In 2019, the U.S. undergraduate admissions system was thrown into question when a scandal involving the bribery of college admissions officials and coaches broke headlines. The bribery and related FBI investigation were the focus of the popular Netflix documentary, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal.
Rick Singer - the primary architect of the cheating scandal - was caught and pleaded guilty. However, expert advisors still help high school students access elite universities using legal yet exclusive means. These advisors’ services vary greatly in terms of price, geographic accessibility, and initiative required on the student’s behalf. Here are four types of advisors that guide students into academia.
A college coach, or admissions consultant, helps students gain admission to their dream schools. While they can also provide advice on selecting schools, coaches are often hired with an academic goal already in mind. Having extensive experience in the industry (often admissions office work), their expertise lies in creating a convincing application.
College coaches guide students through the entire process of preparing and applying for university, often starting in middle school. They advise clients on high school course selection, extracurriculars, sports, test prep, essay writing, scholarships, and financial aid.
College coaching is exclusive because of its price. At IvyWise, a large college consultancy, advising can start at around $300 per hour. The most renowned advisors can charge upwards of $3,000 per hour.
College counselors help students navigate the application process and achieve their post-secondary goals, placing more emphasis on finding the best post-secondary options for students than college coaches. A college counselor helps students decide which type of university is suitable for them with respect to academics, location, size, athletics, and other factors. They can also discuss major options and ensure students take full advantage of opportunities in high school to discover their passions.
College counseling services are often free through secondary schools or local non-profits. However, some high school counselors may offer more personalized attention than others, and counselors at schools outside the U.S. may lack the same knowledge about admissions.
An independent research project on a college application is an impressive accomplishment. Completed work can earn awards in high school research competitions and demonstrate strong knowledge and interest in a field.
Research mentors guide students through the process of conducting research, from defining the project’s parameters to sharing completed work. In-depth interaction with a research mentor can allow any motivated student to complete independent research without prior experience. Unlike other mentors, research mentors can also attach a recommendation letter to students’ applications.
Jinso connects researchers to mentors more directly. Jinso shows students a list of experienced scholars with similar research interests, allowing them to request mentorship. The cost of a devoted mentor can vary depending on their level of experience. However, the marketplace is free and frictionless, so research mentorship costs significantly less than other forms. Since Jinso connects researchers to mentors globally, it is a very accessible form of guidance.
High standardized test scores on the SAT or ACT are crucial to admission at top U.S. universities. Test prep tutors walk students through test material, question types, and strategies to maximize their scores.
The Princeton Review’s most popular course - guaranteeing students a score of above 1400 out of 1600 - costs $1,749. However, U.S. universities are slowly moving away from using the SAT and ACT standardized tests as factors in admissions, with the University of California system saying it will no longer accept the tests. The prohibitively high cost of tutoring and its disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities is cited as the reasoning by several institutions.
GitHub is a popular platform used by computer scientists to manage their collaborative projects, but a similar program does not exist for academic work. There is no standard platform to create work, connect with others, and share work in one place. Most platforms only fall into one or two of these categories.The Jinso collaboration tool is a better way for groups to work on projects. By bringing the entire academic collaboration process onto one tool, it simplifies workflows and communication.The first steps for using the Jinso platform are:
Once a user builds a network, they can create new Groups that consist of their network members. By default, the creator of a group is the admin. The most common Group is a research group, but the platform can manage several other types of academic projects. Platform users can create study groups for sharing course materials or groups of club members for extracurricular work.The admin of the Group has the ability to add new members at any time.
Admins are also responsible for creating Projects within Groups.
A Project for a research group is usually a research paper, but Projects can also be other forms of documents that could benefit from discussion and revisions. Examples include study guides, business plans, articles, and essays. Each Group can have an unlimited number of Projects within it, and all Projects within a Group are shared among the same members.
Once a user builds a network, they can create new Groups that consist of their network members. By default, the creator of a group is the admin. The most common Group is a research group, but the platform can manage several other types of academic projects.
Platform users can create study groups for sharing course materials or groups of club members for extracurricular work.The admin of the Group has the ability to add new members at any time. Admins are also responsible for creating Projects within Groups.
A Project for a research group is usually a research paper, but Projects can also be other forms of documents that could benefit from discussion and revisions. Examples include study guides, business plans, articles, and essays. Each Group can have an unlimited number of Projects within it, and all Projects within a Group are shared among the same members.
When a new Project is created, an initial revision must be shared. This can either be plain text or a PDF.
The Project will be immediately visible to all Group members with the first revision shown. Group members can comment on the revision with questions or feedback, and others can reply to comments.When another revision of the paper has been completed, the Group admin can add a new revision to the same Project.
The revision will become visible above the prior revision, and it will have a new comment box associated with it. Projects make it simple to keep track of a paper’s entire revision history and discussions at each stage.
For each revision, Group admins can also create subtasks. Arrows allow Group members to view all of the different subtasks and comment on them individually. Subtasks allow a paper to be analyzed in unique components. For example, a research paper can have a unique subtask for each of its sections, and collaborators can discuss them all separately in the comment boxes. Jinso is a quicker way to collaborate on long-term projects. It makes it easier to connect, share, and manage the development of ideas and papers. You can create a Jinso account and start using the platform today for your research and academic needs at jinso.io.
In 2019, the U.S. undergraduate admissions system was thrown into question when a scandal involving the bribery of college admissions officials and coaches broke headlines. The bribery and related FBI investigation were the focus of the popular Netflix documentary, Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal.
Rick Singer - the primary architect of the cheating scandal - was caught and pleaded guilty. However, expert advisors still help high school students access elite universities using legal yet exclusive means. These advisors’ services vary greatly in terms of price, geographic accessibility, and initiative required on the student’s behalf. Here are four types of advisors that guide students into academia.
A college coach, or admissions consultant, helps students gain admission to their dream schools. While they can also provide advice on selecting schools, coaches are often hired with an academic goal already in mind. Having extensive experience in the industry (often admissions office work), their expertise lies in creating a convincing application.
College coaches guide students through the entire process of preparing and applying for university, often starting in middle school. They advise clients on high school course selection, extracurriculars, sports, test prep, essay writing, scholarships, and financial aid.
College coaching is exclusive because of its price. At IvyWise, a large college consultancy, advising can start at around $300 per hour. The most renowned advisors can charge upwards of $3,000 per hour.
College counselors help students navigate the application process and achieve their post-secondary goals, placing more emphasis on finding the best post-secondary options for students than college coaches. A college counselor helps students decide which type of university is suitable for them with respect to academics, location, size, athletics, and other factors. They can also discuss major options and ensure students take full advantage of opportunities in high school to discover their passions.
College counseling services are often free through secondary schools or local non-profits. However, some high school counselors may offer more personalized attention than others, and counselors at schools outside the U.S. may lack the same knowledge about admissions.
An independent research project on a college application is an impressive accomplishment. Completed work can earn awards in high school research competitions and demonstrate strong knowledge and interest in a field.
Research mentors guide students through the process of conducting research, from defining the project’s parameters to sharing completed work. In-depth interaction with a research mentor can allow any motivated student to complete independent research without prior experience. Unlike other mentors, research mentors can also attach a recommendation letter to students’ applications.
Jinso connects researchers to mentors more directly. Jinso shows students a list of experienced scholars with similar research interests, allowing them to request mentorship. The cost of a devoted mentor can vary depending on their level of experience. However, the marketplace is free and frictionless, so research mentorship costs significantly less than other forms. Since Jinso connects researchers to mentors globally, it is a very accessible form of guidance.
High standardized test scores on the SAT or ACT are crucial to admission at top U.S. universities. Test prep tutors walk students through test material, question types, and strategies to maximize their scores.
The Princeton Review’s most popular course - guaranteeing students a score of above 1400 out of 1600 - costs $1,749. However, U.S. universities are slowly moving away from using the SAT and ACT standardized tests as factors in admissions, with the University of California system saying it will no longer accept the tests. The prohibitively high cost of tutoring and its disproportionate impact on low-income and minority communities is cited as the reasoning by several institutions.