We offer support to students who wish to study in the best British universities
All of our programmes begin with a free consultation
with a senior educational consultat
In the free consultation, you will learn about our approach, and we will begin devising a bespoke plan to support you in your educational journey.
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Alternatively, you can email info@valdoacademics.com.
We will reply by the next working day!
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We can help you in every step of your application journey:
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Choice of universities and degrees
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Curriculum enrichment (internships, research, university lectures etc.)
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Planning the personal statement
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Preparation for tests and university interviews
Higher success rates
On average, British students receive 3 offers out of their 5 applications, (3.45 to be precise).
On the other hand, Valdo Academics student usually receive all their offers (average of 4.65).
(Source: UCAS)
Less risk
In 2019, 13.5 % of UK students had to undertake clearing - in other words send additional university requests in August as their school grades weren't good enough for their university offers. We help our clients in making wise higher education choices which reduce the risk of clearing to 3.53%. (Source: UCAS)
Stand out amongst candidates
In 2018, 93% of UCAS applications made under the Valdo Academics' supervision were successful; the nationwide average was 69%! (Source: UCAS)
93%
69%
These results are a direct consequence of the holistic preparation we implement: from the initial consultation to results day in July, we will be by your side to help you in your UCAS journey.
Students in their last year of school:
the personal statement
What is the personal statement?
The Personal Statement is a letter where students need to prove they are a special candidate, and one worthy of an offer. The personal statement must be focused on academics, and must follow a detailed set of criteria.
4,000
The characters
available
Personal Statements must not exceed 4,000 characters (600 words); that is very few words to explain how great you are!
Learn to use them wisely!
The most important variable
In addition to the personal statement, your universities of choice will receive your grades from the last two academic years, teachers' comments on your academic performance as well as a prediction of your high school diploma.
However, once you are in your last year, your transcripts, recommendation letter and predicted grades are already set in stone: they were determined by your performance in past years. At this point in your journey, the personal statement is therefore the most important variable to swing the probability of acceptance in your favour.
We have developed an in-house method to help students write extraordinary personal statements
1. We help you identify your achievements and create a CV
You will be working with a specialised consultant to complete a general account of all your achievements and passions. Even the examples that seem less significant can be fundamental!
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They may include:
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Books - read for academic purposes or as a hobby
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Team management skills or determination demonstrated in sports activities
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Your favourite topics at school or some work experiences
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All your achievements can be transformed into food for thought for admission officers: they can be evidence as to why universities should pick YOU.
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2. We help you turn your CV into a pitch
After having listed all your goals, you will write them down according to the STAR format
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Situation: what was the context of your goal?
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Task: What exactly did you have to do?
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Action: What did you do?
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Result: What was the measurable goal achieved? How did you exceed your expectations?
This will allow you to create a series of detailed paragraphs on your achievements.
3. We help you find your story (first draft)
After you have written down all your achievements in STAR format, you will be able to select the most effective paragraphs.
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These will create the skeleton of your personal statement
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The next step is then to glue them together, developing a personal brand and a unique story that highlights your journey
4. We teach you how to cut excess words (final draft)
Finally we can help you reduce the number of words, to respect the limit set at 4,000 characters. At the end of this phase, the personal statement will be a distilled version of the most colourful and interesting notions about the candidate.
So... do you basically write a personal statements on our behalf?
Of course not! We are a tutor agency: a team of professionals dedicated to education as a lifestyle and as a passion. If we wrote personal statements for our students, we would diminish the importance of our work. Moreover, it would be humiliating for the pupils.
Our goal is to form brilliant, enterprising and responsible minds.
It is up to you students to do the work. We can show you the way and accurately describe the steps to follow, creating a plan so that the obstacles can be dealt with more calmly. However, the learning path lies in undertaking the journey - not in reaching the destination with a shortcut.
If the universities invite you for a test or for an interview, we have a dedicated team that can help you shine
Preparation for tests
We can help you develop an action plan to prepare for the exams your UCAS Application will require.
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Please find some of tests we've worked on here on the right.
Medicine
UKCAT and BMAT
Law
LNAT
Mathematics
Step 1, Step 2, Mat
P.P.E.
TSA (Oxford)
Interview coaching
Some universities will invite you for an interview on Skype or in person.
These interviews are mainly aimed at testing your academic skills and therefore it is difficult to prepare yourself in just a day or two.
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Therefore, if your application requires an interview, you can work with us to prepare in advance.
Oxford and Cambridge
We can help you with mock interviews and interview coaching services for Oxford and Cambridge, with consultants who have studied in these universities and helped several students to get in to these prestigious institutions.
Medicine
Medical interviews will ask you to use both your academic and professional medical knowledge. We can simulate interviews with specialized consultants to help you improve both of these areas.
Start your journey
We give advice free of charge to all the families and candidates who contact us.
You can write or call us on the phone
Students in their penultimate year, or in the summer between their penultimate and last year
If you are at this stage, you are in the last useful moment to be able to plan the application path in advance. At this time, you can still take advantage of the opportunities offered by the summer to enrich your CV.
Work ahead of time! There are five things you have to focus on that we can help you with
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Choose with us the universities where you will apply
University choice is not simply a matter of rankings.
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You will need to identify your high-risk universities (where it is possible but difficult to enter) and your safe-choices. What will be the optimal level of risk to be exposed to?
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You will need to understand which cities are suitable for your personality: do you prefer a campus-style university like Oxford, or a university in an urban context like LSE?
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Do you prefer the theoretical or practical aspects of your course of study? Are you interested in research?
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How much will it cost you? Can you get the notorious Loan of Honor to pay for your studies?
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What is the difference between Scottish and English universities?
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Are there scholarships available?
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Our role is to help you answer these questions and help you achieve a serene and stimulating university future.
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Get the desired predicted grade
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At the beginning of the last year, your professors will have to give a prediction of your final grade.
This predicted grade will be sent to universities and will be one of the main factors that will influence the outcome of your applications.
Through our tutoring programs and our lessons, we can help you achieve the grade you wish to get.
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Show genuine passion with your CV
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Develop your CV and explore your passions
The summer that awaits you offers a unique opportunity to explore the subjects that interest you and demonstrate your passion through courses, individual lessons, summer schools, specific readings and internships. You must accumulate these experiences now, to be able to write your personal statement in August or September!
For each of our students, we organize a stimulating journey that allows us to accumulate the necessary amount of experience to demonstrate a genuine interest in the subject.
We can help you enrich your CV in three distinct ways
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University Lessons
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We organise university lectures in the subject that interests you
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Click to read an example
Application for UCL
Politics, Philosophy, Economics
Case study: University Lessons
Carla wanted to study Politics, Philosophy, Economics at UCL.
We put he rin contact with a specialized tutor. Together, they studied John Rawls and Robert Nozick, learning elements of political philosophy, which reconnected to an analysis of the pros and cons of "Obamacare" in the US, and of democratic and republican economic policies.
Carla was able to talk about these experiences in her personal statement, and was accepted by all the universities to which she applied .
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Internships
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We help you find an internship in a correlated field of study
Click to read an example:
Application for Warwick
Matematica Applicata
Case study: Internships
Anna wanted to apply to Warwick to study applied mathematics.
We identified a passion for statistics, so we organized an internship with one of our partners, Power Play Theater: a theater company that finances itself by selling studies of statistical analysis in the British art world.
Anna was able to learn advanced statistical concepts and contribute to a study on gender equality in English theater - an experience she mentioned in her personal statement, which helped her enter all the universities where she applied.
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Summer Schools
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We can reccomend you suitable summer schools in the UK
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Click to read an example:
A student undecided between Economics and Law
Case study: Summer schools
We work with a wide range of partners so that we can recommend to families the best summer schools in the UK.
For example, one of our students was undecided about studying law or economics. We put him in touch with a summer school specialized in teaching university material in these subjects. By accessing their courses, the student was able to have a first-hand academic experience and decided to apply for studying Economics. Supported by the online lessons of our tutors, at the end of the course he was accepted at the London School of Economics (LSE).
Finally, we help you reap the benefits of one year of preparation
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Write your Personal Statement
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All the experiences you have accumulated over the years will be summarized in a single essay: the personal statement.
This will be written at the beginning or during your last year, so you still have time to enrich your CV!
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Test and interviews
Many courses require extra exams and interviews, as well as predicted grades and a personal statement. For example
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Medicine
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Law
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PPE
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Maths
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Liberal arts
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Business
It is essential to prepare with as much advance as possible for these tests, which will take place in your last year, and we can create customized programs to help you do that.
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