Gerna is the best in his field and he does it all with a smile and a lot of Aloha! He has helped…read moreme throughout my son's entire college career and he makes the application process for FAFSA painless. Gerna is a blessing and a gift to the parents who ask for his advice and support while applying to FASFA. Gerna keeps it real. Gerna IS the Great Kahuna for college financial planning. Janet Welsh Somatic Arts practitioner/ choreographer/educator.

We had great result with Bay Area College Planners. Our daughter was accepted in multiple colleges…read moreincluding UC-Irvine, UC-Santa Cruz, UC-Riverside. We are extremely happy with the results, given our daughter had multiple great choices. Gerna was always helpful, he walked us through the entire process. He was always available to answer any of our questions no matter what time or what day we called. Great results, great service. We will absolutely go with Gerna for our son who is graduating in 2 years.

We've had an outstanding experience with Bright Fox. Both of my kids attended their SAT preparation…read moreprograms, and the impact has been truly valuable (though we went to Brightfox last min). We really appreciate how they accommodated last min sessions to get through the crazy application process. The instructors at BF are not only highly knowledgeable but also very structured and thoughtful in their approach. They understood how to bring out the best in our kids and made even challenging concepts easier to grasp. My kids especially appreciated that the instructors relate well to students and help them with narratives that stay true to their original voice and stories, which made a big difference in their confidence. I feel what sets Bright Fox apart is their commitment to student success and the consistency in the quality of teaching. Special thanks to Alex for the care and support, especially when we were confused with the process and frustrated after a bad experience at another institute (who wasted lot of time and hours without making real progress with essays). BF team was efficient, and their quick, iterative feedback helped a lot. They have a diverse and highly capable team, and communication has always been smooth with timely responses and support whenever needed. My kids felt confident, well-prepared, and supported throughout their journey. Both my kids found their voice and unique style of story telling that represented them in the essays, and discover themselves li'l more through this process. I genuinely appreciate the dedication of the entire team and would highly recommend Bright Fox to any parent looking for top-quality academic guidance. A well-deserved 5-Star experience!! Thanks Prasad & Saraswathi

HIGHLY RECOMMEND Birghtfox Education learning center! My…read morechild used this facility for SAT service and we are very happy with the outcome. I solicited few learning centers from Alamo to Dublin and landed with Brightfox for few reasons: 1. The approach is very strategic. Upon assessment of your child ability, they will come up with a REALISTIC plan without pushy 'marketing' tone that forces you to buy blocks of hours. They would ask your child to take the assessment twice to ensure consistency of results and serve as your child's ability/knowledge baseline. Then, they will set up a time with you and your child to review about timeline, targeted score and hours needed to review those areas that need improvement, inclusive lots of practice tests that I found extremely important to build the child confidence and comfort in taking the test. 2. Low ratio: 2:1 and sometimes even 1:1. One hour per Subject. 3. The hourly rate (in block discount) is far more reasonable than others that I inquired. 4. Brightfox Education user portal is very intuitive, easy to use/track and modern. 5. Administrative plus! There's always someone to respond ASAP (most of the time) or reasonable time, especially Ms. Heather, their office manager is SUPERB in providing response, flexibility, etc. Genuine interest in your child's success. 6. Facility is awesome. Clean, wide space, modern in office complex, plenty of parking and best of all, provide a welcoming sense. All in all, if you are looking a solid learning center partner, Brightfox can definitely offer you that as it did for us.

We have used the services of San Ramon Elite Prep for both our children (one of whom is currently…read morein Grad School and the other will be entering college). The friendliness and professionalism extended by the people at the front desk, counselors, all the way to the Director, Mr. Sam Rim, has been nothing but commendable!

I personally participated in their SAT prep bootcamp for the March SAT, and all I can say is that…read moreit was horrible. To begin all of the practice tests they administered were significantly easier than the real SAT. When taking those, I was regularly scoring 1490s and even 1500s. However, taking the real SAT I got 1430. Only a 10 point improvement from my last one. Second, their classes provided very little prep work. For instance, the math class only reviewed what kids got wrong in the practices, meaning that we were doing zero prep. The English classes used some of the book work (which was significantly easier than the test & resembled the Module 1 questions) and hence did nothing to help me score better. Additionally, I have 3 other friends who used this same program (both the San Ramon and the Fremont centers) and has similar experiences and results.

My daughter was accepted to University of California, San Diego for Human Biology, and she also…read morereceived acceptances from several other UC campuses and out-of-state colleges in 2026. Our experience working with Julian Brooks EDMD was truly phenomenal. At first, I was hesitant to spend thousands of dollars on a college admissions consultant because I believed we could manage most of the process ourselves. We initially worked with another highly marketed counseling service based on a referral. During the introduction, they promised about one hour of consultation per month, but after signing up, meetings were reduced to 30 minutes. We also had to sign a lengthy contract with heavy legal language, and despite being told we would have a dedicated counselor, we ended up changing counselors three times in the first year. Unfortunately, that experience left us disappointed. There was no clear plan, limited commitment, and poor continuity, so we eventually canceled the contract. Afterward, we heard excellent feedback about Julian and decided to give it another try. The difference was immediately obvious. There were no strict time limits, no complicated scheduling rules, and no overwhelming contract. Julian was always accessible, experienced, honest, and genuinely invested in helping students succeed. His guidance throughout the process was invaluable, and it was absolutely worth every dollar we spent. We are incredibly grateful for his support and highly recommend him to any family navigating the college admissions journey. Thank you, Julian!

Julian Brooks at Edmd is great! Julian helped me navigate both my undergraduate and graduate school…read moreapplications, and I couldn't be more grateful. What sets him apart is his non-judgmental approach. He truly meets you where you are and works to bring out the best in every applicant. Thanks to his guidance, I was accepted to UCLA for undergrad and Columbia for graduate school. If you're looking for someone who's genuinely invested in your success, Julian is the one. Highly recommend!

I completely agree with the other review saying that Gloria provided limited essay help. I was also…read morediscontent with my essays, but she only looked at it a couple times before saying it's good to submit. Most of her edits were very minor grammar changes or things that don't make a difference. She gave very little advice that was actually useful (e.g. changing the topic, changing the theme, etc.). The edits are definitely not worth the thousands of dollars she charges, as you can get similar quality edits from current college students for MUCH less money. Furthermore, I was busy at a certain point in my Junior year, but she refused to reschedule my meeting for a later time "because everyone is on the same boat". So she's very unaccommodating. One time she failed to show up to one of our online meetings, and instead of apologizing, she blamed me for not calling her. She also wastes a couple sessions on personality tests and career tests that you can easily do at home. I ended up getting into UCLA/Berkeley, but rejected from most privates. The top-UCs are mostly based on stats (not essays), so it's clear her essay edits didn't really do anything. The success of her clients is mostly because the type of people she accepts are already high-achieving. Unfortunately, many parents (many of whom are immigrants) will continue to be willing to shell out thousands of dollars for the useless counselor.

I completely agree with all the other reviewers. My child had a hard time coming up with ideas for…read moretheir personal statement and she did not brainstorm and help in any way. Instead, she made them feel their writing ability was sub-par and it was something they could not achieve. Also a week before the application deadline for rea college she said the supplemental essays are not good enough. I wonder why she did not give that feedback earlier. When they got rejected by the school they had applied for rea, she made them feel that this was not something they could achieve and asked them to apply for lower-rated schools. That is when we decided in December to hire another consultant to rewrite the personal statement. Our whole winter vacation was spent rewriting the essays with input from the new consultant. This new consultant provided an essay structure and walked them through the essay. My child finally got into 6 or 7 top-notch colleges, but no thanks to Gloria for that.

Melissa was a huge help to my Daughter throughout the college applications process. She took the…read moretime to really get to know my daughter and what she was looking for in a college. She helped her to come up with a list of colleges to apply to and then walked her through the entire process. They worked on building her resume and on different essays or questions she needed to answer for her applications. She met with her once a week to help fill out actual applications and to review what she had been working on. They would come up with what her focus for the following week would be as well. This really kept her organized and took the stress out of the whole process! We would highly recommend her!

If anyone asks me or my daughter if we have a college counselor recommendation, without hesitation…read morewe'd recommend Melissa Corso. Talk about helping to relieve some of the stress that goes with the college application process! She is wonderful! My daughter immediately felt comfortable working with Melissa. In particular she helped her with essay editing, college applications and even helped her put together a very nice resume. She's very approachable and you feel like she really cares. My daughter will be attending UC Berkeley this fall and I know Melissa helped her stand out amongst thousands of applicants.

The tutoring services at Olympus College Prep have been very beneficial. Savannah is flexible and…read moreadjusts to the needs of her students.

My daughter has worked with Savannah at Olympus for tutoring in Biology and their sessions made a…read moretremendous difference in her understanding of the subject matter and her grade. My daughter says that not only did Savannah give her the resources to succeed, she is very nice and easy to work with.

Working with the Fin Goose team was great. My sister took financial education courses with them. It…read morewas a great headstart to her college experience!!

Although the counselor I was connected to was excellent, the service was worth nowhere near 3,000…read moredollars for 3 months of counseling. Also, the business-owner, Abhimanyu, didn't respond well to my feedback and request for a refund. Upon a request for a refund, I was told by Abhimanyu that they had a no-refund policy. When I asked to see where this policy was published in writing, he refused to send any proof. Furthermore, when I cited the California Consumer Code, which states that any business that doesn't have a published refund policy must offer a refund if the customer is dissatisfied, Abhimanyu completely denied the law, and rather threatened to sue me for filing a transaction voiding investigation with my credit card company. Furthermore, upon my stating that I would not be writing a good review, he again threatened to sue for defamation. Beyond just the interaction with Abhimanyu, the prices are ridiculous, with the actual councilors making a fraction of what Abhimanyu is pocketing. I have also attached screenshots of my interaction with Abhimanyu below.

We recently had a college counseling session with Mr. Tien at C2 for my 10th-grade child, and it…read morewas honestly one of the most helpful meetings we've had. He explained everything so clearly and gave very realistic guidance on what we should focus on going into 11th grade. Mr. Tien is very professional, knowledgeable, and you can tell he has a lot of experience. My child left the session feeling much more confident and motivated. Highly recommend C2 if you're looking for strong tutoring and college counseling support.

Hello, I would like…read moreto take a moment to sincerely thank my daughter's AP World History tutor for the wonderful support and encouragement provided over the past period of time. When my daughter first started AP World History tutoring, her confidence in the subject was quite low and her grades were below a C. Through the instructor Troy's patience, clear explanations, and positive encouragement, my daughter gradually regained her confidence, began to enjoy the subject, and felt much happier learning again. We are very pleased to share that her efforts, together with his guidance, have paid off -- her AP World History grade has now improved to an A. More importantly, she believes in herself again, which means so much to us as parents. Thank you for not only helping my daughter academically, but also for supporting her emotionally and building her confidence. We truly appreciate the dedication and care shown by Troy. With sincere gratitude...