Advice you can check, from someone with no stake in the answer
SWENGrad Education Consultation is an independent education and admissions consultancy. We help students find and apply to Bachelor's, Master's and PhD programmes in Europe — and we are paid by those students, not by universities.
Independence, stated plainly
A great deal of "free" advice available to international applicants is funded by the institutions being recommended. That model is not inherently dishonest, but it does create an interest that sits between the student and the advice.
SWENGrad is structured to avoid it. We hold no partnership, agency or representation agreement with any university, and we accept no commission, referral fee, bonus or other benefit from any institution, in any form, at any point.
If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on this page before it affects any advice we give.
Three working principles
Sources over assertions
Recommendations are grounded in what the university actually publishes, and we give you the link. Where something is our professional judgement rather than documented fact, we label it as such so you can weigh it accordingly.
Your work stays yours
We review and question; you write. This is partly an academic integrity requirement and partly practical — admissions readers can tell when a letter was not written by the applicant, and universities can withdraw offers over it.
Scope stated up front
Every service page sets out what is not included alongside what is. Fees are agreed in writing before work starts. You should never be uncertain about what you have bought.
The people behind SWENGrad
SWENGrad is a small, independent practice. When you work with us you deal directly with the person advising you, not with a call centre or a rotating case handler.
Detailed background information about who runs SWENGrad will be published here. We would rather leave this section short than fill it with claims we cannot evidence — and you are welcome to ask about anyone's background directly during a consultation.
Where we operate
Consultations are conducted remotely, so we can work with applicants wherever they are based. Our focus is admission to European institutions at Bachelor's, Master's and doctoral level; the countries we currently cover are listed on the destinations page.
Ask us anything before you commit
Including the awkward questions — about scope, fees, or what we honestly cannot do for you.