Best College
Admissions Consultants
For those seeking college admissions consulting services, it has traditionally been difficult to assess the competency of the firms providing these services. To overcome this issue, our rating system provides a statistical breakdown of the Top 50 firms in the industry, based on scores across seven key areas. Hence, our site offers some context and direction for those looking to take advantage of a college admissions coach. As college admissions consulting is becoming increasingly expensive and competitive, many excellent students are simply left behind, regardless of how gifted they are.
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Harvard University accepts around 4% of its applicants. However, this does not mean that 96% of its applicants were sub-par. In fact, many of those refused applicants have stronger resumes than those accepted. The issue is that many of them likely applied for more highly in-demand majors, or lacked a compelling narrative in their essays. They may have simply listed their accomplishments in their essays, instead of a descriptive tale of diversity, making it against all odds narrative, and a strong vision for the future. Thus, this is where a college admissions consultant or college admissions coach can step in. A college admissions coach can offer their college admissions experience, writing and editing skills, and a unique perspective.
Check out our top college admissions consultants below. You can view the rankings of the top 50 admissions consultants and check out their individual pages.
Best College Admissions Consultants 2023
Or, take a look at the top admission consultants for 2022
College Consultants Ranking 1-10
5. CollegeWise - Score: 3.93
CollegeWise primarily offers college admissions consulting, test prep, and tutoring services. It offers tutoring services for the ACT, SAT, PSAT, PLAN, and ISEE/SSAT. CollegeWise allows students to pay as they go on an hourly basis or purchase a bundle of college admissions services.
7. Bright Horizons College Coach - Score: 3.71
Bright Horizons College Coach is a Newton, Massachusetts- based college consulting firm founded by Stephen Kramer and Michael London in 1998. It has expanded to open branches in 14 U.S. states with offices in many large U.S. metropolitan cities. It offers online college admissions counseling, for those located in other U.S. or global locations where there is no office presence.
8. Empowerly - Score: 3.71
Empowerly, launched in 2018 with CTO Changxiao Xie, presents students with a numerical score evaluating their strength as an applicant, taking grades, test scores, essays, and extracurriculars into account. Empowerly combines automated software with feedback from former admissions officers to give students tips to boost their resumes.
9. Spark Admissions - Score: 3.64
Spark Admissions prides itself on a strategic, data-driven approach. They focus on providing skillset development for high school students to improve their resumes through internships, maximize leadership and communication skills, and explore academic and extracurricular opportunities.
10. Quad Education - Score: 3.5
Quad Education is a New York City-based college consulting company. It offers college consulting programs for aspiring college students, starting from Grade 6 to prepare for the college admissions process. Its website indicates admissions outcomes that are significantly higher than the national average.
College Consultants Ranking 11-20
15. Colledge - Score: 3.21
Colledge offers many of the typical services found in the majority of nationwide college admissions organizations. It works both online and in person, according to the information available. It offers help with major selection, college selection, essay assistance, resume development, college interview preparation, decision support, test prep, and extracurricular activities suggestions.
17. The Princeton Review - Score: 3
The Princeton Review is a massive multinational educational conglomerate that assisted more than 1.6 million students in 2017. It has offices in the majority of US states and maintains offices in 17 countries, primarily wealthy nations in Asia and the Middle East. In addition to college consulting, its core business is college rankings, advice, applying to college assistance, and financial aid assistance.
19. IvySummit - Score: 2.93
IvySummit is a Washington DC-based college consultancy that specializes in acceptance to Ivy League Schools and other highly selective universities in the US, UK, and Canada. The agency works with clients in-person in the Washington DC area and works remotely with other clients from around the world through online interaction.
College Consultants Ranking 21-30
22. The College Advisor of NY - Score: 2.57
The College Advisor of NY provides full-service college counseling for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Generally, they work with students and parents for one to two years to help them gain admission to universities that fit them socially, academically, and financially.
24. Ivy Coach - Score: 2.5
Though based in New York City, Ivy Coach works completely online with students located around the United States and the globe. They provide admissions consulting services for undergraduate programs, business schools, medical schools, law schools, or any other master or Ph.D. graduate programs.
26. Ivy Scholars - Score: 2.43
Ivy Scholars is divided between three physical locations: Houston, New York, and Los Angeles, which provides Ivy Scholars with a presence in three vibrant metropolitan areas with large populations. According to its website, this allows their team to gain intimate experience in particular geographic regions versus running a nationwide consultancy model.
28. S. Montgomery Admissions - Score: 2.43
S. Montgomery Admissions Consulting helps 9-12th grade and law school students reach their full potential in the application process. It works with 9th and 10th-grade students on career management, academic and extracurricular planning, summer programming, study skills, and time-management skills.
College Consultants Ranking 31-40
31. FLEX College Prep - Score: 2.14
Because of Flex College Prep’s large size, it offers a wide range of services to clients. For high schoolers, it offers writing courses through its Writing Center, health science courses, math and computer sciences, business and economics courses, research methodology courses, elective courses, and humanities and pre-law courses.
35. Club Z! Tutoring - Score: 2.00
Club Z! has developed a network of professional college admissions counselors to help students with the entire college admissions process, starting from the test prep process. Its college admission officers will work hand in hand with its professional and trained tutors.
College Consultants Ranking 41-50
44. Marilyn Kaufman | College Admissions Consultants - Score: 1.14
College Admission Consultants offers college consulting, starting from early high school years. They provide consulting to properly pursue a high school curriculum, maximize extracurricular activities and personal talents, prepare for test prep, and engage in sufficient community service.
45. Louis Educational Consulting - Score: 1.14
Louis College Consulting aims to help identify the right academic program and campus environment, develop the strongest application for success, help meet application and test deadlines, assist in editing and writing dynamic essays and personal statements, create effective academic action plans, ensure proper high school curricular choices, and maximize scholarship and financial aid.
47. College Admissions Partners - Score: 1.14
CollegeAdmissionsPartners.com seems to focus on the path of getting into medical school directly from high school. Hence, they tend to focus on the colleges that offer the BS/MD program. They also provide traditional consulting services, such as college selection, financial aid advice, college testing, essay and editing assistance, interview help, doctor shadowing, reviewing acceptances, and other research opportunities.
48. College Admission Central - Score: 1.14
This firm tends to have a different approach to college admissions because it actively supports several technology tools in the admissions process. This runs in complete contrast to the majority of companies in the industry that promote more individualized services for a high retainer.
49. CollegeAdvisorUsa.com - Score: 1.00
CollegeAdvisorUsa.com, also known as jj College Admission Advising LLC, is a college consulting company based in upstate New York. It was founded by Jona Jacobson. Her goal is to spend time with each student to design an advising program that is best suited to their individual needs.
50. Hamps Champs - Score: 1.00
According to its website, Hamp's Champs' goal is to provide students the guidance, structure, and awareness of opportunities that foster a commitment to excellence, leadership, and passion throughout the high school experience to achieve admission to the ‘best fit’ college/career of choice (and earn a scholarship).