suziep100 Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 disclaimer: I am not trying to advertise this!!!!! There was this guy from Astroff Consultants who did a presentation at my school a while ago, and he sounded pretty knowledgeable in the admissions process. When I asked him how much he charges, he said he wouldn't know until he finds out how much help I need, and gave me his card. Based on the website, they are coaching people to do MMI, standard interview, law/med school personal statements, and even coach people for CASPER (lol) This is supposed to be based in Toronto, and the Astroff guy told us that he travels around Canada to promote his company. Has anyone tried this Astroff consultant program? Is this a legit program? How expensive is this? Are they actually any good? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 I know nothing about them and it is a waste of money. Please delete their name as it might inadvertantly drum up business for them which is not your intention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andie Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 Huge scam imho. Why would you pay some one tons of $$$ for likely questionable advice when you can get everything for free on PM101? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cass Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 You can find lots of information regarding the MMI on premed101, studentdoctor, and just a typical search in google will draw up lots of results. In regards to personal statements, any university's writing centre should have qualified people who can edit and help you improve your essay. Not worth it to spend $$$ on a company to do all this imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supafield Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 I don't see any problem in openly discussing the value of a a specific company as long as it's not intentional advertising. If we didn't allow companies to be named, we have a few months of work deleting every thread mentioning princeton, kaplan or examkrackers on this site. I think the general consensus is, that these services, while they could be helpful, offer nothing you can't figure out yourself on this website or by talking to med students for free. Astroff has a law degree and phd.... nothing related to medicine. So anything he knows, you can find too. you can get med students and friends to proofread personal statements. If you really can't find anything, send an email to the class president at your school's (or the closest school to you) med school and ask if they can find someone who wants to make 10-20 bucks to read it over. As for interviews, lots of schools offer med interview practices at career counselling. Western offered both 1 on 1 interviews and practice MMI's. Last year about 8 of us contacted each other here without knowing one another and booked a room in the library to work with one another and practice. rmorelan was kind enough to stop by and help us out which was great. So long story short, if you really don't want to work and have money to burn, this could be a good option, but they won't offer you anything that you can't get elsewhere for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 I don't see any problem in openly discussing the value of a a specific company as long as it's not intentional advertising. If we didn't allow companies to be named, we have a few months of work deleting every thread mentioning princeton, kaplan or examkrackers on this site. I think the general consensus is, that these services, while they could be helpful, offer nothing you can't figure out yourself on this website or by talking to med students for free. Astroff has a law degree and phd.... nothing related to medicine. So anything he knows, you can find too. you can get med students and friends to proofread personal statements. If you really can't find anything, send an email to the class president at your school's (or the closest school to you) med school and ask if they can find someone who wants to make 10-20 bucks to read it over. As for interviews, lots of schools offer med interview practices at career counselling. Western offered both 1 on 1 interviews and practice MMI's. Last year about 8 of us contacted each other here without knowing one another and booked a room in the library to work with one another and practice. rmorelan was kind enough to stop by and help us out which was great. So long story short, if you really don't want to work and have money to burn, this could be a good option, but they won't offer you anything that you can't get elsewhere for free. yeah that was a lot of fun last year I love seeing people get into med school - it makes me happy. Really these groups cannot help you that much more than you can on your own. They do save you time at the cost of money - that is a tradeoff you have to decide on for yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted January 31, 2011 Report Share Posted January 31, 2011 Here's my 2cents: Astroff came to my school last year and gave a lovely presentation. It was very flashy. However, after the presentation I asked a few, pretty simple, questions about OMSAS and the MMI. I was extremely unimpressed by the answers. I was then told that they can get someone to look into my questions and contact me back. Of course, they would have then billed me for this service. The questions I asked were such that I knew I could find the answers with a quick goolge search or on pm101. Point of the story: If you really think you need a consultant, then I guess there's nothing stopping you from checking them out. But I think it would be wiser to use the free resources you have around you- friends, university workshops, pm101, google, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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