I wanted to take a moment to leave a quick review. I reached out to in regards to counseling…read moreservices for my daughter. Unfortunately, she was not taking new students at the time, but the fact that she took the time to call me back and spent her personal time on the phone, giving me some basic information with absolutely no upside for herself speaks volumes. If she will give her time to a parent, who is not her client I can only imagine how dedicated she is to the students she works with. Not only that, but she was a wealth of information in a short amount of time. Thank you for your time, it was truly appreciated.

We have just completed our second tour with Michelle and once again had a superb experience. She…read moreprovided great counsel starting at freshman year regarding what classes to take to improve GPA, summer enrichment programs to consider and how to round out experiences in order to make a compelling application come senior year. Her methodology and cadence for deliverables is very thought out and based on her depth of knowledge. It helped keep our student on track with a timeline and game plan. Everything she does is very purposeful. Our student got into his top target school and had many other options. She holds the kids accountable, is a straight shooter and is pleasant to work with, both for students and parents. She's a pro.

Matt Pickup is an amazing tutor for any social science and history/government related courses. He…read moreconstantly went above and beyond, even emailing me constantly with last minute personalized tips the night before my APUSH exam. He helped me go from getting my first bad semester grade in AP World first semester to getting an A the 2nd semester and a 5 on the exam. He was so good that i went back to him for APUSH, helping me score straight As and a 5 on that exam as well. He personally asked me what I needed specifically to improve and gave me tons of practice resources that we went through together and i got so used to the exam question types that It helped me with every other AP I've taken since then. He truly cares about his students!

Terrible experience with Nisha and Blaine who practically sabotaged my child preparation for SAT…read more Super unreliable operation - promise a lot and don't even show up to scheduled meetings - terrible!!

My 15-year-old son has been working with a Strive Path counselor for several years. The benefits of…read morethis program have been amazing for him. He has learned about many classes and clubs that he has been able to navigate successfully thanks to the guidance provided by his counselor. He is currently on the youth commission and looking to apply to top universities in the upcoming years. If you are serious about your child's education and the need for college guidance, this is the company!

Sunny and his team are amazing. Very helpful for students to have a third party outside of the home…read moreto help with the college application process. The sports recruiting addition is excellent and very helpful. Highly recommend!

We have utilized Lafayette Academy's services for ten years (possibly more). Their centers are…read morestaffed with experienced and knowledgeable tutors who can assist with tutoring in all academic areas along with ACT and SAT test prep, exam crams and more. I have two girls, who benefitted greatly over the years from their services. From middle school work to college level courses (they even helped my daughter who attended Cal Berkeley with her Business Statistics Course and my other daughter's Chemistry Course through San Diego State) Lafayette Academy had the appropriate staff on hand to assist with all of their needs. Their success can be attributed to the owners. The owner Mark B. with whom I conversed with regularly, is involved in his business and takes great care to ensure his clients are provided with excellent service. He and his staff are responsive and always have found the right fit for our daughters to ensure their academic success. I highly recommend Lafayette Academy! Simply put..they are the best! Aimee P. Alamo, CA

Love this place and highly recommended! So easy the work with. Both the tutor and the young…read moregentleman (sorry, I didn't get his name) at the front desk are so nice and friendly. My son got sick over the weekend, and Monday was his session, but he was too sick to attend. Just one phone call and it was changed to Tuesday. Thank you!

My son worked with Alex on his post-graduate schools and doctoral program applications, and working…read morewith Alex made huge difference. He was extremely knowledgeable about the process and easy to access at any time. My son accepted to a fully funded program.I highly recommend Alex if anyone looking for a coach to help with their writing . Thank you Alex!! I m grateful for your dedication and availability

Dr. Blum worked with my son on his college personal statement. Coached him over 5 sessions on how…read moreto organize, edit, transition and finish his statement. What we really appreciated was Dr. Blum did not write or direct the paper. He helped my son through the writing process. Strategies my son will use long past college. Highly recommend his services.

I would not have made it to college, or through the struggling with both college essays and…read moreschoolwork if hadn't been for Jari. I wouldn't change a single thing about the experience to make it any better. in my opinion the important things for a college adviser to provide is; quick revisions, lots of information on schools, and someone who I felt comfortable talking to about meaningful things that I was writing about. Jari provided all of that and so much more. I am very grateful that we found Jari, because being a first generation college student I needed all the help I could get, and she was very much able to guide me through college applications.

I unfortunately have nothing good to say about the college counseling Help my daughter received…read morefrom Jari Hazard. We looked for college counselors and interviewed a few exceptional candidates who had high degrees and years of experience, same as Jari, but the other counselors had excellent demeanors, good personalities and were all well spoken. Alas, the deciding factor was that the other counselors were extremely expensive. Jari was cheap by their standards, so I hired her. This was quite possibly the worst decision I have ever made. Upon interviewing her there where some indicators I should have paid attention to i.e. she wore what looked like an Easter dress a five year old would have selected, but more importantly, she promised no hours spent with my daughter one on one, only help via email. When I thought about backing out, which in retrospect I should have, I questioned her policy of not sitting with my daughter for tutelage, and helping her with her college applications, she reversed her position and promised to come to our home anytime she asked. I had a bad feeling about this, but I hired her because she charged far less than all her competitors. Well, as they say, "you get what you pay for" in life. Every time my daughter completed a college essay, Jari dismissed it in whole. She never sat with my daughter and did a single revision. My daughter finally wrote four total essays on two different prompts. Jari dismissed all four on sight; never editing or revising, simply dismissing. She rejected my daughter's topic as well, accepting as truth one author's article, that implied college applicants not use my daughters subject for their essay. My daughter felt passionately about her topic and felt the experience she chose to write about was pivotal to her development as a human being and her ultimate career choice. My daughter chose to write her chosen topic despite Jari's continual ridicule of my daughter's choice of topic. We have taught our daughter to not believe someone's opinion, simply because it is written. Eventually, she began to make fun of my daughter so much; I believed she was doing psychological and emotional harm to my child's self-esteem. Jari is reckless and demeaning in her approach at correction. She has tunnel vision and only wants your child to write what she deems "important" or "correct". After dismissing all of my daughter's efforts at answering her college prompts, Jari eventually actually wrote my daughter's essay in full for her. I thought she had simply gone too far. She not only refused to edit a single one of my daughter's essays, she had the gall to ask my daughter to edit her essay (Jari's), just in case there was something she felt was in error. Jari kept saying that the essay she wrote for my daughter was "Great!" and "Now your mother is getting her money's worth." Well of course, when I emailed her to question her writing my daughters essay in whole (not one thought or idea was contributed by my daughter), she denied her intentions to submit this paper. She not only was going to submit it as my daughters paper, she asked my daughter to revise it, or edit any errors she found in it. Finally, she told my daughter to not say anywhere in her essays that she intended to be a practitioner, in answer to a prompt that asked what are your hopes and dreams. She proceeded to tell my daughter that her G.P.A. was too low and her S.A.T. scores were not high enough to say becoming a doctor was her life dream. My husband and I both have post graduate degrees and I did not have a good G.P.A. in high school; I did not allow that to dissuade me from becoming a doctor. We were appalled by what Jari had advised my daughter to omit. We strongly believed Jari was doing more harm to our daughter than good. She attempted to have my daughter plagiarize which we definitely did not approve of. Jari Hazard was a Hazard from the start. I paid her a thousand dollars and she stole my money. I knew I had to let her go when she started harassing me with condemning emails when I questioned her intentions. I thought it was better to walk away from my thousand dollar sunk cost than have someone like this be in any further contact with my daughter. Jari also recommends you apply to colleges like Arizona State University. She insisted we apply, even though we told her we weren't interested. We informed her it was ranked way down at 121st in nationally ranked schools. She made my daughter fill the application and ignored its low rank. Please do your research before hiring a college counselor. If you hire Jari Hazard, you will get what you paid for and keep what you do not want.

Alice was a solid blessing on our household harmony when it came to applying to college. While…read morebright and engaging, my daughter has some rather intense attention issues and I knew college applications were going to be an uphill climb. Alice took the reins and helped my daughter figure out her interests and made the whole process accessible and not nearly as awful as we'd all imagined. Alice was by her side every step of the way in a fashion that my daughter would have hated if it were her mom. Alice had a way of keeping everything moving forward without any drama. She found schools we would not have considered, and she brought in many areas to consider, such as size, emphasis, diversity, location, etc. In the end, my daughter landed in a college that fits her PERFECTLY, UC Santa Cruz. We can never thank Alice enough!

From the owner: College Fit, Building a College List, College Essaysread more

I highly recommend Alice Chen as a college admissions consultant. We met Alice when my son was in…read more10th grade. When we first met her, we knew she was the right person to help our son with his college application. She planned everything ahead and kept my son on track with all the application processes. She was always creative and shared new ideas from different aspects of the applications. She was tireless in her enthusiasm and generous with her time, especially during the holiday season. She gave my son the most considerable support. The competition is fierce for Asian male engineering students, and she helped my son create the strongest application possible. My son has already been accepted into an Ivy League university and another Top 10 University. She is an outstanding mentor - she works not just on the essay but on developing the potential of each of her students.

I am very grateful to have worked with Alice throughout the college application process!…read more Before I met Alice, I felt very unsure and stressed with deadlines, having gone through many different ideas/drafts for my essays. By asking specific questions and providing prompts for thinking, she helped bring my writing to life. In addition to providing advice/direction, she also always eased my stress and was a pleasure to talk with. With Alice's feedback, I was able present my best self to my colleges, helping me get accepted into my top choice school early.