As immigrants, we were looking for guidance to help our daughter navigate important aspects of the college preparation process--course selection, essay writing, extracurricular activities, summer internships, and everything in between. As parents, we felt unsure and somewhat confused about how to guide her through these areas. We are very glad that we found the right support through UPI. The team consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that students receive the help they need. Their guidance has added tremendous value by helping our daughter for summer internships and program's and take a more holistic approach to choosing the right academic path and future career. Thank you to Mr. Gupta and the UPI team for your dedication and support. read more

My family joined UC Eazy / Upward Path in the summer of 2022 when my son was a sophomore. We were paired with a wonderful counselor, established a steady meeting cadence, and felt confident in the early guidance around majors and future direction. Right before my son's senior year, we learned that our counselor was leaving and we would be reassigned. From that point on, the experience became inconsistent and stressful. With the new counselor, few colleges were recommended, there was no meaningful progress on identifying academic interests or majors, and tasks like resumes and essays were discussed but never initiated. We found ourselves taking over major parts of the process, including researching colleges, managing the Common App, and trying to understand the UC Application timeline on our own. Important elements such as financial aid strategy, the CSS Profile, FAFSA timing, and college list strategy were unclear. Communication was intermittent, meeting notes weren't provided, and despite being told we were "on schedule," we frequently felt confused, rushed, and unprepared--especially when urgent requests from the high school counselor surfaced. My son also felt a lack of partnership with the new counselor compared to the strong relationship he had earlier. By application season, we felt uncertain and overwhelmed. My son applied to several universities, some aligned with his interests and others not as clearly, and the overall process felt rushed and more difficult than it needed to be. Today, my son is a sophomore at UC Riverside majoring in psychology and has recently submitted transfer applications to other UC campuses that better fit his goals. When Upward Path asked for feedback, I shared my concerns. To their credit, they listened and offered complimentary support for my son's transfer applications. This gesture was genuinely appreciated and helped him feel more confident in his essays. In summary, our experience began strong but became turbulent after the counselor change. Although we appreciated the effort to make things right at the end, the overall journey was more stressful and uncertain than we expected. read more

Upward Path Institute gave our family invaluable guidance through the college admissions process. My son was admitted to multiple UCs and ultimately realized his goal of pursuing a Data Science major at UC Berkeley. Along the way, their counselors helped him build essential skills in organization, time management, prioritization, and follow-through. While he had several UC offers, we--together with the team--chose the community college-to-UC transfer route as the most strategic option for his academic readiness and long-term success. This approach requires committed observation and closely working with the student, which their team delivered exceptionally well. I highly recommend them to families seeking a comprehensive, student-focused approach to college planning. read more

My son took the services of the Upward Path for Essay writing help. His essay coach was very knowledgable and knew her craft very well. She provided very immaculate guidance on which essays to choose for different target colleges, what things to write about based on his activities for each of the essays.The most formidable help was on how to fit the essay into the word limits - what to omit and what to emphasize on. It was also not very hard to schedule time as and when we needed it. Every high school student during the college application time goes through immense pressure and have to take care of too many things at school and for their extra curricular activitites as well. The essay support provided the much needed and timely help for completing the essays for my son's both in-state and out-of-state college applications. I would recommend their "College Application Essays" services to anyone who is looking for essay writing help. read more

As an essay coach for Upward Path Institute, I can't stress enough how professional and helpful the company is--both to its employees and clients. During my time working for the company, I was able to see first-hand how dedicated to student success the people working for the company are. Any family who wants to give their college-bound student a leg-up on being accepted should connect with the Upward Path Institute. read more

For my previous kids, the college application process seemed like a sprint, and there were some regrets that they should have planned and done a more thorough job on essays and extracurriculars. So, we know we needed some assistance for our next child to plan for a more deliberate approach. We either spend some money now to give our son a more competitive advantage or let him navigate the application process himself. There is a reason college preparatory services exist, staffed with ex-admission counselors: They work, and those advantages are necessary. We were lucky enough that UpwardPath selected my son to work with them, and we certainly don't regret the money we spent based on his admissions acceptances. His UpwardPath counselor, Anne Semone, had quite a prolific background. She had dealt with stressful juniors who were dealing with hard class workloads and unmotivated seniors with whom writing compelling college essays was the last thing they wanted to do. After removing the SAT/ACT this year from the criteria that universities accept, the subjective nature of essays became the primary means for those to be selected above those more qualified in other areas. Starting around June after his junior year, Mrs Semone's interactions with my son were crucial to getting his essays well-rounded, compelling, and concise. Throughout the essay-writing process, Mrs Semone provided feedback on capturing the reader's attention while still giving the impression that the student is humble and not exaggerating. She recognized the humorous parts of my son's essays while keeping them concise and on the subject of the essay prompt. On the 9th or 10th version of the essays, I know my son was hoping Mrs. Semone would say... "it looks good; I have no other feedback." But they are the best essays he has written, and I know they impacted his college acceptances. Another thing to consider is the major the student is considering. One weakness of the US education system is that schools don't tell the kids what they are not good at. Recognizing your weaknesses is crucial to knowing when to seek help. Our counselor knew writing essays was a challenge for my son, and being an engineering major, there are other things he wants to do than writing essays. Half of the UCs my son applied to send him acceptance letters, and his profile was only in the lower median when you look at the university's incoming freshman class stats. At his high school, valedictorians who applied to the same college and major as my son did not receive acceptance letters. I know his essays were the primary reason he got in, and without Mrs Semone's assistance, he might only have had one or no choice of his target schools. Was he unmotivated to write these essays? 100% But Mrs Semone's deliberate and planned approach minimized his procrastination so that he didn't sprint the essay. We appreciate UpwardPath and recommend its services. We will miss Mrs Semone after the last year and a half we have working with her. read more

The institute took all the money in first two months and never looked back at my son for the entire two years. There counsellors seem to be lacking skills and have no idea nor any experience to provide guidance towards UC or IVY League related admissions. There Essay support is also worthless. As a result my son could not get computer science in any of the UC or ivy college despite having very good GPA in the range of 3.8-3.9 range. He spent around 2 years with them but did not get any value addition. I suggest to please stay away from upward path institute !! Also remember they operate as UCeazy too so they changed name but its the same company. Stay away from this institute if you love your kids and care for them. Explore other options in the market !! That's my suggestion. Below you see their strategy.. 1. This is their strategy. if a candidate gets into UC and IVYs you anyway get the credit of their work anyways. And if he does not then you have this clause in your agreement to cover yourself. so you have a win win situation always. And then you have safety net colleges so that you can get the credit for kids work anyways. Why would I spend 10 thousand dollar if i have to get into safety net college ? I am sure none of the audience wants that. Audience here reading this please note that is what they are suggesting us to enroll for, after spending 10 thousnad dollars and then at the end going into a safety net college. If a candidate has 4 GPA he would not come to your counselling as he is smart enough. Only those with 3.8-3.9 GPA or lower will come to you to fill that gap. You guys are giving excuse that now GPA of 4.0 is needed. Why would someone need your counselling if GPA Is 4 out of 4 as he will get into some good college anyway without needing you folks. 2. Your counsellor continously had language issuess and excuse that they could not understand me. Once you guys encashed the check payments , they started giving that excuse from there. They keep looking at the clock to wrap up their shift and no value addition because they do not know what to advise. They just seek inputs from students what activities they are engaged in and note it down at their end Is this the 25 year experience for ? Your staff had no quality work and its been total waste of time and money both. I am not going to waste my time further on this institute. Audience my intention is to enlighten you so you learn from my sufferings. I lost tons of money to them and also very critical time. I am slapped twice as you see i can never get that time back Hence i am suggesting you to stay away from them. i do not recommend them at all . BOTTOM LINE : NEVER PAY ANYONE IN FULL IN THE BEGINNING ITSELF. BETTER FIND OTHER ALTERNATIVES AS THIS INSTITUTE IS TOTAL WASTE OF YOUR CRITICAL TIME AND MONEY BOTH !! read more

Please don't waste money. Counselor we worked with was one of their premium counselor( well that's what we were sold on) Unfortunately counselor was mediocre at best, even in the months of September and October, their involvement was minimal Here are top 5 why 1. No personalized holistic service- college selection or advice 2. Student is the driving force, they are there to pretty much there to offer moral 'ok' 3. Essay review was sub par- my kids essay didn't have proper flow nor well written but counselor said it was good 4. Did not inform how colleges have general admission followed by direct admit where requirements are more tight( my kid had no idea there was second gate to get direct admit, when asked counselor said my kid could have gone to website to check as this was pretty common) 5. I got 'congratulations on finishing your UC application' email- my kid had not finished application ( boiler plate email sent to all parents) Few of my kids friends with same counselor reported similar feedback Poor essay review, no personalized service, 0 responsibility or accountability read more

I would like to recommend Upward Path Institute to any parents who are facing with the enormous task of preparing for college admissions whether it is planning a proper career pathway, choosing your majors, setting goals, narrowing down the right colleges, writing essays, getting teacher recommendations, giving your SAT/ ACT, making your resume and the submitting the actual college applications. The excellent counselors and college experts at Upward Path Institute had our back and provided the best guidance throughout the process!. They were extremely professional, organized and very well informed about the intricacies of the entire college admissions process and were also very up to date with the changing scenarios and developments in that space. The best part was that our high schooler did not ever feel over stressed or over anxious in his college applications journey and we are really thankful to the counselors for teaching him time management and how to work towards his goals in an organized way so he didn't feel overburdened at any point. Thank you Upward Path Institute! read more

I would like to recommend Upward Path Institute to any parents who are facing with the enormous task of preparing for college admissions whether it is planning a proper career pathway, choosing your majors, setting goals, narrowing down the right colleges, writing essays, getting teacher recommendations, giving your SAT/ ACT, making your resume and the submitting the actual college applications. The excellent counselors and college experts at Upward Path Institute had our back and provided the best guidance throughout the process!. They were extremely professional, organized and very well informed about the intricacies of the entire college admissions process and were also very up to date with the changing scenarios and developments in that space. The best part was that our high schooler did not ever feel over stressed or over anxious in his college applications journey and we are really thankful to the counselors for teaching him time management and how to work towards his goals in an organized way so he didn't feel overburdened at any point. Thank you Upward Path Institute! read more

UCEazy has been very informative and helpful. My wife and I are from Italy and studied over there. We needed help to navigate through American college application systems. We started UCEazy with my son in 10th grade and months after with my daughter in 8th grade. Now, 2 years later, we have already seen many advantages by having our children and us, the parents, being guided by UCEazy professional counselors. We especially recommend engaging UCEazy early as we did with our daughter in 8th grade, not wait until the application process in 12th grade, as years are needed to create a strong and interesting student profile. We also enrolled our daughter in the UCEazy writing program in 8th grade and we've already seen better writing results in high school. Thank you UCEazy! read more

I am very thankful to UCEazy for helping first generation immigrant families like mine. My family and I moved from India to the United States about seven years ago. My husband and I attended reputed colleges and private high schools in India. However, when the time came for guiding our daughter (now a rising 12th grader) through high school and then through the college admissions process in the U.S., we realized we were clueless. We then found UCEazy, a company with an exclusive focus on helping families like ours with the college admissions process in the U.S. With their help, we feel that our daughter's college admissions journey is in safe hands. Our stress levels have gone down a lot. I liked how UCEazy took the time to understand my daughter before they paired her with counselor Karen Rowe. Karen is awesome. It's great to have someone so experienced and knowledgeable on your side. My daughter feels very comfortable with her and sees her as someone she can trust. Karen meets with us over video conference. My daughter and I really like the convenience of meeting over video. I have come to believe that UCEazy is more than just a business. They truly care about immigrant families. To help parents like me, UCEazy also offers parent education programs that provide valuable insights into the high school experience and college admissions process. I have benefited greatly from attending these sessions. Among other things, they have helped me in building a better connection with my daughter. Highly recommended! Priya, Naperville, IL read more

When they pursued me to purchase gold package, the staffs are very friendly , and responded fast, but when my son were in the session, the consular 's response was slow, and apparently she did not study my son's unique situation , customize the strategies for him. I am not satisfied. read more

Our family found this college counseling outfit after researching several firms in the SF bay area. My daughter is a sophomore at IrvingtonHigh Fremont. Given the student to counselor ratio at public schools ( 700:4) we felt the need for private counseling, but the costs were prohibitive. Most private counseling firms charged in the tens of thousands of dollars per year. Enter UC Eazy. They have a very reasonable price-point and option to tryout the counseling without locking you on to super long contract periods. After a short-trial period, we liked the counsellor and signed on for a 3-year plan. Highly recommended. read more

We have utilized UCEazy services for our son's college applications. It has been a great experience so far. During introduction Vinnie walked us through enriching information about how UCEazy can fill critical knowledge gaps and prepare students for college. Upon meeting the councilor our any remaining doubt was cleared. She meets weekly with our son establishing the goals for the week with the clear charter for the year in mind. With constant guidance my son understands the goals and stays motivated to complete them. Video meeting has been great without any trouble. I find charges very reasonable as compared to other services around. Overall I recommend them, and would use them in future for my other one. read more

I'd give it 0 stars if I could. Don't waste your money like I did. I was promised the best coaching, review, and one-on-one guidance and received minimal interaction instead. The counselor replied "good job" (sic) when I sent in my common app essay to be reviewed. That's it. She told me it would be sent in to a writing coach to be reviewed prior to that and when I asked her, she said she wasn't aware of that. Like?? I sent in just a first-draft and anyone with eyes could tell that needed some review and sharpening, but the counselor just didn't care. The counselor didn't help or ask about any of my extracurriculars, help me strategize for interviews, rec letters, waitlists, etc. I first contacted them about my displeasure with the service in February and they said it was my fault for not telling them in November. I'm infuriated with their ability to push every fault onto a student and blame them for how the service went. I even took advantage of switching counselors when I first signed up, but it's clear now that none of them are any good. The counselor explicitly stated that I should just aim for CSUs, and I think that's why she didn't care much about my UC application or others. Take your money to a good editor instead, you'll get twice the help than I did here. After blaming me for not contacting them earlier they said "Thank you for your feedback, we want to gift you an Amazon gift card." This entire thing is completely ridiculous, unacceptable, and not at all what I shelled out so much money for. If you need even more convincing check out S N's review. read more

We found UC Eazy right in time for the college application process at the end of junior year. Mr Spencer Barr was our counselor who helped my son in every step through the application process. He helped us apply widely and stay confident through out the process.He patiently answered all the questions and helped with reviews. He made sure we included a good mix of safety, match and reach colleges in the final list which helped us stay confident while we received the decisions. During to the stressful months he was very accommodating to the last minute questions, application reviews, essay reviews, emails or meetings. My son got admitted to a school of his choice and is extremely happy with the guidance and support he received. I really appreciate the support we received from Mr Spencer Barr who was ready to help us at any time we needed him. Highly recommended. read more

Our family has had a great experience with UCEazy. Both my husband and I did not go to high school in the US and hence did not have prior knowledge or experience to guide our son. Our counselor Sharon is fantastic, and it is great to have a partnership with someone so experienced and knowledgeable. She has built an excellent rapport with our son, a key benefit of starting early. As for the founder Vinnie, he is really passionate about the mission of serving kids and helping them achieve their goals. UCEazy also offers a number of parent education webinars that offer valuable insights to the high school experience and college admissions process. I have benefited greatly from attending these sessions. read more

Very unique offering which fits my key requirements: - pricing meeting my budget. Compared with other on premises college consulting groups, UCEazy is 1/4th the cost. - video based meetings. Having recently moved from North Carolina and with time wasted on commuting, it makes ample sense for student and teacher doing consulting on video - high quality counselors anywhere in US brought to your doorstep. As the meetings are video based, my son's student counselor is from Irvine and we are very happy with the progress so far. - Flexibility in setting the meetings. With my son's many commitments on weekdays, having a slot on a weekend evening works out pretty good. Again on video based helps a lot in finding a mutual agreeable time slot. My son is still a freshman in cupertino high. I was heartened to see him start narrowing down his future career path to an existing area and trying to build foundation around it. His counselor, Anna provided links for all summer programs and internships. Even having my son start proactively planning all these in his freshman year wouldn't have happened without Anna. read more

UCEazy - Pam is one of the most efficient, helpful, and warm in her field. She has really been a lot of help to me and my daughter as we urgently needed to write a waitlist appeal letter; she helped us accomplish the letter within a week, as we had a tight schedule. Pam was always accommodating and strengthened my daughter's arguments in the letter. Pam takes pride in her job and enjoys what she is doing. It was a pleasant experience to work with her. Thanks UCEazy to connect me with her. read more

My daughter is a senior at Cupertino, CA and we had engaged UCEazy for getting help on the college list and essay review. All our interactions with Vinnie Gupta, co-founder has been great and I would highly recommend their services to anybody. Few things that have really stood out while working with Vinnie and his team are: 1. Team Ethics - We were impressed by the team's integrity and the flexibility to adjust with our changing needs during this journey 2. Based on our research, they provided highly experienced counsellors at a very reasonable price 3. Our counselor was very flexible in understanding our requirements and providing the right guidance and motivation to our daughter 4. Video collaboration with the counselor was in fact an asset as we could work with experienced counselors in the comfort of our home. All the video meets were professionally done and we never missed the need of in-person meetings I would especially like to call out Vinnie for his friendly nature and his willingness to work with us on any requests during our engagement with UCEazy. read more

I came to know of UCEazy from one of my friends whose son did very well get into a great college with help of UCEazy. Engagement Process.: I met with the founders few times regarding my son using them as well and found them very knowledgeable about the problem and solution regarding college admission process. They were very helpful through out the process and there was no pressure from them to take the service. They also listened to our needs and tried to match us with the right counselor. Counselor Experience: Nicole is very knowledgeable and very patient with students. She knows what she is talking about and is very prompt in responding to our queries throughout the process. Overall, they have helped in bringing clarity to the whole process and has taken out anxiety for parents as well as students. A top notch team of professionals and i will highly recommend them. read more

I highly recommend UCEazy consulting. UCEazy has a vast selection of experienced and knowledgeable consultants. I got admission in the college of my choice and wanted to request for financial aid to support my education. I sought advice by Dr. Monica Randall, a college Admissions/financial aid counselor affiliated with UCEazy, regarding the financial aid process and was offered the option to consult with her via Video-call. Dr. Randall is highly knowledgeable about the college financial aid process. She gave insightful advice regarding the process of administering aid from a college's perspective and advised on what to address in order to maximize my chances of getting financial aid. After the meeting, she helped me edit a rough draft of the request and gave quality feedback. Video-call based interaction with Dr. Randall was very convenient and it was pleasant to collaborate with her. I highly recommend her service. UCEazy pricing is reasonable especially for the services it provides when it comes to selecting California colleges and majors and relatively low compared to other college consulting companies. read more

My wife sent me a pic of upcoming free webinars for assisting your student with UC,CSU and other college admissions. The first webinar we attended was on Saturday, it was about scholarships and grants.This is just what we needed and was looking for! The info was great, timely and well delivered. The presenters of where very knowledgeable of the material and had Phd's and or the work experience which complements the company. They were quick to answer the few questions that were asked. The session was so informative that there were few questions left to ask. We have attended the second webinar today, on entrance essays. It was well put together again, timely, starting right on time just like the previous one. The info was great, well thought out, and again all questions answered fully. I enjoyed UC Eazy's policy on giving back to the community. Vinnie G, the owner was on also today and he shared his heart with us about giving back to the bay area, the under privileged, and his love for helping young adults in gain admission to one of the schools of their choice. Vinnie called me and we had a good discussion. He answered my questions and if we need this service in the future Vinnie will be the first I call. read more

UCEazy's webinars helped me find a starting point for my applications and guide me through making decisions throughout the application process. They gave me information and tips on building a successful application. UCEazy's online tools also helped me organize the information I needed in the applications. This allowed me to keep all the information i would need for any application in one place where I could reference it quickly as necessary. read more

High desirable program, gained wealth of information which guides as thru getting into the desired colleges.

While working through college applications, I was adding in my information but I did not know what information was more important and better to include. UCEazy's webinars gave me insight into what college admissions officers look for in an applicant and a potential student. I was able to structure my extra curricular activities appropriately and get good advice on how to write my application essays. read more

UCEazy has a vast array of resources available to its customers. They have a number of highly qualified counselors that know the application process and have worked on college admissions boards. The counselors know exactly what admissions officers look for in an application. Along with their experienced staff, UCEazy provided me with a lot if information through its webinars. With college applications, there is just so much to do that it can be very daunting to start somewhere. The webinars gave me a good starting point with my applications. read more

UCEazy is an extremely helpful program and resource for everyone, not only those that immediately sign up for their services. It is obvious that their effort is genuine; I attended one seminar, and by the next one, they remembered my name and previous questions, something that made me realize that they truly do care about each and every student going through this process. I have become a lot more knowledgeable through the free seminars, and am now confidently signing up with the program to gain even more knowledge! read more

Going into the application process, I did not know what to look for in a good school. I did not have the information I needed to build a proper college list. UCEazy's webinars were a great resource that gave me a good starting point for my applications. It showed me how to build my college list to reach all ends of the spectrum in terms of what school I could and could not get into and what schools had good programs and resources. read more