I have been an admissions advisor with specializing in BS/MD admissions for over 20 years. Many parents call my firm often shopping for free advice in the attempt to see if they can garner information. The parents who retain us know that valuable advice is not free! They also are aware that by hiring our personalized services their children will have a competitive advantage in the BS/MD admissions process. When our clients are accepted into BS/MD programs and their classmates are not, it speaks volumes to our firms collective knowledge insight and understanding of the “landmines” in the application process. Our client-parents are happy and overjoyed when they know that after years of hard work their children can be called “Dr.” as high school seniors!
There are actually 4 reasons why our clients have a competitive edge and we have a very high acceptance rate.
When we are finished with counseling our clients they stand out and don’t sound like the typical BS/MD applicant: high GPA’s, high SAT scores, scientific ad medical research, shadowed doctors, seemingly great letter of recommendations, expensive summer programs, “voluntouring” and boring. We develop our clients’ unique rhythm, vibe and voice.
Many parents wait and call us when the student is a high school senior. I guess it’s their attempt to bargain hunt? By then, the student already sounds just like every one else and have made all the irrevocable mistakes. There is nothing we can do for them at that point. It’s just too late. The damage has already been done. By then, we can not change the imperfections that will appear on their Common Applications. Our clients retain us between their child’s freshman and junior year.
Many parents retain educational consultants who are part-timers in BS/MD admissions (doctors-in-training) or who never continually visit colleges and universities BS/MD programs. My team and I continually visit colleges and universities.
We know how to avoid the application mistakes that can cause a BS/MD applicant to be instantly rejected. Trust me, there are hundreds of opportunities to make mistakes!
Over the last 2 years, I have had a 55% increase in Chinese clients who have hired our services specifically for Ivy League admissions. Each year, we place on average 20 Chinese clients in Ivy League and highly selective U.S. colleges and universities. Last year, we placed 45 Chinese students into Ivy League and highly selective U.S. colleges and universities.
Chinese students are attending U.S. colleges and universities in record numbers. Demand for Ivy League and highly selective universities such as Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Northwestern, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of Chicago, Duke, University of Michigan, Tufts, Swarthmore, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles, Georgetown, Barnard, Villanova, etc., is increasing exponentially.
By Chinese, I mean students from mainland China who attend high schools in China, private boarding and day schools in the U.S., Canada, UK, Italy, Singapore, Australia, all parts of the world and those who attend public schools in the U.S. Even when attending elite U.S. boarding schools where they have college counselors, the parents (or students) call us to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the college admission process to achieve the dream of an Ivy League education.
Parents all over China have the same dream. They want their children to have the best education for a better future. For Chinese parents, the benefits and the biggest advantages of an Ivy League education are undoubted and obvious – better employment opportunities, easier access to high-profile jobs, networking benefits and connections needed to start a global business. Most importantly, an Ivy League education adds transferable financial value to be utilized over their children’s lifetime on a global scale.
For Chinese parents, the choice of an Ivy League education for their child (almost always their only child) is considered a worthy financial investment, a shrewd political maneuver, and a satisfying personal sacrifice. They are appreciative of the chance for a greater opportunity for their children to study abroad in the U.S. Four years of an elite U.S. private college/university education can cost around $250,000, a considerable sum for American families, and even more so for a family from China, where average wealth is about one fifth that in the U.S. It is interesting and understandable that they are willing to make sacrifices for this pedigree degree that opens doors!
We work with many wealthy Chinese families who feel that sending a child to an elite Western university is a way of signaling status and prestige – yet “another luxury brand purchase”. For wealthy families seeking a safe haven for their assets – by one estimate more than $1 trillion in capital left China in 2015 – a U.S. college education for a child can serve as a first step towards addressing capital flight, foreign investment and even eventual emigration.
A HSBC (Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation) survey indicated that 80% of affluent families in China plan to send their children to study overseas. From 2009 to 2011, the number of Asian students studying in the US has increased by 40%. President Trump and former President Obama may have different political and economic views but they both agree that the U.S. has the best universities in the world! The U.S. is now the primary destination for Asian students. China is the number one source of international students. Many of the children of the Chinese economic and political elite desire Ivy League degrees. President Xi Jinping’s daughter is a Harvard grad.
Since 1999, China was the second leading place of origin for international students at Harvard, trailing only Canada. Its student numbers steadily increased to lead Harvard’s international enrollment since the last academic year, with 686 students currently enrolled (nearly 16% of the international student body). China similarly dominates international enrollment at other Ivy League schools, including Yale and Princeton. According to the Hurun Report (a research, media and investments business best known for its “Hurun China Rich List” a ranking of the wealthiest individuals in China), Harvard, Yale and Princeton are the biggest attractions for Chinese millionaires.
In March 2018, research from Hurun found China minted 206 billionaires in the last year, taking the country’s total to 819 billionaires, 40% more billionaires than in the US. Chinese billionaires are pulling away from the US for the third year running on the “Hurun Global Rich List 2018”. There are 819 Chinese billionaires in 2018 compared with 571 in the US. Just two years ago, they were neck and neck at 534 and 535. A recent Hurun annual survey of China’s elite has confirmed that 80% of the country’s wealthy families plan to send their children abroad for education.
It would seem that as long as Ivy League colleges and universities exist, wealthy and middle-class Chinese families will want their children to obtain the rare luxury brand of the unique experience of a valuable education. My team and I are here to help!
The Yueng family with Dr. Paul Lowe Pinnacle Educational Center/Admissions Advisors Group headquarters.
The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education Ranking 2019 was just released. Harvard is number one again. Of the top ten schools, six are Ivy League universities. The only ones missing in the top ten are Dartmouth College and Cornell University. Brown University is the only newcomer to the list. With their rarefied, global social alumni networks, door-opening reputations, and superior academics, it isn’t surprising that the schools mentioned are all brand-name institutions.
The rankings emphasize how well a college will prepare students for life after graduation. The overall ranking is based on 15 factors across four areas: Outcomes, Resources, Engagement and Environment. Each school’s overall score is determined by student outcomes (including a measure of graduate salaries), the school’s academic resources, how well it engages students and from the diversity of the students and staff. The U.S. College ranking is also partly based on the results of the Times Higher Education US Student Survey, which gathered the views of about 200,000 current university students in 2017 and 2018 to find out about their engagement with their studies, their interaction with their teachers and their satisfaction with their experience.
My team and I personally visit top colleges three times annually to understand each of their ever changing and unique admissions policies as well as the campus environment. As a result, we garner insider-knowledge to help our clients achieve admissions success. (Why Dr. Paul Lowe Visits College Campuses). This ranking is very accurate!
THE TOP TEN: Schools that achieved the highest overall scores in the ranking:
Year after year, my team and I spend at least 25 percent of our time visiting 100 or more colleges and universities throughout the US. As a result, we get to meet admissions personnel, administrators, faculty, college athletic coaches and directors, students and get to know what’s happening on campuses — real time.
During our visits, we also get a chance to talk with admissions officers and directors to see what’s really happening on campuses as it relates to admissions, enrollment, locally, internationally and geopolitically.
Dr. Lowe at Brown University
We see and experience the actual rather than the theoretical. Our knowledge of schools is not based on virtual tours, books, videos, general information found on the internet or secondary sources, but on these continual visits and knowledge-networks, professional relationships and connections that we have developed through our visits.
By visiting colleges, we understand their individual missions, philosophies, admissions policies and essentially what they are seeking in applicants for admissions. These visits provide me with knowledge beyond the scope of what parents are attempting to understand in the “admissions game”, and data that overwhelmed public school guidance counselors and even elite private school college counselors give to their students.
A campus visit allows me to personally experience the trip involved to get to the school, the people who are there, and the actual learning environment on campus. Seeing the dorms and dorm rooms, tasting the food, walking the campus—all these elements are critical to understanding if a client will actually be happy once he/she is a student there.
Our college visits keep us abreast of the constant changes in each college and provides us with insider-knowledge and understanding to develop individualized admissions strategies for clients.
The Common Application 2018-2019 was launched 10 days ago and we are now receiving calls from very anxious and stressed parents because their children (rising seniors) just started the preliminary portions of the Common Application.
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. 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. See Our blog: College Application Essay Prompts 2018-2019
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 provides 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 hasdone 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. 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 wealth of insider-knowledge helps our clients to WIN (not lose) in the college competitive admissions game!
One of the main reasons students choose BS/MD programs is to avoid the dreaded and hyper-competitive application process to medical schools. And a part of that process is the MCAT exam. There are schools who require the MCAT and there are schools which don’t.
Here is a list of some BS/MD Programs which don’t require the MCATs:
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute/Albany Medical College
Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education
St. Bonaventure University/George Washington School of Medicine
Siena College/Albany Medical College
Texas Tech University
Union College/Albany Medical College
University of California – San Diego
University of Missouri Kansas City
University of Pittsburgh
University of Rochester
University of Sciences in Philadelphia/Commonwealth Medical College
University of Texas Dallas/University of Teas Southwestern
University of Toledo
Washington University
Many of our clients prefer these schools, however, I encourage them to consider BS/MD programs not just based on their MCAT requirement. As a result of our successful admissions strategies we know that, in the end, our client-parents can call their children “Dr” in their senior year of high school.
“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?” – Dr. Paul Lowe
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. Many of Dr. Lowe’s BS/MD Admissions client are international students want to attend medical schools from high school and then entire U.S. medical residency sub-specialties. Summer Camps: BS/MD Application Boot Camp. Special program: BS/MD Application Tune-Up.
If you’re reading this blog then you’re most likely a rising senior (or parent of a rising senior) and you are in the process of deciding which prompt to choose.
The Common Application Essay is the most important essay that you will write as a high school student. With a word limit of 650 words this means that every word, phrase and punctuation point will count, in addition to the tone and flow of your essay.
The 2018-2019 Common Application Essay Prompts are as follows:
Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.
The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?
Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma – anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution.
Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others.
Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?
Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you’ve already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.
We spend hours brainstorming and deciding which prompt will best apply to our clients to help them stand out. We assist our clients in organizing their thoughts. Then, after our clients submit a draft, we discuss the draft and then spend hours, with up to 10 revisions, for a final version. Yes, it takes that long for a masterpiece to be created and enhanced!
Most admissions officers tell me that an applicant’s personal statement is absolutely their favorite part of the application and that it’s really a chance for them to get to know who applicants are as well as a major opportunity for students to speak up about themselves. Essentially, their view is that the rest of the application is about other people talking about the applicant, rather the applicant’s in-depth view of him or herself.
Admissions officers want a well-written essay in your own voice that emphasizes insight into your unique character and personality that is thoughtful and reflective. Essays written by our clients lets the admissions committee get to know them well as a person and demonstrates how you think and why you think and what really matters to you.
You are a rising senior, it’s July and you have the following student profile:
GPA: 4.4/4.0 weighted
AP courses: Multiple AP courses and 5’s on AP exams.
SAT I: 1590
SAT II: Math 2: 800 Chemistry: 800 Biology: 800
Athletics: Captain of the lacrosse team or co-Captain of the swim team.
Arts: First place in piano, violin and dance competitions since middle school.
Extracirrcular activities include: Expensive summer camps and helping the poor.
Awards & Achievements: Science, art , music and/or community service awards.
Leadership: Created a non-profit with it’s own website.
Innovation: Published a book or research paper or developed a startup or app.
Letters of recommendations: Assumed to be all excellent and glowing.
Guidance/college counselor LOR: excellent.
Extras: You believe that you or your parents have a “connection” to get in.
For BS/MD Program applicants: Shadowed doctors, volunteered in hospitals, completed medical research, attended mini-medical schools, earned EMT certification.
Assumption: You and your parents and your guidance counselor believe that you have all that it takes to get an acceptance letter from at least one of the Ivies and all of the highly competitive schools, additionally safety schools are a shoo-in……Not so!
Year after year, I hear the horror stories in December (Early Decision/Action) and in late March (Regular Decision) from parents (who were not our clients) who call us wanting to know what happened and why their wonderful kids were rejected.
These parents have not anticipated that college admissions officers can see through the hollow pretense of a packaged, perfect student. And that their children sound just like every other “perfect” applicant.
Ivy League and highly selective colleges do not need perfection from a single candidate. What they seek is a diverse, dynamic, harmonious and perfect entering class.
Well-meaning sources (other educational consultants, family and friends) tell you what you should be doing. In my practice, we help our clients discover what they are NOT and should NOT be doing!
And it’s what you are NOT DOING that makes you unique, standout and receive an acceptance letter not rejections!
I often receive phone calls from parents inquiring about our BS/MD admissions advisory services. They subsequently decide to send their child’s high school transcripts and resumes. On paper (two dimensionally), everything seems perfect: high grades and SAT scores, difficult courses, multiple awards, first place in music, art and/or dance competitions, amazing research projects, mini-medical school camps and shadowing doctors (and we a talking high school sophomores here).
What these parents fail to see is that they have encouraged their children to sound exactly the same (no matter how seemingly impressive) as every other BS/MD applicant. My team and I ask ourselves: “Are these parents reviewing the same websites, talking with the same people and following the same playbook?”
I often follow up and call these parents who did not retain our services and discover that all their children were not accepted to BS/MD programs and worse, were accepted to second and third-tier colleges. What’s amiss here? Is there a correlation here? Why is that?
Parents actually believe that high school guidance and college counselors and educational consultants who DO NOT specialize in BS/MD Admissions understand the nuances of BS/MD programs, visit BS/MD programs and are doctors who have been through the selective process of BS/MD programs or medical school admissions. Additionally, they seek free resources. I stand by the adage: “You get what you pay for.”
Many parents assume that they have the experience and knowledge to do BS/MD admissions on their own. As a professional admissions advisor, I believe that it’s important to talk with someone who has the experience and know what he/she are doing, especially when it’s about your child’s future! Studies show that mistakes are inevitable when people are convinced that they believe they know what they are doing when in fact they have no idea what they are doing.
Is hiring a BS/MD admissions advisor a worthwhile investment?
When your child has a GPA of 4.0 or higher, SAT I’s of 1550 or higher, SAT II’s of 800, and a 3 page resume, it’s logical to believe that he/she has everything necessary to be accepted into BS/MD programs. However, statistically and unfortunately, that is not the case and many students end up being rejected from every BS/MD program to which they apply and attend second-tier or third tier colleges. Therefore, to achieve the admissions goal, rather than play the odds, it is logical to engage an expert.
What I observe, is that parents play the odds and after all their children’s (and their) hard work, they bet incorrectly and LOSE BIG!
I guess the real question here is: Why would highly educated parents knowingly bet and gamble on their children’s educational future and life, to have their children REJECTED, by not hiring an expert?
Many of our international student-applicants-clients are interested in computer science degrees. One of the main reasons is that computer science graduates do well in terms of getting full-time employment upon graduation. In 2015, a national survey found that computer science majors were 35% more likely to have full-time jobs one year after graduation than graduates overall and 22% more likely than STEM graduates overall. They also had the highest starting salaries of all majors, with an average of $66,161 and some exceeding $100,000.
Year after year, our Dr. Lowe and his A-team visit top U.S. colleges and universities and have the opportunity to visit top colleges and universities with computer science departments. Because of their rank as top universities they are, of course, highly competitive. Our clients are, of course, very happy when they receive acceptance letters from these schools.
Here is a list of top universities with top computer science departments:
Dr. Paul Lowe - Admissions Expert 