AcceptU Review

AcceptU was founded in 2010 by former Cornell admissions officers Marc Zawel and Stephen Friedfeld. Solely focused on college admissions counseling, the company offers a traditional approach and a staff of former admissions officers. In this comprehensive AcceptU review, we’ll score them along five key metrics so that you have a full picture of whether AcceptU is a good fit for you.

AcceptU boasts that all of its counselors are former admissions officers. According to the website, the company currently has 31 counselors on staff, broken into three tiers based on experience. Their senior college counselors worked in the admissions office of institutions like Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, USC, Stanford, George Washington, Boston, Cornell, and the University of California. Counselors from the other two tiers previously worked at Loyola, Emory, Vanderbilt, Swarthmore, Temple, Penn, and the University of California.

Accept U offers a traditional counseling methodology centered around a specific curriculum developed by their lead staff. The program focuses on five things: curriculum, counseling, client portal, college resources, and client relations. 

The counseling process starts with an initial consultation. Once an initial deposit has been paid, families and students complete a questionnaire and provide information on the student’s academic background and goals. From there, an advisor recommends specific counselors to students based on academic areas of interest, targeted schools, counseling style, personality, and availability.

All aspects of the counseling process are conducted virtually through a client portal that acts as a project dashboard for managing messages, tasks, and timelines. Students can book appointments with their counselors online. The level of contact between students and their counselors depends on where they are in the process. Still, for those not currently applying, AcceptU says meetings usually occur around once a month. For those working on applications, meetings happen as frequently as a few times a week.

Planning & Applying Program

For students entering high school. 

$14,500 for Standard Counselor 

$17,500 for Senior Counselor

$21,500 for Elite Counselor

Includes: 

• College preparation plan
• Academic advising
• Activity, extracurricular planning
• Diagnostic standardized testing
• University visit strategizing
• Development of targeted college list
• Full application and essay support
• Letters of recommendation strategy
• Application review
• Interview preparation

Applying Program

Aimed at students in 11th grade. 

$9,500 for Standard Counselor

$12,500 for Senior Counselor

$16,500 for Elite Counselor

Includes: 

• College preparation plan
• Academic advising
• Activity, extracurricular planning
• Diagnostic standardized testing
• University visit strategizing
• Development of targeted college list
• Full application and essay support
• Letters of recommendation strategy
• Application review
• Interview preparation

Finding a truly qualified consultant is half the battle. Some consultants have not gone to top-tier schools themselves, and repeat advice they hear from others. Also, some firms have a qualified “face” of the company, but then bait and switch you with a less experienced consultant after you’ve paid. That’s why we always start each review by doing full due diligence on the company’s consultants.

We like that Accept U merely recommends counselors but allows students to select with whom they’d like to work and that they’ll let students switch if they don’t like their chosen counselor. That said, the stratification of their counselors into three tiers raises some concerns. While it could mean that those targeted less selective universities may not need to spend as much as those doing so, the tiers raise questions about the differences between experience and expertise. 

AcceptU employs roughly 30 counselors, with only six in the top “elite” tier at the time of this review. There is a noticeable difference in the educational backgrounds and careers between the tiers. Those within the elite tier previously worked at Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, USC, Stanford, George Washington, Boston, Cornell, and the University of California. In contrast, those in the lower tiers worked at Loyola, Swarthmore, Temple, with fewer years of experience. Even if cost is not an issue, we wonder if demand can limit a student’s options with so few elite counselors.

The biggest risk when applying to college is following bad advice. You only have one shot, so you need to make it count, and choosing the right admissions service can make a big difference. We use a 50-point evaluation system to determine the likelihood a service will help a student get into their desired college.

Students who like a formulated approach might appreciate their process. However, it may not be a great fit for all students, particularly those who require greater assistance honing materials or those with a less traditional background. We also have concerns regarding the consistency of outcomes families can expect, particularly given the different tiers of counselors. It would seem that the best outcomes might cost significantly more, which raises doubts about the abilities of their “standard” counselors and the overall quality and consistency of a student’s experience from counselor to counselor.

Feedback from families have been mixed – with some happy with their counselor while others failing to get into the majority of the colleges on their list.

College is already expensive. College consultants shouldn’t be more expensive than they need to be. We want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth, and that your investment is translating into real improvements in your outcomes.

College admissions consulting prices and offerings vary. AcceptU does not provide piecemeal services and requires students to commit to their full application program, which ranges from $9,500 – $21,500 depending on which tier of counselor you choose and what grade you’re in (see Pricing & Service section above). This package pricing is above average compared to industry standards.

AcceptU offers no guarantees or refunds, which is worth weighing when considering the high price of their premium services.

College applications are already stressful enough. So any admissions service should be thoughtfully designed and easy to use. We consider factors such as customer support responsiveness, accountability, time commitment, and scheduling constraints.

AcceptU’s counselors are expected to check in regularly with their students and be available on demand. Typically, meetings are held at the same date and time and scheduled weeks in advance, but can easily be shifted to meet the student’s schedule. 

Some customers have found that the consultants have been unresponsive. The students needed to be one reaching out and sometimes elevating the case to their support team.

College admissions is a complex process, with many moving parts. And with the stakes so high, mediocre consultants simply won’t cut it. You really want to find the “best,” but it can be hard to differentiate one firm from another. In this section, we take a look at what makes this service stand out, for better or worse.

AcceptU has an Arts Portfolio program, for those applying to architecture, visual, graphic, and other arts-related programs. The program is $6,500 and includes a review of current artwork, evaluation of the college list, portfolio enhancement recommendations, optimizations for portfolio, the uploading of artwork into Slideroom, all art-related application materials, and submission of application. They also offer a similar program aimed at potential student-athletes that develops a coach contact list, fleshes out athletic resumes, and assists with NCAA registration and decision support for $5,000. This added service allows families with non-traditional backgrounds to add to the base packages.