We live in a competitive world. As an admissions advisor, founder and CEO of my firm, I approach admissions as a non-formulaic, competitive sport. It’s about WINNING!
In the ever-changing admissions environment (like sports), there are always uncertainties, unintended consequences and unintended outcomes. As a physician-scientist/admissions advisor using knowledge-intelligence, insight, foresight, experience, networking and research, I leave nothing to chance thereby increasing the probability for positive outcomes and RESULTS!
We provide each of our clients with a WINNING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE to be accepted to their 1st choice schools.
After all, in competitive admissions like sports and academic/scholastic competitions, there are no second places….only FIRST places!
Year after year, U.S. as well as international parents who choose to retain us WANT their children to WIN!
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.
It is hard to believe that the 2024-2025 boarding school admissions season is here! Just 4 months ago our clients were receiving their acceptance notifications to schools like Exeter, Andover, Choate, Deerfield, Lawrenceville, Taft, Loomis, Hotchkiss and similar top schools.
We are receiving email inquiries and phone calls from parents who are inquiring about retaining the services of an educational consultant for direct admissions to the ninth grade or for reapplication (because their child was rejected or waitlisted during the last admissions cycle). Many parents who called us were quite surprised when their child was either outright rejected or placed on (perpetual) waitlists last season.
It’s important to note that this admissions cycle (2024-2025) will be hypercompetitive (domestic applications are expected to increase). Why? Because more parents became aware of the benefits and multiple advantages of a boarding school education for their children. Additionally, because of the high number of those rejected (and placed on waitlists) during the last admissions cycle, more students are reapplying for ninth grade as well as 10th grade spots, especially to top boarding schools.
Many parents who believed that their child would be elevated from the waitlist will now have to reapply in 2024-2025 admissions season.
Successful boarding school admissions requires proficiency and experience to understand how to manage risks, navigate pitfalls and design the right admissions strategies. Most importantly success in the admissions process requires an understanding of the admissions policies and professionals who are making admissions decisions – in other words an admissions expert.
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
Lawrenceville is one of the Ten Schools and what makes it unique among other elite New England schools is that it is only one hour from Manhattan. Its enrollment is 818 students, but appears as a smaller school because of its unique house system. The Lawrenceville School sits on more than 700 beautiful acres in suburban New Jersey
Lawrenceville is one of the most prestigious, elite and highly selective boarding schools in the world. Its acceptance rate is 19%.
What are Dr. Lowe’s clients saying about Lawrenceville?
“I really enjoy the house system.” – Junior-student
“My daughter transitioned from middle school to Lawrenceville. The Harkness method of teaching keeps classes small and interactive.” – Parent of a freshman
“Dr. Lowe helped through the entire boarding school application process. My son was accepted Lawrenceville! He is now at Columbia.” – Parent of a graduate of Lawrenceville
Lawrenceville’s college matriculation rate to Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities is high. Here is a list of colleges/universities attended over the past five years.
Brown (22)
Carnegie Mellon (13)
Columbia (26)
Cornell (32)
Dartmouth (17)
Georgetown (41)
Harvard (26)
MIT (9)
Princeton (39)
Stanford (11)
Tufts (23)
University Chicago (21)
UPenn (40)
Yale (25)
Last year (2023), all of our U.S. as well as international clients who applied to Lawrenceville were accepted. Congratulations to all!!
Dr. Lowe and his team physically visit schools and actively interact with school admissions personnel, senior administrators and students. My clients are, therefore, placed in the most appropriate school for their (and their parents’) happiness. My approach ensures that your child will be placed in the best and most appropriate top-choice 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 affiliates, New Jersey Admissions Advisors and Private School Admissions Advisors / Boarding School Admissions Consultants help students gain admissions to elite private schools in Manhattan and surrounding areas. Dr. Lowe and his team of admissions advisors also visit prestigious and elite private schools where they have the unique opportunity of interacting one-on-one with heads of schools, directors of admissions and senior admissions personnel. Dr. Lowe provides parents with the knowledge they need to decide where there children should attend and the admissions strategies they need to be admitted into their top-choice school.
Being thorough and particular when evaluating a private school choice is extremely important for parents. But one thing is certain…the competitive private schools will be equally as picky when choosing your child as a member of its incoming class. Private schools have been using the traditional academic criteria of SSAT/ISEE and grades for a number of decades. However, admissions personnel have long recognized that these cognitive measures are limited in their ability to predict a student’s fit in their schools’ community and program. Increasingly, they are determining how to accurately evaluate character attributes of a student as a factor in private school admissions.
Numerous traits were evaluated and discussed by admissions professionals participating in think tanks and summit meetings regarding admissions and character. Character attributes were then rated according to importance. Among these character attributes, honesty, integrity, empathy, curiosity, creativity, teamwork, adaptability, resilience, community, generosity, self-control, adaptability and optimism were included on the list of the most important.
Each institution considers the positive attributes in the light of the goals of the school with regard to their students’ success. They have spent the last several years determining the best way to evaluate students’ character attributes during the admissions process.
Intended to complement the cognitive measures currently assessed in the admission process, the Character Skills Assessment (CSA) which is a non-cognitive assessment offers insights into an applicant’s character attributes and adds great value to the holistic evaluation of applicants.
This assessment is intended to provide a complete and comprehensive picture of each applicant, providing insight into important issues of character that currently are often difficult to evaluate. Schools will use these assessments to make even better-informed decisions.
By understanding CSA, helping students and parents develop meaningful and compelling student essays and parent statements, reviewing applications, providing mock interviews, and developing continual private school admissions strategies, Dr. Lowe’s clients are accepted to top U.S. private schools, including: Lawrenceville, Exeter, Andover, Choate, Deerfield, Loomis, St. Paul’s, Hotchkiss, Taft, Hackley, Masters, Groton, Middlesex, Kent, Milton, Thacher and Cate.
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
Many U.S. as well as international middle school and high school students are actively involved and compete in tennis as an interscholastic sport. As result, many parents seek boarding schools that support the tennis scholar-athlete. Many universities including, Duke, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Sanford University, have tennis teams and are actively seeking tennis players!
Here is a list of top boarding schools with tennis programs.
Phillips Academy Andover
Phillips Exeter Academy
Lawrenceville School
The Taft School
Deerfield Academy
Choate Rosemary Hall
St. Paul’s School
The Loomis Chaffee School
The Hill School
Hun School of Princeton
The Frederick Gunn School
The Masters School
Middlesex School
The Thacher School
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
Since March 10th, my firm has been inundated with continuous inquires (phone calls and emails) from stunned and stressed-out parents because their children are wait-listed. Many of the inquiries are from parents whose children have been wait-listed from ALL schools to which they applied!
More families are choosing boarding schools for their children; thus, the competition has increased. Boarding schools that were competitive are now hyper-competitive and schools that were marginally competitive are now competitive. We have observed an increase in applications (and therefore waitlisted applicants) in top U.S. boarding schools. Choate, Andover, Ext
WAIT-LISTED means that “we love your child, but we don’t have spot available today, tomorrow or perhaps never”. Two factors are important to consider:
SOMETHING WASN’T RIGHT in your child’s application process. Parents make a lot of mistakes on their child’s application.
In this hypercompetitive environment, in many cases, wait-listed may be “forever”. Top schools rarely “reject” students outright. The outcome, however, remains unchanged…a perpetually waitlisted student has not been accepted and will not have a place in their private school of choice.
Many parents are mistakenly drawing from their skills as corporate executives, tiger moms, financiers, etc. rather than accepting the benefits of a consultant’s professional skills and years of experience in private admissions diplomacy. An understanding of real-time changes, as well as nuances particular to each school at a particular point in time are important for successful outcomes in private school admissions to top schools. Many parents also fail to fully appreciate and understand the human element of diplomacy in the selection process and decisions in private school admissions. As a result, after the waitlist, they reapply again only to be waitlisted AGAIN.
When parents call our firm to inquire about our services, they engage us because they understand the importance of investing in their child’s educational future. The successful outcome is invaluable and preferable compared to the prospect of their child being waitlisted again and again and again.
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
Many U.S. as well as international middle school and high school students are actively involved and compete in lacrosse as an interscholastic sport. As result, many parents seek boarding schools that support the lacrosse scholar-athlete. Many universities including, Duke, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Sanford University, have lacrosse teams and are actively seeking lacrosse players!
Here is a list of top boarding schools with lacrosse programs.
Phillips Academy Andover
Phillips Exeter Academy
Lawrenceville School
The Taft School
Deerfield Academy
Choate Rosemary Hall
The Hill School
Hun School of Princeton
The Frederick Gunn School
The Masters School
Middlesex School
The Thacher School
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
Applying to top boarding schools is anxiety-ridden and filled with uncertainties. I often hear of the mistakes parents (and their children) make during the process when they call me regarding what to do after their child has been waitlisted or rejected from their top-choice schools.
When I ask if they had hired an admissions advisor who specializes in top boarding schools the answer is always no. The next question they ask is about price. Here is the conundrum: By not hiring a qualified private school expert they have essentially saved tuition payments to their intended top school.
Here is a list of advantages of hiring a boarding school expert:
Boarding school experts have personal and current specialized knowledge of the educational missions of boarding schools and how to find one that would be a good fit for you and your family.
Boarding school experts know that the devil is in the details; they continually visit schools to gain first-hand experience and insight of each school’s unique perspective and workings.
Boarding school experts know what questions to ask you to assess how your application should be framed to demonstrate your child’s uniqueness, as well as how to manage themselves during their school visits.
Boarding school experts assist families with school applications and review.
Boarding school experts provide mock interview prep sessions for parent and student interviews.
Boarding school experts have the unique opportunity to learn from and interact one-on-one with the heads of schools, directors of admissions and senior admissions personnel.
Boarding school experts understand the diplomacy and advocacy needed for their clients.
It’s your child’s education and future, don’t make the mistake of betting incorrectly. Hire an expert! Our clients are accepted into Andover, Exeter, St. Paul’s, Lawrenceville, Deerfield, Choate, Loomis Chaffee, Hotchkiss, Taft, Kent to name a few. We must be doing something right!
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
It’s a new year and we have observed trends throughout last year that have continued into this year in boarding schools and admissions.
Here are some highlights of trends in 2023 that U.S. and international families may need to follow in 2023.
Median enrollment for boarding schools are on the rebound and increasing. As a result, admissions to schools will continue to be competitive.
Admissions emphasis on “Character”: Schools are increasing using Character Skills Assessment (CSA) which will offer insights into an applicant’s character attributes and add great value to the holistic evaluation of applicants to make informed admissions decisions of applicants.
Top boarding schools continue to expand: Schools continue to build more buildings and facilities to accommodate students.
Top 5 U.S. Boarding High Schools: The top 5 U.S. boarding high schools – 1. Andover, 2. Exeter, 3. St. Paul’s, 4. Lawrenceville, and 5. Choate. Over the past 5 years, these schools have been sending 25-30 students each year to Ivy League colleges and universities.
Successful boarding school admissions requires expertise and experience to understand how to manage risks, navigate pitfalls, design the right admissions strategies, and most importantly understand the admissions policies and professionals who are making admissions decisions. In short, it requires an admissions expert.
Parents need a trusted resource to help them navigate the fast-paced and highly-selective admissions process!
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
Many U.S. as well as international middle school and high school students are actively involved and compete in equestrian as an interscholastic sport. As a result, many parents seek boarding schools that support the equestrian-athlete. My team and I specialize in helping parents who desire boarding schools that have specialized extracurricular programs as well as academically challenging.
Here is a list of top U.S. boarding schools with equestrian programs:
Taft School
Loomis Chaffee
Kent School
Canterbury School
Dana Hall School
The Ethel Walker School
The Thacher School
Paul Reginald Lowe is the managing director and lead admissions expert at Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group’s Boarding School Admissions Consultants, an affiliate of Private School Admissions Advisors. Dr. Lowe specializes in providing exclusive concierge-type admissions advisory services for U.S. and international students who are interested in applying to top U.S. boarding schools. Dr. Lowe helps U.S. and international students gain admissions into top U.S. boarding schools even after they have been wait-listed and rejected.
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!
Dr. Paul Lowe - Admissions Expert 