Entering my senior year of High School and the chaos of college applications, I was very lost on…read morewhat a strong college essay and application looked like. I remember having different extracurricular experiences to talk about but there was a missing piece of how to word my essay and let alone start on my essays. I spent 2 weeks blankly starring at my document before realizing I needed more help than I expected. It wasn't until I started working with John and Jamie that I was able to talk about my life experiences and turn them into strong essays that reflects who I am and the type of leader I am in any community. Working with them helped me quickly understand how college essays are structured and how I can word my experiences to illustrate my strong characteristics as a student and leader. I really appreciated the weekly workshops provided by Jamie and John for extra time to spend on essays. As someone who had a hard time finding time and motivation to work on my essays, the workshops and set meeting times held me accountable for getting my work done before each meeting. I would 100% recommend John's service to anyone else struggling during this process. I am now committing to UC Davis and I couldn't be more grateful for the help provided by John and Jamie.

We were referred to John by one of our close friends and we are so thankful we did it. John and…read morehis team worked closely with our son for four years, from course selection to summer camp application, and eventually through the college app process. He put a lot of thought and paid extra attention to every details of the application forms. He is our guardian on meeting every milestone in this journey. John is more of a mentor to my son as well. He helped him navigate through his stress and anxiety, so that he could focus on making progress in his course work and applications. He also help bridging the communication between us and our son, which we deeply appreciated to balance our relationship during the crunching times. We would highly recommend John, he is the one you can count on!

My experience with Ilumin was amazing from start to finish. My counselor was incredibly…read moreknowledgeable and had excellent connections for tutoring, summer programs, afterschool activities, college essay revisions, etc. They are also really consistent. My brother worked with Ilumin 10 years before I did, and they were so competent and supportive that our family came back a decade later and received the same high-quality counseling. They also provided so much support throughout the school year, and especially during college application season. They helped me stay on track, reduce my stress, and even finish my applications early.

If you are looking for college admission support, I cannot recommend ILUMIN Education enough. Our…read moreconsultant, Danny has been working with my son since junior year, and his help during the application process was invaluable. He was extremely dedicated and provided advice that my son actually listened to and follow - which is a huge win for any parent! Seeing him get into his dream college was proud moment for us, and we know Danny played a big part in that success. We are so appreciative of the care and effort put into his journey.

Mr. Trung Le at Bay Area College Consulting, Northern CA, is an expert and the best, most…read moreknowledgeable, and kindest College Counselor my family and I are lucky to have worked with. Counselor Trung Le has devotedly helped my son and daughter with great advices and in details, and their best college applications. My family and I are grateful for Mr. Le's help. You're in great hands with College Counselor Trung Le's guidances. Scott & Katelynn N. Sunnyvale, CA

I want to share my experience with Bay Area College Consulting and Trung - who is the founder and…read moreconsultant of this organization. We are extremely happy with Trung for guiding our son (and me too :-) ) through the College Admissions process. Our son is now admitted to UCLA and I give a huge credit of this achievement  to Trung and his consultation. Trung, very expertly took us through all the intricacies of the college application process and essentially gave a very realistic picture of this very daunting process. Interaction with him greatly demystified the college application process, for us.  This helped our son clearly focus his energies to the right areas without having to second-guess if this was the right thing to do. Right from the beginning Trung was very organized with his approach. -He created a baseline of our son's profile. -Created a list of colleges matching his profile and expectations. -Identified and recommended taking relevant community college courses to augment credentials (super helpful!) -Most Important: Trung recommended the execution of a unique project that showcased abilities that were relevant to his area of interest. I think this really helped towards rounding up our son's overall profile. -And finally, Trung helped us through all the details of the college application process. We are extremely happy with the guidance, counseling and consulting Trung has provided to us. I would happily and highly recommend Trung to any one who wants to prepare themselves, or their child, for the College Application process.

As a parent, I honestly felt we had started the college application process too late. We first…read morebegan working with Mr. Park during the summer before senior year, and I was worried there would not be enough time to really help my son. But after meeting him, my thinking completely changed. From the beginning, Mr. Park was very clear, organized, and realistic with us. He did not just give general advice like many other counselors. He took time to understand my son's strengths, personality, and goals, and gave guidance based specifically on him. That made a very big difference for us. He helped a lot with essays and personal statements. Many times he pushed my son to think deeper and explain his experiences better, and I could see the improvement over time. His feedback was very detailed and personal, not advice that I could find online. What I appreciated most was that he was honest and straightforward while still being very supportive. The college process can be stressful for both students and parents, but Mr. Park helped make everything feel much more manageable. My son also became more confident, organized, and mature during this process. I truly feel Mr. Park cares about his students and wants them to succeed long term, not only for college admissions. I would highly recommend him to any family looking for genuine and personalized college counseling support.

Mr. Park is an outstanding college counselor. Through his guidance over the past two years, my…read morechild not only got into her dream colleges but she also learned many life skills from him. Mr. Park has in-depth knowledge of the admission process. His understanding of application requirements, deadlines, and institutional preferences has helped my child to have a clear idea of what she needed to do. He stays informed about the latest admission trends, and his advice is relevant and up to date with the priorities of each college and their selection criteria. The organizational skills of Mr. Park are exceptional. He tracks my child's progress, application requirements, important dates of tests and submission deadlines very carefully, making sure nothing is overlooked. His well-structured documentation system consists of clear timelines and checklists which make it easy to follow and help my child to stay on top of the tasks. He also frequently guides my child on the organization skill which is very useful in life. Mr. Park consistently met with my child to ensure all the tasks were on track and discuss upcoming requirements. He had coached my child on the SAT before Junior year started, so she could later be more focused on her school work and applications. After spending a month working with Mr. Park intensely on the areas the she needed to improve, she scored very well and was satisfied with her performance. For college applications, Mr. Park always set the deadlines early to make sure there was enough time for review and revision in order to submit the best quality of materials on time. This skill let my child navigate this complex process smoothly and reduced last-minute stress. Mr. Park is honest and direct on feedback and what needs to be done. At the same time, he is also very encouraging, providing a positive outlook and always made my child feel his confidence in her. I would highly recommend him to anyone looking for a structured yet supportive college counselor.

Manny is very good advisor for college. He is perfect for those looking for help that live in the…read moreSan Francisco Bay Area. I highly recommend seeing him when your kid in the 8th or 9th grade. This is the best time to take advantage of his services.

Manny has been with us from beginning, to middle, to end…read more it can be a challenging process to navigate, so having his kindness and knowledge is huge!! Thank you, Manny for always helping and showing us how it's done!

We've had a great experience with Insight, Purvi is phenomenal. The college process can be…read moreoverwhelming, and a lot of it comes down to picking the right list of schools to apply to early and during regular decision. Insight has a lot of experience on this front, and also a lot of "insight" into what colleges look for. In short, Purvi has been able to guide us through the nuances of the application process. Additionally, she gave us some great advice around summer programs - we would have never found the ones that she suggested. We also had a great tutor for ACT from Insight, who was able to give my daughter some great tips. She ultimately got into her top-choice school. We are very happy with Insight, and have recommended them to many friends!

Hi Ajit, Any chance I can get my $200 back for an initial consultation that was absolute nonsense?…read moreI have kindly asked for my money back multiple times. I want you to known that telling my kid who is STEM focused taking 10+ APs to consider taking a ceramics course doesn't cut it for a $200 initial consultation. JUST GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK. Just letting you know that your responses on your reviews of people who complain about your service is underwhelming. Improve your service and you will do much better. Ajit, I will continue to complain about the service I received to every Indian parent that I know in the Bay Area. If you think otherwise, you don't know me well... Based on your "Stanford MBA" education, you may certainly know that word travels fast in the Bay Area. A simple suggestion to all who read this (including you Ajit) - Do NOT pay $200 for an initial consultation. Simply request a free initial consultation so that you are aware of the all of the program details, the costs, and the proficiency level of the counselor. If they can't give you a free consultation, move on and find another program. Believe me, there are plenty of programs that give you all the information that you need without paying fees to find out. They should be selling you on the program and not the other way around. 8/18/25 - Ajit, I read your response. Your answer is false. My wife, my son, and I all attended the meeting with your "counselor." It was you who was missing in that meeting. So don't make up stuff. The fact remains that I have not received my $200 back....

This review is about Angela Sun's college counselling abilities. Our experience was exactly the…read moreopposite of what's written here and I would give negative stars if I could !! She was an absolute nightmare to deal with and has zero emotional intelligence or tact to deal with young teens !! She preys on parent's weaknesses and has clearly understood parents would do anything for their children as long as she says things like she got admission into MIT, Ivy's and self proclaims that she is the absolute best college consultant who will make your child write the absolute best essays he can ever write !! (I am paraphrasing it but she said something like that to me in our first meeting !). She made it amply clear even before I met for the first time that all she cares about is money and nothing else ! She charged me $300 per hr saying it's "the weekend rate" - whatever that means (although her website only mentions 250 per hr ). She was laser focused on the money in our conversations and showed zero interest in knowing my child before or after the meeting. Her website says parents will get a detailed report within 24 hrs of the first meeting, and we received no such report. The first meeting was a complete disaster. She was so rude (and please don't say she is strict/tough /good etc). No - she was plain rude and not good as a counselor !! My son was so scared of her that after a point stopped answering even basic questions ! She gave as little info as possible in the session and made it laborious by asking my son to type out literally every word that came out of her mouth (all of it was just general info and nothing anyone wouldn't know about college admissions)! Despite all these negative signals, I still tried to go ahead with scheduling a few more sessions, because believe it or not, my son insisted he wanted to try her a bit more before giving up ! I wanted to understand how many sessions my son would need and in her response she had the audacity to say my child was a "non high functioning" kid and hence would probably need many sessions (being vague and open ended of course to milk as much money as possible from me) ! The "genius" in her, inferred all this about my son from just the 1 hr meeting !! Not to brag - Honestly, my child is in a highly specialized gifted track at school and elsewhere and in fact the very reason I was looking for a counselor so early on was to make sure I give him all the advantages possible and guide him using the best counselors ! She quoted a ridiculous number of hours at the rate of $300 per hr and I told her , her website states she will only need 3-4 sessions for coming up with a 4 year plan and her response was "website is outdated " !!! (can you believe that ??) Parents, please be careful when choosing a counselor. Please make sure the counselor has the right emotional intelligence, credentials , experience to deal with your child in this vulnerable yet important stage of their life. Please don't select a counselor based purely on 5 star online reviews or what these counselors say they achieved for themselves. If in your initial interactions you detect the counselor's main focus is money, and not your child or if the counselor is rude, evasive about answering your questions , please take these red flags seriously and run miles away from her/him ! I am very thankful that I was able to detect this problem early on and not expose my child to a horrible 4 year counselling experience !

I agree with S A 's review. Not great at emotional intelligence with teens. I think she's got a…read moremethod and that works for some kids, she isn't into customizing for how the child learns. I am sharing that his score went down a full 100 points after - full 3 months of tutoring with her. Worst yet when we shared this news she never responded to us again.

My kid went through Mr. Hulls program back in 2008-2010, so this is a very late review. However, I…read morehonestly felt that he and his program had helped my kid greatly. It did improve his scores and he was able to get into a very good school, and eventually got into a very good law school and received his JD. Now, he works for a high tech company and their stocks have gone through the roof. Mr. Hull was a little stiff at times, but I think that is from him taking his job seriously.

Did not help in any admissions. Child got into all the schools that Ivy Review did not help with…read more The schools Ivy review helped with, student did not get admission. Essay feedback was not personalized enough, very generic advice. Needs more 1-1 sessions of actually doing work, case by case basis, not just general admission strategy. Would not recommend.

We used them for AP test prep. Very expensive but quite effective. You should pick your own tutor…read morefrom their website, don't let them assign you a random one.

We had a very positive experience with our tutor, Jolie Goolish. She was patient, thoughtful and…read morekind with my daughter and helped her with preparation for standardized tests for middle school applications. I highly recommend Jolie!

Test prep is ok, but advisors to support school application and essay are terrible. The advisor…read moreoften comes unprepared and not responsive when the student asked to schedule for consultation hours, and you have to request repeatedly and eventually made a compliant. Poor knowledge about schools outside of UC and advisors do not make effort to help or guide the students as how they can maximize their chance for the best school they can get in.

Elite prep was extremely helpful during my college application process. They helped me curate a…read morecollege list geared towards my educational goals, and matched me with an essay advisor that helped make my application more competitive during this process. I ended up getting into multiple of my top choices, and am very grateful for their guidance!