What does successful academic consulting entail – process and activities

We have helped many families and students living all over the world with their educational needs. As academic specialists, we are always here to answer your questions and help you every step of the way to make that very important decision for your or your child’s future education.

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Student satisfaction with our academic consulting services

PRODIREKT offers counseling services at each level of education – high school, undergraduate and graduate (i.e., master and PhD levels). Many of the families with whom we work for one level of education choose to work with us again. We also have students who for several years learned foreign languages through our Verbalists Language Network, and then came back to continue using the help of our PRODIREKT academic advisers for entering the university studies abroad. These parents and students are our biggest success stories.

We firmly believe that with our extensive experience we can help even the strongest student candidates craft their stories, gain clarity on their strengths versus other applicants, and identify opportunities to strengthen their candidacy before applying.

For every level of education, our complete academic advising process includes the following services:

1. Creating a student profile

This is our most important tool in understanding your needs and goals, and forming students into winning candidates for the schools of their choice. Academic consulting is a partnership and involves a lot of trust on both sides. Our aim is to find out as much about our candidate as possible – academic level, foreign languages skills, favorite subjects, interests in art, music, drama, and sports, if there are any medical problems or learning difficulties, are there friends or family living in the country of the candidate’s future studies, etc.

2. Education planning

After devising a student profile, we will provide a tailored plan to achieve the goal of meeting the admission and study requirements. Depending on education entry levels (high school, undergraduate or graduate studies), the education planning activities may include: choosing appropriate classes and extracurricular activities in the current school to better meet the admission requirements of the desired school, advice on how to prepare for specific tests and examinations (GRE, GMAT, LSAT, and IELTS/TOEFL) and when to take them. In addition, we may suggest summer schools, programs, or activities to improve language skills.

3. Creating a school list

Based upon the student’s profile, her/his preferences and budget, we will generate a list of schools and programs that would be a good fit. Our extensive knowledge of the world’s academic landscape gives us a distinct advantage in choosing schools. We will present the schools to our candidate and help him/her (and the parents) research the schools, and, if needed, organize campus tours and information sessions. After narrowing down the options, we will finalize a list of schools that our candidate will apply to.

4. Applications, CVs, essays/personal statements/motivation letters, recommendations, and mock interviews

We review all application materials to make sure that they effectively present our student’s candidacy.

We will show our student how to create a CV which captures key undergraduate coursework, achievements and relevant work experience.

The college essay/personal statement is one of the most important parts of the application. We will help our candidate develop a meaningful essay that effectively tells his/her story and connect to each individual school. Many of PRODIREKT’s clients have felt that our personal branding work and teaching them how to create unique essays/motivation letters were most beneficial for them.

We will make sure that our applicant takes a full advantage of teacher and/or professional recommendations. We give advice on how to select teachers and work with them to get the maximum value from the letter of recommendation.

Once the application is submitted, through guidance and practice interviews, we help our candidate develop talking points and hone interview skills so that she/he approaches the most dreaded part of the application process with confidence.

5. Enrollment and student life abroad

Our care and advice do not stop once our student is accepted to a particular school. We also provide assistance as our student (and her/his family) prepares for the transition to school, including visa preparation, coursework and meal plan selection, as well as our guidance on other aspects of living in a foreign country. Our goal is that our students have a successful and rewarding experience once they enroll.