Christine Southgate guided our family, patiently, professionally, thoughtfully and smoothly through…read morethe boarding school process. We live in Reno, NV and have many fewer options for counselors here than in the Bay Area. We had just one in person meeting, then worked remotely for the rest of the year. After meeting with our family, getting to know our son and hearing what our son and we were looking for, she helped us to devise a list of schools that she felt would be a good match. We then researched her list, had follow up calls and discussed a few more and worked together to narrow down the list of schools that we planned to visit. We spoke only a few times throughout the process, but at each juncture, she listened to our concerns and guided us. Christine reviewed our son's essays, gave suggestions and communicated with the schools we were considering. In almost every admissions office the fact that we were being guided by Christine had a real and positive effect. They sung her praises. We could not have been more happy with a counselor than we were with Christine and would highly recommend her services.

Christine really pushed for Priory when helping us select a right fit school for our child who is…read moreacademic, athletic, kind, extroverted, personable and social. She made no mention that out of a class size of about 80 12-17 of those kids would be international boarders, primarily from Asian countries who often reclassify when they enter 9th gr. Another thing she left out about priory is it draws a fair number of Asians frompaloalto and losaltos hills. She also failed to mention that it is known for being open ti accepting the quirky and socially awkward kids. My child is none of these things. I think she needs to update her info on each high school to more accurately reflect their current student body, not the one her daughter experienced at Priory 1-2 decades ago.

We have been working with Cardinal for several years for both tutoring and college preparation…read more Their approach is absolutely phenomenal; I originally reached out for their help with my daughter's application to a local private school last minute. They were an absolute godsend in helping me honestly understand what was involved in the process, getting my young daughter prepared, and help drafting some statements from interviews. They really know how to partner with families and come alongside and provide the guidance and preparation needed. We get also math tutoring from them for 2 daughters, and the tutors are so familiar with the school's teachers, approach and curriculum that it's more like private instruction than tutoring. The big win is working with them for our senior's college application process. It was a huge investment, and at first we weren't sure about the cost. But now that we see the full picture of services they offer, it's well worth it, and such an investment into our child's future. What's invaluable, is the way they are teaching her how to think and function like an executive. The level of planning, idea generating, and execution is unlike anything I' ve ever seen. Cardinal has brought in an entire team to support our daughter's complicated college application process so that she is advised, guided and cheered on every step of the way. It's about a lot more than simply getting her into the college of her dreams. They are teaching her how to plan out a future goal, work harder than she ever has, revise 7+ times and keep revising. Improving math grades, choosing classes, how to present herself as a unique individual who can contribute meaningfully. I'm blown away by their services!

We have used Cardinal Education for five years, and it has been a God-send for our family. The…read moretutoring has made a huge difference for both our kids, in their classes and with standardized tests. Our older child ended up with 5's on 6 AP's and top subject and ACT test scores. Our other child improved from a 26 on the practice test to a 33 on her first ACT sitting -- astounding. Their college admission service is well-organized and well conceived, very comprehensive. And Allen Koh has a certain genius in this arena and works hard to stay at the forefront of the field. They work extremely hard to find creative ways to help position your child while still staying true to his/her identity.

If you have an anxious kid, there is absolutely no other driving teacher to consider…read more Period. Thank you for your kindness and patience

Awful human being!!…read more I paid $250 for driving lessons only to find out my younger brother was not eligible to get a driver's license based on his immigration status at the time. I immediately reached out to Shahriar Assi, the owner, and asked for a refund. But he wouldn't refund the money, even though my brother did not take a single lesson with him. I explained I had just gotten laid off and really needed the money, but every time I called him, he'd pretend he was busy and ask me to call him in the future. Eventually he refunded $100 and but that was after so many calls and after literally begging him to do the right thing... Edit: Responding to owner - yes 1000% sure it was you. I have your contact info and detail in my phone. You don't remember asking me to come to the Starbucks in Burlingame and wrote me a check for $100? You said you sympathize with the Palestinian cause and were giving me a refund when normally there is no refunds. You had me drive to Burlingame only to to be handed a check for $100 instead of the full $250. Shame on you!

I cannot recommend Anne's Beneventi's qualitative assessment highly enough. She keeps her rates…read morelow, and from what I hear from other families who have had their children tested by her, she is accurate in her assessment of IQ scores. She will also tell you whether your child will be a good fit for school or not. She is very highly respected in the gifted community. But the important factor in helping me figure out my gifted, "2e" child was her dead-on assessment of what needed to be done at the time. I had just pulled my son out of school to homeschool him and was in crisis as to how to teach him and address his needs. (I was told to address his handwriting by one professional, and given other confusing advice by others.) I was given a very helpful, clear and concise direction to go in by Anne. (In our case, committing to vision therapy (no matter how resistant he was!) and occupational therapy. She was even accurate in her assessment that he may need some auditory help down the road, which he did.) A year later I have addressed these needs, and he is thriving.

Anne was referred to my family by a number of people as a top-notch consultant for assessing…read morechildren's educational needs. Anne asked us to fill out a number of forms and provided guidance on answering some of the more ambiguous questions. The forms are very comprehensive and try to thoroughly asses both the child and the family. While it took a while to fill out the forms, I felt the forms were done very professionally. We scheduled qualitative assessment, but my child got a bit sick, and Anne advised rescheduling the assessment, as she wants to see children at their best. Considering how busy Anne is, I thought it was very nice of her to accommodate us. Anne came to our place for assessment one Saturday morning. My child is a bit shy at first and Anne gave it some personal space. After less than five minutes, they were cheerfully playing together and chatting. I had never seen anyone else gaining my child's trust so quickly. I must say, that those five minutes made it absolutely clear Anne has plenty of experience and talent working with and engaging children. I was really impressed, the child behaved almost as if Anne was a long-term friend. I'm not a psychologist, but my impression is that gaining child's trust and getting a child to open up is absolutely essential to be able to do a thorough evaluation. After the evaluation, we talked to Anne for over an hour. I was shocked how much she was able to tell us about the child just from the evaluation. She was spot-on on everything she said and provided a lot of helpful advise and guidance on what kind of education would work best for our circumstances. A few days later, we got a detailed evaluation report, which was thorough, perceptive, and professionally done. Also, Anne sent us a list of references. I've read most of the references in the meantime. There were a few that were very solid scientifically supported research and I found those very helpful. A few others were hand wavy and not written in a scientific way. I simply ignored the latter references. All together, we found the evaluation well worth the money and very helpful in both gaining deeper understanding of our circumstances and for deciding what type of education would work best for our child. Anne has been highly professional and caring in the whole process, and I highly recommend her.

I wrote a review 4 years ago (see below), and I don't know how to post a new review separately from…read morethe first one. Anyway, this is my second review for Cathy Chen. My daughter, Angela, has been with Cathy since her 8th grade 4 years ago. Angela is a very independent, thoughtful, passionate girl. All these great qualities have served and will continue to serve her well, but nothing comes without a flip side. She can be very stubborn, so I had a sense that my wife and I need someone like Cathy to help her and help us. I have to say this is one of my smartest decisions. Cathy has great skills and experience working with teenagers. Parents are not trained at all for teenagers. During the beginning of the covid period, Angela experienced a big challenge, and it was a big test for our family, too. Luckily, we had Cathy. We got out of it successfully, and I believe it became a valuable experience for Angela. Cathy's assistance to Angela's college preparation was also great. We all know there is great amount of work and so many details to be taken care of. Just imagine on top of this amount of work and you have a daughter or son who has time management issue and can be stubborn. Angela certainly is not the only teenager who has time management issue. In the end, Angela not only got it done, but actually didn't allow my wife and I to get involved at all. Personally, I appreciate more Cathy's guidance on the soft skills, like the right mindsets for life. Angela is going to college now, and she has Cathy as a good friend probably for life. Review from 4 years ago: Cathy is coaching my daughter who is an 8th grader. Cathy has great communicating skills, and is compassionate helping children. I feel lucky that we found her.

Village has been nothing short of amazing for our son and our family. We consulted with Village…read moreabout a year ago and from the beginning Village completely understood our son's patterns and had experience in working with several similar children in the past. Remarkably, Village had a specialist that works particularly with children needing assistance in these areas and within weeks, she and our son were working together. While our son had shown resistance to other tutors/coaches, from the very first meeting with Kathryn, they hit it off. Kathryn has incredible listening skills, patience, and clever ways of engaging with our son. She also started working with him in short spurts throughout the week rather than a regimented prescribed time which was precisely what worked best with our son. She was able to monitor assignments, test dates, break down large assignments into manageable pieces and inspire our child to put forth effort more consistently than previously. Importantly, it also removed us as parents from the equation, substantially reducing conflict and tension in the house. We are embarking upon our second year with Village and our son intends to work with Village throughout high school.

My 15 year old son has been taking classes with Juni for over a year…read more We have been extremely happy with his instructors, he had two amazing instructors. Both instructors are highly qualified.. Both instructors always motivated and challenged him focusing on keeping his interest on their sessions with him - my Son has been coding on his own with the work they assign him throughout the week which is a big plus.. Furthermore, the customer service is phenomenal, professional and responds to my questions and concerns if any arraise promptly ( which is very important to me) .. That said, I would like to personally thank Ashley in Customer service who always goes above and beyond with helping me.. The customer service and highly qualified instructor's that are provided by Juni are the reason I would not hesitate to sign my kids to this great company. Thank you Juni!

The coding course is great. However the customer service and organization of this company is a…read morejoke! We have been waiting 4 weeks for them to assign us a tutor. During that time, they still charged us $275.00 for the month of August! Yet we had ZERO lessons that month. Every time i ask when we will get a tutor, i get told that they can't locate any. What sort of company is this? When we first joined JUNI, a year ago, we were assigned a tutor fairly quickly. But then we dropped him because he would cancel at the last minute about 1 out of every 4 classes. That was ridiculous! The only reason i went back to JUNI in August was because my son enjoys their course. However. it's definitely time for us to find another source of coding classes. BUYER BEWARE

We worked with Lauren for our 5-year-old who had always struggled with "big feelings" but suddenly…read morehad an aggressive behavioral change. We were walking on eggshells, bracing for violent outbursts, and had run out of strategies (books, podcasts, and Instagram posts could only take us so far!). We contacted Lauren as a referral from our pediatrician and she came within a couple of days. She was direct, honest, flexible, and honored our personal constraints. Within an hour, she had connected with our kiddo and reset the tone for our family. We committed to Lauren's approach. Over the course of several weeks, we saw dramatic improvements in behavior and breakthrough moments that brought tears to my eyes--calming his body, being kind to his little brother, and demonstrating patience. We not only regained control of our household, we learned how to be much more positive and resilient parents. As we reflected back, we spent the prior year+ losing our sh** and thinking that was normal (it probably is "normal"). Lauren was the intervention we didn't realize existed. We are now more equipped, in a way that is customized and works for our very special child. Thank you Lauren!!

Lauren truly is an exceptional behavioral consultant. I can't recommend her enough!…read more She has the ability to strike just the right balance of cool aunt and drill sergeant while working with children. She's so good at what she does that she's able to get the behavioral changes needed while maintaining a positive relationship. Not to mention the children walk away feeling really good about themselves. When speaking with children she truly humanizes their experiences and makes it so relatable for them. She has been instrumental in working with our school and has provided guidance and strategies for the school that are both novel and impactful. This has made a remarkable difference. Finally, she has been immensely helpful in teaching me how to manage behavior at home.

We've had a wonderful experience with this tutoring center. They are incredibly responsive,…read moreproactive, and easy to work with. I also really appreciate that we're only charged for the sessions we actually use -- no pressure or unnecessary commitments. Most importantly, my daughter's tutor, Amelie, has been amazing. My daughter is in 5th grade and started tutoring because she was behind in reading, spelling, and writing, and she needed extra support from someone other than mom or dad. Homework at home was often a struggle, so it says a lot that she genuinely likes Amelie and actually looks forward to her sessions. In fact, we were running late once and my daughter was very upset because she didn't want to be late to tutoring -- something I never thought I'd see! Seeing her excited about learning has been incredible, and that wouldn't have happened without Amelie's patience, encouragement, and ability to connect with her. We're so grateful for the progress we've seen and highly recommend this tutoring center, especially Amelie.

Amelie has been our 10 year old son's tutor for over a year, and we feel very lucky to have found…read moreher. She is kind, patient, and truly knows how to engage him and spark his interest in learning, especially with writing. She consistently comes up with creative and new ways to teach concepts in a way that feels approachable and motivating rather than overwhelming. Amelie is an excellent communicator, both with our son and with us as parents, and keeps us thoughtfully informed about his progress. She is also very flexible with scheduling, which we deeply appreciate. We are so grateful for her support and highly recommend her.