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Parents and Students are invited to fill out a detailed (and lengthy) questionnaire. We look at everything: academic, non-academic, personal circumstances.

We review the responses ahead of the strategy call, to utilize as much of the call on ‘advanced’ topics, yielding as substantive a discussion as possible.

This call gives us crucial information about the student: temperament and working style, goals, strengths and weaknesses. We consider it all as we develop a battle plan for next steps.

We now have a sense of the baseline, along with a sense of how to measure success along the targets we establish. This is where we put the theory into something that’s concrete, and gives us a crucial (and focusing) starting point.

Alignment is extremely helpful. We invite any parents who would like to review the proposed gameplan into a discussion before we lead the charge the rest of the way.

Each tier of service includes a bucket of hours that are formal ‘consultation’ hours. Some clients utilize all of these hours on meetings. Others split this between meeting time, and other support that might include offline support from your consultant.

Students fill out a detailed (and lengthy) questionnaire. We want to know about motivations, passions, hobbies, personal stories, strengths, weaknesses, and much more. This helps us focus our strategy as we start to move toward developing a clear differentiation strategy. Our popular SPARC™ methodology is seamlessly integrated into this kickoff effort.

We then study the responses carefully, along with the SPARC™ results, to begin developing an initial strategy for where to spend time, and how to spend that time most effectively. This is Part I of the most pivotal phase of opening diagnostics and synthesis effort.

The strategy and planning meeting is the crucial second half of the Competitive Edge Positioning process. Over a deep dive phone call, we chat with the student to develop a clear plan: we should be able to determine the student’s ideal application angle after asking the right questions and having an open and honest dialogue.

Using our Echelon Mapping Methodology, combining a proprietary formula with decades of raw experience, we synthesize information about the student to help determine an approach to school selection that includes recommendations for Safety, Match, and Reach programs. This list is meant to ensure an admit, while opening the skies to reaching as high as possible. This balance is not easy, but is fundamental to our ethos. Next we synthesize the overall ‘throughline’ strategy (Branding), to serve as a focusing object to develop an application that is (1) coherent and (2) maximally competitive. Finally, we establish a timeline to help frame the overall effort, with big milestone goals, along with smaller ones. This gives us an essential starting point, which we will update as we make progress.

With Standard Benchmarking, we provide the ‘cipher’ for you to focus your specific school selection efforts, enabling you to make the most appropriate choices based on criteria that is important to you (location, cost, etc.). With the Detailed Target School List Report, we take it one step further and make specific school recommendations for each tier (Safety, Match, Reach).

“Measure twice, cut once.” Before we sign off on an essay to enter our exhaustive iterative drafting process (a process which involves our essay analysis specialists), we first assess the readiness of the student’s proposed essay, wherever the student is in the process. Some students know exactly what they wish to write about, others are considering a few options, others benefit from a sounding board for ideas, while others are simply stuck. Regardless of the circumstance, we consider not just the Essay Topic, but also the Essay Modality (think ‘genre’). The winning combination must be perfectly aligned with what will bring out the best in each individual applicant.

Next to the strategic work we perform at the beginning of each service, the Essay Analysis / Iterative Drafting phase is the most transformative work we do together. Over the course of four-to-five rounds of analysis and feedback, we help students transform raw essays into crisp, persuasive, and authentic works ready for submission. This process requires mastery along two key dimensions: (1) Diagnosis – astutely ascertaining which aspects of the student’s essay are strong/weak, logical/illogical, viscerally moving/flat, etc., and (2) Actionable Feedback – making effective suggestions that inspire students to rewrite and rephrase their work in a manner that both improves their effectiveness, but also (crucially) preserves their authentic voice. Failure along either dimension can be critically damaging to the process. The experience and skill level of our Consultants and Essay Specialists here is peerless.

An innovative creation from the Admissionado Labs! Utilizing all the input from the student thus far into the process, we also present the student with one additional task: answer three carefully curated questions in video form. We do this for a few reasons: (1) It allows the student to convey their personality more directly than through the written word; (2) It provides an opportunity for students to explore ideas and topics that might become relevant in the essay writing phase; (3) Forcing the student to convey complex thoughts into a compressed time frame is excellent training for effective communication. Our committee of three reviews the candidate alongside a handful of other candidates (prior admits as well as waitlists as well as rejections), to facilitate a blind, comparative analysis, i.e., a simulation of how the decision-making process works in reality. Three scores are committed first, followed by a dialogue to consider the candidate in a frank and qualitative manner. The highlights of this conversation are then passed back to the main consultant. In order to make the dialogue as honest and constructive as possible, we do not disclose the results of the internal dialogue.

For the first three schools of a multi-school campaign, we involve a Blind Reviewer from the team to provide an objective assessment of the student’s main essays, along with all other materials collected to-date. We have developed a tactical conceit for the Auditor to approach these essays under the hypothetical premise that the student’s application has been rejected: the job of the Auditor is to explain why. This methodology provides the sharpest insights with actionable feedback to the Primary Consultant to illuminate opportunities for potential improvement with ample time still remaining in the process.

We can provide guidance on choosing recommenders, as well as strategies for approaching and soliciting recommendations themselves. In instances where recommenders are open to feedback, we provide high-level guidance to students and/or directly to the recommenders. The preferences of the recommenders are critical, and we will only provide feedback given appropriate consent. Letters of Recommendation Support includes up to two rounds of light-touch feedback.

When interviews are offered by target schools, we help prepare students over the course of two meetings. We begin cold (on purpose) with a Mini-Mock Interview, followed by tailored preparation tactics, key considerations, and a review of commonly asked questions. In our experience, the strongest lessons are forged with this “cold call”-inspired step. We then follow up with a second meeting where we conduct a formal Mock Interview followed by targeted feedback.

In addition to the process included in Standard Interview Prep, we include one additional Blind Interview from a second expert on the team who does not have access to any prior history or details of the client. We do this to simulate a truly unbiased interview. In this scenario, our Blind Interviewer can offer objective feedback (internally) on the student’s performance and profile strength. We begin the process with this Blind Interview, and then use the feedback from this session to provide a roadmap for improvement for the subsequent Mock Interview process with the student’s primary consultant.

We provide high-level guidance on the Activities List. We make recommendations on inclusions, exclusions, and wording choices when appropriate. This includes two light-touch rounds of feedback.

Typically, consultants will review the main application form (over a shared screen, never controlling the application itself for obvious ethical reasons) and support in areas where we can reasonably add value. This takes place over one phone call, or via email if students are more comfortable collating specific questions in written form.

After decisions are rendered, we provide one additional strategy session if students or parents require assistance on deferrals, or if choosing from multiple admits (we hope this is the case!).

In instances where additional support is required for Waitlists, we provide guidance on next steps and when appropriate “Letters of Continued Interest” (or the equivalent), with up to two rounds of targeted feedback.

We are available via email from the start of the engagement through to the end.

Our objective is to provide oracle-level guidance. If that requires phone calls, we’ve got you. While technically not unlimited (some will abuse this), we still want it to feel as though you always have access when needed and warranted. We can help manage expectations regarding how much phone access to expect for each tier, and we invite you to discuss this with us ahead of time! We say it often: alignment is crucial, and we want our approach to exceed your expectations. Let’s get on the same page!

For students who might benefit from additional time with their consultant (usually in the area of help with project management, staying on task, regular check-ins, etc..) we provide the option of adding blocks of hours (three hours per block). The Platinum package includes six hours as a starting point. Otherwise, you can add as many 3-hour blocks as needed. We can assist in helping you choose the right number of hours needed based on your timing, as well as your individual preferences.