AdmissionSight Review

AdmissionSight offers a comprehensive range of college admissions consulting services, particularly for non-seniors. It offers independent services that help students develop strong extracurricular profiles, including identifying and securing placements in competitive summer programs and evaluating and strengthening their academic and extracurricular profiles. In this comprehensive AdmissionSight review, we’ll break down their services, prices, and consultant quality.

There are 14 people featured on their team page. Here are the breakdowns of their roles:

• 4 Consultants
• 4 Research Scientists, 2 of which are also Private Tutors 
• 2 Operations (for enrollment and logistics issues)
• 3 Admissions Research and Strategists (presumably to help with creating content)

The 4 consultants featured have strong backgrounds with degrees from Princeton, USC, and Harvard. Based on the offerings at AdmissionSight, the 4 Research Scientists work with students who are interested in creating a science research program and competitions.

AdmissionSight emphasizes that students who start their program early tend to perform better overall in the college admissions process. AdmissionSight helps students create a comprehensive academic and extracurricular plan to boost their overall profile and stats. This preparation includes editing essays for competitive summer programs, tutoring for the SAT and AP exams, training for Olympiads, and assisting with various competitions in the humanities and sciences. 

The goal is to significantly improve students’ academic and extracurricular profiles before they reach their senior year. 

To engage with AdmissionSight, you fill out a form for an initial consultation.

AdmissionSight offers a range of services from High School Consultation to Graduate School Admissions. They also offer tutoring for SAT/ACT, AP Exams, and Olympiads. For this AdmissionSight review, we will focus on services related to undergraduate admissions.

AdmissionSight Consulting Service Pricing

Academic and Extracurricular Profile Evaluation

• 2-hour session for building academic and extracurricular profiles before senior year
• Includes a 4-year roadmap with action items
• Price: $3,500

Senior Editor College Application Program

• Work with a Senior Consultant on college applications
• Includes Zoom sessions for extracurricular development, writing fundamentals, college list strategy
• Brainstorming for essays, application and essay edits for up to 10 universities, practice interview questions
• Price: $28,500

Summer Program Applications

• For students targeting competitive STEM or humanities summer programs
• Assistance in choosing programs and editing essays for 5 applications
• Price: $6,000

Private Consulting Program

• Directly work with CEO Eric Eng (limited to 15 students/year)
• Includes all other programs (except private tutoring)
• Weekly consultations for 6-8 weeks, then monthly 1-on-1 Zoom sessions
• Unlimited email correspondence
• Price: $75k for seniors, $105k for juniors, $135-165k for sophomores

AdmissionSight Supplementary Service Pricing

Science Research Program

• 12-week program with a Research Scientist for national competitions and research publication preparation
• Focus on science research

Humanities Competitions

• Essay editing for national high school humanities competitions (e.g., Scholastic Art & Writing Competition)

Passion Project Program

• Seven 1-hour sessions to assist in creating a non-profit organization
• Includes guidance on specific tasks and scaling the project
• Price: $7,000

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 AdmissionSight takes on a founder-led approach. Unlike some other admissions companies, Founder and CEO Eric Eng seems involved in the consulting process, bringing his expertise and personal success (from when he ran a smaller operation at IvyCollegeAdmit) to the table. Families can get access to Eric Eng’s direct attention in all aspects of the admissions process if they can get into his Private Consulting Program (which has a 15 student per year limit).

While Eric is not noted as directly involved in other offerings like Senior Editor College Application Program and Summer Program Applications (unless you are in his private program), the senior consultants all seem experienced with diverse skills and strong backgrounds. Since AdmissionSight doesn’t increase the number of its consultants quickly, it can ensure the quality of each consultant.

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.

Let’s talk about a few factors that stood out to us during our AdmissionSight review:

1. Focus on undergraduate admissions.

AdmissionSight primarily focuses on undergraduate admissions. Although they offer help for graduate and MBA admissions, their core expertise lies in undergraduate applications. This specialization ensures that students’ applications are finely tuned for undergraduate college admissions rather than a broader spectrum of academic applications.

2. Lean & focused team.

Unlike some admission consulting firms that rapidly expand and hire any top college graduate as consultants, AdmissionSight maintains a smaller, more efficient team. This approach allows for better quality control and avoids the pitfalls of working with less experienced consultants. 

3. Founder-led.

As mentioned above, we like that the founder is an active and integral consultant in the company. This access to the founder is a distinct advantage over other companies where the star founder is nowhere to be found.

We do think there is a difference in experience between Eric and other 3 Senior Consultants at the company (and their price, as we will talk about below, reflects that). So if you are able to work with the founder, rather than the other consultants, you can improve the expected outcome.

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. For this AdmissionSight review we’ll consider their pricing to the most common needs:

• This company offers a comprehensive package for applications to 10 colleges only, rather than 1, 3, or 5 school options.
• 12th graders who need help with essays for 10 schools: $28,500 (College Application Program)
• Non-12 graders who want advice on the college admissions process: $1,750 per hour (minimum purchase of 2 hours through their Academic & Extracurricular Evaluation). *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.

It’s important to note that these prices do not guarantee consulting with the founder, Eric, which is significantly more expensive as detailed in the Services Offered + Pricing section.

Even without considering the cost of working with Eric, AdmissionSight’s pricing is substantially higher than the industry average. Additionally, the company enforces a no-refund policy, requiring a full commitment to their high-end programs.

For ultra-high-net-worth families, the option of personalized consulting with the founder, ranging from $78,000 to $165,000, might justify the investment. However, for most people, the combination of high prices and a strict no-refund policy results in a lower value-to-price ratio for our consideration.

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.

To get in touch with AdmissionSight, you can either call or email them. When we tried calling twice on a weekday afternoon, we were directed to their voicemail. However, their email support was more responsive. We sent them an email with some support questions and got a reply within 48 hours.

AdmissionSight matches students with consultants based on the specific program they are enrolled in. For instance, students in the Science Research Program will be paired with a Research Scientist. If you are unhappy with your consultant, there is an option to request a change.

Communication with AdmissionSight primarily takes place through email and Zoom calls.

Overall, this is a fairly standard user experience you can expect at a traditional admissions consulting company.

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.

To conclude this AdmissionSight review, let’s look at unique aspects of their company and services that differentiate them in this space.

On the one hand, we appreciate that AdmissionSight offers comprehensive programs catering to various aspects of the application process. In particular, we’re impressed by their unique offerings such as the summer application programs, research program, and passion project program. Overall, AdmissionSight seems more focused on developing students’ extracurricular activities and competitive summer programs compared to other companies. They also assist students in adding supplemental materials to their college applications, beyond the standard requirements.

On the other hand, their rigid package structure for seniors means that 12th graders seeking only essay assistance are required to commit to a substantial package for 10 colleges, priced at $28,500. Additionally, the rates for any programs offered by AdmissionSight are not publicly disclosed on their website, including in the FAQ section. Many admissions companies offer a wider range of packages to provide more flexibility for seniors. This, combined with their no-refund policy, raises some concerns for us.