Tony is a great mentor and counselor. He strategically guided and helped to prep my son's college…read moreapplication, and helped him to get admissions from multiple top schools in business majors with scholarships. Tony is very organized and followed closely with every step in the application process. Tony also adjusted the plan after my son got his EA results which was very helpful. I highly recommend Tony!

IvyBoost has been a great help in my college application journey since freshman year. My counselor,…read moreTony, took the time to understand my strengths, personality, and shortcomings, providing great insight when I began to curate a college list during application season. The casual but focused conversational style of our meetings worked very well for me. The IvyBoost team has also provided many resources that proved useful for organizing info about schools, my resume, and anything that was important to my college application. Its services have provided clarity and objectivity throughout my high school years, acting as a great support system whenever I had any inquiries or concerns. I'm so excited to join my dream program on scholarship in the fall, and it's thanks to the IvyBoost team's guidance!

My experience with Elite Prep has been nothing short of the best! One person who has been…read moreconstantly helping me throughout my time here is Jesse Kwon. When I first met with him after taking a diagnostic SAT, he walked me through the different SAT summer camp options, and told me what he thought would be best for me based off of my score and specific question types I initially missed. I left that meeting with a clear understanding what needed to be done over the summer in order for me to succeed. I enrolled in the SAT intensive bootcamp and improved my score by 120 points thanks to the amazing educators at this institution. I genuinely could not have achieved this without their help. The classes are incredibly engaging, and I learned so many strategies that I can apply to daily academic habits beyond the SAT. Since then, I have been actively participating in tutoring lessons with Jesse for precalculus. He's really good at breaking down math into understandable concepts, and that's what truly helped me build confidence in order to succeed in school. I highly recommend Elite Prep Fremont to any students looking to improve their SAT scores in a welcoming environment, or anyone in need of private tutoring.

Jesse's the goat! If he's your counselor, you're in luck. He was extremely supportive and helpful…read morethrough the college application process.

Ms. Wong was instrumental in guiding my daughter throughout the entire college application process,…read moreand always with such great care and professionalism. My daughter, who is now on her way to start at one of her dream schools, feels the same. Here are my daughter's words: For the last three years, and throughout the entire college admissions process, Ms. Wong truly played a huge role - in her constant support, vast knowledge, and steady guidance. I am so grateful for her. She always provided quick responses regarding any questions I had about the overwhelming college process, and she always gave them with kindness, motivation, and genuine care! I could tell without a doubt that she truly wanted to see me succeed and thrive, and she would always motivate me to do my best. I would also like to shout-out Ms. Lin for her amazing college essay coaching help. Ms. Lin provided invaluable feedback to college essays and is so sweet and kind. I will always be grateful for their support.

My daughter ended up with a mediocre college after signing up for their consultation, The essay was…read morevery basic, they had college students review and provide feedback. Only positive was they were done with College applications before many started. I feel she could done better if we had not relied on their help and focused ourselves. I am disappointed and will not recommend.

When come down to find a good college advisor for our high school kid, it could be very…read morechallenging! We interviewed three consulting companies, after first initial meeting, very obviously Cortex was standing out! We are with them for three months now, we realized we made the right decision. There so many good things about Cortex! I will start with our family's first meeting with them, the presentation James showed to us was very impressive, the goal, the process and timeline of applying college was so clear, especially the philosophy behind their service is to help kids to build good study habit and be productive. My kid likes James instantly, to him, James is more like mentor. Each week James gives assignments and also monthly face to face meeting, which is very helpful. James is super responsive, patient and be passionately about his work! We feel so grateful to find Cortex! thank you James!

Being immigrants and attending a public school where counselors are overwhelmed by a very large…read morestudent body, we felt that we needed help to prepare for the college admissions process. We spent quite some time looking for someone who was not only knowledgeable and experienced but also relatable to our son, and we are pleased to have found Amy. Amy really makes an effort to understand the individual, his or her aspirations, merits, and potential, the basis of every recommendation and feedback, from which extracurriculars to pursue to which colleges to apply, always having in mind whether that is a good match for that specific individual. While the credit really goes to the student who earn the grades, take the tests, and write the essays, her support and advice really helped throughout the journey and the outcomes are a testimony to this: Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Amherst, Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago, Northwestern, University of Southern California, and all of the UCs. Working with Amy was a delight and we highly recommend her.

I think 3 stars is about right for this company…read more While we loved the counselor assigned to us over the last three years, my son came to the realization that Zenith was not the best fit for him. Pros: - Counselor provided great accountability, along with to-do lists and helpful action points. A summary followed each monthly counseling session. Sessions are usually 30 minutes in length. - Flexible scheduling on Calendly, - Counselor was encouraging and thoughtful. Counselor took feedback from the parent (me) seriously and integrated it with my son's desires and needs, to build a plan. Steps to reach that plan were clear. - Counselor was consistent. We never had to change counselors, so that points toward some worker retention, although Glassdoor seems to indicate otherwise. - Counselor suggested challenging routes (e.g. competitions and summer programs) to help build my son's resume. We implemented quite a number of the suggestions. - As you can tell, I give our counselor 5 stars. We had the same counselor in 6th/7th, 8th, and 9th grade. Cons: - More expensive than other companies. I am currently using another program for my younger son that is $10,000 less. Also, Zenith's price tag only gets you help for 5 school applications. More application help = more money, but they will tell you that once you've write enough for 5 schools, then you have enough material for future use. Recently, Zenith is trialing a discounted pre-pay option, which I had wanted to take advantage of, until my son asked to stop services. - Mediocre first impression, and distasteful lasting impression (of program execution). While his YouTube video sucks you in, when I actually met Kevin (the program director), I found him to be rather condescending. As a working professional, and as a potential client at the time (back in 2022), I thought that I would have received more of a red carpet roll-out. However, it was explained that they were interviewing us just as much as we were interviewing them. OK. Hmm. I should have stopped right there, but I went with Zenith because of their focus on "The Big Three," which are medicine, engineering, and law. I was hoping that Zenith would focus my son on his field of study, which Zenith did deliver. However, over these formative middle school and early high school years, it appears that over specialization can also drive kids away from a field of study. I gather that my son might have felt "stuck," and maybe pushing him in a particular direction just made him feel bad. Lesson Learned (for me). - Marketing, or hugely promoting, partner companies. We felt that Zenith pushed Polygence, which provides a "research experience" for their clients. Polygence also costs an exuberant amount, which I was willing to pay for, but which my son didn't want me to pay for. He said that the price point for Polygence just wasn't worth it to him. The option to use Polygence was brought up an uber amount of times, but for the record, our counselor did say that it was A-OK if we did not want to go with Polygence. - English? My son did apply to the some suggested summer programs. I was my understanding that his essays were passed up to a panel for editing, which was then passed back down to him for revisions. I read some of his essays for these programs and felt that Zenith could have helped him develop more imagery, to help him stand out more. Their editing suggestions felt a bit "canned," and I wish they would have invested more time into teaching my son how to write. If this is the way that they treat the kids' summer applications, I can only imagine how much (or rather, how little) they do for the real college essays. Overall, Yelpers not only look at quality, but they also look at whether or not a product has good economic value. Does Zenith present a decent product? I would say yes. Does Zenith provide a stellar enough product for its pricing? I would say no. Also, Zenith does not appear to offer SAT/ACT prep, nor financial aid counseling, or at least I have not experienced it. I hope that my review has been comprehensive enough for the owner to take note. I went on a call about a year ago to express some of these concerns, but I was not fully assured that they would be addressed. This does not bode well, and it took my son to see it and shake some sense into me.

They are cheats and Thugs stay away as far as possible from them…read more Thier conselors are a waste of time mostly will be detrimental to your kids growth. They are lying when they say that they will refund your money, they charged us the money on Aug 1st without informing us and when we asked for the charge to be canceled (on Aug 1st only) they said that this is paid for 1 year and you cannot do anything about it Their contract says they guarantee the refund but they obviously do not honor that Now lets talk about their conselors: We got 2 conselors and gave them 2 years and their both conselors were more project managers rather than any guide. They have no clue what is happening here in bay area (the conselors are based on mid west) and thus cannot provide any useful info Our daughter got less than 60% of numbers in AoPS througout the year and while we kept onhelping her her counselor had no clue that she was struggling since she is just a project manager has no understanding of basic math So run away as far as possible. We have filed a complaint with BBB and disputed the charge with CC Planning to file a Police Report in Newark

Mary Grace helped me a lot with my application for the graduate program last year. At the beginning…read moreof application, I was very nervous because I was not familiar with the application process. Mary Grace gave me a clear application schedule to enrich my experience and prepare my application materials. Also, she helped me do mock interviews to make me feel more confident in my real interviews. Mary Grace was very patient to help me go over my personal statements and correct my mistakes. I highly recommend Mary Grace because she can provide great support and valuable suggestions for job or work applications.

Ms. Gardner has an intimate grasp on why college essay apps can be so challenging and daunting and…read moreshe explains so well how to overcome those hurdles. She will work with you to explore any ideas you have and help you flesh them out. If you are overwhelmed by the college application process, don't stress! Use her expertise to help you get into your dream school!

Very money minded. They charge for initial consultation too and highlight all decision makers…read moreshould be present in that initial paid confirmation or meeting will be cancelled. They want to ensure you buy the full package and not able to say I will talk to my wife or something and get back to you. Very poorly managed communications and demonstrating there's no regards to anything except money. I have to add, not tried this company. I got bad vibes about how it will play out and did not go forward. I was told when Purvi herself was managing most operations and also providing counseling, company was much better. Now it's just a profit center. We have lots of choices, really a LOT out there. Skip this one.

The folks at Insight Education are outstanding. As a College Advisor for High school students, I…read morenetwork with other advisors and they have been incredibly supportive of me, my school and my students. They are very knowledgeable and give up their precious time to spend a day with my students supporting them in completing their college applications. I am very grateful for my relationship with the team at Insight Education. -Steve

There are not enough words to express our appreciation for Ilumin Education and the work that Kyra…read moredid with our two sons during their college application process- it was definitely one of the best decisions we made for them. From the very beginning, we appreciated how accommodating Anthony was given our limited time and how forthcoming he was with the information we needed to make our decision. Kyra was phenomenal! Although our kids were among many of her students, Kyra was so attentive and committed to their experience, helping clarify their interests in majors and helping them give voice to essays that were authentic to who they are- this was definitely not a cookie cutter experience! She was always supportive and well organized so our kids never felt overwhelmed or pressed for time. When we expressed concerns about the pathways for a particular major, Kyra put together an impressive presentation on the various options convincing us this pathway is fitting for our son. Kyra kept us in constant communication so we didn't need to worry about any hiccups or missed deadlines. We are so lucky to have found Ilumin Education to work with; they made the college application process seamless and actually enjoyable! We know that their involvement was key to our children being accepted to their "reach" schools! Thank you, Kyra, Anthony, and the entire team at Ilumin Education!

I was a highschool student being advised by Ilumin education. My counselor was always so helpful…read moreand never had me stressed or overwhelmed. The thing that sets Ilumin apart is that they don't stress out students or discourage them. I was always so stressed about the admissions process but thanks to the team at Ilumin I always felt supported and ahead on the college admissions process.

Thank you Dr Sherry and her professional team, my daughter got in her dream college in…read moreMassachusetts! On top of that, she got both merit scholarship and huge financial aid. We wouldn't have done it without Dr Sherry!

From the owner: We are college planning experts. Dr. Sherry and her experienced professional team are committed to…read morehelping students get into their dream colleges with the most efficient funding strategies, and also helping parents preserve their retirement funds in the most tax efficient ways possible. These strategies provide Peace of Mind to families!