Education Consulting
Getting into the best universities is never an easy task and careful planning is always the key to success. With a team of top university alumni, we are well-positioned to give useful and constructive advice on further education. We offer services on boarding school and university application, application form and personal statement proof-reading, Oxbridge entrance preparation, mock interviews and intensive training on past written exam papers.
We are connected with MacGregor Education Services Limited, a premier education consulting company in Hong Kong. As a result of this connection, we are strongly linked with hundreds of schools and universities round the globe and are well-positioned to offer one-stop-shop education consulting and tuition to our students and clients. Our education consulting service goes with the following cycle:
We are connected with MacGregor Education Services Limited, a premier education consulting company in Hong Kong. As a result of this connection, we are strongly linked with hundreds of schools and universities round the globe and are well-positioned to offer one-stop-shop education consulting and tuition to our students and clients. Our education consulting service goes with the following cycle:
Portfolio Building
(1 to 3 years before submission of school application)
In order to get into the very top schools and universities, it is not unusual to start preparation work at least one to three years before submitting an application. It would be unwise for one to file a loose application with the belief that he or she could always apply for the second or even the third time if rejected. Places in top schools and universities are highly competitive and admission tutors would have doubts if a candidate could survive the tough academic training coming ahead if he or she was ditched in the first application. First impression is always important and our suggestion is that one should be more than 100% ready before an application is filed. This part of our education consulting service focuses on helping students acquire what admission tutors would like to see in their CVs; outstanding academic results are the keys but evidences of non-academic achievements could also be of importance. To raise a student's academic profile, we help by engaging one in our Oxbridge-Style Tuition programme which is a tailor-made, comprehensive tutorial service that we offer. Rather than being simply a small group tuition service, our programme involves a detailed analysis of students' strengths and assigns suitable tutors to bring the most talents out of them. |
School Selection
(6 months to 2 years before start of school term)
It does not take a long paragraph to explain why selecting the right school or university is crucial: the right one could get one fly while a wrong one could jeopardize one's school-life or even career. To pick the right school, it takes a lot more than simply The Times' rankings or those from USNews. In fact, many parents and students whom we have come across wrongly believe that a good school or university ranking would mean everything and that it would guarantee a place in a top university or a multi-million job. In our view, ranking is nothing more than a piece of information and there are many other factors that one should consider. We have one client who got his son into an elite UK boarding school. Unfortunately, the school that the boy got into did not believe he had the talent to get into top universities and placed him in class B for all subjects. Having realized that his son would never got a chance to get into top universities if he did not make a change, he decided to move his son to another school which had a lower ranking but adopted a warm and friendly study environment. Two years later, he proved himself right and his son got into one of the most sought academic programmes in the world and studied Engineering, Economics and Management at the University of Oxford. This is a real story that happened to our one of our Founder, Mr Gideon Ho. In order to put yourself or your children into the right school or university, you need more than simply extracting information from books or from the internet. Our consulting team is well-connected with and maintained a constant dialogue with top schools and universities around the world. As a result, we have the insider knowledge of which school or university is the best for you or your children. |
Pre-Application Training
(3 months before and, in some cases, after school application)
Similar to portfolio building, our pre-application training involves strengthing a student's academic profile and interview skill. What is different is, at this stage, training has to be specific and catered for a particular school's admission criteria. At school-level, most schools would require a demonstration of skills in English and Mathematics; some would also require a proof of knowledge in a subject that a student is applying to study. At university-level, this stage could involve critical reasoning tests and interviews. Our pre-application training would train up our students up to the academic level that elite schools and universities would generally expect and prepare them for interviews which are often the key to admission especially at university level. As an example of how interview training is, we have seen cases of top students with 5A's in their A-Level get rejected by Oxford and Cambridge due to insufficient interview practices. We have extensive experiences in training our students for Oxford and Cambridge interviews, Cambridge Step Papers, IELTS, Mathematics and IGCSE/GCE Science subjects. An intensive training programme will be designed for our students as soon as we are engaged as your education consultant. Subject to the school or university one applies for, this training programme could be running pre- or post-application. |
School Application
This is the heart of the whole application process. Reviewing a candidate's profile from thousands of miles away, admission tutors have no other source of information except this set of application documents to make an initial assessment and a decision on whether to proceed further or not. A sound application form could get one an interview while a bad one could result in a reject letter. With our experiences and know-how, we know what documents to submit, what information to present, what strengths to emphasis and what potential traps to avoid.
Do you know how many universities you can apply for at one time? Do you know how many London university colleges you can apply for in one application? Do you know how many colleges you can apply in your Oxford or Cambridge application? Do you know the UCAS deadlines for overseas students? If your answer to any one of these questions is NO, leave this job to us and we will get it right for you. At school-level, we often add value by our reputation and school relationship: admission tutors have faith in we will send them the right candidates that they are looking for. At university-level, we add value by guiding one through the whole application process which could be tedious, by short-listing the right programmes through our expertise, by working together to craft an outstanding application form and personal statement and by training you or your children up for any subsequent tests and interviews. Apart from the big points, it is often crucial for you to appoint a consultant as a security checkpoint of your application. We have seen students missing application deadlines leading to delay of university entry; putting wrong university codes in application forms, ending up being offered by Oxford Brookes University instead of Oxford University; and sending applications without confirming receipts by admission tutors, missing out chance to get into top schools. These are little mistakes that could lead to big pains in one's life. |
Pre-departure Brief
Each year, we will organize pre-departure briefings for students who are planning to leave for abroad for their studies. The purpose of the briefings is to help students with their pre-departure preparations and to guide them on how to settle down smoothly after their arrival.
We provide all students with comprehensive pre-departure guides that include program overview, living abroad, currency and bank accounts, climate and travel tips and information on the city and country where the student will be residing. |
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