For Chinese students who aspire to seek higher education in United States, the first and foremost question is “how to stand out.” Needless to say, with hundreds of thousands of students sending in applications from October to December each year, students would better have the prefect GPA, scores on standardized tests and extra-curriculum activities, only to have a shot at their dream ivy league schools. A perfect resume with a professionally-made interview video only get you so far in the game.
That’s why InitialView CEO Terry Crawford has decided to add a new feature to their core interview services— virtual stars students can assign to two target schools to more convincingly convey their interests.
Here’s how it works,
Now, as part of its service, students will receive two “virtual stars” which they can assign to any two of their target schools. Admission officers will receive a notice from InitialView each time they receive a star so that they can take that into account when making admission decisions and yield calculations.
This new feature plays right into the sweet spot of admission process. Being graded on the “yield rate” for their performances, not only do admission officers care about the students credentials, but also their interests on and personality fit for their respect school. Therefore, this newly added feature allows the admission officer to see which student harbors particular interest towards their school.
Although CEO Terry Crawford made it very clear that students have no obligation to accept the admission offer from the schools to which they give stars, one may argue that no other explanation except for genuine interest would support such a decision. On the other hand, the admission officers are not relying on the stars as any decisive factor, but only as an improvement to the accuracy of their yield rate.
Currently, IntialView has established collaboration with many prominent education institutions including but not limited to Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, the LAC,Duke (and its law school) UVA (and its law school), UPenn Law, Michigan Law.