We want to help you leave your mark on your city’s skyline. Sure, you have the grades, the polished portfolio and the test scores. But what is it that sets you apart? At Forster-Thomas, we help construct a complete candidate from all the materials and experiences that serve as your foundation. 

Forster-Thomas has a more personalized approach, and that begins with our free candidacy assessment. During a candidacy assessment, we get to know you. We’ll look at your transcript, test scores, and relevant experience so we can determine the competitiveness of your candidacy. We'll discuss your resume, and help you understand how schools will likely view your background and achievements. We’ll find out what you want from your education so we can suggest schools that might be a good fit.

How It Works

Our Architecture School Admissions Consulting Process in Four Simple Steps

1. Reflection & Inspiration

Great personal statements come from the heart. So before you start writing, we need to get to the heart of who you are. To do this, you’ll fill out a detailed inventory of your personal background and values, your professional and extracurricular accomplishments, the defining moments in your life, and your future aspirations. You’ll even talk about your favorite movies and guilty pleasures—often an unexpected source of great essay material. Once you’ve completed that, you’ll have your first meeting with your creative coach, who will use this as a launching pad to get to know you. We’ll ask tough questions and expect honest answers, so keep the canned responses for a cocktail party. We want to know how you think to ensure that your essays capture the true essence of who you are. That’s how you’ll stand out from the pack.

2. Brainstorming & Guidance

Once we really have a sense of who you are, we’ll begin to brainstorm your personal statement. You're not going to talk about how you've been interested in architecture since you visited Italy at age 8—we're going to dig deep to help you unearth your real passions and motivations, and we'll show you how to sell yourself without sounding arrogant or cocky. Once we know the content of the essay, we'll put together an outline that prepares you to write your first draft.

3. Polishing & Tightening

After you've e-mailed us your first draft, we'll make detailed notes in the essay and send it back—or call you directly for a one-on-one discussion about how to improve the work. During this session, we’ll examine your work—making certain your essay is engaging, well structured, and insightful—and then review it with you, going over the notes and answering any questions you may have. Once everyone is on the same page, you will complete your second draft.

4. Editing & Proofreading

Our final step is time spent mostly on our own. Our copy editor, who hasn't yet seen your essay, steps up to the plate to clean up lingering grammar mistakes and sloppy constructions, spell-check the spell-check, and make any final notes to ensure that your essay has an edge with business school admissions officers. We will speak with you one last time, explaining any final changes we suggest. Then we review and proofread the final essay—you can never be too confident.

Architecture School Services

Our architecture school packages leave no stone unturned. Your dedicated creative coach will walk you through each and every step of the application process, from helping you develop your creative portfolio to ensuring every word of your essay is just right to spell-checking your actual online application.

All our packages include the following services:

• Candidacy Assessment. We evaluate your candidacy and determine what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, and how to put your best foot forward. 
• School Selection. We advise you on which schools you should apply to…and which ones you shouldn’t.
• Comprehensive Brainstorming Sessions. We help you develop strong ideas for all your application materials, from sample scripts and film treatments to your personal statement.
• Professional Editing of your written work.
• Recommendation Strategy. We ensure that you choose the right recommenders and give them focused talking points to highlight your most important attributes. 
• Application Review & Advice
• Waitlist service

If you need a killer short video to prove your filmmaking chops, or want some professional film/video experience to show you’re serious, we can upgrade to a high-level film school package that includes all of the above, as well as: 

• Portfolio Advice. If you need to make a glistening portfolio, we give you expert advice on everything from your freehand sketches to your developed works and other areas of craftsmanship. 
• Candidacy Building. We won’t just strengthen the existing elements of your candidacy, we’ll help you build it up from scratch—whether through providing internship and career advice or helping you choose adult education classes. 

To find out more, request a free candidacy assessment.