Over the past 10 years, I have been talking in my webinars/seminars and writing in my blogs about the WOW factor and its importance in successful college admissions acceptance!
As college admissions becomes increasingly more competitive, admissions officers and committees look beyond high GPAs, high standardized test scores, ESEs (expensive summer experiences), tailored resumes and achievements and seemingly amazing, but generic essays. Dr. Lowe and his team continue to use the Wow Factor Admissions Concept. with their clients.
What’s your personal “Wow Factor” that will make you stand out and get accepted to the college of your choice? It’s a factor that your admissions officer will look for as well as discuss with the other admissions committee members as to the reason you should be accepted.
What is a personal “Wow Factor”? Your charisma, confidence, motivation, initial impression, appearance, communication skills, attitude, self-esteem, authenticity, presence, etiquette, manners, harmony, rhythm and vibe all contribute to your wow factor. Your wow factor is what makes you different! It’s your distinguishing trademark, your personal brand that must be placed in a positive light to a committee of six to ten diverse people to get accepted. It’s the kind of aura that is genuine, authentic and resonates. To truly identify your WOW factor, you need an outside perspective, a third party, that understands how admissions committees will review your character.
It takes Dr. Lowe and his team hours to weeks discover and months to cultivate a client’s WOW factor. After that, we develop strategies to convey that brand to Ivy League and highly selective colleges and BS/MD programs.
Our admissions strategies help applicants spotlight their unique characteristic(s) that make admissions officers say “Wow! We want this student!”
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.
As we review BS/MD programs, where our clients have applied and have been accepted (and enjoyed the academic and campus experience), we have developed a list of “Popular BS/MD programs”
Here is our list of popular BS/MD programs based on our survey:
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. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter – “Doctor” when they are seniors in high school.
College applications are increasing based on the Common Application registrations. College applications soared for the 2021-22 school year as thousands of students are taking advantage of the SAT test-optional policy.
As more and more students apply, it will be more competitive (especially for Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities and BS/MD programs). In a USA Today article, “At selective schools “– where the acceptance rate is typically less than 50% – the spike was largest: Applications increased by an average of 21%.” Common App CEO Jenny Rickard said,
As a result, admissions officers/committees are assessing applicants by using a more holistic-team approach and assessing soft skills, often referred to as the “intangibles”. Students however bright: high GPA, SAT scores ACT scores (and in the case of BS/MD programs -research publications and hundreds of hours of shadowing) and polished resumes still lack the “je nais se quois” for acceptance to schools. Through our in-depth admissions strategies we develop and enhance our clients’ student profiles do that their “je nais se quois” is clearly conveyed in their WOW FACTOR.
By understanding our clients, conveying their characteristics and achievements onto their applications and into their essays and understanding college-specific admissions expectations (through research and professional and network relationships), our clients gain a competitive edge and have successful admissions outcomes – acceptances!
Dr. Paul Lowe, Admissions Expert
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.
It’s mid-September, and we are currently receiving calls and emails from anxious parent of high school seniors requesting BS/MD Admissions help. Here is the problem for these parents (and students). It’s too late!
Successful admissions – It’s all about timing and time management.
Valuable and trusted BS/MD help starts as early as middle school prior to high school. The optimum time to hire an educational consultant, who specializes in BS/MD admissions, is sophomore or junior year (when you see that the student is committed to being a doctor), they have at least one year of high school grades.
Not surprisingly, when we receive these calls, students sound exactly alike: high SAT/ACT scores, 4.3 and above weighted GPA, shadowing, published research paper (or two), a website indicating that they have helped socio-economically disadvantaged students. Their achievements sound exactly alike; it is as though they have been reading the same books, visiting the same websites and talking with the same people. Although these parents have yet to experience the outcome of this practice, it generally means they have prepared their children to be rejected from BS/MD programs and ivy league and highly selective colleges and universities. By simply procrastinating, their mistakes are irreversible and irrevocable. It is simply too late for our firm to correct their mistakes or make recommendations to enhance their student profiles.
BS/MD admissions is super-competitive. We find ways through our experience and knowledge to help our clients stand out. We know that our clients who have retained us from the sophomore or junior year will look and sound superior to other students. Our acceptance results speak to this!
Only first place wins in admissions!
My team and I prepare our clients to win first place (because there are no second or third place seats in competitive college and BS/MD admissions).
In the admissions race,our clients are winners!Dr. Lowe congratulates parents who support their children’s dreams!“Valuable and trusted advice is needed to avoid mistakes” – Dr. Lowe
Last year was one of the most competitive years in college admissions history. COVID-19 caused disruption and uncertainty in college admissions. Our admissions team increased our time with clients and brought in additional supportive staff so that they could stand out. Our efforts were well invested in our clients and we have achieved their desired results!
We are very pleased and happy to announce our final results for Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME): 9 of our clients were accepted to Brown PLME.
According to Brown University, “From a pool of 3,516 applicants — a 39% increase from last year — 82 students were admitted to PLME, an eight-year program leading to both a bachelor’s degree and an M.D. from Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School.”
Dr. Lowe and his team understand that successful admissions results involve more than just a 3-page resume packed with achievements, a high GPA and a high SAT score. It’s about BS/MD Admissions Knowledge.
Dr. Paul Lowe and his team provide unparalleled admissions advisory services!
Many parents, students, high school counselors and fellow educational consultants ask us: How do you maintain such a high acceptance rate in BS/MD Admissions? What’s your secret sauce? What makes you different? It’s amazing, but how do you do this?
Let’s explain!
While high school counselors provide college counseling, based on our information retrieval and interaction with our clients, high school counselors do not specialize in BS/MD admissions advising, nor do they have the school-specific knowledge of BS/MD programs. Our efforts complement and enhance what high school counselors do so our clients gain a competitive edge in the BS/MD Admissions process.
My team and I perform a Mistakes Assessment Analysis of a student’ s academic profile, resume, extracurricular activities and much more! Mistakes are inevitable during this ever-changing/evolving process. You want to avoid making irrevocable mistakes on your BS/MD program application or even supporting documents! Because mistakes can cost you! We GUARANTEE that we will uncover multiple mistakes on your application and in your student profile that would cause you to be REJECTED
We help to brainstorm and revise the Common Application main essay, COVID essay, school specific supplementary essays and BS/MD application essays. Our team approach allows us to provide an in-depth analysis and revision of essays.
We conduct continuous thought-provoking interview preparation sessions. Interviewers have to like you. They have to want you in their program. It doesn’t matter how brilliant you are. Brilliance and achievements among BS/MD applicants are the norm. We have discovered that even top students do not realize that etiquette, manners and body language matter in college admissions. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it, the etiquette and manners involved, and your personal delivery. Sometimes what you say and how you say it may be misinterpreted. We help our clients with the proper etiquette, manners and body language in college admissions. If you have stellar GPA and test scores and poor interviewing skills, you will be rejected.
BS/MD Knowledge Network: We know exactly what each program is looking for and how they will evaluate a BS/MD applicant. Our clients who are current students at BS/MD programs like Brown PLME, Rice Baylor, Albany Medical College, Drexel, Penn State/Thomas Jefferson, NJIT and more, inform us of up-to-date knowledge that we we can use to give our current clients an admissions edge. Additionally, we know of admissions officers and at many of these institutions.
By understanding our student through multiple continuous consultation sessions, we help you to understand how you can stand out and what you MUST do to stand out.
We can identify what challenges you may face based on your student profile.
We know how to identify elements of your student profile and essentially help you to display what you already have and successfully connect the dots to create your WOW factor.
Diversity Competitive Advantage (DCA): We know and understand difference and unconscious bias. Our boutique admissions advisory firm, being different, helps our clients to stand out and be accepted. No other admissions advisory and educational BS/MD firm, with a culturally, ethnically and racially diverse team,can truly appreciate and understand the meaning and value of standing out and successfully apply it to the competitive admissions process. Our DCA translates to successful admissions and results! The diversity in our firm empowers our clients and gives each of them a competitive admissions edge! See: Dr. Lowe’s blog on diversity.
Color: We add color (Pick your definition; all apply, with the possible exception of its hypothetical application to quarks, including ROYGBIV, vitality, interest, appearance, background information and visual perception.) to your application and essays. “Colorless” applications are boring to admissions officers and can be easily rejected! By adding color, we make your application and student profile more interesting.
International and H4-visa applicants: We understand the challenges that international and H-4 visa BS/MD applicants will face through our partnerships with immigration law firms. Most importantly, we know how BS/MD programs will evaluate international and H-4 visa students.
Dr. Paul Lowe personally discusses multi-level admissions strategies with each client. He personally works with each of his clients face-to-face so that they directly benefit from his expertise, experience, contacts and the collective knowledge of his educational team. Dr. Paul Lowe is a physician-scientist by training who knows how to prepare BS/MD applicants. Dr. Lowe uses the collective intelligence of his diverse team of experts to strategically design and implement haute couture-type admissions plans for clients. Therefore, you know that you will always communicate directly with a leading BS/MD admissions expert.
Public Relations/Personal Branding: Our team collectively focuses on public relations and personal branding within the context of college admissions. Dr. Lowe helps his clients identify and refine their personal image so that they can differentiate themselves from other qualified applicants. Consequently, Dr. Lowe works with a diverse team of image consultants, character education experts, fashion designers, visual and performing artists, musicians, screenwriters, public relations and personal branding consultants and ethnomusicologists.
Each year we work with several clients who are admitted to Ivy League and BS/MD programs despite relatively low GPAs. Yes! You have read right…low GPAs. This year, was significant because it was during the COVID-19 pandemic and there was an increase in the number of applicants to Ivy League and BS/MD programs.
While the average high school student with a GPA weighted that are accepted to Ivy League schools is 4.10, there is no minimum requirement. Of course, it’s rare for a student with a GPA below 3.9 to be accepted, but not impossible!
Ivy League schools rely upon a holistic and committee-team approach when evaluating applications to determine whether a student is a good fit for their institution. This approach allows admissions officers to obtain an in-depth picture of a student’s potential, character, and personal attributes that they will bring to the campus community if admitted.
So, how do our students with low GPAs get admitted to Ivies and BS/MD programs? This is where character, the right attitude and accomplishments beyond the ordinary and expected achievements come in. We work with the student to ensure that the correct picture of the student is apparent to the admissions officers.
Ultimately, elite colleges like the Ivies are interested in your potential. They want to know not only what you will contribute to the campus in terms of abilities and achievements, but also how you will mature and interact with others once you get there, and what positive impact you will eventually have on the world.
“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?” – Dr. Paul Lowe
“We provide our clients access to our specialized knowledge!”– 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 Lowe, Admissions Expert
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. For colleges and universities that recommend or require videos: College Admissions Video Productions.
I often ask my BS/MD admissions clients: When did you decide to be doctor?
As my team and I develop our admissions strategies, we believe that it’s important to understand when and or what event in their lives inspired them to choose to become a physician.
Many of our BS/MD admissions clients decided from elementary school that they wanted to be a doctor. What is quite interesting is that, in many cases, neither parents are doctors. They were very interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and they truly wanted to help people.
In high school, they chose to apply via the direct combined BS/MD route because they were fully committed to the idea of pursuing a medical career, and a combined program seemed like the best of both worlds. They definitely were committed to a future medical career and wanted to eliminate the uncertainty and stress during their undergraduate years that accompanies the medical school application process. However, for many other applicants, following the traditional route of pursuing a bachelor’s degree and completing your pre-medical requirements before applying to medical school makes more sense than attending a combined BS/MD program.
When parents contact us, they describe their children as having top notch high school credentials, including GPA, test scores, a challenging curriculum and an array of extracurricular activities (including volunteer service, research, and clinical shadowing). Some already have 3-page resumes. To me, they all sound almost exactly alike on paper and are missing key components and factors that make them stand out. Please read Dr. Lowe’s blog: High School Juniors: Time To Get Serious About BS/MD Plans – Part II
Our view is that if a student has decided from elementary school to be a doctor why take the chance (why take the RISK) to make mistakes that will possibly prevent their dream? Why risk your child’s future?
Dr. Lowe congratulates parents who support their children’s dreams!
Each year, my offices receive calls and emails from parents of international students and parents who presently have H1B visas whose high school students have H4 visas who wish to become U.S. medical doctors through BS/MD programs.
As a result, we have developed a specialty helping these students navigate the college admissions and specifically the hypercompetitive BS/MD admissions process.
Based on my professional experience as a BS/MD admissions advisor, and long-term professional relationships with admissions officers and administrators, here is a current list of BS/MD programs that will consider reviewing applications of international and H4 Visa students:
Boston University Seven-Year Liberal Arts/Medical Education Program
Case Western Reserve University Pre-Professional Scholars Program in Medicine
Howard University BS/MD
Pennsylvania State University Accelerated Premedical-Medical Program
Rice/Baylor Medical Scholars Program (MSP)
Rutgers University-Newark BA/MD
SUNY Upstate Accelerated Scholars Program
University of Connecticut Special Program in Medicine
University Rochester – Rochester Early Medical Scholars (REMS)
Working with international and H4 visa high school students who desire to matriculate to BS/MD programs is a very involved, comprehensive and long-term process. My team and I must clearly understand student goals, continuously help students with their applications and develop successful admissions strategies. After all, we know the value of becoming a licensed U.S. medical doctor!
It’s very important to avoid the risks and potential mistakes that will cause you to be rejected from BS/MD programs. After all your hard work, do you really want to make mistakes?Mistakes that can occur in your junior year, senior year and/or on your college applications?
Selectivity: Dr. Lowe only works with qualified students and parents who choose to hire the best!
If you are a high school junior or your son or daughter is a high school junior and you are thinking about applying to direct BS/MD programs, it’s time to get really serious about either planning or implementing your plans. With about 3 months left of your junior year, there is no time to waste! You will need to avoid common mistakes as well as obscure omissions. In addition, it is important to polish your existing student profile. You may think it’s great, however, it must measure up or be better that the 95% of applicants that will be rejected.
As students (even with the help of their parents) prepare for the college admissions process, they read books, look at videos or visit college forum-type websites which they believe may provide personalized answers for them. These sources provide information that everyone else can see, but not customized strategies to help your child avoid mistakes.
Many parents who call us (and whose children are performing the above and have the “perfect” BS/MD profile) then believe that their child is a shoo-in for BS/MD programs and just need “some” advice.
Here’s a list of factors by admissions expert, Dr. Paul Lowe that you should consider if you are a junior seriously thinking about applying to BS/MD programs.
Student CHARACTER – Personality counts! What’s your “je ne sais quoi”?
The HOOK – If you don’t have a hook, the admissions committee will not grab you!
The STORY – It’s all about the story and how it’s framed and presented! No good story, no acceptance! Certain rejection!
Common Application: PERSONAL STATEMENT – Meaningful, well-written and convincing personal statement needed. No flow, harmony, tone combined with gravitas – rejection!
COLLEGE-SPECIFIC SUPPLEMENTALS– You must complement and synergize your supplementals with your personal statement. All the school-specific essays are important, even the 50 word-count answers! Students have been rejected because of mistakenly using one word or a sentence in 50 word-count essays!
COLLEGE-SPECIFIC-BS/MD ESSAYS – The “Why doctor essay?” “I want to help people”. Everyone in the service industry does that!
COLLEGE APPLICATION VIDEO ESSAY – Schools are seriously viewing these videos. Did we say Brown PLME? Check out our College Admissions Video Productions partnership.
The effective and boldRESUME – It’s not just about a 2–3-page resume with lots of research and extracurricular activities which is just a list. It has to be framed correctly or it looks boring and generic!
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES – Are your extracurricular activities meaningless or meaningful? Do they really interconnect to your student profile in a meaningful way? Have you become the jack-of-all extracurricular activities? The master of none? Are you a drive-by extracurricular activities person?
VOLUNTEERISM – It’s not just about tutoring underprivileged children, participating in an ESVE (Expensive Summer Volunteer Activity) or starting your own nonprofit organization. There is more to volunteering than just volunteering!!!
WOW FACTOR – What’s your WOW Factor? How and when can you use it to WOW admissions? You want the admissions committee to say “WOW! We want this applicant on our campus.”
INTERVIEWS – You may be seemingly be all that on paper; grades, SATs recommendations, volunteering to save the world, 1000 hours of shadowing, however, one incorrect word or statement in an interview results in a rejection – That’s right, just one!
ETIQUETTE – Think that doesn’t matter? Think that’s old-school? Think again! Are you mindful of how you present yourself and how people perceive you? It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it! Etiquette matters! We provide personalized etiquette strategies for our clients.
MANNERS– When you say something (or write something) what counts is not what you mean but how you are heard and perceived. Are you mindful of your manners? Manners matters! Do you know when or if you sound rude, pretentious, impolite, disrespectful, unrefined or worse – uncultivated?
WHO ARE YOU? – What are your values? What do you stand for? Can you define you? Why are you different? Are you aware how you perceives you?
DIVERSITY – What’s your diversity intelligence? What’s the meaning of diversity to you? It’s not just a word to be used throughout an essay. It’s not just about being a member of your school’s diversity club. Colleges seek students who truly understand the meaning of diversity. Diversity matters!
UNCONSCIOUS BIAS– It may occur at any time, at any level or at any stage during your admissions process. Can you identify it? How must you successfully deal with it? How do you overcome it for successful admissions decisions?
UNIVERSITY PRIORITIES– Colleges are not accepting applicants for just top grades and their perceived amazing resumes and achievements, they are continually adjusting and building diverse campus communities and future global networks based on geopolitics, geo-economics and their financials. School admissions policies and institutional priorities change year to year and region to region to match their goals. What makes you believe that you know these policies and priorities better than a boutique admissions firm that has superior access to current information and admissions trends?
The KNOW-HOW. So, you really believe it’s just (1-18)? You need the Know How: How do you do the right-things the right-way and with the right-people at the right-time? Our proprietary-knowledge, unmatched experience, admissions success and years of close working relationships with admissions professionals ensures that you do it right!
So you really believe that factors 13-18 are unimportant? Think again!
If you know how to plan, develop and implement (1-19) and how they are used in BS/MD admissions – that’s wonderful!!! But if you don’t, there is an increased probability that you (and your child) will make irrevocable mistakes that will cause instant rejections to all schools. Would you want this to happen after your years of planning as a parent and your child’s hard work?
The parents who retain Dr. Paul Lowe and his team of consultants may take risks in business and investments, but not risks in their children’s educational future – to become a medical doctor. The ones who do take risks in their children’s education – 95% of them bet WRONG!
Why take on RISKS in your child’s educational journey and career future?
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. Parents who chose to use our services want to call their son or daughter – “Doctor” when they are seniors in high school.
