Christopher P.
nothing they said seems to be true, not selective and no refunds
nothing they said seems to be true. the program said it was selective, but my daughter was accepted without the interview, but her acceptance cited her great interview. They make it look like you work with PhDs but they are students. They have a no refunds policy that they make you sign to enroll. Everything their own advertising and documents said was softened, weakened or backtracked when we did talk to the company, which cannot be done by phone, only google meets, and we could only get meeting times after 10pm or during school hours. I've also got a stack of emails trying to get me to pay
Response from RISE ResearchAug 13, 2026
Hi Christopher, Sorry to hear this didn't work out. I want to address each of the points you've raised directly. First, it's worth clarifying that you were not a RISE client; the frustration here relates to the application process itself, not to service delivered under an enrollment. On mentors: every mentor profile on our website identifies them as a PhD candidate. There's no ambiguity or misrepresentation there. On scheduling: your application came in during peak summer season, when our team was stretched thin during working hours, though we did keep slots open specifically to accommodate students. We primarily use meetings rather than calls because we're walking families through our portal and resources, which doesn't translate well over the phone. That said, a contact number is listed on our website if you scroll to the bottom, and it looks like that may have been missed by you. On refunds: our terms and conditions reflect our current, updated refund policy, which you can review there. On the acceptance letter: we were transitioning away from interviews around the time your child applied, replacing them with additional application questions due to a sharp rise in applicant volume. One acceptance email wasn't updated to reflect that change. That was an oversight on our part, and I apologize for the confusion it caused. Lastly, if the program wasn't the right fit, letting our team know at any point would have stopped further follow-up outreach. If you'd like to take this further, please feel free to reach out directly to [email protected].



