Our Services
Our passion and commitment at Academic Consulting Services is to provide an affordable comprehensive package of academic strategies and services that help students gain admission to the college or university of their choice. While we work with students from 9th to 12th grades, it's never too late to take advantage of our services. The earlier we can work with the students, the more we can increase their chances of being admitted to their preferred school.
Academic and Extracurricular Advising
Academic Consulting Services (ACS) is not a one-size-fits-all service. Your ACS consultant will develop, review and consistently adjust your four-year plan – a plan that outlines your class schedule and extracurricular involvement over the four years of high school.
A comprehensive four-year plan will help you build and protect a strong class rank and will ensure your academic performance accurately represents your academic ability. The Four-Year Plan is dynamic. As you progress throughout your high school career, your ACS consultant will adjust your plan to best suit your needs.
The four-year plan involves the following:
- Doing research on your high school
No two high schools are the same. They vary widely, from courses offered to the method of determining class rank. To maximize your performance, your advisor will analyze your high school curriculum to ensure you take advantage of the best opportunities your school offers.
Research items include:
Course offerings
Grading system
Ranking system
School-specific academic recognitions and honors.
- Identifying your academic strengths
Are you a Math/Science person, or and English/History person? Or are you both? Given your academic strengths, simply loading up on all Advanced Placement courses may not be the wisest plan. Avoiding academic weaknesses is just as important as emphasizing strengths. We will guide you through this process.
- Developing the extracurricular profile
It is no longer enough just to get good grades. There are too many other variables and questions to consider. It is for this reason that we work with our students to identify extracurricular interests and how best to pursue them in a way that highlight their skills and talents.
Test Preparation
Many universities require college entrance exams including the SAT I, SAT II subject tests, ACT and/or the TOEFL (Test of English as a foreign language). For international students who want to pursue higher education in the United States, universities use the TOEFL to measure the ability to combine English language writing, reading, speaking, and listening skills to accomplish academic tasks at a university level.
In addition to providing test preparation practice, ACS will analyze your standardized test performance, develop a preparation strategy for you, and set scoring benchmarks designed to maximize your admission profile.
College Selection
Researching and developing a strategic college list ensures that you maximize your chances of being accepted to the college or university of your choice. We discuss what to look for in a university and what universities look for in an applicant. After an analysis of a student's SAT scores, high school transcript, and extracurricular activities, ACS provides college choices that fit the student's profile.
Developing a college list generally involves:
- Determining college preferences
- There are literally thousands of options in higher education. Your advisor works with clients to determine what they are looking for and gives them options that fit their preferences. Without the help of an expert, often people do not even know where to begin doing research on colleges.
- Determining potential field of study
- Determining what to study can be equally as daunting as deciding where to attend. Once both field of study and college preferences are determined, ACS clients can be assured that they are well on their way to finding their best-fit college
- Determining admission selectivity eligibility
-We ensure our clients are aware of their strengths and weaknesses as an applicant, have a plan to address them, and know how competitive an applicant they ultimately will be.
- Considering career goals
- For students who are 100% certain they want to be a doctor or a lawyer, certain colleges make those career goals more possible, while other colleges may put those goals at risk. ACS clients know the stakes and choose their colleges based on the best information available.
College Applications
Academic Consulting Services walks our students through every step of the college application process including but not limited to the following:
- Application Submission and Completion
ACS has learned through many years of experience that the most effective way to ensure results is to walk clients through every step of the process and make certain that deadlines are not missed and that all submissions represent the student’s very best work.
- Resume Writing
The resume is an important component of all applications. There is a strategy to the resume that is unfamiliar to most applicants. ACS has developed a resume writing methodology that ensures our clients put their best foot forward.
- Personal Statement Writing
The centerpiece of virtually all university applications is the personal statement (or essay). Often times an applicant’s most compelling story is very private. Our staff respects privacy and maintains confidentiality while still helping students tell their most compelling story.
- Interview Preparation
An interview can be intimidating. We will work with clients one-on-one in a mock interview setting to ensure our students are prepared and confident.
Financial Aid Advising
ACS knows that parents not only worry where their son or daughter will be admitted but they also worry about how they are going to pay for their education. Not only is the financial aid process intimidating, it also involves personal information that is considered very private by most people. To ensure privacy, ACS works with clients on an individual basis to complete financial aid documentation, including the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and the even more confusing CSS Profile.
Copyright © 2013 - Academic Consulting Services - All Rights Reserved
(214) 420-4288
