graduate school consulting services

[AndrewBworth]

Hello all,

I was in a PhD program 5 years ago for physical chemistry. Although I did at least fair in all my classes, spent lots of time working in the lab, and passed the cumes, I developed a very severe mental illness which forced me to leave the program. In what I feel is discrimination, my then advisor has sworn she will not help me get into another school. I applied to five programs last year and didn't get into a single one. I am considering hiring a consulting service, but these services are ridiculously expensive! Does anyone have any experience with these, are they worth it?

[EMGagne]

I had several sessions with an admissions consultant, and at the time thought it was very helpful/motivating. Looking back, I think his suggestions and edits did more harm than good.

A friend of mine applied to MBA programs a few years in a row (only top 5 programs). He spent thousand of dollars (somewhere close to 10K) working with admissions consultants the first 2 years and got rejected over and over. The 3rd year he did all the apps on his own and got accepted to 2 programs (currently attending Duke). He didn't have any major career advancements, did his undergrad in biology and only had business experience within scientific start ups.

Take from these personal experiences what you will. I think you're better off spending your money to take a few extra classes (to show you can do better than 'fair') or getting more professional experience (lab or otherwise). Also, not sure exactly why your old advisor won't help you but that's likely a huge red flad for ad comms.

[AndrewBworth]

Really it's discrimination, but there hasn't been much I can do about it.

[EMGagne]

That's too bad.  If you don't think there's any way to make friends with her (or to get your old university to do something about it), then you need a replacement - someone who can write a LOR that's of comparable weight.  Another option to to try to form a relationship with someone at one of the programs you're applying to - faculty or current grad student that can get you an intro to some faculty.  That way you would have the opportunity to show that you're well suited for the program and can handle the work.

[AndrewBworth]

Yes, that's a good idea. For better or worse I have more than a fair amount of experience under my belt in my field - and there is only 5 or 6 professors in the country that I would work for - but happily one of them is talking to me and may be interested in my application! But otherwise my LOR are all coming from my undergrad. They knew me fairly well, and said they were appalled with the university when they learned what had happened to me.