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I help people with ALL aspects of the process of applying to law school, medical school, graduate school, and business school.
There are actually some people who have me help them with ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING about the process, right down to me supervising them as they lick the stamp and put it on the envelope to mail the whole thing in! Now, a lot of people tell me that they don't need quite THAT much help, but it is really nice to know that whatever kind of support you would like to have, it is completely available.
Everyone feels they need help with different things, but I find that the first things that people usually ask me about right off the bat are the personal essays. Since that might be the main reason you've sought me out, I'll go into some detail on what I do to help with that.
The truth is that there are no good rules anywhere on how to do a great personal essays! And if someone tries to TELL you that there are rules ("You can't talk about anything from childhood." "You HAVE to tell about your volunteer work.") they are almost always completely wrong. The truth is that there simply are NO RULES for what you have to write. You can write ANYTHING YOU WANT TO.
(Now, I realize, this actually makes your job HARDER. It would be nice if there were some rules so you would know what to put on there!)
My philosophy about the personal essays is this: since we can write ANYTHING we want to, why wouldn't we use the space to create a FLAWLESSLY WELL-REASONED ARGUMENT in your behalf.
I use the word "argument," but of course I would never want you to sound ARGUMENTATIVE. (I want you to sound very warm, and personal, and likeable!)
"Argument" just means that when someone gets done reading it, their natural reaction is to say: "Oh my gosh. This makes absolutely perfect sense.....I don't even have a question about this. It's really clear to me that this person should be in medical school."
This kind of reaction can both GET YOU IN to the school of your choice, and, as well, frequently GET YOU MONEY to go there. As a matter of fact, interestingly enough, the clients I've had who've received the MOST OVERWHELMING scholarship offers from schools were people with unremarkable gpa's and test scores but absolutely riveting personal essays. It's nice to know, I think, that you can accomplish your dream even if you think that you have some kind of a TERRIBLE liability that's going to keep you out of the school of your choice.
I have one client that I helped apply to medical school, and she had a 2.9 grade point average!!!! Advisors at school told her: "You might as well not even try. You don't have a chance. You might as well go be a nurse." Well, we put together a flawlessly well-reasoned argument in her behalf, and we were actually able to convince the committee that she was highly academically capable DESPITE that 2.9 grade point average. And you know what? She was admitted to medical school on the first try, and today she is in her third year at an excellent medical school... and she's in the top 5% of her class!
I also helped a guy get into a top 20 law school, and guess what......his liability was that he SHOT somebody!!!!! And it wasn't even an accident, it was in cold blood during a drunken fraternity fight! (Thank God the victim lived.) Anyway, we were able to convince a very good law school that this guy was a good candidate despite this....uh.....INFRACTION on his police record. : - )
I had another woman (with a very weak g.p.a.) who so bombed the February LSAT that she believed there was no hope for her. She had really just resigned herself to sitting out a year and starting over, but I cajoled her into applying to law school anyway. We just made every single other part of the application the best it could be. And the result? She not only got into her first choice school, SHE RECEIVED 180% OF HER TUITION IN SCHOLARSHIP MONEY FROM THEM.
What I'm telling you is that it's possible for us to make a flawlessly well-reasoned argument about you even if you think that your candidacy is shaky for some reason.
How do we do it? By using the exact same principles that a lawyer uses when arguing a case in court. It's by using these very old, time-tested principles that we can get a reader to say: "Wow. This makes absolutely perfect sense." Trouble is, they don't ever teach you that much about these principles in undergrad.....you usually don't learn them unless you go to law school!
In addition, it's just plain difficult for us as human beings to ANALYZE OUR OWN CENTRAL ASSUMPTIONS when creating arguments about ourselves. (We'll talk about this if I help you with your applications.) No matter who you are, you live life SO CLOSE to yourself, and you are so emotionally involved with everything that's gone on in your life, that it's just hard to maintain enough distance and objectivity to really make a flawlessly well-reasoned argument about yourself. (This is why you often hear people saying: "I'm a good writer; it's just hard for me to write about myself!")
It's kind of like cutting the hair on the back of your head. You may be a GREAT hairdresser, but it's just hard to see back there because you are so CLOSE. Or, it's like a woman trying to put together a MODELING portfolio by taking a pencil and painstakingly TRYING TO DRAW PICTURES OF HERSELF. We would tell her that a professional photographer might really help her to show herself in the BEST POSSIBLE LIGHT. That's what I hope I might be able to do for you.
I WROTE MY PERSONAL ESSAYS ALREADY. CAN JEANNIE STILL HELP ME?
Yes. If you've already WRITTEN your personal essays and you just want someone to go over them with you, I can do that too. I'll let you know precisely where your argument is strong and weak. Most people, though, see me BEFORE they really start anything related to the application process. Otherwise, you might work on something for 30 hours and then I have to tell you that you have to start over!
Since you pay me by the hour, the cheapest way to get help from me is to plan on just ONE (approximately three hour) in-person or telephone meeting with me, but to come very, very well-prepared to that meeting.
(By "well-prepared," I do NOT mean that you should have your statement written, or even brainstormed, ahead of time. (I'd not want you to spend a lot of time going in a completely wrong direction, and then I have to tell you that you need to start over. That would necessitate more meetings, and so higher costs to you.)
By WELL prepared, I mean that you should know these key things backwards and forwards:
If you meet with me in person WITHOUT knowing the things I have listed above, I will have to explain them to you. (For you to not know them would significantly impair the quality of your personal statement. I will not have that.) I will spend your entire three hour session explaining this all this to you, send you away to do the very important "two-faceted" brainstorming, and bring you back in for another meeting, where we will really get underway. More meetings, more cost.
The LEAST EXPENSIVE way to get the information I have listed above is to order my cassette tape set, which costs $129.95 plus $8.00 shipping and handling. That may seem like a lot of money, but it is CHEAP compared to the $240.00 to $300.00 you have to pay me to tell you the information in person. This tape set is so comprehensive that after you listen to it, you may not even NEED an in-person meeting with me, (More cost savings!) : - )
As soon as you order the tape set, call me at (612) 622-2626 to reserve an in-person appointment time with me. My help is in great demand.. so I book up far ahead of time. For this reason it is the best idea to book with me EARLY and have your space reserved.
While you are waiting for your appointment time with me, listen to the tapes (there are only three of them) and do the brainstorming exactly as the tapes direct you. This prepares you very thoroughly for our one meeting together.
If you do all this, your one meeting with me will very likely take three hours, and when you are finished you will most likely have the bulk of your statement completely written, and for the part that's not completely written you will have explicit directions: "Here's exactly what to write in paragraph five....these seven things" for instance. You will probably feel like you can get the rest of it done completely on your own, and if you're like most of the people I see, you will probably feel that what we have generated is much, much more compelling than what you would have written on your own....even if you had put in 100 hours of your own effort.
The system as I've outlined it above really works. I wouldn't advocate a procedure that didn't! Remember that because the stakes are very high when we are talking about a medical school application, we are going for absolutely the highest quality, most compelling essay we can possibly compile. That's the approach I take; nothing less. I hope this interests you.
If you follow the instructions as I've outlined them above, here are the costs you can expect to incur:
| Tape set, including shipping | $137.95 |
| Three hour meeting | $240.00 |
| Total | $377.95 |
CAN I GET MORE HELP FROM YOU IF I NEED IT?
Yes.
It is my goal that after you work with my cassette tapes and have one (approximately three hour) session with me, that you will have NO QUESTIONS. You will feel like you have all the information necessary to run on your own and get the rest of your application done by yourself. There is sometimes a difference between knowing what you're supposed to do and actually being able to DO it, however, so if you get STUCK at any point, you just call me back up, make another appointment, and I work with you just enough to get you unstuck, back on your feet, and ready to run on your own again. Some people come back a lot, and others just go get the rest of it done all on their own. It's nice because you never have to pay for help you don't need, but when you need help (and you'll know when you need it) help is always available.
I look forward to helping you to make an outstanding application to medical school!
Note: Because application advisors
cannot control your grades, your MCAT scores, your amount and
quality of volunteer experience, or how thoroughly you follow the
advice offered on these pages, please understand that we cannot
guarantee any individual's acceptance to medical school.
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