or for in-person schooling, using COVID-19 specific guidelines for social distance spacing, upgrading ventilation systems and adding antibacterial film on desks, handrails and doorknobs. Some have purchased new buildings or adapted old ones to accommodate spacing guidelines. As many are aware, private schools have seen a flurry of new interest from families who view private schools as being better equipped to provide robust instruction, given their financial resources, space and nimbleness in adapting.

According to a recent survey of members by the National Association of Independent Schools, nationwide, 40% of independent schools planned to open fully in-person this fall, 19% fully online, and 41% in a hybrid model. By contrast, most of the country’s 20 largest public districts expect to start with only remote instruction.

Regardless of the approach, as high school seniors and juniors are beginning to return to schools, it will be important for them to maintain their focus on their educational goals. When the dust settles and students are into their educational routines, high school seniors and juniors will need to consider how college admissions and their school counseling landscape has been disrupted and changed in this unfamiliar environment. Much has changed! It will be important to keep abreast of the changes and understand how this new environment and uncertainty applies to future educational goal.

“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?” – Dr. Paul Lowe

“Parents hire us because they chose to pay an admissions expert who will help them avoid making mistakes.” – Dr. Paul Lowe

Your BS/MD Admissions Game Plan: College Application Essays

August 9, 2020August 11, 2020 ~ drpaulloweadmissionsexpert

COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAYS

When we review and perform an in-depth student profile analysis of clients’ college application-essay drafts that they submit to us, we ALWAYS find mistakes that can result in rejections! This is unfortunate because essays can tip the scales when colleges and BS/MD programs are trying to decide between two otherwise equally qualified applicants. We find that students (even with high GPAs, great extracurricular activities and high SAT/ACT scores and excellent “manufactured” personas) don’t put much thought into their essays. Or when they do, they overlook key points in their essays. These are big mistakes because essays are crucial.

Applications for competitive colleges and BS/MD Programs ask the applicant to write a reasonably significant and compelling essay (in the 500-750 words range) about what is seemingly a broad topic. What admissions officers (there are usually two or more readers) are looking for in the essay is an insight into how well the applicant thinks, how well they can articulate a point or view, how the applicant is unique, the applicant’s emotional and cultural intelligence, what matters to the applicant, and most importantly the applicant’s character, personality and honesty.

Essays should be successfully written so that they leave a lasting positive impression on the admissions committee. When reading essays, admissions officers strive to gain a reasonably complete picture of student – strengths, achievements and aspirations as well as challenges they face and how they overcome them. At Ivy League and highly selective schools, and especially BS/MD programs, admissions officers look at every essay from every applicant, and for students who reach the level of serious consideration, essays may end up being read multiple times.

Through our years of experience, we know that the main requirement for writing a convincing, compelling, memorable and winning essays, aside from a command of the English language, grammar, coherency, optimal tone, readability, structure and flow, is to convey who you really are. Find your “voice”. We help our clients find their unique voice during our numerous in-depth interview questions and student profile analysis. Your voice is that writing style that lets your admissions officers “hear” who you are.

Competitive colleges and BS/MD program also require applicants to write several corresponding supplemental essays and short answers on a variety of topics. These essays are interconnected and interrelated. A 150-character answer as well as a 250-word essay is as important as the main essay. Naturally, your essays should not be repetitive, but should present a consistent image of the applicant. We know that a well-coordinated essay set has a synergistic effect on the admissions committee: It provides a 360-degree view of the candidate on both a professional and personal level.

Our analogy to an essay is music: We help you revise your lyrics using our knowledge of you, your character and activities so that the admissions officers can happily sing your songs – your essays!

Dr. Lowe and his team of admissions advisors provide advice to make your essays personable, enlightening, energetic, harmonious and memorable to admissions officers. We suggest content improvement and help you develop admissions-effective essays. Our goal is to make our clients standout from the crowd and pass that all-important final cut!

Our over 20 years of advisory admissions experience and long-standing professional relationships with admissions officers provide us with the tool-kit of strategies and knowledge to help our clients successfully navigate the BS/MD Admissions process in the COVID-19 landscape.

Rising Seniors: Now Is the Time to Start the College Application Process

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August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 ~ drpaulloweadmissionsexpert

It’s August and for some rising seniors, school starts in approximately 30 days. For many students, school will be closed and taught in an online fashion. That in and of itself will be an additional disruption in the dynamics of the college admissions process. You can use this time to continue to vacation, relax and enjoy the summer or take full advantage of all this free time!

For rising seniors, now is the best time to commence working on your college applications. Why so soon? The 2020-2021 Common Application is now ready! The senior year of high school is extremely busy with students taking difficult courses, working on activities, preparing for college applications and just trying to enjoy the last year of high school!

We believe that you should enjoy the summer, HOWEVER, at this point, you need to start putting some work in to your college applications. It will make your senior year more pleasant AND your college admissions application and journey smoother.

The Common App is more than just the main essay! Every section is devised so that the admissions officers get to know (or find ways to reject) a student. When reading an application, admissions officers strive to gain a reasonably complete picture of a student – strengths, achievements and aspirations as well as any particular challenges they may have overcome. Statistically, it takes top colleges approximately 8 minutes to review an entire application!

We spend countless hours reviewing our clients’ entire Common Application to help them successfully navigate and avoid the unnecessary and devastating landmines that cause rejections!

Biographical Section (Profile, Family, Educational & Testing): The admissions committees or your regional admissions officers assess who you are. It’s important to answer the questions honestly and with precision!
Personal Statement:We ensure that our clients’ Common App 650-word main essay accurately reflects the information that they want to convey to the majority of colleges to which they are applying.
College-Specific Questions: Academic interest, program(s) applying to. Some colleges may also ask additional questions about your family, state of residence, activities, and general interests. Admissions officers/committees use this as a way further understand a student’s past and their academic goals and objectives and how they are all interrelated and interconnected.
Short Answers: Then there are the school-specific (short answer essays)! Although short, these little essays (50-250 words) can play a meaningful role in your application. They provide a small window into your passions and personality, and because of this, they are important “decision-breakers”, especially with selective colleges that use the holistic admissions approach. We spend just as much time brainstorming and helping our clients to revise these, seemingly simple essays, as we do with their personal statements because we know how admissions committees use them to determine acceptance or rejections. Types of supplemental short essays include but are not limited to:

The ‘why us’ essay

Tell us more about an extracurricular

Design a class/a major

Tell us about your major

Diversity-in-community essay

Specialty small essays (list, words or one sentence or a phrase)

Activities Section: Whereas the personal statement will show college admissions committees who your child is, the Common Application Activities section will allow colleges to understand what your child has done and is doing outside of the classroom, offering one of the best opportunities to stand out among other applicants. The activities section has a limit of ten extracurricular activities. The restrictions mean you will need to be selective in reporting your activities, limiting you to the most important ones or those that are most meaningful to you. In our experience, students can make costly mistakes in this section!

Without college essays and extracurricular activities lists, colleges would be limited to grades, class rank, and ACT and SAT scores to make their admissions decisions. Given that so many students with strong numbers apply to college each year, it’s important for your child to use the Activities section to develop an application theme, that is, their “WOW FACTOR” and specialties. We leave no stone unturned in this section!

Courses & Grades (Self-Reporting Transcripts). In this section, you have an opportunity to self-report your grades. In reviewing our clients’ answers, we find errors. It’s important to review this section. A discrepancy with what you report and your transcript raises a red flag! These flags translate into a rejection letter.

The Common Application is not just an application. It’s a puzzle filled with landmines that if not reviewed, interpreted and completed correctly will result in students being rejected from schools. The most frequent form of self-inflicted damage is careless preparation of the application. A poorly presented application can, in fact, have a negative affect on an admissions decision.

When assisting our clients with the completion of their Common Applications, we take into consideration their student admissions profile and character as well as the specific admissions policies and missions of their target schools that we gather from our research by visiting schools and professional relationships. Our proprietary knowledge and experience help our clients to WIN (not lose) in the college competitive admissions game!

The ‘why us’ essay

Tell us more about an extracurricular

Design a class/a major

Tell us about your major

Diversity-in-community essay

Specialty small essays (list, words or one sentence or a phrase)

Activities Section: Whereas the personal statement will show college admissions committees who your child is, the Common Application Activities section will allow colleges to understand what your child has done and is doing outside of the classroom, offering one of the best opportunities to stand out among other applicants. The activities section has a limit of ten extracurricular activities. The restrictions mean you will need to be selective in reporting your activities, limiting you to the most important ones or those that are most meaningful to you. In our experience, students can make costly mistakes in this section!

Courses & Grades (Self-Reporting Transcripts). In this section, you have an opportunity to self-report your grades. In reviewing our clients’ answers, we find errors. It’s important to review this section. A discrepancy with what you report and your transcript raises a red flag! These flags translate into a rejection letter.

“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?” – Dr. Paul Lowe

“Parents hire us because they choose to pay an admissions expert who will help them avoid making mistakes.” – Dr. Paul Lowe

Your BS/MD Admissions Game Plan: Choosing the Best Advice

August 2, 2020August 4, 2020 ~ drpaulloweadmissionsexpert

When considering a BS/MD program, we advise our clients to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN, and then re-PLAN. Early planning and goal-setting are important in the long run for admissions success!

If you’re parent of a high school student looking for BS/MD admissions guidance, you’re probably overwhelmed in finding the best and meaningful advice that increases their chances of acceptance into a BS/MD program. You can complement their years of hard work by seeking the correct advice that gets them noticed by admissions officers.

While high school counselors provide college counseling, based on our interaction with our clients, high school counselors do not specialize in BS/MD admissions advising nor have the school-specific knowledge of BS/MD programs.
Books and guides are wonderful to give you a general overview of applying to BS/MD programs. However, they are not student-specific or school-specific. They tell about the general “how-to’s”, but these strategies are not specific to an individual student profile and character. Furthermore, from the time of manuscript completion to publication, sometimes 1 to 3 years, the BS/ MD admissions landscape changes. Take, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic. This has disrupted the conventional BS/MD application process.
Free college-planning websites – There is a saying: “You get what you pay for!”
Many independent educational consultants are experts in college admissions counseling, but do not have our unparalleled knowledge of BS/MD programs and knowledge of BS/MD programs as it relates to international students and H4 students. Additionally, as experienced BS/MD Admissions Advisors, we know and understand what it takes to be a successful BS/MD applicant.

WHAT TO DO: Seek an BS/MD Admissions Advisor who has had experience and expertise in admissions strategies to BS/MD programs for U.S. as well as international students. Choose an admissions advisor, who specializes in BS/MD admissions, who is not doing it part-time, who understands the medical school journey and or is a BS/MD graduate and who has admissions success.

OUR GAME PLAN STRATEGY: We have dedicated advisors for our BS/MD Admissions Advisory services. It’s one of the reasons that parents hire us to help them develop a strategic admissions plan to increase their child’s chances of acceptance. Our dedicated medical-school-specific knowledge and expertise WORKS!

With a lot at stake, in a short period of time, in such a competitive environment, BS/MD applicants need a winning BS/MD Admissions Game Plan that works in the COVID-19 environment.

Our over 20 years of admissions advisory experience and proprietary admissions strategies provides the basis for our methods and knowledge to help our clients successfully navigate the BS/MD Admissions process in any and all environments, including the COVID-19 landscape.