Way Ahead of You, Kaplan University
After I applied for, then took the GRE two years ago, there was a small influx of junk mail that was no doubt the result of the College Examination Service sharing the news that I'd done so with a bunch of schools.
It was actually a bit amusing, as none of them offered the program I planned to study. Many of these schools were conferring Bachelor's and Master's degrees, not a doctoral program in the bunch.
One even touted the single sex only dormitories, to help keep students focused on their studies. I wanted to email to inquire what housing options they offered married students, but I suspect they are targeting younger, unmarried students. Then I thought they had to be pretty hard up to devote two color glossy pages to promoting this benefit at their school, while giving a half page to information about their academic programs.
In preparing for that exam, I plunked down a few hundred bucks in a test preparation course from Kaplan to refresh myself on algebra and geometry, as it had been a long time since I had to calculate the cosine of a hypotenuse or the arc of a circle. The course definitely was helpful, as the only reason I didn't do better is that I glanced over the questions about circles instead of focusing a lot of time and ended up with 1/6 of my questions of the variety 'calculate the diameter of the circle if this arc equal 5.' The inability to do so all on me.
So, Kaplan. If someone pays for your GRE exam review product in 2011, when do you think they're applying to graduate school, especially if those scores are only valid for 5 years?
You sent me THIS 2.5 years after the planned exam date I indicated on your statistical data survey that you asked me to complete when I plunked down $279!
I don't know, do people really spend 2.5 years preparing for the GRE? Yeah, sorry, even the place with dorms for single women impresses me more than you do on this front, as they at least contacted me about a week before I took the exam!
At least on the bright side, you make great exam preparation products, so you've got that going for you...
It was actually a bit amusing, as none of them offered the program I planned to study. Many of these schools were conferring Bachelor's and Master's degrees, not a doctoral program in the bunch.
One even touted the single sex only dormitories, to help keep students focused on their studies. I wanted to email to inquire what housing options they offered married students, but I suspect they are targeting younger, unmarried students. Then I thought they had to be pretty hard up to devote two color glossy pages to promoting this benefit at their school, while giving a half page to information about their academic programs.
In preparing for that exam, I plunked down a few hundred bucks in a test preparation course from Kaplan to refresh myself on algebra and geometry, as it had been a long time since I had to calculate the cosine of a hypotenuse or the arc of a circle. The course definitely was helpful, as the only reason I didn't do better is that I glanced over the questions about circles instead of focusing a lot of time and ended up with 1/6 of my questions of the variety 'calculate the diameter of the circle if this arc equal 5.' The inability to do so all on me.
So, Kaplan. If someone pays for your GRE exam review product in 2011, when do you think they're applying to graduate school, especially if those scores are only valid for 5 years?
You sent me THIS 2.5 years after the planned exam date I indicated on your statistical data survey that you asked me to complete when I plunked down $279!
I don't know, do people really spend 2.5 years preparing for the GRE? Yeah, sorry, even the place with dorms for single women impresses me more than you do on this front, as they at least contacted me about a week before I took the exam!
At least on the bright side, you make great exam preparation products, so you've got that going for you...
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