Initial Consultation and Assessment

The first step at Educated Minds is a face-to-face meeting with our Consultants to understand the family and student’s goals.

It is during this meeting that we can also help you to work out how we can be of the most help.  We tailor our services and packages to the individual, so that we can maximise our value to you.

In subsequent meetings, we learn more about the student, their background, personality and character.  Through our discussions and reviewing their activities, academic results and interests, we continue to assess their strengths and areas of weakness, and identify alternative paths for students, with parental support, to work towards.

One of the key philosophies of Educated Minds is student participation throughout the entire process – after all, it’s their future!  We provide structure, guidance and help to ensure that the quality of the essays and applications are the best that they can be, but we cannot write the essays or applications for the student.  Their answers come from their unique experience and the heart; and it is these answers that are most appreciated by the admissions counsellors. When their hard work and effort is rewarded and recognised by the universities, it is their achievement.  We stress that the parent's satisfaction will come with the student achieving acceptance from the university of their dreams.

Following the initial meeting, we provide in-depth advice and guidance on a wide range of issues:

Creating a Strategy:

We work together with parents and the student to formulate a pragmatic and effective strategy to best achieve the end goal, whatever that may be.  Our advice will vary depending on the age of the student, and how much time the student has before it is time to start making university applications. Other elements include:

- Which colleges to apply to? The decision will be the result of many factors including geography, subjects, environment, present and predicted academic achievements, financial and more.

- When to apply – Early Decision?  Common Application?

The Application:

 Each college application is labour-intensive and requires careful thought, planning and drawing out that creative spark that will help the application stand out from others under review.

By working with the student, we help them to brainstorm ideas for essays and act as a sounding board so that they can structure their ideas.  We have found that the students always have good, creative ideas on how to answer essay questions; sometimes they just need an objective ear to help them go through what they have been considering to help them get over their writers block.

Once the essays have been written, we work with the student to edit the essays until everyone is happy with them. 

Essays are the most creatively challenging part of the application process, while other parts of the process require organisation to make sure everything is properly filled out and that the application is complete.  We perform final reviews and checklists of the applications with the student.

Interviews:

We provide comprehensive interview coaching that involves more general discussion of what to be conscious of (such as body language), practice questions and scenarios, right through to what is appropriate clothing for the interview. 

This can also be useful for students who have interviews with colleges or summer internships and, eventually, jobs.  For many, a good interviewing style is an acquired skill, and we believe it is never too early to start practicing.

OUR FEES

We tailor our packages based on the individual and the packages we recommend may be on an hourly basis, by topic (such as interviewing), or an unlimited comprehensive package.  We prepare a recommendation following the initial consultation and assessment. 

Please feel free to contact us directly for more information.