Accepted Admissions Review

Accepted is a professional admissions consulting firm founded in 1997. It presents itself as a jack of all trades, giving admissions counseling for colleges, graduate schools, business schools, law schools, medical schools, and other healthcare programs. In this comprehensive Accepted Admissions review, we’ll specifically review their services for undergraduate admissions.

Accepted features a team of 17 consultants with a wide range of expertise, including college, MBA, graduate school, and law admissions on their website. They bring a wealth of experience from different academic and professional backgrounds.

Here are the aggregate backgrounds of all the consultants:

Bachelors’ Degrees from: Colgate University, Haverford College, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of North Texas, Grove City College, the University of Connecticut, the University of California, Davis, and the University of Michigan.

Masters’ Degrees from: Bryn Mawr College, University of Virginia, University College Dublin, the University of Washington, and George Mason University, among others.

PhDs and Higher Specializations: The team includes PhD holders from universities like CalTech, Vanderbilt University, Cornell University, the University of Houston, and the University of Connecticut. Several consultants also have MBAs, with notable institutions including Michigan State University and the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Out of the 17 featured consultants, 4 are dedicated to handling college admissions cases.

Like most traditional consulting companies, Accepted takes a personalized approach. Students are paired with a consultant after enrollment on the site. The consultant will work closely with the student to develop a custom plan that highlights the student’s unique strengths and goals. 

One of the things that sets Accepted apart from other bigger college admissions consulting firms is that students have the flexibility to choose which consultant they want to work with. Students are encouraged to reach out to different consultants and learn more about their backgrounds and expertise before making a decision.

You can either enroll directly on their site, or first reach out to one of the consultants for a brief introduction.

Accepted offers both flat-rate and hourly service options to meet different needs and budgets.

For Non-Seniors

For 9th, 10th, and 11th graders, their flagship program is the Comprehensive College Admissions Package. There are 3 tiers to this flagship program:

For Seniors

For 12 graders, Accepted has packages focused on essay development for the Common App and UC app. There are 3 tiers here:

There are optional Add-Ons:

• Additional Mock Interview: $360.
• Additional Supplemental Application Package: Ranges from $1,280 to $1,435.
• For ad hoc consulting and help (whether that’s essay editing, helping with waitlist, rejection review): rates come out to $370/hour, with a minimum purchase of 2 hours ($720).

Bottom line: if you’re a senior currently applying to colleges, the Common Application package makes the most sense. But if you are looking for counseling, the Comprehensive College Admissions Package makes more sense with advising included.

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.

The consultant quality at this company is a mixed bag for us.

On the one hand, the featured team of 17 consultants on the website has 4 that can help with undergraduate college admissions. These 4 consultants have degrees from respectable schools like the University of Michigan, Colgate University, and the University of Texas at Austin.

On the other hand, these schools don’t really match the prestige of top-tier schools represented by competing firms. Additionally, one consultant’s bachelor educational background is unknown, adding to the uncertainty about the consultant’s quality. 

The 4 featured consultants working in undergraduate college admissions also handle admissions help for med school, MBA, graduate school admissions. So they can share valuable insights with students about admissions beyond undergraduate. Reviews from families show that the consultants have done a good job of helping U.S. and international students get into graduate schools. But since this is an undergraduate admissions review, we value consultants who specialize in the undergraduate admissions more, as graduate admissions can be vastly different from undergraduate admissions.

The majority of their content also seems to revolve around graduate school admissions. All of these factors lead us to believe that Accepted is weaker on undergraduate admissions consulting than other companies that have a focus on undergraduate admissions.

Score: 5/10

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.

One thing we appreciate about Accepted is that they let students choose their own consultant. This gives families more say in who they work with and the ultimate outcome.

That being said, we feel that Accepted has more expertise in graduate school admissions than undergraduate admissions. This is because:

• Only a small portion of their featured team (4 out of 17) helps with undergraduate admissions
• These 4 consultants didn’t get into ultra competitive undergraduate schools themselves. Instead, they rely on their graduate school admissions experience
• They also work with graduate school applicants, rather than focusing solely on undergraduate admissions

The reason we look for consultants with a specialized focus in undergraduate admissions is that the graduate school process is very different from the undergraduate process in terms of requirements, strategy, writing style, areas of focus, evaluation criteria, and more. The acceptance rate at graduate schools of a university can also look drastically different from the acceptance rate at the undergraduate school of the same university.

Additionally, there are nuances and changes to the undergraduate admissions landscape each year. So, for Accepted, it came down to concerns about the lack of consultants who truly specialize in getting into top-tier undergraduate schools.

Score: 6/10

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, but we’ve standardized pricing to the most common needs:

• 12th graders who need help with essays for 1 school: they do not offer just 1 school. You may be able to piecemeal editing through the ad hoc hourly services.
• 12th graders who need help with essays for 3 schools: $7,100 minimum (Gold tier)
• 12th graders who need help with essays for 5 schools: $11,650 minimum (Platinum tier)
• Non-12 graders who want advice on the college admissions process: $360 per hour (minimum purchase of 2 hours). *Note: This number is calculated by dividing the minimum financial commitment for non-12 graders by the expected number of hours of one-on-one consulting.

We’re fans of the different packaging options for seniors and non-seniors, but we’re a little concerned about the structure of the tiered packages. In particular, the Base Package and the Base Common Application Package don’t include comprehensive essay support for supplemental essays. They only offer help with one personal statement in the base package. This is a problem for most families, because essays don’t stop after one personal statement. Supplemental essays are a big part of college applications. Customers may feel like they have to choose the more expensive packages, which cost a lot more money. For example, the Gold Common Application Package is more than twice as expensive as the Base Common Application Package.

The pricing for their services is around industry standard. But our hesitance around their consultant’s expertise in undergraduate admissions and the lack of a refund policy lowers this score for us.

On the bright side, the company offers hourly services. If you do decide to use Accepted, we recommend starting with those to get a feel for what they have to offer before you commit to a bigger package.

Score: 7/10

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.

Accepted has a phone number and an email address you can use to contact them. We called 3 times on a weekday afternoon, and no one answered. However, their email support for sales is pretty responsive.

Once you’ve paid and been matched with a consultant, you’ll receive their contact information (phone number and email). To schedule meetings, you’ll need to email the consultant. Coordinating schedules via email can be tricky, so we always recommend setting up the next meeting before ending the current one.

Accepted does not offer refunds or guarantees. A note from its terms and conditions on switching between packages and hourly: Clients who choose package services cannot then switch to or add hourly services. Clients who purchase hourly services may switch to package services, but any hourly fees already paid cannot be applied to the package fee.

Score: 7/10

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.

Accepted is transparent about their pricing. Unlike many admissions consulting companies that keep their prices under wraps and try to sell you expensive packages right after an initial phone call, Accepted openly displays their rates on their website. This upfront approach is a breath of fresh air in the industry.

We also appreciate that Accepted gives you the option to choose your consultant and work with them on an hourly basis before committing to a larger package. This lets you get a feel for their approach and see if there’s a good match before making a bigger investment.

Score: 9/10