Admission consulting services are a combination of customized and specialized guidance & counseling services provided to study abroad aspirants. The basic objective of admission consulting services (also known as premium college admission counseling services) is to improve the applicants’ admission chances to the best possible universities. Opting for independent admission consultants is getting quite popular these days. So, how does the process of admission consulting work and what are the advantages of working with admission consultants? In this article, Susmita Bhowmick speaks about her experience of working with an independent admission consultant.
Unlike conventional study abroad counsellors (overseas education agents), who try to do everything from filling the candidate’s form to helping them with visa applications, admission consultants come in as specialists. The admission consultants also provide the same services from the start (i.e. university selection) to finish, but in a different way.
Admission consulting is not only about placing you in a foreign university. Admission consulting involves career guidance, profile building, and admission counseling to help a candidate realizing his/her potential and achieving the best possible career outcome.
Admission Consulting is about guiding and supporting an applicant by providing the insights, tools, and resources to do all the hard work on your own. Yes, admission consulting does not involve spoon-feeding.
Normally, the traditional study abroad counsellors represent one or multiple foreign universities or colleges, In contrast, admission consultants work independently and do not represent (or try to recruit students) for a particular institute.
Both approaches have their pros and cons. For example, there is always a cost involved when you opt for admission consulting services. After all, the independent admission consultants do not take any referral fees (aka commissions) from the universities. On the other hand, when you opt for conventional study abroad counsellors, you are not always sure if you are getting to the best possible university according to your profile, interests, and career goals due to the obvious issues of commercials involved.
So, are the premium college admission counselling or admission consulting services worth? Read Susmita Bhowmick’s feedback and experience with admission consulting services for Masters in Europe.
Feedback and Experience with Admission Consulting Services for Masters in Europe
by Susmita Bhowmick
Susmita is a B.Tech. Information Technology graduate from the Calcutta Institute of Engineering & Management (Kolkata). Susmita had approached me back in October 2017. She opted for our end-to-end admission consulting services to apply to universities in Germany, Ireland, and Sweden. She is going to join University College Dublin (UCD) very soon. At UCD, she got an admit for MSc Information Systems along with a partial scholarship (UCD Global Tuition Fee Scholarship). Before leaving for Dublin, she shared her feedback and experience with admission consulting services.
How did you find Me or Stoodnt (Online Posts, Blogs or Reference)?
Susmita: An Old friend of mine (College Senior) suggested me to consult with Tanmoy regarding my academic future. I had the opportunity to meet him in person as he was in town and after discussing my opportunities I was satisfied with the outcome and decided to proceed with it.
How was the overall experience of Admission Consulting Services?
Susmita: The Experience was great as I learned a lot in the process that he had undertaken for me starting from university shortlisting to writing SOPs and CVs. His eye for detail and small changes to make an application more compact was helpful. The resources provided by him was wholesome and if you go through it you may find a lot of useful things to improve your understanding.
How did you find the List of Shortlisted Universities?
Susmita: Tanmoy is one of those persons who would shortlist universities based on your interests as well as your future career potential. He was very understanding and patient regarding the process of shortlisting and made sure all my criteria are met.
Feedback on the Guidance on SoP/Personal Statement and Scholarship Essays.
Susmita: He provided relevant resources for all the SOPs and lots of tricks and methods for writing my CV making it compact and sum up all my skills and interests neatly. He understood my requirement well and helped me to bring out the best version of SOPs by providing me relevant papers and contacts of professors in order to extract all the possible information before writing the SOPs which was very helpful. I learned how to tailor every SOP based on the university and the subject I am choosing which is a great help for my future endeavors.
Quite often MS candidates are working professionals. So, they need flexibility (from the consultant) to work on their applications. Your thoughts?
Susmita: In terms of flexibility, I couldn’t have asked for more. He was patient but consistent with all the tasks at hand and always kept in mind the time and schedules and helped us to reach the criteria without much hassle.
Obviously, I was there to support you with your admission journey. But, I didn’t write your essays, SoP or CV. Did you find the process useful?
Susmita: As I mentioned before the process of writing SOPs can be time-consuming and confusing for students regarding what to mention and what not. In this regard, Tanmoy was very helpful to provide a pool of resources for us to learn and help us identify what is the useful information that will be relevant to our interests. He made us correct our own mistakes patiently. He was able to dig up our core interests in the process and helped us reflect on our choices properly.
Stoodnt’s consulting services are not among the most expensive ones in the market, but not too cheap as well. Did you find it reasonable given all the services and support you receive?
Susmita: Any consultation fee based on the financial condition of an individual can be challenging, but while working with Tanmoy I never felt too much pressure. He sorted everything beforehand and was understanding enough to help us anywhere we felt stuck and was willing to provide alternative options to extract most of the benefits from his experience as a student.
According to you, what’s the advantage of working with independent admission consultants (like me)?
Susmita: There will always be some pros and cons of every process you choose. You have to extract the positives over the negatives. Yes, there are many agencies who are willing to provide support and at a lower cost also maybe. But working with Tanmoy I got his single attention to my preferences.
He was dealing with me conveniently, his schedule wasn’t too strict. He was willing to provide support even at odd hours for ensuring the application gets submitted on time. This is what I felt was most beneficial from an independent admission consultant.
His guidance was a perfect balance of a professional and personal support which is often needed by a new student who is willing to take the courage to start a journey that can change their lives in terms of many aspects.
Any advice that you would like to share with the future applicants?
Susmita: My advice will be to choose a guidance counselor (or admission consultant) who is willing to be interested in your choices and willing to walk the extra mile with you like Tanmoy did for many of us. Take the first step of knowing what your skills are and be ready to explore it further. The more you know the better you can get out of the help that will be provided to you. Everything else will fall in place eventually. The first step is maybe the hardest where people like Tanmoy will be a great support to give you the idea of what is possible.
Best wishes,
Susmita Bhowmick
Before You Approach a Study Abroad Counselor or an Independent Admission Consultant
For anyone looking for a consultant should understand that there is no magic in the process. Admission consultants cannot get an average candidate into an Ivy League or Elite school. But, they can suggest things, which transform the applications from average to above-average and good to great. It’s as simple as that.
With increasing competition and decreasing acceptance rates, the admissions are getting pretty competitive at the top foreign universities. There are many areas that Indian applicants miss out on while applying to the graduate programs (MS-PhD) abroad.
Of course, you can work on your applications, and I recommend doing that – research on the internet, and check out various (but credible) education and study abroad portals. But, working with a consultant can certainly improve your chances.
At Stoodnt, we also have got an expert team of international career guidance counselors and admission consultants. If you wish to work with me, feel free to look at feedback from previous successful applicants and reviews on personalized counseling sessions. I would be happy to support you and have you featured in a blog post like this next year 🙂
For anyone looking for a consultant should understand that there is no magic in the process. Admission consultants cannot get an average candidate into an Ivy League or Elite school. But, they can suggest things, which transform the applications from average to above-average and good to great. It’s as simple as that.
With increasing competition and decreasing acceptance rates, admissions are getting pretty competitive at the top foreign universities. There are many areas that Indian applicants miss out on while applying to the graduate programs (MS-PhD) abroad.
Of course, you can work on your applications, and I recommend doing that – research on the internet, and check out various (but credible) education and study abroad portals. But, working with a consultant can certainly improve your chances.
At Stoodnt, we also have got an expert team of international career guidance counselors and admission consultants.
If you wish to work with me, feel free to look at my profile, feedback from previous successful applicants, and reviews on personalized counseling sessions.
I would be happy to support you and have you featured in a blog post like this next year 🙂
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