Dr. Lowe’s Admissions Blog Tag

    Written by - Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe It’s mid-September, and we are currently receiving calls and emails from anxious parent of high school seniors requesting BS/MD Admissions help. Here is the problem for these parents (and students). It’s too late! Valuable and trusted BS/MD help starts as early as middle school prior to high school. The optimum time to hire an educational consultant, who specializes in BS/MD admissions, is sophomore or junior year (when you see that...

  Written by - Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe It is hard to believe that the 2021-2022 boarding school admissions season is just about here! Just 5 months ago our clients were receiving their acceptance notifications to schools like Exeter, Andover, Choate, Deerfield, Lawrenceville, Taft, Deerfield, Loomis, Hotchkiss and similar top schools. We are receiving calls from parents who are inquiring about retaining the services of an educational consultant for direct admissions to the ninth grade or for reapplication...

    Written By - Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe Last year was one of the most competitive years in college admissions history. COVID-19 caused disruption and uncertainty in college admissions. Our admissions team increased our time with clients and brought in additional supportive staff so that they could stand out. Our efforts were well invested in our clients and we have achieved their desired results! We are very pleased and happy to announce our final results for Program in Liberal...

  Written by – Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe It’s that important time of the year for high school seniors as many students are beginning to receive their application decisions. Let's describe each.  ACCEPTED/ADMITTED - You're in! You did it! Congratulation! You have been offered a spot in the incoming freshman class of one or more of the schools on your list. If it's one of your top-choice schools and you have been accepted EA or RD it's great!...

  Written by – Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe Since this summer, we have observed more and more parents establish permanent residences in Fairfield and Westchester Counties. Temporary weekend residences are now becoming permanent residences. Many realtors and relocation experts have been calling us to help their clients meet their educational goals for their children as they are seeking private schools in “Fairchester” (private schools in Fairfield and Westchester Counties). Based on our research, knowledge and professional working-relationships; and...

  Written by – Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe It’s crunch time for BS/MD as well as Ivy League applications. As we help students brainstorm ideas, revise and edit the MOST IMPORTANT APPLICATIONS/ESSAYS of their lives, we are discovering consistent points in their essays that will cause instant rejections. Dr. Paul Lowe would like to share these points. Essays were verbose. Essays were not personal. Essays were boring. Essay did not answer the question. Essays were superficial. Essays were pretentious. Essays contained...

  Written by – Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe It’s Back-To-School season! As we enter the seventh month of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on secondary education, many of our clients, private as well as public school administrators and teachers are reporting to us their potential approaches to education in the current COVID-19 environment. Some parents are forming learning pods. Some parents are hiring tutors to supplement online learning at schools that are fully online. Some parents are forgoing...

  Written by – Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe Now, more than ever, uncertainty surrounds the college admissions process. But you don’t have to navigate these uncharted waters on your own. Dr. Lowe and his team are here to support you and your child in this rapidly evolving landscape. Here are a few reasons why you can count on us: Experience. With so much changing in the college process, it’s more important than ever to have an Admissions Expert,...

  Written by – Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe The Coronavirus pandemic continues to cause unprecedented changes in college admissions. Because schools remain shuttered, high schoolers now lack the in-person help they traditionally could receive from high school counselors to meet critical admissions deadlines and requirements. This situation is exacerbating the already difficult role that school counselors face in providing adequate help with college admissions. There are many high schoolers who have not met with their school counselors and their...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe In a previous PWM blog, “High School Guidance/Counselors/College Admissions: Big Caseloads and Little Time," I discussed the challenging demands of high school guidance and college admissions. Since then, a new report has indicated that public high school students lack quality college counseling. The Hechinger Report states that “many public high schools are scrambling to provide students with even basic information about college after years of belt tightening have drained them of counselors. As...

    By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe By now many people are aware of Operation Varsity Blues. Federal prosecutors allege that William “Rick” Singer touted his knowledge of “the secret of getting into college,” becoming “the mastermind of an enormous, elaborate scheme carried out over years, brazenly paying off coaches and test monitors, faking exam scores and fabricating student biographies – all to help wealthy parents cheat their children’s way into desirable colleges.” Hiring a high-end college admissions...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe In February, Dr. Lowe participated in the Washington International Education Conference located in Washington D.C. Dr. Lowe had the opportunity to meet and network with foreign embassy officials involved with the international education community and discuss boarding school and college admissions. He was also able to discuss the latest information on visa issuance and regulations governing international students in the United States with immigration law firms. During the conference, Dr. Lowe...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe Parents create spread sheets, talk with friends, read books, search websites, form groups to share tips and “sure-fire” methods, try to “chat” with admissions industry personnel, obtain letters of support from VIPs, take copious notes during college tours, and try to gather information from my workshops. For some parents, they discover, when it is too late, that what is really required to help their child with the hyper-competitive college admissions process...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe Many parents, students, guidance/college counselors, and even my fellow educational consulting colleagues are under the belief that college admissions is an exercise in determining the “right fit” and that gaining acceptance into the Ivies and highly selective colleges is just a game of chance and luck. I disagree! In participating in competitions these days, many students (K-12) are taught that everyone wins. With regard to the college admissions process, it is acceptable...

By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe Did you ever wonder why parents pay as high as $60,000 a year for private high school?  Did you ever wonder why the private school admissions process in Manhattan is so hyper-competitive? I am always surprised in my college admissions seminars at parents who assume that it really doesn't matter where their kids attend school when their kid is interested in Ivy League colleges. As many parents suspect, the path to Ivy...

    By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe For years, elite colleges have tried to address a proportional decline of students arriving from areas beyond metropolitan and suburban areas. These colleges have been implementing additional measures to address diversity issues on college campuses. Increasingly, private elite colleges are seeking small-town and rural students.  One thing has not changed with regard to college admissions and diversity. Recent studies by the National Center for Education Statistics have shown that even with...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe The work of selecting students for admissions into colleges and universities is becoming more complex. Each year college admissions officers and their committees review thousands of applications and seek to predict the likelihood of those applicants to meaningfully contribute socially, culturally and personally to their specific college communities.  Ivy League and highly selective colleges use a team review process to holistically evaluate each applicant when creating a particular class during the...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe You may ask yourself, why is a college admissions advisor writing about reading? What does reading have to do with college admissions? Everything! One of the first things I ask my clients is what do you like to read outside the required reading at school. Even the best students have difficulty answering this question. Why is the need to reed important in the college admissions planning process? I just provided...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe 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...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe Several weeks ago the U.S. News World Report published their ranking for best public high schools. Only eight public high schools in Connecticut, including four in Fairfield County made the Top 500 list. Here are the top public high schools in Connecticut which received a gold ranking in the report.         Amistad Academy in New Haven, #1 in Connecticut, #20 in the U.S.  Weston High School, #2 in Connecticut, #231 in...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe “Some of America’s most exclusive colleges are becoming more exclusive” (WSJ – April1-2, 2017). According to recently published data in Business Insider, more qualified students are applying to Ivy League schools. This has resulted in even higher rejection rates for Harvard, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Princeton, Dartmouth and UPenn.  The Wall Street Journal article also reported that even applicants with 4.0 GPAs and SATs greater than 1400 are being rejected. “Competition...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Paul Lowe My team and I personally work with U.S. as well as international families (who reside in the U.S. or are abroad) during the private school application admissions process. We have worked with families from over 130 different countries and on all seven continents. My firm works with families who are interested in top day and boarding schools primarily on the east and west coast. Year after year, I hear about...

By Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe They are all Ivy Leaguers: Matt Damon (Harvard), Emma Watson (Brown), John Legend (UPenn),Julia Stiles (Columbia), Brian Hallisay (Cornell), Conan O’Brien (Harvard), Amanda Peet (Columbia), Ashley Judd (Harvard), Angela Bassett (Yale), Mindy Kaling (Dartmouth), Mira Sorvino (Harvard), Dean Cain (Princeton), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Columbia), Rashida Jones (Harvard), Elizabeth Banks (UPenn), Julie Bowen (Brown), Joshua Redman (Harvard), Wentworth Miller (Princeton), Connie Britton (Dartmouth), Famke Janssen (Columbia), Ron Livingston (Yale), Aisha Tyler (Dartmouth), Bruce...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe On June 23, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its previous rulings that colleges and universities have the right to consider diversity and to include race as a factor in its holistic review process. The Court’s decision empowers colleges and universities to promote both equity and excellence by reducing the role of test scores and other quantitative factors and focusing more on students’ character, qualitative attributes and what I have coined...

  By Dr. Paul Lowe Admissions and Athletic Recruiting Expert You have been playing your sport for 5-10 years and you want to be recruited or even better, recruited and receive that four-year athletic scholarship from a top choice college. Don’t sell yourself short. My advice after 18 years in the college admissions advisory business and constantly talking to college coaches and Athletic Directors is that they are looking for these points:  Ability: Coaches are interested...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe Admissions officers are talented and committed professionals who make decisions based on a comprehensive and holistic understanding of an applicant and how he or she will contribute to their institution’s mission. They are committed to expanding a diverse applicant pool by reviewing every detail of an applicant’s application and supportive documents. Their decisions are based on their perceptions and perspectives of a student, the students’ backgrounds and communities, as well as...

  By Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe As college admissions becomes increasingly more competitive, admissions officers and committees look beyond high GPAs, high standardized test scores, ESEs (expensive summer experiences) and seemingly amazing, but generic essays. Dr. Lowe and his team have developed the Wow Factor Admissions Concept. 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...

By Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe Plan, plan and plan. “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Or as Yogi Berra put it:     Common App. Prepare for The Common App 2016-2017 as soon as your summer vacation begins. Visit colleges. Be sure you have narrowed your choices down to a realistic list. Start your college essays....

By Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe Many students and their parents will be overjoyed when they are accepted into the private school or college of their choice. HOWEVER, for those who are not happy with current educational situations open to them or their children, Greenwich Admissions Advisors can help broaden those horizons. Dr. Paul Lowe, a managing director of both GAA and Private School Admissions Advisors, is well acquainted with elite private schools, Ivy League and highly selective...

By Admissions Expert, Dr. Lowe Dr. Lowe paid one of his many visits to Massachusetts Institute of Technology Admissions Office and the MIT Campus. Dr. Lowe and his team of admissions advisors visit Ivy League, prestigious and elite colleges several times annually where they have the unique opportunity of interacting one-on-one with the director of admissions and senior admissions personnel. MIT is at the center of a growing science, technology, health care, research and business community in...