PLEASE NOTE! A WORD OF CAUTION FOR POTENTIAL CLIENTS: Barbara talks a lot about how much your child's story means in their applications, but her actions while editing my child's essays speak volumes about her capabilities and false pretenses about loving students. When my child would come to her with heartfelt essays about her experiences and hopes for the future, Barbara would brutally slash up my child's essays until they were bare boned. No story, no flair, no emotion, nothing. Not to mention Barbara also told my child that her essays were "terrible" or that she should not apply at all. Those same essays, without any edits, got her into incredibly competitive schools in and out of state. She also edits the essays in FRONT of my child right before they meet. She wouldn't spend time to thoroughly edit the essays beforehand despite asking for them a week in advance. To top it all off, Barabra is phenomenally bad at making good on her scheduling appointments and will force you to sign a multi-thousand dollar contract, to lock you in. She has made appointments with my child multiple times and then proceeded to cancel last minute because she double booked, or would force my child to wait. read more

The college process is truly daunting. Barbara helped us to break it down into manageable steps, working with my twins from their sophomore year in high school through to the end of the application process. Notable points for twins: she works with each child separately, drawing out their specific interests and talents with regular one-on-one meetings. If they don't really know what they are interested in or they are interested in many different things (normal for a teenager!) she helps them figure it out so that by senior year they have a real portfolio of volunteer and community activities, internships, research projects and leadership experiences that they can use to clarify their interests and to get into excellent colleges! She is very honest and direct, while at the same time enjoying the kids' unique strengths and opportunities for laughs that come along the way. She helps them pick out schools that fit their characters and helps them streamline the process as much as is humanly possible for such a high-stakes venture. Thanks so much, Barbara! read more

Hey parents! Hey students! Barbara Austin is here to help you navigate the college application and financial obligation roadmap. I would recommend attending every seminar she is offering - repeat them, hear the advice more than once, take notes, and apply her knowledge. You will not regret it, this is time well invested. Our personal experience with Barbara probably saved my daughter $70-$100k in debt. Her advice is worth its weight in gold. "It is with tremendous pride that I inform you that my daughter has successfully completed the Nursing program as offered through the School of Nursing at The University of San Francisco. She graduated last fall due to medical setbacks, but is exiting medical school DEBT FREE!!!!! Between your advice, and my hard line financial management, I was able to put my daughter through medical school without a penny of debt. She is scheduled to take the California State Nursing Exam (NCLEX) at the end of the month, and already has a job lined up. I am eternally grateful to you for your generosity in helping us. I did everything you advised short or sending her to community college for her base courses." read more

My friend introduced us to Dr. Austin when my son was a sophomore. Dr. Austin is very approachable and knows how to talk to him. She has given him many great advice such as volunteer work and summer programs. She helped him apply for summer programs for both sophomore year and junior year. She also talked to him regularly about his academics. The college application has been a long and daunting process, I was worried about his essays especially the common app essay. Dr. Austin brought the best out of him in the personal statement, a compelling story highlighted with his accomplishments through hard work. We worked with her and took a lot of her advice for the last two and half years and we are thrilled of the outcome of college admission! read more

My son got into Berkeley for class 2023 with CS major. He is doing good with tough UCB CS class, Dr. Austin help my son craft good story as an Asian boy to stand out in the crowd. Thanks Dr. Austin! read more

Barbara has been amazing for my daughter! She was very helpful throughout the whole process and answered all the questions that we had as parents. The insight she provided was very good, and all the advice she gave was great. She helped my daughter decide which schools would be best to apply to and helped edit the essays In a very reasonable time.  She respected our opinions and decisions, and made very reasonable choices. My daughter loved working with her and enjoyed the whole process! read more

My child was in her program for over an year, it's a waste of time and Money. It seen like Barbara knows what she is talking about, until we found it out during the college application process, what she told my child to preparing certain things were not even need and schools would not even required from student, in the end( not even an extra points, ) she did not know much!! You're better off go to a book store and get a book read, no need to spend $$$ on her sessions. After December, she does not help your child's college process, but she still wanted charge you money for until April or May. And her SAT & ACT prep class were a joke!!! read more

My son worked with Dr. Austin since his sophomore year. She really knew him and planned the activities, volunteers, and summer programs based on his strength and interests. All of these later on served as the raw materials for the college essays and the supplement profile. That made the college essays writing process much easier and smoother. Dr. Austin knows each college very well. My son is B+ student. She suggested a list of schools based on what she thought best fit my son, not only academically, but also socially. We visited these schools. My son liked them and decided to apply. With Dr. Austin's guidance, the essays were well written and tailored to each school's needs. We applied to 10 colleges, and were accepted by 8. Among the accepted schools, 7 of them gave scholarships. That was a really big surprise! Without Dr. Austin, we won't be able to get through the college application process smoothly and end up with good results. Huge thanks to Dr. Austin! read more

We strongly recommend Ms Barbara Austin as a great college counselor. With her help, my son was accepted early by one of the top five ranked universities in Dec 2018. At the same time, we are deeply grateful for her excellent guidance and education over the past year. My son is so fortunate to be her student. She have helped to open up endless opportunities ahead for us. Her kindest recommendation, coaching, encouragement, patience, essay brainstorm and editing, professionalism, and a lot more, are greatly appreciated. During our many meetings, we witnessed how much Barbara have empowered my son, which in turn has led him to such a height and dimension. As parents, we have learn a lot from her too. We would not hesitate to recommend her to our friends for college planning. Thank you, Dr. Austin, for your great help. read more

Barbara Austin is a dynamic and truly gifted college coach with a special knack for connecting to her clients - whether they are adults or teens. She helped me get into law school, and then years later helped my two teens get into great colleges. She is practical, realistic, inspiring, and tons of fun. Well worth every penny. She's in great demand and can be selective with her clients, so consider yourself lucky if she signs you (or your kid) on - and then do what she says and stay out of her way! You'll be glad you did. read more

As a student, prior to my first real meeting with Barbara, I was not sure I wanted to work with her. I already had my mother bothering me 24/7 to do my homework, did I really want yet another person telling me what I needed to do? After meeting with her, and working with her, my opinion changed 100%. She made my life LESS stressful. I checked in with her every few months in the beginning, and because I saw her less often than my mother, I felt much more responsibility to stay on track, and less pressure from my mother, because she saw that I was following Barbara's advice. I really appreciated Barbara's enthusiasm--she got me excited about raising my grades and doing extra-curriculars (I founded the men's tennis team at my school, helped bring an anti-bullying program, and attempted to get solar panels installed, but failed). She encouraged me to choose ambitious extra-curriculars, but didn't dictate what I should do--I came up with these ideas myself, and she supported me along the way. Not having to do college research about deadlines for tests, applications, and figuring out which places to apply was a total lifesaver for me. I had enough to handle trying to get as high of a GPA as possible, playing 20 hours of tennis a week, and still playing some video games ;) I can only imagine the kind of stress this relieved from my mother, who typically worries about way too much. Barbara also helped my family structure our finances in order to receive the most aid. If you don't think you want to work with Barbara, at the very least it is worth hearing her advice on how to make your base year look as advantageous as possible. What was the result for my family? We paid about half of the tuition we normally would have. She also helped steer me towards schools that provided 1) open curriculum and 2) full need-based aid, with need-blind admission (I forget the exact terms). I would highly recommend Barbara because she told me what to do (and I did it), she saved us a crazy amount of money, and she saved me a lot of headaches and fighting that I could have been having with my mother if she were the one driving this process (I applied to 11 schools, and got into Brown, Amherst, Swarthmore, U St. Louis with great money, UCLA, UCSB, UCSB CCS, UCD, and U Oregon Honors). I ended up going to Brown, and loved it. Now that the years have made me a tad wiser, I have some advice for you about college, and working with Barbara. - working with her is not cheap, but in my opinion it is worth it. - you should NOT work with Barbara if you want to be an english major. I personally don't think you should waste your money on college if you want to be a writer, I've heard it's better to just spend those 4 years reading and writing on your own. The economy is TOO rough out there to start your life in debt (a special kind of debt from hell that can never be absolved, even if you go bankrupt). - if I were a sophomore/junior in highschool again, and I had my current self as a mentor, there's a 50/50 chance that I would choose to go to Brown if I were doing it all again. Why? With the advice of someone in the tech field (where I am), I think I could have learned the same skills for much less money by self-teaching, along with a mentor guiding me. - also, if you are not a motivated student, I would think deeply about whether you want to work with Barbara or go to college. You can do amazingly joining your family's business, or apprenticing with a family friend. Barbara will ask a lot of you, and this is not easy stuff. If you are set on working with her, even if you don't feel super motivated about all this stuff, she can still be super helpful because she helps you choose good essay topics, helps you edit the essay, and holds test prep sessions. If you made it this far, congrats, be proud of your attention span! You will do well in life! read more

Dr. Barbara Austin has been a wonderful college coach for all for of our children (3 boys and our daughter). My eldest was the most difficult because he neither had the stellar grades or much extracurricular going for him (besides LAX). Barbara started working with him as a sophomore (and all our other kids) and helped inspire him not only to bring his grades up but to really become the leader we always knew he could be. He graduated with a 3.9, was the captain of his LAX team, and made it into his dream school, UCLA. All my kids got into wonderful schools because she helped them perfect their stories. But here's the kicker, Barbara also helped my wife and I secure great financial aid for our kids as well as each of my kids getting at least one good scholarship! Great stuff, Dr. Barb! My family thanks you deeply. read more

I received college admissions guidance from Barbara between 2006-2008 through a HS leadership and computer science program (BFOIT). She was always very thoughtful and gave very personalized attention to each of her students. Her attentiveness and genuine concern for each individual gave me the confidence to acknowledge my skills and accomplishments, and leverage them to put me in a position primed for college success. read more

In her 10th grade my Lin got very sick and had to take off time from BHS. After she felt better, she tried to go back but couldn't take it and went to the continuation high school. She did well in her 11th grade and finished up her senior year at Berkeley. Our family was very worried she wouldn't get into a decent college because of her situation. Barbara started working with her when she was in continuation school and helped her through the whole process, even after she return to regular school. She helped Lin get some award, do service and even some leadership, although it was outside of regular school. She got into Mt. Holyoke College, her dream school and we got good financial aid and scholarships. All is well. Thank you, Barbara. read more

Barbara was an amazing coach for my daughter. My daughter was a very successful student, had great SAT scores and good extracurriculars, but since I was new to the elite college application process I didn't know how to help my daughter stand out from the other kids with good credentials. Barbara was able to take the various aspects of my daughter's application and craft them into a compelling story that caught everyone's attention. Barbara had incredible insight into what admission officers and scholarship directors were looking for--so much so that when my daughter met her admissions officer at Yale, the officer specifically referenced parts of the essay Barbara had helped my daughter develop. With Barbara's help, my daughter was accepted into every college she applied to, including Harvard and Yale--no small feat for a student from a high school that rarely sends students to any Ivy League school. She was offered a full-tuition scholarship at Duke--which she ended up turning down because she won an independent local scholarship that covered all her college costs. There is no question in my mind that she would not have won that scholarship, nor have done as well in the college application process, without Barbara's insight and experience. If you are a parent who wants to help your child's dreams come true, but don't know how, Barbara is the person to help you. read more

My son was inspired and encouraged by Barbara Austin who guided him successfully through the college application process. He got into the University that he really wanted to attend. The classes she arranged for SAT tutoring were excellent. She is able to tease out his ideas and helped to clarify their direction. She is extremely positive. She gave her "all" to my son. I highly recommend Barbara. read more

Dr Austin was very helpful and responsive! I would highly recommend her for college counseling.

Considering Barbara's help to bring out your student's best application story? Read about my completely successful experience: I've worked with "L" for three years as a writing tutor and our relationship is strong and trusting. But when it came to writing her college application essays and determining the best places to apply, it was too personal and complicated for me or her mother to be fully effective. After all, L is a teenager and it's a huge task. Since the essays about oneself are critical for college admissions and scholarships and the school choices were vital, we consulted with Dr. Barbara Austin. At her warm and casual office, the mom and I mostly watched and listened to Barbara work with L and from the first moments, we knew we'd found the solution. I have never seen such a fast and deep connection between an adult and any teenager: Barbara asked questions and L told her life's story in full and with a depth of thought and feeling that brought me to inner tears. Barbara brought forth all that we knew was inside L and gave her the confidence to speak it and her feedback was clear and specific. Then the two of them discussed options and reached conclusions about college choices with mom's and my input. Barbara listened and spoke with absolute respect and caring attention. Her expertise with the college admissions process and the knowledge of the schools we mentioned was immense and she fully answered all our questions. We left the process happy and more informed than we thought possible. L respects and appreciates her own history in a new and powerful way and has a pride in herself that no one else has been able to give her. And she's made her decisions about college and knows how to tell the world who she is, satisfying our primary goals. read more

I have worked with Barbara Austin for 10 years. I run a program that tries to get kids into the college of their dreams and sometimes we have "hard" cases, sometimes we have stars. Barbara is THE BEST. You will not find anyone better. She has years of experience, she is able to work with all sorts of students; Barbara has helped us get, literally, tens of kids (over 40) into the most prestigious college and universities in the United States- in engineering and computer science (and she is an English teacher!)- and she does it with a great sense of humor and laser focus and seriousness. She demands the best from the students. She is creative and changes her style and pedagogy, if necessary. Barbara does not put up with BS and the kids absolutely respect her. She is constantly asked to make presentations to schools and she is a generous person. She is an expert in her knowledge of the over 3000 colleges and universities. Barbara has also gotten millions of dollars of financial aid for many, many students. I can go on, and on, talking about the individualized attention she offers, and I will definitely talk to you one-on-one for details: 510-685-0861- anytime. I HIGHLY recommend her - if you follow her lead, she will guide your student. She loves kids and it shows. In my work of over 20 years dealing with people giving services to young people, I have never met anyone like Barbara; she is phenomenal and an unbelievable talent serving kids needs. read more

We just finished up the college application process and can't recommend Barbara highly enough. She had a great ability to connect with our son and help him identify not only the colleges that were a good fit for him, but also how how to reflect his strengths in the essays and applications. She was always a much needed, neutral voice during what can be a very unnerving process for both parents and students. Our son actually enjoyed his meetings with Barbara and trusted her guidance. She helped him craft attractive essays because she knows what colleges are looking for and did a great job of getting him to reflect his strengths in his essays. She also was a great help in identifying which colleges that he should apply to - eliminating those that were not a good fit and, more importantly, identifying options we had not considered before we started seeing her. Our son got into every college on his list - even the reach schools! - and we really believe that it was a result of the guidance that Barbara offered. She formed a partnership with our son and we always felt like she was invested in his success. The college application process is daunting and complex - we could not have navigated it as successfully without the help of Barbara read more

Barbara is an Angel! I have 3 daughters all entering college within a year of each other, they say things just happen and there meant to be and I can tell you that this was the case when we first took the girls to meet Barbara at College Quest we were full of anxiety and stress . We had done extensive research on what to do and how to do it and our heads were about to explode. I was a little guarded because I had made a few calls to other people who claim to be able to assist already and they were very negative and arrogant and did not help us one bit, in fact they made us feel like we were ignorant and did not know what we were talking about. Once I contacted Barbara and she was very positive and self assured, Barbara did a great job of listening to my daughters and giving them confidence and options. Barbara helped them prepare their essay's for college and showed them that they have more options than they thought, she put them in control. Barbara coached the entire family on financial aid issues and strategies. Once Barbara got involved the whole process became easy reducing stress and anxiety to a minimum. She had a plan and it got executed with little effort and it worked! They got accepted to multiple schools because of Barbara's assistance. Barbara's fees were very reasonable often spending more time than billed with us to assist our daughters. Her fees were minimal compared to the savings we received. This was more than a business transaction she has kept in touch throughout and after the process because she cares. We are touched and blessed to see that Barbara still keeps in touch and cares how they are doing. I cannot thank her enough and I highly recommend her to all! read more

My twins have been working with Barbara since their sophomore year and have greatly benefited from her guidance. She has gone above and beyond on advising them on rigorous course schedules, motivating them to take their unique extracurriculars to the next level, and helping them write stand out personal statements. Even more, she has worked with my kids to ensure that every summer was filled with meaningful internships, competitive summer programs, and volunteer work. Additionally, she was able to sit down with me and explain the complicated process of applying for financial aid. Barbara has a great eye for what colleges want and how to create my kids' compelling "stories". Thanks to her, my son got accepted to Rice University pre-med and my daughter the University of Pennsylvania pre-vet. Best of all, they got great financial aid. Thanks Barbara! read more

We found Barbara in the Spring of Junior year and she has been a godsend. My son was disorganized and by then, under the gun. She provided guidance and moral support along with practical advice. She offered great ideas on both the big picture, (where to go and why) and the practical ( resume structure and wording). She was positive and flexible with her time and energy and kept him working hard well beyond what he would have done for his parent. Best of all, he got into the college of his choice! read more

My son's experience with Barbara has been awesome. After the 1st 30 minutes of our first meeting his outlook improved. He was extremely motivated and completely took over his college planning process. Going into that meeting nothing was more important than basketball to him even though he was barely 5ft 8in. Coming out of that meeting he clearly saw the academic gift he was blessed with and set out to maximize his gift. He and Barbara worked together to successfully complete this process. They did all of the applications, essays, test prep, etc. He is going into the engineering field. He was accepted to and got good financial aid and scholarships to 2 of the top 5 ranked engineering schools in the country. 4 of the top 10 ranked engineering schools and 6 of the top 20. He was accepted to the only Ivy League school that he applied to even though counselors at his high school told him not to waste his time applying to Ivy League schools because he was not going to get in. The scholarship and aid to all of these schools brought our amount within our price range. In the end he selected a school that is ranked in the top 15 overall with an engineering program ranked in the top 5 nationwide. The net that we have to pay is less than 1/2 of what we were prepared to pay. Add this to the relationship he has built with Barbara and we would easily say that hiring Barbara Austin more than worth it. read more

As parents of a junior, we have been very happy with College Quest. The counselor is very knowledgeable, always responsive, and helped us relax about the process. More importantly though, she has given our daughter a steady dose of confidence and inspiration in what could otherwise have been a stress-filled undertaking. She also does a thorough job of SAT/ACT test preparation. We have gratefully taken advantage of the sliding scale that made this assistance affordable. read more

Hello everyone my name is Rosalyn, a parent of one of Barbara's success stories. Barbara Austin was the perfect college counselor for my daughter Tiffany. She was a very honest, down to earth and she let it be known from the beginning that "If you do as I say your child's college dreams will come true!" Wow, let me tell you my daughter's dreams did come true! It was a challenge at first letting her go and not having full control over her college journey but let me inform everyone, Barbara was a life saver. She informed us about information that you cannot read in a book or find on the internet, her creativity is out of this world! Thinking back to how we met Barbara is rather funny; my husband actually heard her speaking on a radio talk show one Saturday morning as he was driving home, the David Hollander's talk show. Mr. Hollander is a financial planner who gives tips to listeners on how to make the right retirement choices. The topic my husband ironically was tuning into was about "how to successfully afford your child's college." As Barbara was speaking about her program, how she personally helps students get into the college of their dreams, my husband quickly became excited. He knew that Barbara would be the right person to help us get Tiffany into the college of her choice. As Barbara was explaining her program she was also advertising a seminar she was holding at Berkeley High School to discuss college and the way to pay at wholesale cost. My husband and I decided to bring Tiffany along so that she can see Barbara for herself. At the time Tiffany was a little frighten about college and overwhelmed but after listening to Barbara she felt confident. Barbara made college sound possible, educationally and financially. To make a long story short our daughter was with Barbara for 2 years. Barbara was not only her counselor but she became her cheerleader, motivator, teacher, and friend. Tiffany called Barbara whenever she needed assistance. As a mother who is very hands-on when it comes to my child, Barbara was able to reach Tiffany in a way that brought me to tears. She saw something in my child. She saw that she was brilliant and was able to assist Tiffany in telling her story. Tiffany didn't opened up to people as much so to see my daughter write a story about her life and to be proud of it made me feel like I made the right choice allowing Barbara to be a part of her college journey. She also personally assisted her with researching universities/colleges, scholarships, SAT/ACT preparation, her personal statement, college applications and more. Based on Tiffany's personal relationship with Barbara, she was able to tell us that Tiffany would best excelling at a small private college where she would be recognized by name versus a number. By listening, Tiffany was able to "scream and shout" that she got into her first choice school, Lewis & Clark, Portland, Oregon. But it was Barbara who brought this school to Tiffany's attention; it was Barbara who said Tiffany you must apply. I teach my children to never forget who helped them in life and for that I'm grateful for all of Barbara's hard work. Tiffany's goal is to become a forensic anthropologist /medical examiner. Lewis &Clark has an 88% acceptance rate when it comes to their students applying to medical school. So not only is Barbara excellent in finding the right type of school, she's amazing at matching your child's interest. Aside my daughter's first choice attending L&C she was also accepted to UC Davis, UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz. We received the financial packet from L&C and they wanted us to pay an additional $7,000 per semester on top of our EFC. However, instead of panicking and giving up I called Barbara and she suggested that I write a letter explaining our financial situation. I wrote the letter asking if they could cover the $7K and it would mean the world to our daughter. A week later, we received an email of the revised financial aid packet and they agreed to cover the cost through a grant and a scholarship! Barbara is an angel sent from heaven and if it was not for her guiding us through this long process I don't know what we would have done. Our daughter will be attending Lewis and Clark in the Fall 2014. Our second daughter is going to middle school in the fall and she will definitely attend Barbara's sessions! read more

Barbara facilitated my daughter's successful 2013-2014 year college application process. Barbara consistently demonstrated a level of caring that kept us on track through some tough times (including my own breast-cancer diagnosis which occurred right in the middle of it all). Throughout the process it didn't feel like it was a job to Barbara, we really felt like she was looking out for us because she cared about my daughter. For instance, Barbara helped my daughter understand - in real terms - the way her particular accomplishments would (or would-not) be perceived by admissions and financial aid people. And within that context she helped my daughter find her own voice in the application process. Barbara helped my daughter understand and address what might stand in the way of the path to success even as that path was being defined (because who really knows WHERE they should apply when they begin the application process??) Barbara helped my daughter realize the value of her own personal passion and what she wants to accomplish in the world so she could apply that to her application process -- which is an extra bonus and an important take-away from the application process that will surely come into play in the coming years at Occidental College next year and beyond. Barbara showed up for us in a manner that can only be described as "above and beyond." Barbara seemed to "get" my daughter in a way that helped all of us focus our efforts effectively and ultimately helped my daughter understand herself better (bonus points again!) Barbara is the real thing. I have a 12-year-old son (BHS class of 2019) who for the moment is blissfully unaware of the college application process coming soon to a theater near him....and I know that when it does arrive, I'll be back again, sitting in Barbara's office, getting real about the college application process, what to expect and how to see it through. Best of luck to you in the college application process! Reach out to Barbara! I did and I am all the better for it! read more