Our counselling process involves a holistic review of your academic background, work experience, and extracurricular activities in the initial session. We then guide you in selecting a degree aligned with your strengths and aspirations, followed by helping you choose appropriate schools. Recognizing the importance of a compelling CV, we offer expert preparation services to highlight your achievements effectively. While test scores are significant, we emphasize the critical role of essays in your application and provide guidance for crafting impactful statements. For programs requiring interviews, we offer comprehensive preparation to help you confidently showcase your fit and communication skills.
Counselling Session
- Academic Review: We conduct a thorough evaluation of your academic records, including grades, coursework, standardized test scores, and any honours or awards.
- Extracurricular Activities: We assess your involvement in extracurricular activities, leadership roles, community service, and any other significant experiences that demonstrate your skills and interests.
- Career Aspirations: We discuss your long-term career goals and how your education choices can help you achieve them.
- Strengths and Weaknesses Analysis: We identify your strengths that should be highlighted in your applications, as well as any areas that may need improvement. This helps in crafting a well-rounded and robust application.
- Application Timeline: We develop a customized timeline that outlines all key milestones and deadlines in the application process. This timeline helps you stay organized and ensures that you complete all components of your application on time.
Degree Selection
- Personal and Career Assessment: We leverage the learning gained from the previous session of your long-term career goals, personal interests, and academic strengths. This includes discussing your passions, hobbies, and any specific fields of study you are considering.
- Strengths and Preferences: We evaluate your academic performance, skills, and preferences to identify degrees that align with your strengths and areas of interest.
- Degree Options Exploration: We provide detailed information on a wide range of degree programs across various fields of study. This includes understanding the curriculum, specializations, and career opportunities associated with each degree.
- Industry Trends and Opportunities: We offer insights into current industry trends and emerging fields, helping you choose degrees that offer strong career prospects and growth potential.
- Career Pathways Analysis: We analyse how different degree programs can lead to various career paths, ensuring that your choice of degree supports your long-term professional objectives.
- Alumni Success Stories: We share success stories and case studies of alumni who have pursued similar degrees, providing real-world examples of potential career trajectories.
School Selection
- Defining Objectives: We help you articulate clear, specific, and achievable goals for your education and career. This includes identifying your ambitious, competitive, and relatively safe schools and understanding what you aim to gain from your education.
- Aligning Goals with Applications: We ensure that your goals align with the requirements and expectations of your target schools, helping you create a cohesive and compelling application narrative.
- School Selection: Based on your preferred degree programs, we help you identify schools that are renowned for their strengths in those fields. This includes considering factors such as faculty expertise, research opportunities, and campus resources.
- Program Comparisons: We compare different programs to highlight their unique features, such as internship opportunities, study abroad options, and partnerships with industry leaders.
- Location and Lifestyle: We consider practical aspects such as the location of the schools, campus culture, and lifestyle preferences to ensure you choose a degree program where you will thrive both academically and personally.
- Financial Factors: We discuss tuition costs, available financial aid, scholarships, and return on investment for different degree programs, helping you make financially informed decisions.
CV Preparation
- Initial Assessment: We begin with an in-depth review of your academic background, extracurricular activities, work experience, and any other relevant achievements.
- Tailored Approach: Your consultant will work closely with you to understand your unique strengths, goals, and the specific requirements of the programs you are applying to.
- Highlighting Achievements: We help you identify and articulate your most significant accomplishments, ensuring they are prominently featured on your CV.
- Quantifying Success: Where possible, we quantify your achievements to provide concrete evidence of your capabilities (e.g., ‘Improved process efficiency by 5% that reduced turnaround time by 15%’ or ‘Founded a club on campus and increased club membership by 20% YoY for 3 years.’).
- Professional Formatting: We ensure your CV is a single page, professionally formatted, with a clean and organized layout that enhances readability and impact.
- Section Prioritization: We strategically organize sections to highlight the most relevant information first, capturing the attention of admissions officers quickly.
- Examples of sections in an ideal CV are,
- Education: Comprehensive detailing of your educational background, including institutions attended, degrees obtained, majors/minors, and any honours or awards received.
- Experience: Thorough description of your work experiences, internships, and volunteer positions, emphasizing roles, responsibilities, and accomplishments.
- Skills: Clear listing of relevant skills, such as languages spoken, technical abilities, and soft skills that are pertinent to your field of study.
- Extracurricular Activities: Documentation of your involvement in clubs, sports, organizations, and other extracurricular activities, highlighting leadership roles and significant contributions.
- Research and Publications: Inclusion of any research projects, papers, or publications you have been involved in, detailing your role and the impact of your work.
- Draft Review: We provide thorough reviews of your CV drafts, offering constructive feedback and suggestions for improvement.
- Editing and Proofreading: Your consultant will meticulously edit and proofread your CV to ensure it is free of errors and presents a polished and professional image.
Letters of Recommendation
- Identifying the Right Recommenders: We help you choose recommenders who can provide the most powerful and relevant insights into your abilities and achievements. This often includes professors, lecturers, mentors, supervisors, or others who have observed your academic, work, or extracurricular performance.
- Building Strong Relationships: Guidance on how to build and maintain positive relationships with potential recommenders well before the application deadlines.
- Communicating Your Needs: We assist you in effectively communicating your needs and the key points you would like your recommenders to highlight. This ensures that their letters align with your overall application narrative.
- Providing Context: Supplying recommenders with necessary context, such as the specific programs you are applying to and your career aspirations, to help them tailor their letters accordingly.
- Key Points to Highlight: We advise your recommenders on the critical elements to include in their letters, such as your academic strengths, leadership qualities, personal integrity, and examples of your accomplishments.
- Strengths and Examples: Encouraging recommenders to provide specific examples and anecdotes that illustrate your strengths and contributions, making the letters more vivid and convincing.
- Draft Review: In cases of non-confidentiality, we offer to review drafts of recommendation letters to ensure they are well-written, coherent, and effectively highlight your attributes.
- Constructive Feedback: Providing constructive feedback to recommenders to enhance the clarity, impact, and overall quality of their letters.
Essay/Statement of Purpose
- Personal Reflection: Over a call, we guide you through a series of reflective exercises to help you identify meaningful experiences, achievements, and values that can serve as the foundation for your essays.
- Outline Development: We help you create detailed outlines for your essays, organizing your thoughts and ensuring a logical flow of ideas. This structure serves as a roadmap for writing a coherent and impactful essay.
- Storytelling Techniques: Guidance on using storytelling techniques to make your essays more engaging and memorable. We emphasize the importance of showing, not just telling, your experiences and achievements.
- Initial Drafts: Support in writing the first drafts of your essays, ensuring that your voice and personality shine through. We focus on capturing your unique perspective and making a strong initial impression.
- Content Feedback: Detailed feedback on your drafts, highlighting areas of strength and providing suggestions for improvement. We focus on enhancing clarity, coherence, and the overall impact of your essays.
- Revisions: Assistance with revising your essays based on feedback, ensuring that each subsequent draft is more polished and compelling than the last.
- Language and Style: Guidance on refining your language and style to ensure your essays are articulate, professional, and free of grammatical errors. We help you strike the right balance between formal and personal tone.
- Proofreading: Thorough proofreading of your final drafts to eliminate any remaining errors and ensure your essays are perfectly polished.
- Consistency Check: Ensuring that your essays are consistent with the rest of your application, reinforcing your overall narrative and presenting a cohesive picture to admissions committees.
- Expert Insight: Your consultant understands what admissions committees are looking for and can help you craft essays that stand out.
- Personalized Approach: We tailor our guidance to your unique experiences and goals, ensuring your essays reflect your individual story and aspirations.
Interview Preparation
- Interview Formats: We explain the different types of interview formats you might encounter, including one-on-one interviews, panel interviews, group interviews, and virtual interviews.
- Interview Expectations: Guidance on what admissions committees are looking for during the interview, including key qualities and attributes they seek in candidates.
- Strengths and Weaknesses Assessment: We conduct an initial assessment to identify your strengths and areas for improvement in interview settings.
- Customized Strategy: Develop a personalized interview strategy that highlights your strengths and effectively addresses any potential weaknesses.
- Effective Responses: We teach you how to structure your answers using techniques such as the STARR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result, Reflection) to provide clear and concise responses.
- Realistic Simulations: We conduct one mock interview per school that simulates the actual interview experience, tailored to the specific schools and programs you are applying to.
- Varied Questioning Styles: The questions we ask range behavioural and situational questions to more traditional interview questions.
- Constructive Feedback: At the end of the mock interview, we provide detailed feedback on your mock interview performances, highlighting both strengths and areas for improvement.
- Body Language and Presentation: We also highlight non-verbal communication, including body language, eye contact, and overall presentation, to ensure you convey confidence and professionalism.
- Storytelling Techniques: Help you incorporate storytelling techniques to make your answers more engaging and memorable, showcasing your experiences and achievements effectively.
Miscellaneous Queries (Visa/Accommodation)
- Country-Specific Guidance: We provide information on the visa requirements for your destination country, ensuring you understand the necessary documentation and eligibility criteria.
- Checklist Creation: We help you create a comprehensive checklist of required documents, including proof of admission, financial statements, passport, photographs, and any additional paperwork.
- Accommodation Types: Provide information on various types of accommodations, including university dormitories, private apartments, shared housing, and homestays.
- Location Analysis: Help you choose accommodation options based on proximity to your campus, safety, amenities, and budget.