Shemmassian Academic Consulting Reviews 

Shemmassian Academic Consulting helped me when I was at my lowest. I thought there was no hope that I would get accepted into medical school until Shemmassian gave me the guidance and support that I needed. Their incredible and knowledgeable team will help you every step of the way. I really appreciated the realistic advice I received that helped me clearly know my options for the admissions process.

Ultimately, the constant encouragement, clear communication, and breakdown of each step of the admissions process led me to where I am today. They helped me get accepted to one of my top choice medical schools and proved to be a truly invaluable resource!

I am now just chilling, going through my senior year riding high. I've already been accepted into an MD program, my second choice, the day after med school admissions can release acceptance decisions! I've already had several interviews between August and early October, with others scheduled for next month. I finished and submitted all my secondary essays to med schools in early August, over a hundred between mid-June and August. And they were coming in all at once. I can't imagine how I would have handled that while taking grueling summer courses. Working with Shemmassian was the best investment for my future. They kept me on track and made sure I could prepare myself well in advance for any type of essay asked of me. More importantly, we curated schools that would give me a higher, more likely, yield of looks. My essays were well-polished (quick turnarounds too) and I never felt like my story was being hijacked or abandoned. My voice rang out through my essays and Shemmassian helped convey my story in the most meaningful and impactful way while adjusting to what any particular school mission could identify with. There isn't anyone I wouldn't recommend Shemmassian to.

The support I received from the start went above and beyond my expectations. My advisor immediately integrated himself into my support system during a challenging time and encouraged me to be the best applicant I could be. The writing staff is absolutely exceptional. From big ideas to little details, my essays were transformed from their help. I know that Shemmassian Consulting's assistance allowed me to be the strongest medical school candidate that I could be and I am so grateful!

I received tutoring for the MCAT and advisors for the application cycle. First, my MCAT tutor was fantastic and helped me improve my score to SEVEN POINTS, putting me in a really strong position for a lot of schools. Then, due to the work I put into my application materials, with the help of my advisors, I got interview invitations very early in the application cycle. These were soon followed by acceptance offers, with many schools left to hear back from.
My MCAT tutor taught me new methods I had not heard of from other traditional MCAT preparatory courses (Princeton Review, Kaplan, etc.). It was refreshing to have someone who had recently taken the MCAT and knew how to teach the test.
Second, I believe my application cycle tutors (general application matters and then writing) also assisted me in my application journey. The timeline they kept me at ensured I was ready to submit the moment portals went live. It was a lot of work during some stretches, but in the end I was able to turn around essays to schools in less than two weeks. The interview prep was quite a bit of fun; I received practice in the traditional and the MMI (multiple mini interview) format. I interviewed at schools that used both formats.
Overall, Shemmassian Academic Consulting helped me gain multiple acceptances to medical school and assisted me in presenting myself as a strong, suitable candidate.

This is a huge help throughout the application process, especially the secondary applications! It makes them much more manageable. The interview prep was also very valuable. It was a good way to get extra practice and constructive feedback.

I decided to consult SAC because I was anxious about the med school admissions process. I did not know how to approach the personal statement and MMI. SAC allowed me to make great improvement on my personal statement by giving detailed, concrete suggestions. Not only did they improve the flow of my writing, but they also addressed higher order concerns, such as the overall message I was trying to convey. After consulting SAC, my personal statement gave a far more compelling argument for why I want to pursue medicine. Additionally, I found the mock MMI very helpful because it allowed me to practice actually making a decision during difficult ethics questions, instead of just weighing both sides. Overall, I highly recommend SAC, especially to those struggling with the personal statement or interview.

"I am writing as a mother of a student that just got accepted to Touro University California. I am truly Grateful and Thankful for being introduced to Shemmassian Consulting. Without their help we would have less or no chances for an acceptance. It was really challenging going through the process one more time and getting re-accepted to a Do School. Most importantly the team was really supportive and treated us as a family member during that stressful year. The major key points that played a huge role were Interview preparation and personal statement. Dr. Shemmassian himself consulted with interview preparation and his team - Dylan and Selden -revised Personal Statement to perfection along with constant communication with any help.
I am advertising Shemmassians consulting services to all parents and future students to make an application process less stressful and more successful.
Thank you again for being there for us !"

Hello, my name is Christopher Ringheanu, and I'm here to tell you about the incredible experience I had with Shemmassian Consulting, as well as why you should strongly consider their services for assistance/support with your application process. For reference, I was accepted to the University of Southern California, Wake Forest University, and the University of Texas at Austin. I chose to attend UT Austin and am currently a freshman here now!

Of course the most integral part of Shemmassian Consulting is your individual consultant, mine being Akash Patel, so I'd like to pinpoint two things which made our partnership a great one.

1. Akash acted very professionally, advised me in the important areas of my senior year and college app process, and was a huge help with every essay I wrote. But perhaps more importantly, he was an outlet for me to talk about the overwhelming stresses of the entire journey. The pressure of making my essays perfect, comparing myself to the standards of top tier universities, and the insecurities of whether or not I’d get into the college of my dreams (and whether or not that college was even the one I wanted to attend). So many ups and downs, but I felt that I truly had someone in my corner at all times with Akash. He was extremely personable and a great individual to share this journey with.

2. I feel that Akash understood what I truly wanted out of the admissions process, even when no one else really did. I always desired to attend UT Austin, but I was so conflicted based on the desires of others who are supporting me and also an integral part of my journey. Akash and I had many conversations about how to balance everything, steps to take in order to gain clarity on what I truly wanted out of this process, and reassured me that the most important thing is that I end up going to a university that I will be truly happy attending. It all worked out in the end. I am doing extremely well here. My parents see it, my older brothers see it, and most importantly I FEEL it.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, good luck with your endeavors, and strongly consider choosing Shemmassian Consulting!

Shemmassian Academic Consulting has been incredibly valuable throughout my entire medical school application process. My advisors have continuously worked with me to highlight my strengths as well as improve upon my weaknesses both with writing and interviewing. This personalized attention has made all the difference.

Our son used the Shemmassian over the last two medical school admission cycles. Though his first attempt was unsuccessful, Sid and Jammie from Shemmassian gave frank, honest feedback that as a parent it's sometimes difficult to give. It was also the best decision to get him working with professionals who know and understand what strengths need to be highlighted and what weaknesses need more work. It certainly is a long process, but the team kept him on schedule and focused. They prepped him for interviews and made sure he stressed what made him stand out. Could not be happier with the outcome!!

I had a fantastic experience commissioning SAC to review my personal statement and application for internal medicine residency. My reviewer (who was herself an accomplished physician at a highly reputable institution) gave me detailed and incisive edits and comments in a very short amount of time. SAC clearly improved the quality of my application and I would highly recommend the service to anyone else.

Shemmassian has a great website, but they don't actually provide many of the services at the level described.
The MCAT tutor did not realize that he was supposed to share his screen using the whiteboard that was mailed. The tutor only wanted my daughter to read the book (which the website says is one of the reasons students don't do well on the MCAT). The tutor was not able to answer my daughters questions and just asked her to read back to him what the book said. He laughed at my daughter and made her feel stupid. This tutor was eventually replaced with a much better one, once my daughter reached out.
The advisor did nothing. She did not help create the list of colleges my daughter applied to. She reviewed my daughters list, asked her to make a spreadsheet, suggested a few useless changes (one school already on the list, some state schools that take very few out of state students) and then told my daughter that since she didn't know anything about my daughters connections she guessed the list was ok.
Her advisor did not have her pre-write her secondaries which according to the site is key to being prepared. At the end of May she just told her to start working on the most common questions. It was a crazy dash to write all of those secondaries at the last minute. This advisor was eventually replaced, but when I first reached out about the issues, I was told everything was fine.
The second advisor told my daughter he would have had her apply to different schools.
When my daughter was getting interview prep, they thought she was interviewing with a DO school in Oklahoma instead of an MD school in Florida. No one seems to really pay attention or care about the customer.

I had a great experience with Shemmassian Consulting for interview prep. My advisor helped me practice with both traditional style questions, as well as MMI, which I did not have previous experience in answering. I found it really helpful to walk through the questions and the coaching session made me feel a lot more confident on how to approach a wide variety of questions that may come my way. I would definitely recommend this service to everyone to ease some of the interview nerves during the application cycle by feeling a lot more prepared going into them!
Thank you!

Interview prep exceeded my expectations! The person I worked with was friendly, answered all of my questions thoroughly and clearly has a lot of experience with interview prep and admissions processes. He gave clear advice on how to answer interview questions and we worked to create strategy that works for me. I would definitely recommend interview prep to others. I walked away with a clear and easy method for answering MMI style questions and got a really good look into how admission committees evaluate their interviewees, two extremely valuable things to know going into interviews! Our session helped me build confidence about my interview skills and my ability to succeed in medical school in general.

Several years ago, I would have never imagined that I would be accepted to my dream medical school, Harvard Medical School. As an international student, I was always discouraged to apply due to the low acceptance rate and challenging process. However, the Shemmassian team always believed in me and supported me throughout the whole process despite all of the obstacles. When I first took the MCAT, I was discouraged, but after receiving guidance from an amazing tutor at Shemmassian, I was able to raise my score significantly the second time around and be ready to apply. I cannot express how grateful I am for the amazing support and guidance I got from the Sehmmassian team to help me achieve my dream, one that I never knew was possible.

This experience was so helpful for so many reasons! I just Shemmassian Academic Consulting for my interview prep. My interviewer, Itay, was so knowledgeable and gave great feedback. I would absolutely recommend it to any of my friends!

The editing of my personal statement, W&A descriptions, secondary essays, update letters, and other essays in my med school application was extremely helpful. Although I always thought I was a good writer, SAC showed me how to do so in the way medical schools want applicants to write their essays. For me, having a trusted person (who understands the application process) edit and comment on drafts of my essays was completely worthwhile. Nearly every sentence I wrote had a suggestion for improvement. Because of them, I got into one of my top choice med schools during my first application cycle.

I opted for the "primaries plan" and had a wonderful experience. Especially helpful was the fact that my advisor and application reviewers were selected based on my personal academic/extracurricular background; I was not assigned random individuals with merely generic knowledge. It was fantastic to have the guidance and encouragement of two individuals who fit my interests!

The edits/suggestions I received on my personal statement and activity sections were insightful and detailed. My advisor also assisted me as I crafted a tailored school list based on my student status (Canadian student applying to both Canadian and American medical schools).

Throughout the process, my advisor offered guidelines pertaining to application timelines, letters of rec, and more. In addition to the support of my advisor, Dr. Shemmassian was also very responsive and helpful.

I am so pleased to have been accepted to a Canadian medical school and two medical schools in the US!

I consider myself a decent to good writer but sometimes it's hard to remove myself from the framework of my one thoughts and pick the relevant information that is worded nicely. Having the second set of eyes that knows how to orient my essays in a medical school application context was extremely helpful. Especially in that busy time period around June it was great to have quick turnaround in my feedback and my consultant and I were able to get into a good workflow. I can only imagine what my application would have looked like if I didn't have the extra help.

Shemmassian Consulting is amazing. My advisor was very supportive and painstakingly edited all of my primary and secondary essays down to the minute details to optimize my application. He kept me accountable throughout the process, ensuring that I wrote and revised my essays in a timely manner. He was very quick with his edits and responsive with his emails, but did not "hand-hold" me throughout the process, which led me to become a better essay writer overall, which will certainly help me in the future when applying for residency. I was able to gain acceptance to a solid MD school which I definitely wouldn't have been able to without his help. 10/10 recommend!