I am a 52 year old father of three daughters. My oldest will be attending college in the fall. I…read morewas raised in Massachusetts and my father was self employed his whole life. So when I announced to him that I would be going to college, his reply was "with what, I'm not paying for it". I was a good student and got accepted to Cornell, UNLV, FIU, Johnson & Wales and The Culinary Institute. Without his help I attended a community college for my first two years of school. Then I transferred to Florida International University in Miami, which I never saw until the day I showed up for orientation. Both my parents never got a chance to attend a college and I worked full time through all four years of college. Not much of a college experience for me. So for my age group things have changed, touring campus's, SAT prep, ACT prep, Financial aid, essays, thank you letters to school visited, choice, choice and more choices, Etc. This is all a foreign language to me and having a daughter that lives in the NOW and with so many choices and decisions to make. I just can't tell you how much of an asset it is to have Larry Dannenberg coach my daughter and myself about this whole process. I know from personal experience that Larry also handles many other high school students in and around our town of Southborough and that is how he came highly recommended to us. All my daughters will use College Solutions because the rules for admissions change as do our kids from year to year. We started in my daughters sophomore year getting her ready all with Larry's help. This was something I just don't have time for as my wife and I are both self employed just like both sets of our parents were. No mistakes, lots of personal attention, Larry and his staff all very assiduous in their duties when it comes to working with your child. I highly recommend College Solutions.

Useless and overpriced service. Paid for the package throughout high school, was promised multiple…read moreinternships and opportunities-- each time, counselor never got back to us after short zoom meetings. Lack of communication was a major issue, my child was moved around among different counselors several times and none were well informed about his portfolio. Very discouraging throughout the application process, made my child doubt his ability to apply to top schools-- we went against their advice and he ended up being accepted to many. Not sure why the reviews here are so good, the ones on Reddit are much more honest. Save your money and do a google search instead, you can get the same and more information online for free.

Complete waste of time - the consultants did not help, their system was a joke, and nothing but…read morewaste of time and money.

We feel so lucky that our son worked with Dr. Megan Race. She kept him, and all of us, on track…read more She was everything one would want in a college consultant and more! This was our first time in the college process and she made the whole process less stressful. It was so helpful to have an expert guide us and be the one to help direct our son (vs us nagging him!). Our son got into his first choice college (early decision) and we are looking forward to working with Spark again for our second child. Besides having great consultants, Spark fully understands the college landscape and they give you that incredible inside knowledge to help craft your child's whole process. We looked at lots of college consultant companies and know Spark and especially Megan was the best choice for our son!

Lori is an excellent tutor who helped my 3 children improve their literacy and English skills…read morequickly for their elementary years.

I completely trust Dr Yatin and her team! I sent all 3 of my children to Tangi as they prepared for…read moretheir ISEE/SAT/ACT.

If your situation is "typical", then perhaps your experience will be different and this will be a…read morefine provider of services. The testing itself, once you get it, appears to be done well, with competent and friendly doctors and the suggestions that result can be helpful. However, if you have any kind of unique situation, either in the symptomatology of your child, or if the parents disagree about the causes or presentation of the issues present, their approach and systems here are utterly incapable, by design, to handle that. They struggled to handle our bespoke situation and the outcomes of that were harmful for my child. These issues were also frustrating, caused extra costs, and ultimately required external intervention to get the very basic testing required for things beyond the academic testing which was all they initially sought to do. I wish to also second the review that found their billing practices questionable. I strongly disliked dealing with this organization and found the outcomes sub-optimal, more expensive with insurance coverage than simply going to an out-of-network provider would have been and required immense efforts to get issues resolved, some of which never were and that led to further conflict and harm for my child. It felt like my observations or issues were either ignored or disregarded. I regret using this organization.

Update: well they were so good for their own part, I can ignore the referral to a less-stellar…read moreservice provider, and figured in retrospect to change these guys to 5 stars. They deserve it.

Joan is a pleasure to work with. We have only met with her once so far but she is so…read moreknowledgeable, kind, compassionate, and truly cares for the students she helps with their college choices. We are SO incredibly grateful we found her and looking forward to utilizing her superb guidance and skills.

My daughter worked with Joan Casey throughout her college search and application process…read more Joan was extremely thorough in her assessment of my daughter and in her selection of schools. Her advice was based on in-depth knowledge of my daughter's learning style and personality. The list of colleges she presented were mostly solid targets (rather than reach) and she prepared my daughter to be realistic and in the end, very happy with her acceptances. Joan created a strategy to identify a first choice school, for an early decision application while organizing and motivating her to complete all of her regular and early action applications. Joan's observations of my daughter's strengths and weaknesses and her knowledge of the pros and cons of each school made the process seem more concrete and predictable. Joan continues to follow-up with my daughter and said that she will stay in touch with her throughout her freshman year.

As a parent whose children have aged out of Mathnasium, I cannot state how much my kids benefited…read morefrom the program. Each had their own reasons for being there: one needed help filling in the gaps, the other wanted to be challenged. Both left feeling great about their skills and their grades showed. The one-on-one instruction with two others at pod kept them motivated and relaxed. Great instructors and a good set up without the stress of a classroom program. Thanks Mathnasium!

This is not a friendly learning center for people of color. I recently visited Mathnasium Newton…read morewith my 8 year old daughter. Despite having an appointment, the owner ignored me for 43 minutes while taking white customers, who entered the center after me. When she did sit down with me, she was rude and clearly did not want to speak with me. I bought some of my observations about her obvious racial preference to her attention. Her response was not apologetic or even acknowledging of an error. She instead told me that "technically her appointment was not with me, but with my daughter". As a black woman, as a mother, as a human being, I will never return to this center!

We approached Maria for tutoring after our daughter's rough years in late elementary that left her…read moredisliking school and feeling little confidence in her academic abilities, especially in math. Maria found a way to connect with our anxious daughter quickly so as to earn her trust and build rapport. Maria not only prepared our daughter academically, but she built back her confidence when it comes to learning new concepts by meeting her where she was and then getting her to where she needed to be in her weakest subject area. Maria also worked with our child to set goals for the upcoming year.

We had a terrible experience with New England Chess, and specifically with Jared Becker as a…read moreteacher. My son was dismissed after two classes because he only showed marginal improvement in his ability to sit still and raise his hand. Jared showed no classroom control, was unwilling to work with my eager, excited, and happy child to help him adjust to the classroom. Jared also did not communicate with me directly, and I learned only after the second class that my son had been dismissed through the school's secretary. Terrible intolerance for different personalities and learning styles. Terrible communication. It is also in a terrible location, in a tiny dark building. Horrible experience.

Very bad experiences. Two of my kids enrolled into their program and quit deciding it is not a good…read morefit. They already charged for the following month. We requested to save credit for future use and they did not reject this when we requested this. Now after a few years, we like to use the credit for the other kid. They told us there is NO credit at all due to the late cancellation notice and refused to honor the two month's classes we have paid. My two older kids did not like their classes. We had wanted to have my younger kid who is new to chess to try a few months to see if he could like it. They told us their students are multi-year serious learner and we are not good fit. It seems that they do not care about you if you can't promise to stay with them long term.