Terms of engagement

This is what it means to be a client rather than a reader. It is written as the sequence you actually go through, because that is the order the questions arrive in.

Before anything starts

The first conversation costs nothing and commits nobody. An adviser asks what you have studied, what you want to do and what the money looks like, and says honestly whether we can help. Where the answer is no, or where somebody else is better placed, that is what you will be told.

Nothing begins until you have had, in writing, a note of what we propose to do, what it will cost, and what we need from you and when.

What we do

We build a shortlist against your actual profile rather than against a league table. We check every requirement with the department before anything is sent. We prepare and submit the applications, chase them, and read every response with you. We help with the financial evidence, the English test, the deposit and the visa paperwork, and we tell you what each of those is actually asking for.

Where we are a recognised representative of a university, we say so on the record for that university. Where we are not, we say that too. It changes nothing about which course we recommend.

What we will not do

We will not write your personal statement for you. A statement an admissions tutor believes is one you could have written, and we can tell you when it is not there yet, and how to fix it.

We will not submit an application we do not think should succeed in order to add a name to a list. We will not misstate a grade, a score, a date or a source of funds, and we will end the engagement rather than do it.

What we need from you

Documents that are what they say they are, and dates kept. An application has a chain of deadlines in it and the one that is missed is nearly always the one somebody thought was later. When something is due from you, you will be told twice.

If your plans change, tell us early. There is almost always something that can be done in September and almost nothing in the week before enrolment.

Stopping

You can end this at any time by telling us, and we will hand over everything we hold about your applications so that you or somebody else can carry on. What that costs, if anything, is in the fees policy next to this one.

We can end it too, and will only do so if we are asked to do something we have said we do not do, or if we cannot get the information an application needs.

If it goes wrong

An application can be refused for reasons nobody controls. Where that happens we tell you why, in the words the university used, and what the realistic options are. Where it goes wrong because of something we did, say so and read the complaints policy: it is short and it names a person.