Vericant is the most widely trusted video interview service available for international applicants, and all of our students in Mainland China will need to register and showcase with this program.  So just what is Vericant? Here we've summarized the basics of the service -- with any questions, concerns, or to understand best practices, do not hesitate to reach out to LAC today!

The Vericant Interview:

An interview with Vericant has three components:

A 30-minute proctored writing sample to demonstrate written English ability.

A 10-12-minute recorded interview to demonstrate spoken English ability where an interviewer will ask questions about your interest, hobbies, preferences or daily life. The interviewer will show the applicant two photos and ask that they describe what they see. Next is the in-depth section where you are asked more detailed questions about your life and past experiences and at the end of the interview you have two minutes for free speech that you can use to further introduce yourself or tell the schools anything else you’d like them to know about you.

You also receive a SEE score which is a holistic reflection of how language is used for the social purposes of real-life communication, rather than just the speaker’s technical mastery of grammar and vocabulary. In other words, the SEE reflects a speaker’s ability to communicate accurately and appropriately in a conversational interview setting.

Vericant Interview Application Season usually starts from July 1st to June 30th of the next year. For example, 2020 Application Season is from July 1st, 2019 to June 30th, 2020.

The Vericant Pre-Interview:

The Vericant Pre-Interview is a mock interview designed to help students understand what the Vericant Interview experience will be like, and is specifically intended for students who are applying to high school abroad for the Fall 2019 enrollment (or later). Just like the Vericant Interview, students will be interviewed by a trained interviewer in one of Vericant’s interview studios.

Some of Vericant’s partner schools only accept the first interview in their application, while others accept the most recent. Experiencing the interview environment will help a student feel more confident and ready for their official Vericant Interview.
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Add-on to your Vericant Pre-Interview: The SEED (Spoken English Evaluation & Diagnostic) Report is a comprehensive report about your performance during a Vericant Pre-Interview. It includes a breakdown of how you did in each of the five categories of our rubric and professional feedback on the strengths and weaknesses you displayed during the interview.

​With the developments that Leonard Andrew Consulting has seen in recent months on an international scale, we are excited to now be collaborating with MBA students at Northeastern! Students in their Global Enterprise program are working to review our niche target market internationally, with the goal of identifying new opportunities to continue our growth.

We are so very honored that LAC was selected for this program. We look forward to working with these students as we review international expansion through the frameworks offered in this course, and we are very excited about the opportunity to have some bright business minds explore and advise on the global potential of our growing business!

Stay tuned!

​As we are getting into college fair season we've had a number of student-athletes inquire as to questions that they should consider when meeting with representatives of the schools. When meeting with colleges - especially those that you have an interest in - you want to ask questions that touch on both the academic side as well as the athletic side, such as:

What are popular majors that student-athletes have?
What academic support exists for student athletes? 
Are there tutors for student-athletes? Team study halls? Student advisers?
What are the graduation rates for the school? And for your team?
What percentage of student-athletes graduate on time?
What does an athlete’s daily routine look like? 
How does the school accommodate for classes and exams that are in conflict with any practices, games, or team travel?
What are the living arrangements for athletes? (With follow-ups of: do the athletes all live together?)
What are the dining arrangements for athletes? 
What are the type of scholarships available to me? (Via either the team or the school.)  How many of these scholarships are available?


And always remember -- get the school representative's name and contact information so that you can send a follow up note to them thanking them for their time!

Other questions about college fairs or the admissions process? Don't hesitate to contact us today!

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QuestBridge is a national non-profit program that connects intelligent, motivated students from low-income families with educational and scholarship opportunities at forty of the best colleges in the country.   Students are encouraged to apply to Questbridge to be selected as a finalist in the QuestBrige National College Match.  Finalists then have the option to rank a college of their interest in the QuestBridge National College Match program, or simply apply directly to that school.  Schools, such as Yale, have no preference on the application used by potential students.  The QuestBridge National College Application is perfectly acceptable.

Unlike the Common Application, which sees applications college-specific and costly to submit, and the Coalition Application, which has the main objectives to make the college application process easier and more affordable, the Questbridge application has features that are particularly advantageous for those students that come from low-income families.  The application asks questions that bring in aspects of a student’s life that may not otherwise make it into the application.  For example, the application has questions that make it so students can discuss their backgrounds.  The application is completely free, and the essays are not school-specific.  Those students that are named finalists can rank their top school through the Match program and can find out if they successfully matched with that school.  If not, students are considered again in that school’s regular admission process. Moreover, the QuestBridge application can help students land a full scholarship to any one of the 40 prestigious schools affiliated with it.

QuestBridge is a program that “aims to increase the percentage of talented low-income students attending the nation’s best universities,” according to the QuestBridge website.  And notably, Dartmouth has decided to consolidate its application platforms to the common application and Questbridge.
 
 
 
The 40 schools that utilize it:
Amherst College
Bowdoin College
Brown University
California Institute of Technology
Carleton College
Claremont McKenna College
Colby College
Colorado College
Columbia University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Duke University
Emory University
Grinnell College
Hamilton College
Haverford College
Macalester College
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Northwestern University
Oberlin College
Pomona College
Princeton University
Rice University
Scripps College
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Tufts University
University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Washington and Lee University
Washington University in St. Louis
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Yale University
 
 

Do you have questions on the QuestBridge application? Or on the college admissions process? Do not hesitate to contact us today! 


References:
https://www.questbridge.org/
https://admissions.yale.edu/questbridge-application
http://www.browndailyherald.com/2019/02/27/university-strengthens-questbridge-partnership/
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/05/06/dartmouth-and-university-virginia-drop-coalition-application
https://www.thedp.com/article/2017/10/penn-welcomes-the-coalition-app-an-admissions-platform-designed-to-increase-accessibility

The Common Application is officially open for the 2019-2020 application season!
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There are a number of updates to their online resources for students, and - as it's used by 876 colleges - do not hesitate to reach out to the team here at LAC if you need guidance:

* exploring colleges of best fit
* completing the application
* or even drafting the essay!

Contact us today with any inquiries!

May 1st is College Decision Day!  We are so very proud of the work our students and student-athletes put in! 

Some of the schools these great individuals are headed to are (in no particular order):
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University of Maryland
UConn
Bentley University
Loyola University Maryland
University of Vermont
Bryant University
Miami University
Elon University
University of Southern California
Chapman University
Marist College
Stony Brook University
Wagner College
Henderson State University
Assumption College
Stonehill College
Endicott College
UMass Dartmouth

How can the team here at LAC help you with the college prep and admissions process? From admissions information to athletic recruiting guidance, do not hesitate to contact us with questions!

College essays give you an opportunity to make your application stand out, but do your essays make you stand out in a negative way? 

They might if they include these "red flags": 


1. Generic “Why Us?” essays
If a university asks why you want to attend their school and you write an essay that can be used for multiple schools, you did not do your job. This question implies that you should either visit the school or research it (website, videos, talk to former students, etc). Your response should be planned and thoughtfully consider how you’ll fit on their campus.


Admissions officers have stated that they sometimes receive essays that have another school’s name in it. “I’d love to go to Brown University because I think Harvard’s library is awe-inspiring., and I'm an avid reader. Face-palm.


Instead, look for specific details about the school AND why you like them. Instead of flattering the school, really envision yourself there. Perhaps you want to join the Mahjong club because you played with your grandma every Sunday, or maybe you’re excited to join the crew team because you want to challenge yourself to wake up early.


2. Overtly trying to impress
I always laugh when someone sends me the satirical college essay by Hugh Gallagher who thought it was ridiculous that a college would request an essay on the accomplishments of someone barely 17. He initially wrote it for a writing competition but later said he sent it to colleges as a writing sample.


He starts with, 


“I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row."


The essay continues to include more outlandish accomplishments (read full essay here) and concludes with,


“I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open-heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.


But I have not yet gone to college.”


This brilliantly captures a predicament for college applicants: how can I impress admissions teams and make myself stand out and also still be a teenager?


The simple answer is to stop trying to impress them so much. Most of the college essay prompts request a personal narrative, a personal story. Most admissions teams are not expecting you to have cured cancer and have scaled Mount Everest (although you could probably have done both and still not get into Stanford; I kid, I kid). They are looking for an authentic, well-told story from your life that tells them something likeable about you. It’s your self-awareness and storytelling that really captures their attention. It’s the student who shows he’s trying to be a better friend rather than the student who writes about how he never leaves the library who is more likeable. Admissions counselors are not only looking for students who will perform well at their school, they’re looking for students who will make someone a nice roommate or who will contribute to the school culture in some way.


Let the rest of your application help you shine as an academic; use the essays to show aspects of your personality that the admissions team can get elsewhere on your application. Own who you are; be excited about who you are, and watch admissions teams feel the same way.


3.  Your parents wrote your essay (or played a major role)
“Can admissions teams really tell if my mom wrote my essay?”


“Yes.”


If you want to immediately send a message to admissions teams that you lack integrity, then have an adult write your essay for you.


Parents often think that admissions teams want you to impress them like the section above discusses. It’s readily apparent to anyone who’s reading your essay that an adult wrote it: it typically includes different syntax and diction than a 17-year-old would use.


Also, it’s quite easy to fall into the “too many cooks in the kitchen” trap. Only allow one or two people to give you an honest opinion of your essay to guide you. If you ask 5 people to edit it, the voice and style will be inconsistent, and it will sound like 5 people wrote it.  


So, what do you do if your parents are trying to hijack your essay?


First, recognize that they are a) trying to help and b) want you to succeed; at the same time, recognize that a) it lacks integrity and b) it will cause disagreements.


It’s better to do it on your own, ask an English teacher or guidance counselor for help, or get coaching from a professional.


4. You’re a complainer
I remember my guidance counselor told me that my college essay could be about why my grades dipped in my junior year. I wrote about how getting my learner’s permit coincided with my mom’s undiagnosed illness that prevented her from driving. I had missed a lot of school to take her to doctor’s appointments, and I had a hard time keeping up with chemistry and math. My focus was on being grateful to be able to help my mom and how I learned to juggle my home and school responsibilities.


Although you do have the opportunity to “explain,” make sure your essay’s purpose isn’t to “complain.”


Some students have written essays about switching schools and cite “bad teachers” or “not a good school” as their reason. It shows that you look for what’s wrong instead of what’s right; problems instead of solutions. A better focus would be on how felt the new school was a better fit for you and how the environment (and your appreciation for it) helped you to thrive.


One student spent half his essay discussing how bad his family member is at planning ahead and how it got them in a dangerous predicament. It came across as a 650-word complaint, and the reader learned nothing about the writer except that he finds his family member annoying. By switching his tone from complaining to appreciating the humor of the situation, the whole essay shifted in a positive direction.
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When you read through your essay, look for any times in which you put others down (even inadvertently), and revise it.
Red flags stem from a lack of awareness of what admissions teams are truly looking for; quite simply, they want you to be yourself. Be authentic, lean toward positive interpretations, write the essay yourself, and really, don't try so hard, and you'll avoid these red flags.