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The college admissions process is not magic. Admissions offices are not “black boxes” whose inner workings are entirely mysterious. Although precise formulae and particular considerations may be proprietary to each institution, there’s one thing all universities have in common: your application is read by human beings. Our philosophy begins with this simple fact.
First, we know there is a difference between what admissions officers say and what they actually think. There are certain things they’re not allowed to say, or would be embarrassing and/or politically incorrect to say. Background and culture come into play. We are sensitive to the needs of various communities within the United States and around the world, and importantly, how they tend to be perceived by those on admissions committees.
Second, we are extremely detail-oriented and make sure your application is free from spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation errors. Many people, especially those who read hundreds or even thousands of essays, can be extremely judgmental about little things like spelling errors, and those kinds of errors can “tank” your application. We are familiar with the differences between American, Canadian, U.K., and Indian English, and can help tailor your essays and application materials for the appropriate audience. We know the types of errors non-native English speakers tend to make. For example, students from China often have trouble with choosing the appropriate article and using plurals correctly, and students from Spanish-speaking countries tend to string sentences together in long chains. We not only remedy these issues, but we also educate our customers so they can succeed academically.
Third, we offer experience. We hire consultants who have graduated from and/or worked in the admissions offices of prestigious institutions in the United States. They’re familiar with the process and know what it takes to get in.
Fourth, we leverage our network to get plenty of help from outside. Our board of advisors are not employees of IvyAchievement, but they provide us with valuable advice and connections, and are sometimes available to provide advice if your interests specifically match up with theirs. Together, they have degrees from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Oxford, Cambridge, and Berkeley, with more likely to come.
IvyAchievement offers substantive services before you pay a single dollar, rupee, yuan, won, or euro. New customers have the option of getting a free four-point review or 10 minutes of consulting time via Skype, phone, or messaging service. If you decide you’d like to pay for IvyAchievement’s services, you can purchase a package or “pay as you go” for individual services like essay reviews or consulting time. Packages will save you money in the long run, but purchasing individual services will give us a chance to show you that we’re the “real deal.”
We also have a sliding scale for many of our services. The price we quote is dependent on the amount of work that needs to be done. Almost all of our competitors charge a flat rate per essay, and most even require that you pay them before they even look at your essay. You’ll be ripped off if your essay just needs revisions that will take a few minutes. Sometimes an essay doesn’t need any improvement and we will honestly say so, and we will offer just a proofread to make sure it is 100% free of errors. We’ve had many satisfied paying customers, but there are many satisfied people who have never paid us anything. The people who do purchase services provide enough revenue to compensate for the time we spend helping people for free. We believe this business model offers the maximum benefit to everyone and provides a much better value than any of our competitors’.
Despite our business being called “IvyAchievement” and our focus on the most prestigious programs (with which we are very knowledgable), we do not discriminate based on target school. We’ve helped law students get into second-and third-tier law schools, and we’ve helped Americans in community colleges get into mid-tier four-year state programs, for example. Plus, you can submit an essay completely anonymously (all you need is a valid return email) and you don’t have to tell us where you’re applying. If we get a 650-word Common App essay, for example, we will have no idea where you’re applying, but we will provide a review nonetheless. Telling us where you’re applying can help us provide more targeted feedback (such as if your choice of topic is especially good or bad for a particular school), but it’s not necessary.