Spark Admissions Assessment: Faculty Admission Consulting with Upfront Pricing

Entering into faculty might be difficult. And with college students making use of to high faculties in report numbers, stepping into your dream faculty might be much more troublesome. That’s the place a school admissions advisor might help set college students other than the remainder of the competitors.

Spark Admissions takes the guesswork out of the school utility course of. Spark works with college students to develop a tailor-made method that will increase their probabilities of stepping into their top-pick faculty.

Is Spark Admissions best for you? We’ll dive deeper into the corporate, what it provides, and the way it helps center and highschool college students improve their probabilities of stepping into top-rated faculties.

Headquartered simply outdoors of Boston, Spark Admissions is a boutique admissions consulting agency that works with college students and fogeys to supply steerage on the admissions course of. The agency was based in 2013 by Dr. Rachel Rubin and Rachel Blankstein. Dr. Rubin, a Harvard-educated researcher, makes use of information from massive admissions research to tell the recommendation Spark supplies its purchasers.

The agency supplies every pupil with a novel, customizable plan that’s tailor-made to their particular person objectives. This method not solely focuses on grades and take a look at scores but additionally aligns a pupil’s pursuits, passions, and extracurricular actions with the profiles that top-rated faculties are on the lookout for.

The agency is a member of the Nationwide Affiliation for Faculty Admissions Counseling. 

Associated: The place To Apply To Faculty

Spark Admissions provides quite a lot of consulting packages designed to satisfy college students the place they’re at the moment at of their educational careers.

The core providing supplied by Spark Admissions is consulting companies that begin as early as center faculty. The aim is to judge college students early on to determine what makes them distinctive. From there, the group at Spark Admissions creates detailed plans for college kids to comply with. This consists of take a look at plans, figuring out summer season internship or volunteer alternatives, and ensuring college students get probably the most they will out of their highschool careers.

This course of works nicely as a result of it begins with the scholar somewhat than the admissions course of. Spark Admissions makes use of the scholar as the muse to construct a extremely tailor-made utility. This permits the scholar to shine and signify probably the most genuine model of themselves to utility committees at extremely selective faculties.

The primary good thing about this course of is the steerage Spark Admissions supplies college students and their mother and father. Reasonably than following a cookie-cutter method to varsity admissions, every consumer is given a roadmap and utility timeline to comply with. This offers college students invaluable follow in studying how you can talk, consider necessities, and handle a venture. These are all essential abilities that college students will make the most of after they start their faculty careers.

Along with the usual consulting bundle, Spark Admissions additionally helps inventive and athletic college students who’re making use of to extremely aggressive packages. It is a differentiator in comparison with different faculty admissions prep firms – a lot of which merely give attention to getting college students into extremely selective faculties.

For college kids trying to pursue artwork or movie, Spark Admissions connects college students with mentors who might help them develop compelling portfolios. For music and different inventive fields, consultants assist college students consider the particular necessities of this system they need to pursue.

For athletes, Spark Admissions breaks down the recruitment course of into key milestones. Pupil-athletes are evaluated in opposition to particular benchmarks to search out faculties the place a pupil can be candidate. Spark additionally works with athletes to create a holistic utility that showcases their management potential in addition to educational efficiency.

Except for faculty admissions, Spark Admissions additionally works with youthful college students and their households to use to non-public center and excessive faculties. This assist largely focuses on serving to determine attainable faculties that the scholar ought to apply to, crafting sturdy essays, and making ready college students to reply questions on their extracurricular actions through the interview.

Spark Admissions provides tiered pricing primarily based on a pupil’s grade and the way a lot assist they could want. The packages are damaged down by 12 months and sort as follows:

Spark Admissions’ charges common round $526 per hour. The bigger the bundle, the decrease the common price, with the bottom common hourly price being slightly below $500.

That being stated, Spark doesn’t provide companies by the hour. Even when a pupil solely wants a pair hours’ value of assist, they’ll have to purchase a full bundle.

Faculty advising is a booming enterprise. In line with one estimate, the academic consulting house is predicted to develop by about 4% by the top of the last decade. The elevated demand for consultants aligns with the pressures and expectations of scholars to get into faculty.

Spark Admissions stands out as a result of tailor-made assist it supplies college students who want additional assist. This consists of college students making use of to inventive packages, athletes, and college students with studying challenges. And for the pliability, degree of element, and research-based experience that Spark Admissions supplies, it’s moderately priced.

That being stated, Spark Admissions isn’t the most affordable possibility available on the market, and it doesn’t present all of the companies you will get from different admissions consultancies.

The Princeton Assessment provides cheaper faculty admissions advising companies, together with a $299 technique session and an Final Admissions Bundle for $3,499. The Princeton Assessment additionally provides SAT tutoring and take a look at prep for Superior Placement exams, which Spark Admissions doesn’t provide.

Not like a few of its opponents, Spark Admissions doesn’t provide graduate admissions assist. IvyWise is one other faculty admissions consulting agency that provides companies just like Spark Admissions however with the additional benefit of counseling for aggressive graduate packages, together with enterprise faculties and legislation faculties. Nevertheless, their pricing is costlier.

General, Spark Admissions is greatest suited to college students on the lookout for extremely individualized assist. Spark’s aim is to assist college students determine what makes them compelling candidates and to craft an utility round that somewhat than simply specializing in grades or take a look at scores.

Guide a free session via Spark’s contact kind. No on-line portal is out there; accounts are managed individually by a Spark Admissions advisor.

Spark Admissions doesn’t preserve a consumer portal for college kids or mother and father to log into. It doesn’t gather funds via its web site or retailer fee data there both.

Spark Admissions does go an additional step to take care of consumer privateness. It provides numerous case research on its web site that spotlight actual college students who’ve labored with Spark, however these college students will not be recognized by their actual names.

The easiest way to contact Spark Admissions is through the contact kind on its web site, by cellphone at (617) 379-2535, or by e mail at contact@sparkadmissions.com.

Spark Admissions has acquired excessive reward from its purchasers; it has 5 stars primarily based on 72 Google critiques and a full 5-star ranking on Yelp as nicely (albeit primarily based on solely seven critiques there).

Nevertheless, there will not be many different critiques about Spark Admissions, together with on Reddit and different boards.

Spark Admissions is an effective possibility for college kids who want extremely individualized assist through the faculty admissions course of. The group at Spark will get to know college students personally to develop a high-quality utility bundle that highlights their distinctive attributes.

Spark can be some of the well-regarded admissions consulting service suppliers out there, and it has the outcomes to show it. Spark publishes its acceptance charges yearly on its web site, showcasing which faculties its purchasers utilized to and its admissions charges for these faculties in contrast with the nationwide admissions charges. Based mostly on these stats, Spark Admissions purchasers seem to have a much better likelihood of getting admitted to a high faculty than those that don’t work with Spark. In comparison with different faculty admissions prep companies, Spark is without doubt one of the most clear.

That stated, Spark Admissions isn’t match for college kids on the lookout for assist past faculty admissions, like AP take a look at prep.

And whereas Spark Admissions is competitively priced, it isn’t the most affordable possibility. There are different faculty admissions consulting corporations that provide à la carte companies — like essay critiques — that college students can choose and select from as a substitute of buying a complete consulting bundle.