At Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group, we add COLOR to our clients’ profiles. It’s what makes our boutique admissions advisory firm different! COLOR makes you more visually appealing; it adds an attractive vitality and magnetic quality. It gives you a more dynamic and harmonious appearance.
As a physician-scientist, admissions advisor and artist-COLORist, to me, COLOR is everything. It’s characteristics: hue, value and intensity make our clients’ profiles, applications and essays more interesting! Adding COLOR, gives our clients a competitive admissions edge and makes them standout! What do you need to be more COLORful? It’s not just about ROYGBIV. By adding COLOR, we make college and BS/MD applications and student-profiles more enjoyable to admissions officers and committees.
Isn’t that what you want? COLOR
Color is one of the chief properties that gives objects their own individual visual characteristics. It makes a unique contribution to the appearance. The different hues, tones, shades, tints and value demonstrated in your essay allows our clients’ applications and essays to shine!
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.
On September 9th, we were invited to Brown University’s 259 Annual Opening Convocation by several of the parents of our clients who were accepted to Brown (undergraduate) as well as PLME. Dr. Paul Lowe, an alumnus of Brown and Dr. Nadine Cartwright-Lowe (PLME – alumna), of BS/MD Admissions Advisors, are especially proud of their clients who were accepted to PLME.
Our Brown PLME parents were so happy at the Convocation! Welcome future medical doctors!
Here are our 2022 Brown PLME results: 12 clients applied. Of the 12, 8 were accepted to PLME. The remaining 4: One accepted to Brown undergrad, 1 accepted to Harvard (also accepted to RPI/AMC), 1 accepted to Yale, and one accepted to Dartmouth (also accepted to GW and NJIT BSMD programs).
Dr. Lowe and his team collectively bring a wealth of admissions experience, along with diverse cultural perspectives that are INVALUABLE to their BS/MD clients! They are skilled in the language and rhythm of college admissions!
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 highly competitive and thus desire help from an admissions expert. They appreciate the value and investment in paying for expert advice consisting of 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.
Parents are facing the challenge of currently navigating the BS/MD admissions landscape. Incorrect decisions as to when, where and how to turn now results in shipwrecks: immediate rejection of their children after their years of planning. One incorrect extracurricular activity, one negative letter of recommendation, one incorrect sentence in an essay, one incorrect answer in an interview and one incorrect non-verbal cue and or perception will result in a REJECTION! It’s that competitive.
There are continuous fundamental shifts and uncertainty in BS/MD admissions. BS/MD programs are not just about high GPA and test scores, 3-5 page resumes, research and hours of shadowing. It’s now about the interrelated narrative of why you wish to be a doctor and how the student profile stands out, as well how it fits your narrative.
From what I have observed, parents are attempting to game the admissions landscape by using antiquated strategies from outdated books or visiting online communities which provide generic information. Even taking advice from last year’s accepted students can result in rejections!
The COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. economy, healthcare inequity, and student demographics and the number of BS/MD programs have changed the admissions landscape and even enrollment/admissions policies and goals at many schools. Therecent closing of BS/MD programs is a testament to the changing landscape and will affect BS/MD admissions policies and goals.
Query: What’s the new playbook?
Query: With factors such as VOLATILITY, UNCERTAINTY, the UNFORESEEN and the UNEXPECTED what are parents to do?
Query: What are parents to do, after spending considerable years of time and money in attempting to secure a future for their child, when they now face sudden changes in the educational and admissions environment years?
ANSWER: Hire a BS/MD admissions advisor who is an expert! We are the NEW PLAYBOOK
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 gain admissions to BS/MD programs:| BS/MD Admissions Guru| BS/MD Admissions Advisors.
Effective immediately, Boston University’s Seven-Year Liberal Arts/Medical Education (SMED) Program will no longer accept applications to SMED for fall 2022. The BS/MD program will be formally dissolved by the end of 2022.
Since the SMED Program will not be accepting applications in 2022, the competition to gain admissions into BS/MD programs will now increase because there will be fewer programs. Direct BS/MD Programs have become increasingly competitive as more and more students are applying!
Now it has become even more competitive as major BS/MD programs have closed and the number slots are dwindling! Over the last 5 years, these programs have also closed:
University of Cincinnati: Connection Dual Admissions Program
Northwestern University: Honors Program in Medical Education (HPME)
Washington University in St. Louis: University Scholars Program in Medicine (USPM)
“Valuable and trusted advice is needed to avoid mistakes.” – 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 clients are international students who want to attend medical school from high school and then enter U.S. medical residency sub-specialties.
Katy (Texas) Independent School District contains 8 high schools. Over the past 4 years, MANY parents of high school students have contacted us regarding our college and BS/MD admissions advisory services. Dr. Paul Lowe and his team have worked with students from:
Seven Lakes High School
Tomkins High School
Cinco Ranch High School
Taylor Ranch High School
Despite the fact that they are all excellent high schools, MANY parents contact Dr. Lowe because they mentioned that because of the size of the school, school counselors are either unable to provide continuous weekly or biweekly individualized college and/or BS/MD admissions services to each student. The senior class size for some of these schools exceed 600 students.
We are happy to report that our clients from these schools were accepted to their top-choice colleges and universities!
Please review Dr. Lowe’s blogs as to why parents contact him re: college and BS/MD admissions:
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 gain admissions to BS/MD programs:| BS/MD Admissions Guru| BS/MD Admissions Advisors.
While high school counselors provide college counseling, they often do not have the time to cater to the development or implementation of each student’s individual college plan and are usually not available on-call on the weekend and after school hours.
According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling:
High school counselors have a large caseload, very often exceeding the American School Counselor Association’s recommended student to counselor of 250:1, and responsibilities that include attending to the academic and social/emotional issues of the student body.
On average, public school counselors spent 19 percent of their time on postsecondary counseling in 2018–2019, while their private school counterparts spent 31 percent of their time on college counseling
The best way to choose an educational consultant is on the basis of experience.
Dr. Lowe has over 23 years of experience in college admissions for students who are interested in applying to Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities and BS/MD programs. He spends 100 percent of his time on helping each client!
Dr. Lowe and his team complement your school counselor’s efforts by working one-on-one with your child, customizing a winning admissions plan which will help your child get into their top choice colleges. Dr. Lowe is available not only during school hours, but after school, evenings and weekends via phone, email and remote consultations. By having one-on-one weekly or biweekly sessions, Dr. Lowe helps each individual client present their backgrounds and aspirations in the best positive light to admissions committees. The result – Acceptances!
In developing our winning college admissions plan, Dr. Lowe works with students and their parents in carefully planning their courses and extracurricular activities (community service, employment, summer programs, internships, etc.), planning college visits, selecting the right teachers for the best letters of recommendations, developing a WOW factor, assisting with creating, brainstorming and editing personal statements and supplemental essays; developing college social media profile and brand.
Additionally, Dr. Lowe provides personalized, individualized attention and helps clients keep organized, stay motivated and meet deadlines throughout the application process. In many cases, overworked and overwhelmed high school counselors simply have too many students to give individual attention needed in the competitive admissions environment.
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.
To answer this question, let’s first start with an admissions officer survey by National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC).
I. NACAC factors:
Grades in All Courses
Grades in College Prep Courses
Admissions Test Scores (SAT, ACT)
Rigor/Strength of Curriculum
Essay or Writing Sample
Counselor Letters of Recommendations
Teacher Letters of Recommendations
Student’s Demonstrated Interest
Class Rank
Extracurricular Activities
Subject Test Scores (AP, IB)
Portfolio
Interview
Work Experience
State Graduation Exam Scores
II. Intangibles
Based on my professional experience, connected with visiting colleges and discussions with directors of admissions, there are other factors which we know are just as important and, in some cases, more important than the NACAC Admissions Survey Factors:
College application
Personal Statement
Supplemental essays
Collective interrelationship of all essays
WOW Factor
Attitude
Likability
Etiquette
Character
Grit/Challenge
Confidence
Charisma
Sense of self
Sense of others
Engagement
The unsaid
Conversational Intelligence
Cadence
Transparency
Cultural Intelligence
Cultural Agility
Emotional Intelligence
Uniqueness
Diversity/Inclusion
Family background
Comparative Student Profile Analysis
If you think that getting into your top-choice college is just about having a high GPA, top SAT scores, high grades and a manufactured application and personal statement….THINK AGAIN!
This past year, I received calls and emails from parents whose children were rejected from all colleges to which they applied because they thought the college admissions race was just about grades, SAT scores, their perceived ‘unique’ applications, generic essays and perfect connections.
Here are some actual cases (based on phone calls from disappointed parents).
1. Case one: One student applied to 19 schools (including all the Ivies) and was rejected from 18 schools and waitlisted at local state school where the acceptance rate was 65%.
2. Case two: A suburban public high school in the Northeast where no one (not even the valedictorian) was accepted to the Ivies or BS/MD programs.
3. Case three: Valedictorian (SAT 1580, ACT 36, GPA 4.6 weighted, President and cofounder of non-profit, tutored students, volunteered, shadowed multiple physicians, published two research papers, Science Olympiad, President of Debate team, tennis) – rejected from all Ivy League and BS/MD programs.
4 . Case four: A public high school in Texas. Of the fifteen students who applied to BS/MD programs …ALL were rejected.
Ivy League and highly selective colleges and BS/MD programs use a holistic approach when evaluating applicants for admission. That means admission to these colleges is not based on a simple formula of grades and test scores. Instead, they consider a variety of factors: the student’s academic record, extracurricular interests, intellectual achievements and personal background to decide who will be rejected or accepted.
We understand the holistic approach and prepare our clients using our strategies for admissions success accordingly!
This year, several of our clients were accepted to multiple Ivies and multiple BS/MD programs!
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.
We have had another amazing year! We are so happy for our clients! We did it!
Congratulations to our U.S. as well as international clients who were accepted to the following Ivy League colleges and universities: these colleges and universities! It’s a celebration! Thanks for allowing us to help you stand out and get in!
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Harvard University
Dartmouth College
Princeton University
University of Pennsylvania
Yale University
Special congratulations to our clients who were accepted to multiple Ivies!
You may ask how we can have such great results?Here are some reasons:
My team and our global network of talent including elocutionists, actors, writers, musicians, ethnomusicologists, historians, psychologists, alumni, educators, risk managers, economists, professors, physicians, scientists, linguists, anthropologists, attorneys, essayists, technologists, admissions professionals, analysts, student-interns and librarians bring collaborative and diverse thought, insight, foresight, perspectives and most importantly KNOWLEDGE.
WE ARE THE BEST!: We embrace Empirical Analytics by using data science, technology, client-case studies, campus-expert panels, our specialized knowledge and insight, and over 23 years of experience to answer questions, navigate challenges, predict outcomes, and to help our clients make informed decisions that provide results-based admissions success.
Most applicants to Ivy League schools sound the same! We help you “un-same” your application and stand out!
High School Seniors have received their College Admissions Early Decision/Early Action results. The results are producing a mixture of palpable emotions. While some happy students settle in for the holidays with their acceptance letters in hand, others will be disappointed and distressed in discovering that they have been deferred to theregular decision pool by the college or university. For those who are deferred, their applications will be re-considered along with the thousands of Regular Decision applicants. In the Regular Decision pool, the selection process becomes even more competitive and selective..
With only a few weeks left in the application season, I recommend that students scrupulously reevaluate their deferred early decision/early action application and carefully plan a workable strategy in this crunch-time. You may need to hire an educational consultant who is an expert in post-decision admissions advising. Our team begins to implement a Post-Decision Strategy right away that will continue through regular decision.
For parents who engage our services after the news of deferral, I discover what the student did to be deferred, build upon their current student profile and accomplishments and re-energize their application so that they are removed from the deferred list and placed on the accepted list.
The worst thing a student can do is nothing. What to do next? Now is the time to evaluate and successfully complete the admissions process by looking at your child through a professional lens. The worst thing parents can do is to try this post-decision process on their own.
Through our Knowledge Network, we know that between 5% – 10% of students who are deferred admissions are accepted to the same college Regular Decision. Those are pretty high odds! Based on our experience and 23-years track record of success, 90% of students who approach us and retain us before January 1, after being deferred are admitted Regular Decision.
This is the type of letter you want to receive!
This is how you would like to feel!
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 should be common knowledge by now that using social media to display bad behavior or less-than-insightful opinions is easily discoverable. Yet incidents such as these still occur.
Your social media profile is an important part of your college admissions journey. According to a Kaplan Test survey that polled nearly 300 college admissions officers, 36% of them looked at applicants’ social media profiles on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to learn more about the applicant.
When my team and I visit schools and have discussions with admissions they do admit that they review applicants’ social media platforms. In fact, what students post on social media can greatly affect not only acceptance odds but they can get acceptances revoked if unsuitable and offensive materials are found. When Harvard discovered offensive material being posted to a group chat by incoming freshman, they rescinded acceptance letters to 10 accepted applicants! And in 2019, Harvard rescinded its admission offer to a student who had made racist remarks in private chats and Google Docs two years earlier.
Even if you believe your social media posts are private, think twice about posting questionable entries, even if you’re just trying to fit in or be funny. College admissions officers will not laugh and you definitely won’t “fit in”. Because Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities receive so many qualified applications, they’re typically looking at social media to see if it tips the scales in anyone’s favor. So be careful!
We provide a Social Media Review and Analysis (SMRA) as a part of our comprehensive service for our clients and assist them to develop positive social media profiles so that they can standout during the admissions selection process.
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.
Dr. Lowe and his team of diverse admissions experts provide unrivaled, unmatched and unparalleledadmissions advisory and educational research services for their clients. Most importantly, you work DIRECTLY with Dr. Lowe and get the benefits of his entire team. By working with Dr. Lowe, one-on-one, you work with his reputation, his expertise, his experience and his success!