U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities ranking was just released!
Here are the Top Ten Best:
1. Harvard University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Stanford University
4. University of California, Berkeley
5. University of Oxford
6. Columbia University
7. University of Washington, Seattle
8. University of Washington, Seattle
9. California Institute of Technology (tie)
9. Johns Hopkins University (tie)
As admissions advisor/independent educational consultant, it’s essential to visit colleges and universities to stay in the admissions game. I am proud to say that my team and I have helped our clients gain admissions to Harvard and other top global universities.
Dr. Lowe visiting Harvard College.Dr. Lowe visiting Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Dr. Lowe visiting Columbia University.
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 Brown alumni, Dr. Paul Lowe (Class of 1982) and Dr. Nadine Cartwright-Lowe (Class of 1982 and PLME, Class of 1985), are always pleased to share the positive changes in their alma mater: Brown University and Brown PLME.
Dr. Mukesh K. Jain will lead biomedical research and education at Brown University, and serve as Warren Alpert Medical School dean beginning in March. He is a physician-scientist, cardiovascular specialist and healthcare leader who is currently at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Dr. Jain earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Buffalo and his M.D. from the University of Buffalo School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and fellowships in research and cardiovascular disease at Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Lowe visiting the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown UniversityDr. Lowe visiting his alma mater in front of the Van Wickle Gates.Dr. Lowe with Bruno at Brown University Maddock Alumni Center.
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.
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.
As we enter into the height of the 2021-2022 admissions season, parents are calling and emailing our offices to inquire about our services. They are interested in Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities as well as BS/MD programs. Their focus is on admissions to these schools not the tuition and fees/room and board. Why? Because they are fully aware of the return-on-investment of the degrees from these institutions and BS/MD programs.
Here is a list of figures that represent charges to first-time, full-time undergraduates based on the total of tuition and fees and room and board fees. The data is from a College Board-Annual Survey of College 2020.
Dartmouth College: $77,131
Columbia University: $76,920
UPenn: $76,826
Georgetown: $76.572
Brown: $76,504
Tufts: $76,492
Northwestern: $76,317
Duke: $76,270
Barnard College: $75,524
Boston College: $74,422
URochester: $75,338
Cornell: $75,162
Yale: $74,900
Boston University: $74,712
Carnegie Mellon: $74,474
Johns Hopkins: $74,310
CalTech: $74,199
Stanford: $73,424
RPI: $72,996
Harvard College: $72,391
Drexel: $72,246
Swarthmore: $71,310
MIT: $70,770
With total annual fees exceeding $70,000 per year, you would think that the application numbers would be down. On the contrary, based on our discussion with admissions officers and admissions administrators, we expect the number of applications to these top colleges to increase this year! College applications are expected to increase in these competitive colleges and universities.
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.
The Common Application 2021-2022 will be ready on August 1. Year after year, when parents call us because their children were rejected from their top-choice schools, the first thing I ask is to see their Common Application main essays. I always find egregious mistakes!
Here are 5 mistakes you must AVOID!
Mistake #1: Not answering the question. The admissions committee uses certain essay prompts for a specific reason: They want you to answer it!
Mistake #2: Trying to impress the essay readers. Do not try to impress admissions officers or the admissions committee. They will be able to sense a pretentious, patronizing or even condescending voice beneath descriptions of seemingly philanthropic contributions, grand, earth-shaking events and ontological musings.
Mistake #3: Making an essay into a resume. Many times applicants want to impress readers so much that they completely ignore the essay prompt and make the essay into a list of their accomplishments. Admissions officers and readers dislike redundancy!
Mistake #4: Obtaining “ideas” from websites . Do not copy from other people or download essays! Many students assume that if they copy directly from other people’s work and sources that no one will find out. This assumption is definitely wrong! Don’t you think admissions officers also visit theses websites.
Mistake #5: Picking an inappropriate topic. In an attempt to be clever, many applicants resort to writing an essay that they believe would be witty, overly serious, or flattering. Admissions officers are unimpressed!
Your college essay is the only part of the college application process over which you have complete control. Your essay or essays (short answers included) should capture admissions committees’ imagination and make them want you on their campuses. Missing the opportunity to make this piece of your student profile outstanding is a HUGE mistake and will certainly result in a rejection by top schools.
After years of hard work, you don’t want to make mistakes that can cause you to be rejected!Successful college acceptance results is not just about essay editing revisions. It involves continuous expert advice. We take a comprehensive approach involving student profile development, interview preparation, letter of recommendation assessments and our long standing networks and relationships in the college admissions industry!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.
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.
Teacher recommendations are an important part of the college admissions process. Many colleges and universities require two teacher recommendations.
Letters of recommendation should be from teachers who have taught you in core academic subjects in your junior or senior year. Ideally, they should be from different core subject areas and from teachers who know you well, like you, and are likely to write well. From my discussion with admissions officers, colleges are more interested in obtaining teacher recommendations from instructors that describe your abilities, performance and motivation of success in their classroom and your willingness to work hard as a learner. My discussion with several Ivy League admissions officers revealed that they use teacher recommendations to add a more subjective and personal perspective to their assessment of your qualifications, which can reveal aspects of your personality that don’t always come out on paper.
You should approach your teachers in the early spring of your junior year, or, if you are asking senior teacher, early in the fall of your senior year not only to to give them sufficient time to write the letter, but also because many teachers set limits on how many students they are able to accommodate.
We developed customized steps, our Winning Recommendation Strategies (WRS) for each client so that they obtain excellent teacher recommendations from the right teachers! We are confident that our client’s teachers will write enthusiastically supportive letters of recommendations!
“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.
With record number of students applying to Ivy League schools you may wish to ask WHY the Ivies?
The annual cost to attend (tuition, fees, housing, food, books, misc.) gives pause to many potential applicants: Harvard: $76,479; Brown: $78,688; Princeton: $75,210; Dartmouth: $79,967. So, what’s really happening here? Tuition is rising, yet U.S. as well as international students are competitively applying to these schools. What do these institutions have that others may not? This is a question I hear, year after year, and from several parents in my recent webinar.
Let’s start with the seemingly intangibles:
The institutions have prestigious brands
They have global alumni networks
They maintain international connections on every continent.
And then there is more – money! Or in the non-profit lexicon, endowments (in 2020) for example: Harvard $41.9 billion; Yale $31.2 billion, Princeton $25.9 billion, UPenn: $14.9 billion, Columbia: 41.0 billion, Cornell: $7.2 billion, Dartmouth: $6.0 billion, Brown: $4.7 billion. The Ivies have the financial assets to weather the COVID-19 tsunami and provide top-rate education without any drastic financial cuts.
You might ask why this even matters. Far fewer than 1 percent of undergraduate students at American colleges and universities attend the Ivy League or similarly selective schools. But who gets into these institutions makes a difference for the United States, because their graduates are so overrepresented in our country’s Judicial Branch. Every current Supreme Court justice, save one, attended an Ivy League law school: Justice Alito (Yale), Justice Barrett (Notre Dame), Justice Breyer (Harvard), Justice Gorsuch (Harvard), Justice Kavanaugh (Yale), Justice Kagan (Harvard), Chief Justice Roberts (Harvard), Sotomayor (Yale) and Justice Thomas (Yale).
Several recent U.S. presidents including Donald Trump have been educated, at some point, at an Ivy League school — including Yale double legacy George W. Bush, Bill Clinton (Yale) and Barack Obama (Columbia and Harvard). More than 40 Harvard alumni — either undergrad or graduate — won seats in Congress in 2016. Newly appoint and current Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen Brown (Economics/AB) Yale Economics/PhD).
So why attend an Ivy League university? When you imagine the possibilities, the question should be…”Why not?“
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 Rejectedand 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.
Based on our research and discussions with directors/deans of admissions and admissions officers, regular decision applicants will be receiving their decision notifications in March and early April. It will be another highly competitive year!
Ivy League and highly selective colleges are already reporting a surge in regular decision applications. The reason for this dramatic increase is likely multifactorial. Perhaps, this is primarily because many students who took gap years and are now applying. Additionally, more international students are applying and the prestige and brand of elite colleges is more coveted in a market of uncertainty. Add to these facts many colleges have accelerated planned changes their standardized testing requirements since the start of the pandemic, which has encouraged more high school seniors to apply.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE RESULT? Harvard surged by 42% to 57,000 applicants, Brown surged by 26% to 46,469 applicants and Princeton surged by 15% to 37,000 applicants. The increase in applications has affected the highly competitive schools as well as the institutions that top students usually considered “safety schools”. NYU surged by 20% to 100,000 applicants, UCLA surged by 28% to 139,000 applicants and Colgate surged by 102% to 17,392 applicants (last year Colgate had 8,582 applicants).
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?Within a month or so high school seniors will begin to discover, after all their hard work that they will be accepted, wait-listed or rejected. In this case, many will be rejected! Specifically, based on our projections, over 95% of students who applied to the Ivies will be rejected!
Here are regular decision notification dates (and approximate times) for Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities:
Barnard College: Late March 2021
Boston College: April 1, 2021
Boston University: Late March 2021
Brown University: April 6, 2021
Bucknell University: April 1, 2021
California Institute of Technology: Mid-March 2021
Carnegie Mellon University: April 1, 2021
Colgate University: Mid-March
Columbia University: April 6, 2021
Cornell University: April 6, 2021
Dartmouth University: April 6, 2021
Duke University: Late March, 2021
Georgetown University: April 1, 2021
Georgia Institute of Technology: Late March 2021
Hamilton College: Late March 2021
Harvard University: April 6, 2021
Johns Hopkins University: April 1, 2021
Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Mid-March 2021
New York University: April 1, 2021
Northwestern University: Late March 2021
Princeton University: April 6, 2021
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: March 6, 2021
Stanford University: April 9, 2021
Swarthmore College: Mid-March 2021
Tufts University: Mid-March 2021
University of Chicago: Late March 2021
University of Michigan: Early April 2021
University of Notre Dame: Late March
University of Pennsylvania: April 6, 2021
University of Virginia: April 1, 2021
Vanderbilt University: April 1, 2021
Vassar College: Late March 2021
Villanova University: Late March 2021
Wesleyan University: Late March 2021
Yale University: April 6, 2021
WHAT CAN YOU DO? For seniors, if you are rejected, you may want to begin to consider transferring (College Transfer Admissions Advisors). For current juniors, you may need to consider hiring an admissions expert who specializes in Ivy League admissions (Ivy League Admissions Advisors). Year after year, our clients are accepted to Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities and BS/MD programs because they recognize the importance and the value that we add to their student profile… We are DIFFERENT and that makes us the BEST!
Hire the best admissions expert who is different! Don’t take chances!
Please bookmark this blog. We will update decision dates as soon as we hear from schools!
“Being different and understanding differences allow me to help our clients stand out and be accepted!”– Dr. Paul Lowe
“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?”– Dr. Paul Lowe
“Parents hire us because they choose to pay an admissions expert who will help them avoid making mistakes.”– Dr. Paul Lowe
Dr. Paul Lowe - Admissions Expert 