Hey,here's an update because I just looked at this review again and noticed Terry C's post... well…read moreplayed Simon Chan. Like obviously you didn't ask someone to post this. Oh, and Yelp is a place to review services...I feel like Terry doesn't understand that. It's not slander nor a malicious attack if it happened. I'm not an "uneducated individual whose only purpose is to serve his..."blah blah. Read it. Review is hilarious. Attempt to discredit former customer failed. And check out the unrecommended reviews! They shed more light onto this service.

Dr. Chan has been very helpful in elucidating my academic interests and career paths. His advices…read moreat times are difficult, but nonetheless necessary for my success. In the end, I think it all comes down to the students' responsibility to execute the vision Dr. Chan helps to elucidate within a student. Dr Chan is much less a tradition college consultant (those who simply wants you to shell out money in order to tell you the things you want to hear), than he is a mentor, whose efficacy depends entirely on the willingness of the student to discuss difficulties and opinions. Thanks to Dr. Chan, I got into my dream school, and at the same time, found my passion to pursue.

We are very grateful for Ilumin's support throughout the college application process. The team was…read moreknowledgeable, responsive and encouraging. They made the process much less stressful. We truly appreciate their guidance and would highly recommend Ilumin to other families.

If you are looking for college admission support, I cannot recommend ILUMIN Education enough. Our…read moreconsultant, Danny has been working with my son since junior year, and his help during the application process was invaluable. He was extremely dedicated and provided advice that my son actually listened to and follow - which is a huge win for any parent! Seeing him get into his dream college was proud moment for us, and we know Danny played a big part in that success. We are so appreciative of the care and effort put into his journey.

We were referred to John by one of our close friends and we are so thankful we did it. John and…read morehis team worked closely with our son for four years, from course selection to summer camp application, and eventually through the college app process. He put a lot of thought and paid extra attention to every details of the application forms. He is our guardian on meeting every milestone in this journey. John is more of a mentor to my son as well. He helped him navigate through his stress and anxiety, so that he could focus on making progress in his course work and applications. He also help bridging the communication between us and our son, which we deeply appreciated to balance our relationship during the crunching times. We would highly recommend John, he is the one you can count on!

Entering my senior year of High School and the chaos of college applications, I was very lost on…read morewhat a strong college essay and application looked like. I remember having different extracurricular experiences to talk about but there was a missing piece of how to word my essay and let alone start on my essays. I spent 2 weeks blankly starring at my document before realizing I needed more help than I expected. It wasn't until I started working with John and Jamie that I was able to talk about my life experiences and turn them into strong essays that reflects who I am and the type of leader I am in any community. Working with them helped me quickly understand how college essays are structured and how I can word my experiences to illustrate my strong characteristics as a student and leader. I really appreciated the weekly workshops provided by Jamie and John for extra time to spend on essays. As someone who had a hard time finding time and motivation to work on my essays, the workshops and set meeting times held me accountable for getting my work done before each meeting. I would 100% recommend John's service to anyone else struggling during this process. I am now committing to UC Davis and I couldn't be more grateful for the help provided by John and Jamie.

This review is about Angela Sun's college counselling abilities. Our experience was exactly the…read moreopposite of what's written here and I would give negative stars if I could !! She was an absolute nightmare to deal with and has zero emotional intelligence or tact to deal with young teens !! She preys on parent's weaknesses and has clearly understood parents would do anything for their children as long as she says things like she got admission into MIT, Ivy's and self proclaims that she is the absolute best college consultant who will make your child write the absolute best essays he can ever write !! (I am paraphrasing it but she said something like that to me in our first meeting !). She made it amply clear even before I met for the first time that all she cares about is money and nothing else ! She charged me $300 per hr saying it's "the weekend rate" - whatever that means (although her website only mentions 250 per hr ). She was laser focused on the money in our conversations and showed zero interest in knowing my child before or after the meeting. Her website says parents will get a detailed report within 24 hrs of the first meeting, and we received no such report. The first meeting was a complete disaster. She was so rude (and please don't say she is strict/tough /good etc). No - she was plain rude and not good as a counselor !! My son was so scared of her that after a point stopped answering even basic questions ! She gave as little info as possible in the session and made it laborious by asking my son to type out literally every word that came out of her mouth (all of it was just general info and nothing anyone wouldn't know about college admissions)! Despite all these negative signals, I still tried to go ahead with scheduling a few more sessions, because believe it or not, my son insisted he wanted to try her a bit more before giving up ! I wanted to understand how many sessions my son would need and in her response she had the audacity to say my child was a "non high functioning" kid and hence would probably need many sessions (being vague and open ended of course to milk as much money as possible from me) ! The "genius" in her, inferred all this about my son from just the 1 hr meeting !! Not to brag - Honestly, my child is in a highly specialized gifted track at school and elsewhere and in fact the very reason I was looking for a counselor so early on was to make sure I give him all the advantages possible and guide him using the best counselors ! She quoted a ridiculous number of hours at the rate of $300 per hr and I told her , her website states she will only need 3-4 sessions for coming up with a 4 year plan and her response was "website is outdated " !!! (can you believe that ??) Parents, please be careful when choosing a counselor. Please make sure the counselor has the right emotional intelligence, credentials , experience to deal with your child in this vulnerable yet important stage of their life. Please don't select a counselor based purely on 5 star online reviews or what these counselors say they achieved for themselves. If in your initial interactions you detect the counselor's main focus is money, and not your child or if the counselor is rude, evasive about answering your questions , please take these red flags seriously and run miles away from her/him ! I am very thankful that I was able to detect this problem early on and not expose my child to a horrible 4 year counselling experience !

I agree with S A 's review. Not great at emotional intelligence with teens. I think she's got a…read moremethod and that works for some kids, she isn't into customizing for how the child learns. I am sharing that his score went down a full 100 points after - full 3 months of tutoring with her. Worst yet when we shared this news she never responded to us again.

My daughter works one-on-one with UPUSH tutor Matt Pickup, and we could not be happier with the…read moreexperience. Matt brings deep knowledge, excellent teaching materials, and a highly effective approach to tutoring. He is an exceptionally qualified professional. Thanks to Matt, AP US History has become far more engaging for my daughter, and she showed impressive results from the very first session. Her overall performance in junior year has also improved as a direct result of his guidance. Thank you, Matt, for sharing your expertise with such dedication, passion, and care. We truly appreciate your work and highly recommend your services.

We've been working with Sophia Sears for about 1.5 years on writing and she's been a phenomenal…read moretutor. Her expertise, dedication and passion for writing has directly helped my elementary school child grow tremendously as a writer (w/ additional proof in standardized tests). She has provided resources, frameworks and scaffolding that have directly helped deepen the learning process on topics like personal narratives, summarizing and themes. Having a tutor who also acts as a thought partner on all things writing, has also been lovely. Finally, Sophia has also introduced my child to new genres of books and created special writing units related to school assignments, events and trips. These have all provided extensive new background knowledge which make learning very enriching. She truly goes above and beyond, as you can see from all the other rave reviews on yelp! Can't recommend her enough, she is amazing!

We couldn't be happier with Margaret! She was the only college and career counselor willing to help…read moreus out when our son graduated unexpectedly early, missing the college prep that he would have done in his senior year. The other counselors I contacted were only willing to take on clients as freshmen or earlier. As well as helping him polish his essay, and fill out the college apps., her assistance was invaluable in opening new doors, and colleges he hadn't considered. Her insight led to him following his passion, and getting a degree which will further his dreams, rather than the direction he'd been planning, in which he thought he "should" go. After researching, in great detail, colleges which were possibilities, she worked with our son to make sure applications were in on time - taking us parents out of the equation. After acceptance, she worked with the admissions office, and she made several conference calls with my son and the college of his choice, making sure he received as much credit as possible for the college courses he had taken. He ended up enrolling as a second semester sophomore, which is very helpful to the bank account. Not only is Margaret worth every penny, I'm confident that we've come out ahead! Margaret is smart and kind and worked very hard for us, doing things we didn't even know to do, and our son is in a much better place because of it. Woohoo! She is as good as it gets!

Margaret really knows her way around the common app! We used her towards the end of the college app…read moreprocess, when we were tired out and stressed about it. She is very helpful and really cares about the students and finding the right fit. Has helpful suggestions and is very knowledgeable and fun to work with. Highly responsive in email/text. We tried three other college coaches, and she was definitely the best!

As a parent, I honestly felt we had started the college application process too late. We first…read morebegan working with Mr. Park during the summer before senior year, and I was worried there would not be enough time to really help my son. But after meeting him, my thinking completely changed. From the beginning, Mr. Park was very clear, organized, and realistic with us. He did not just give general advice like many other counselors. He took time to understand my son's strengths, personality, and goals, and gave guidance based specifically on him. That made a very big difference for us. He helped a lot with essays and personal statements. Many times he pushed my son to think deeper and explain his experiences better, and I could see the improvement over time. His feedback was very detailed and personal, not advice that I could find online. What I appreciated most was that he was honest and straightforward while still being very supportive. The college process can be stressful for both students and parents, but Mr. Park helped make everything feel much more manageable. My son also became more confident, organized, and mature during this process. I truly feel Mr. Park cares about his students and wants them to succeed long term, not only for college admissions. I would highly recommend him to any family looking for genuine and personalized college counseling support.

Mr. Park is an outstanding college counselor. Through his guidance over the past two years, my…read morechild not only got into her dream colleges but she also learned many life skills from him. Mr. Park has in-depth knowledge of the admission process. His understanding of application requirements, deadlines, and institutional preferences has helped my child to have a clear idea of what she needed to do. He stays informed about the latest admission trends, and his advice is relevant and up to date with the priorities of each college and their selection criteria. The organizational skills of Mr. Park are exceptional. He tracks my child's progress, application requirements, important dates of tests and submission deadlines very carefully, making sure nothing is overlooked. His well-structured documentation system consists of clear timelines and checklists which make it easy to follow and help my child to stay on top of the tasks. He also frequently guides my child on the organization skill which is very useful in life. Mr. Park consistently met with my child to ensure all the tasks were on track and discuss upcoming requirements. He had coached my child on the SAT before Junior year started, so she could later be more focused on her school work and applications. After spending a month working with Mr. Park intensely on the areas the she needed to improve, she scored very well and was satisfied with her performance. For college applications, Mr. Park always set the deadlines early to make sure there was enough time for review and revision in order to submit the best quality of materials on time. This skill let my child navigate this complex process smoothly and reduced last-minute stress. Mr. Park is honest and direct on feedback and what needs to be done. At the same time, he is also very encouraging, providing a positive outlook and always made my child feel his confidence in her. I would highly recommend him to anyone looking for a structured yet supportive college counselor.

Chris is an outstanding counselor. He helped me write my essays for UCs and the Common App and…read moresupplementals for schools such as NYU and Columbia. His organization and the information he provides about all of the schools are amazing and reduced the stress of having to research all of the small things for each school I was interested in. The way he guided me to write the essay was efficient and saved me a lot of time as I didn't have to write the same essay for another question that was similar to the last. I was able to finish my essays by August. It was a big relief and the whole process seemed very manageable with his help. His ability to provide fluidity in my writing and his knowledge of college admissions helped me especially because my writing was "impenetrable" or difficult for someone who didn't know me to understand. Besides the support he gave me with essays, he was also very easily accessible and understanding. I had his number and if there was anything that came up in the way of a meeting, I could just text him and I got a response in less than an hour. Any rescheduling of a meeting was simple and caused no trouble. Chris is a very straightforward person and gave me the support and advice I needed to write my essays. He is also pretty funny and a down-to-earth person which helped as meetings didn't come as something I didn't want to do. Chris was a great college counselor and I recommend him as his understanding of the application process and his ability to tutor and write were a great help.

I come from a non-traditional educational background, having gone directly to the US Air Force out…read moreof high school, only to stare down my UC undergraduate applications at the age of 29. Chris helped calm my nerves during the entire process. Chris is patient and has a unique talent of channeling your talents with the best possible outcome. He reassured me that my uniqueness had value. He got me talking about my achievements, made me feel proud, and helped me coalesce my thoughts into an essay that won me acceptance to Cal. In fact, after my acceptance into Cal, the admissions team asked if they could publish my personal statement to help other prospective students. Out of thousands of applications, they remembered mine! I highly recommend Chris for anyone who struggles to put their thoughts to paper for a personal statement. Thanks to Chris, my life trajectory changed in ways I never imagined. Chris has also tutored me in other areas such as Math and Writing. Learning never ends and Chris is unceasingly helpful in all aspects of my life. He is the most incredible writer I have ever met. I also plan on using Chris' services when I enter the work force after college. Meticulously written cover letters, resumes and thank you notes will put you above the rest. Thank you Chris. I am forever grateful.

Edit: My kid has been going to Best Brain Milpitas center for almost two summers now and experience…read morecan't be better. They pay attention to details and work 1:1 if your kid has issues with specific concepts or subjects. If you have reached this page, you are curious about Best Brains and checking Google for any information available. My 6 years old has been going to Best Brains since July 2016 and so far I am satisfied with results. They offer English, Math, Abacus and other classes at few days a week. The owner(Sylvia) is a friendly lady always willing to offer answers. I have seen the same teachers with my kid for a while, meaning he doesn't have to adjust based on new teachers. Fees is reasonable based on other places I have seen in Bay Area. Its very closed to India Bazaar, you can do grocery shopping while you kid is gaining skills. Parking can be challenging sometimes but its available most of the times. I have seen improvement in my kid in last 4 months and I hope he will continue improving at same or greater pace. Good luck with your decision. Message me if you have any additional questions. Disclaimer: I am not paid or compensated in any way for writing this tutoring center. These are my views based on personal experience.

I want to give this place a fair review and just share my experience…read more Pros: I think this place has a lot of potential. Multiple subjects, small tutoring size and good price, and seemingly good curriculum. The location is convenient. It's clean inside and many students. Cons: here is my experience: I brought my daughter in for the assessment. The owner was coldly polite. Did not introduce herself, say hello or anything but merely directed my daughter to take an assessment test. I felt a little put off by just the lack of warmth but I wanted to give the place a benefit of the doubt. When she is done and the owner asks my daughter her name. My daughter has a soft voice and the owner said "say it! You need to talk louder". She had just met my daughter and already is reprimanding her? ...bad taste in my mouth but again, benefit of the doubt. I decide against my gut to sign up (never again will I not trust my instincts). After we leave, my daughter pleads with me "please do not send me here. Please!" She was in tears. We had a long talk, I was shocked and conflicted bc she LOVES school, has been to many tutoring programs and camps over the years and has always loved them. She is 9. Feel free to PM me if you want to know details. My daughter's experience is only part of the reason for the bad review--most of it is the owner's response and my own feeling about the place. Anyway, after much deliberation, and consultation with my husband I decided I would try to see if we could get our deposit back or, I could voice my concerns with the owner and see if there could be some kind of reassurance or solution. Two days later I go back to the center and ask politely can we please cancel, it was two days ago, she has not started yet. Owner says no, they already "bought the materials." Really? Ok so plan B, let's see if we can make this work. I shared with her my daughter's experience and she became very defensive. I told her it may be the center's focus on education (vs development of the child's love for learning) and not a good fit. She said I cannot say her "center is bad," shoved me the money and non-verbally said "get out." I walked out and realized she gave me more than what I had paid. It was a measly $30 more and no way I was walking back in there after she treated me that way. Plus it was her mistake. I drive 5 minutes and she has the audacity to call me! "You owe me $30!" At this point I am laughing in disbelief. I kind of felt anger mixed with pity for how crazy she was acting. I wanted to be the bigger person and not stoop to her level so I drove back to give the dumb $30 back. I calmed down and went back and tried to reason with her. I told her she is obviously doing something right bc there are lots of kids here but she needs to listen and be able to receive feedback. She just got more and more defensive saying my daughter hadn't even tried it, how can she listen to me? I said if you are not listening now, what makes me so sure you're going to listen once we try? She was not hearing me and just being defensive. I tried. I'm sure this place is working for a lot of families but I just want to warn those who are looking for a higher level of customer service to beware. My take home: trust my instincts!