Hello to all the people thinking, about to think and people who will be thinking to apply for universities from all different parts of the world to an entirely different place on the globe. Engaging an admissions consulting company is the first thing that comes into mind to most of the people applying to universities.

Why engage a consulting firm?

• When you don’t have enough time to apply and research for universities because of your work or education
• When you do not want to take any risks in approaching bigger universities
• When you don’t know which university or which course to apply and are most suitable for your profile
• When they almost make you believe that they are most well versed in the field of admission and lure you into thinking that you cannot apply for admission process all alone

So, the above reasons might be some/most common motivating points to approach an admissions consulting company. You can, however, apply to a university on your own. Here, we share some tips to all the above mentioned points.

Time

Most of the people complain about lack of time as their biggest motivation in approaching a consulting firm. Well, the fact of the matter is, as like in any major work to become successful planning is a key factor and it plays a vital role in applying to a university too. Firstly plan out on things as to when you want to apply and when you want to get into a university either during winter/summer semester. Always start planning well in advance, a minimum of one year is required to plan and apply for universities. Approach a consultancy where in they help you in charting out these plans.

Risks

Applying to any university is not at all a risk especially here in Germany. But some consulting firms make you into believing that without their help, you can’t proceed anywhere. Though they are partially correct that we don’t know the admission dead lines or admission requirements, a good consulting firm helps you by informing you all these things well in advance, makes you aware of all these risks and gives you a comforting reply that these risks can be easily surpassed without having to threaten you with risks and almost force you into making payment easily and play out on your fear of losing to major universities.

Lack of knowledge

This is the biggest dilemma almost all students face before applying  to any universities and also the main area/aspect where in most consultancies take advantage of students’ innocence of lack of knowledge with regards to German universities. They might force you into applying to universities saying that there is a deadline and if you don’t make the next set of payments, they will not send applications to the university.

In order to curb this big menace and scam put forward by most of consultancies, get a proper idea on the university before hand and also the courses suitable for your profile. There are many websites like DAAD, which gives you enough knowledge about the universities and the course offered there. So the basic motto is to do some amount of homework/research before hand before applying to universities.

Once you have set your eyes on a particular university, make sure you get in touch with people studying in those universities and ask them with aspects regarding to university, courses, accommodation etc. Connecting with seniors can happen through a simple Facebook search of university groups. One important thing to understand is, consultancies can help you reach a particular destination but it’s you who has to make the destination beautiful. Don’t believe completely in consultancies. Remember they operate exactly on your innocence. If you are a little careful, then these problems could be easily avoided and taken care of. And, you will be at a questionable authority as to the status of your application.

All these above points are the basic constituents of how the consultancies work. Overall, I can say that consultancies have both negative and positive aspects – it all depends on how careful we are and how not to get fooled by these traps. Not all consultancies are bad and simultaneously not all consultancies are good, it all depends on how carefully we choose the consultancies. Make sure the consultancy people are well qualified and that they speak from technical point of view and give a lot of technical advice rather than mentioning about payments. Make sure they offer all the services they have promised you before you start the procedure of applying. Be demanding enough to know every aspect of your application process. There have been a lot of examples wherein people did not even know about the need to open blocked account or how the visa process works. Though these reasons look completely absurd and unreal, these have come from a personal interaction with lots of students.

Overall, I can say that, do your homework before applying to universities and have sufficient information with regards to universities and take a careful step into deciding your future in Germany or anywhere else in the world. With this I conclude by saying, all the best to all the students. Keep dreaming big, everything will go well if you apply with clarity!