CollegewiseReviews of collegewise.com

We are in our second year with Collegewise and so far the college counseling seems to be good. Not sure how it will all unfold once my high schooler nears application season but we like our counselor Ian. However, my biggest complaint is their tutoring services - leadership academy, success skills, SAT/ACT prep - as we have had the worst experience just getting meetings scheduled with some of their tutors. It is hit or miss with their tutors and their communication styles. And we also had to switch out of another tutor because they decided to exit their program for the summer. Our current tutor for leadership academy is amazing, but she is only one in at least a handful we have had to work with after a lot or scheduling and communication problems. Not a great track record for tutors. Three times now we have had their tutors/ops coordinator completely neglect to respond to scheduling requests, leading to delays in starting these programs. Just recently, our high schooler was away for a month for a summer program and was supposed to have some test prep tutoring but only when she returned did I realize the tutor never scheduled anything for an entire month. This is not acceptable, especially given the steep pricing and our busy schedules. School starts soon and now we have to cram test prep - we cannot make up for lost time and the onus falls on us. At this point, I do not recommend Collegewise given the amount of scheduling issues we have had. Unless you're willing to take a risk with your assigned tutor or counselor, there are better services out there that have more professionalism and do not require parents/students to constantly monitor scheduling. This is extremely inconvenient and stressful for a program that costs as much as Collegewise. I'm sad to have to make this negative review, but will be taking my other child to another service.

I just wanna finish college

My daughter felt very comfortable with her counselor, who was helpful and approachable to her. As the parent, I didn't feel 'heard' sometimes. I expressed my concerns that some of the colleges on the list were out of our price range and asked the counselor to find my daughter more affordable options but it didn't happen. The Collegewise salesperson told me whatever counselor we hired would be able to discern which colleges were realistic to our financial situation and which ones weren't but that was not the case. I was instead encouraged to work with one of their financial counselors for an extra cost. It seems like the 'Admissions' and 'Finances' aspects of Collegewise aren't linked as much as they should be, leaving the customer doing a lot of work for themselves. The essay help was the most valuable part of the experience but most of the list building came from us.

I think it depends who you get as an advisor. My daughter's advisor was really good. My son's advisor was just ok.

Some of the counselors are really good and engaged w the students. But some services are ok such as course selection guidance, extra-curricular activities