Does anyone recommend a professional admissions consulting company?

[star_n_hearts]

Does anyone recommend a professional admissions consulting company - such as Kaplan or Petersons - which are designed to help applicants perfect their SOP's and writing samples? I am currently not a student and so I do not have resources such as a college writing center or professors to help me with this process. I've been looking into this and

Comments

[greekdaph]

I agree with those who say that professional consulting companies aren't worth the money. One reason why is that--unlike, say, law school or business school, which rely more on clearly-definable admissions criteria--MA and PhD program practices are so field-specific that the people best-equipped to help you are people in that discipline, be they professors or peers. You need people who can evaluate your work on its merits rather than just its language, people who are familiar with faculty and departmental atmospheres and the like. You need advice that's very specific. With the exception of the GRE and of etiquette things like obtaining letters of recommendation and resolving questions about transcripts, et al., any advice that applies in all fields is too general to be useful.

I never shared my writing sample or my SOP with members of these communities, but by reading others' work and the comments on it and by asking general questions, I was able to get tons of really valuable advice. I also second the suggestion of PMing people you decide you can trust. Another thing you might do is find out, through a university in your area or even through Craigslist or other forums, if there's a group of people you can talk to in person. You may be more comfortable sharing your work over coffee than over the internet.