What do you think of Kaplan's Admission Consultant?

[solitude87]

I'm a senior in undergrad. I'm thinking of apply for Fall 09 to graduate school. This is because I obviously don't feel ready for the GRE and I haven't gotten recommendations yet (well so far I got one pending, and I'm asking 2 more professors for it. I'll go back on campus next term just to hunt them down, since they don't respond emails).

Anyway, to get to the point, I was at Kaplan's site and I see they have this program called Admission Consultant that will guide people to write the SOP and lists schools that match their stats etc. Does anyone think it's helpful or would be helpful? Or I should just write my own SOP here and post things here for everyone to critique?.......Does anyone think it's worthwhile? :roll:

[rising_star]

not worth it. you can get faculty, family, and friends to do the same thing for free.

[snowcapk]

Not worthwhile at all. You'll wind up poor and regretful. If you need help with your SOP, try LJ groups like review_my_sop or applyingtograd. During the right season, people post their SOPs there and tend to get lots of help. (P.S. - You need to become a member of each group in order to see "locked" posts, which is how people tend to post their SOPs.) You don't pick schools that "match your stats" at the grad level so much as you choose schools that have just the right research advisers for you. You will have to do the research yourself for that, so screw Kaplan's "Admissions Consultant."

That said, Kaplan, Princeton Review, &c. have very good GRE study books that you can buy at any bookstore. Together with free CAT-style practice tests offered on the ETS website, those provide plenty of preparation. No need for a fancy GRE course.

[hannah]

Used the service and found the money was not well spent. It would be better to follow advice as you see here at gradcafe, really.