PLEASE NOTE! A WORD OF CAUTION FOR POTENTIAL CLIENTS: Barbara talks a lot about how much your…read morechild's story means in their applications, but her actions while editing my child's essays speak volumes about her capabilities and false pretenses about loving students. When my child would come to her with heartfelt essays about her experiences and hopes for the future, Barbara would brutally slash up my child's essays until they were bare boned. No story, no flair, no emotion, nothing. Not to mention Barbara also told my child that her essays were "terrible" or that she should not apply at all. Those same essays, without any edits, got her into incredibly competitive schools in and out of state. She also edits the essays in FRONT of my child right before they meet. She wouldn't spend time to thoroughly edit the essays beforehand despite asking for them a week in advance. To top it all off, Barabra is phenomenally bad at making good on her scheduling appointments and will force you to sign a multi-thousand dollar contract, to lock you in. She has made appointments with my child multiple times and then proceeded to cancel last minute because she double booked, or would force my child to wait.

The college process is truly daunting. Barbara helped us to break it down into manageable steps,…read moreworking with my twins from their sophomore year in high school through to the end of the application process. Notable points for twins: she works with each child separately, drawing out their specific interests and talents with regular one-on-one meetings. If they don't really know what they are interested in or they are interested in many different things (normal for a teenager!) she helps them figure it out so that by senior year they have a real portfolio of volunteer and community activities, internships, research projects and leadership experiences that they can use to clarify their interests and to get into excellent colleges! She is very honest and direct, while at the same time enjoying the kids' unique strengths and opportunities for laughs that come along the way. She helps them pick out schools that fit their characters and helps them streamline the process as much as is humanly possible for such a high-stakes venture. Thanks so much, Barbara!

Elaine is a world-class advisor--thoughtful, capable, compassionate, and responsive…read more She worked with our twins for several years as we navigated the stress and uncertainty of the college process--where to apply, how to think about value, and how to strike the right balance between reach, target, and safety schools. The process today is daunting. With Ivies accepting just 3-5% of applicants and UC schools also extremely competitive, it's too risky to go it alone and hope for the best. Elaine dedicated an extraordinary amount of time and care guiding our kids through every step. No matter the situation, her advice was always thoughtful and transparent. She responded quickly to every question, usually the same day or within 24 hours. Of course, no advisor can work miracles if a student isn't already committed and putting in the effort--but for motivated students, even the strongest ones, her guidance is invaluable. She also helps set realistic expectations for both kids and parents, which is just as important as anything else. Now the results are in. Both of our kids are strong IB students who were active in music and leadership programs. While the Ivies ultimately proved too far a stretch (despite their qualifications), they were accepted to several top UC and state schools, as well as USC, LMU, and others. Our daughter has chosen UC Berkeley, where she also received a significant merit scholarship--something we were especially grateful for given the cost of college today. Our son was also offered spots at UC Berkeley and UCSD, but has USC Thornton in his sights. If you have a child entering or already in high school, I highly recommend starting with Elaine for an initial consultation. Our whole family--especially our kids--is grateful for her guidance, which led to outstanding options at some of the top public and private universities in the country. We couldn't be more thrilled with the outcome and look forward to the next chapter with twins in college.

My daughter and I often joke that Elaine came to us from on high just when we needed her most! We…read morehad no idea how to navigate the college application process, but with Elaine's excellent help (she is calms, clear, organized and inspiring) we were able to make it! My daughter ended up getting into her first-choice school and Elaine's amazing help made that possible. But more than what school she got into it was just wonderful having Elaine to guide us and bounce ideas off of throughout the process. It's not easy out there and there is no one right decision - through it all Elaine made us feel like we had a strong guide on our side.

The beauty of working with Audrey is that you have a expert guide advising your child on the…read morecomplex college journey who is 100% invested in their success - but who doesn't have the emotional involvement of a parent. It keeps the whole process less stressful and highly productive. Audrey is a calm, knowledgeable and encouraging presence throughout and my daughter felt she was in excellent hands (we all did). My daughter got into her first choice college too, so we are thrilled! Highly recommend Audrey!

I cannot recommend Audrey enough, she is patient, takes a keen interest in her students and a…read morewealth of knowledge. Having been through the college application process once before , we knew what we wanted to look for in a college counselor the second time around and were so happy with our decision. She gets to actually know her students, cares and respects the decisions they make and works with them very collaboratively. My son always looked forward to his meetings with her and came back motivated and energized to do the tasks on hand. We had so many great choices when it came to narrowing down our options- my son was accepted to all UC's, got a full ride to the top LAC, and many acceptances and scholarship offers from highly selective private colleges. Bear in mind class of 2022 was faced with so many challenges! Without Audrey's coaching and insight, I do not think we would have been where we are right now.

If you have a high schooler who will be applying to college, definitely seek out Kathy, especially…read moreif your child aspires to Ivies, Stanford, UCLA and other top schools. Definitely call early, best to start with her freshman or sophomore year so you're not scrambling come senior year. I had two daughters who were recruited athletes and Kathy helped them tell their stories, and they ended up at their first choice schools (Yale and Stanford). Your journey may be different but Kathy did fabulous work for us.

Professional, knowledgeable, and super helpful for admission to selective colleges. Thank you,…read moreKathy!

Responded quickly and politely. Ended up using a family friend but we'll keep him in mind for SATs.read more

[TL;DR Doug is an incredible tutor. He is engaged, knows the LSAT inside and out, helped me bring…read moremy score above 175, and is 100% worth the price.] I struggle with making decisions very badly, especially when they feel like particularly important decisions. I place importance upon two axes: how much the choice will cost me and how long the choice at hand may last into the future. For example, an inexpensive wine at Trader Joe's is nowhere near as difficult a choice as a $500-$1,000 mattress I will sleep on every night for the next 5-7 years. Naturally, based on these two criteria, picking an LSAT study strategy felt extremely important; not only was the price tag fairly high, but this choice could shape my career trajectory for the rest of my life. I considered a handful of different tutoring options...courses by popular providers like Blueprint, 7Sage, and Kaplan as well as tutoring by some smaller services. In these considerations, I also consulted a lot of different forums; reddit, yelp, and some independent tutor rating services. Ultimately, Doug seemed more qualified than the other sources I had consulted. I worked with Doug from early September up to a November LSAT administration, he was consistent, on time, engaged, communicative, and knew the LSAT questions inside and out. We were able to talk not only about what the right answer was, but also why other answer choices were wrong. He provided strategies and approaches for the exam, and correct approaches of mine that were not serving me. November was the first time I ever sat for the LSAT, and I ended with a score I was thrilled with. I know LSAT tutors can be expensive and this price tag can be intimidating, but I seriously cannot recommend the extra money enough--if you can afford it, which I recognize is a privilege. If starting off with individual sessions seems too expensive, I would also recommend trying a hybrid strategy by first exhausting free resources (shoutout to khan academy, which I used for ~6-8 months before working with Doug) and then working with a private tutor--Doug--who will actually help you achieve what you want through targeted, one-on-one help once your practice score plateaus and/or once your test date approaches. And remember, the law school you go to can/will have an impact on your career outcomes, and the money you spend on the LSAT could pay itself back within your first few months--or even weeks--of your career. Good luck out there to all of you LSAT prepping law school hopefuls reading this, and again, I cannot recommend Doug enough for those of you who really want to see the best results possible on your LSAT. Bonus: All of our tutoring sessions were completely virtual, which is great not only for the pandemic, but also for those who are located outside of Doug's Bay Area/Arizona locales but still looking for a highly-qualified tutor. Tutoring/learning over Zoom can be less than ideal for some, but Doug has enough virtual capabilities configured that learning over Zoom was no problem. He was able to share a virtual "paper" and draw out solutions and other visualizations that may be necessary to the learning process. The virtual aspect is all pro, no con.

I am very grateful for the role that Nicole Freeling played in our son's college selection process,…read moreand would like to explain it in some detail. My wife and I approached Nicole during our son's sophomore year. He had suffered a brain injury the prior summer and was struggling in school because of visual deficits and persistent head pain resulting from the trauma. At that moment, we were more concerned about how to get the right treatment for our son -- and the right accommodations in place -- so he could finish high school. But engaged Nicole because the decisions we made would ultimately affect our son's ability to attend a great university, and we wanted him to believe that this was still within his reach. He's a deeply intellectually serious young man, so we wanted to keep his horizons broad. Nicole did the research and returned to us with the conclusion that we should extend our son's high school career so he could focus on his recovery, and that a fifth year of high school would be a better solution for his circumstances than graduating on time with a less rigorous curriculum. We plotted his high school trajectory to maximize time spent in recovery during this junior year, ramping up the rigor and density of his coursework through a "gap year" that allowed him to finish his A to G requirements most at UC Berkeley and BCC, to great success. Nicole believed in our son and supported his application to a range of selective colleges. She had on-point advice on making the list, ensuring that it included schools he would likely get into as well as reach schools. Most importantly in this process, she encouraged our son to tell the story of his recovery, which he was not otherwise inclined to do. In the end, he was admitted early decision to a highly competitive college, where we believe he will thrive. We are all very grateful for Nicole and On My Way for their role not just in the college process, but in our son's overall recovery. These are good people.

Priscilla was incredibly thorough and helpful. She helped our daughter choose which schools to…read moreapply to, giving her ideas she hadn't thought of. She helped her with prompts and editing of her essays, she organized the whole process and helped us as parents navigate the financials and other paperwork. Highly recommend!

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.

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!