BeMo Academic Consulting Review

BeMo Academic Consulting is an admissions consulting company led by Dr. Behrouz Moemeni, a respected figure in the admissions world who is known for his motivational admissions screening strategy, authorship, and TEDx talks. The company helps with admissions to med school, residency, pharmacy school, graduate school, law school, MBA, dental school, and undergraduate colleges. In this comprehensive BeMo Academic Consulting review, we’ll break down their services, prices, and consultant quality.

The BeMo team features a total of 187 consultants. 26 of those consultants featured can help with undergraduate admissions according to their website. Notably, Dr. Moemeni (founder of BeMo) does not consult for undergraduate admissions himself. He only does graduate school admissions consulting.

Of the 26 featured consultants for undergraduate admissions, 14 have attended prestigious colleges, such as Columbia, Brown, Harvard, Cornell, and Princeton. However, upon further inspection, we noticed that some of these colleges were for graduate school, not undergraduate school.

The remaining 12 consultants did not list their undergraduate colleges, possibly because the schools were lower ranked.

BeMo Academic Consulting adopts a traditional consulting model. Students get matched with a consultant after a free initial consultation. 

When Dr. Behrouz Moemeni founded the company, he built it on evidence-based education. This means they use the latest scientific research to design their programs and tailor them to each student’s unique learning style. They believe that everyone learns differently, so they provide personalized attention to each student to ensure that they are getting the most out of their education.

BeMo Pricing for Non-12th Graders

For non-12th graders, BeMo’s flagship program is College Planning for Grades 6 – 11. There are 3 tiers:

Gold Tier ($2,847):

• 15 hours of consultation (can be spent on any of the following)
• GPA improvement strategies (course selection, study methods)
• SAT/ACT strategy (not test prep)
• Extracurricular activity guidance
• Capstone project selection and enhancement
• Scholarship assistance
• College list development (safety, target, reach schools)
• Application and interview support

Platinum Tier ($7,197):

• Includes all Gold Tier services
• Expanded to 50 total consulting hours

Titanium Tier ($17,197):

• Includes all Platinum Tier services
• Unlimited consulting hours

BeMo Pricing for 12th Graders

For 12th graders, their flagship program is Get into the Best Universities & Colleges. There are 3 tiers:

Gold Tier ($3,997):

• 1-hour session for writer’s block and strategy
• College list development (safety, target, reach schools)
• Unlimited application reviews (for Common App, Coalition App & UC App)
• Unlimited Activities List review (limit to 10 activities)
• Unlimited essay reviews for 3 schools
• 3 mock interviews

Platinum Tier ($7,397):

• Includes all Gold Tier services
• Unlimited strategy session hours
• Unlimited essay reviews for 10 schools
• Scholarship application reviews
• Unlimited mock interviews
• Decision assistance for admitted colleges and waitlist appeal support

Titanium Tier ($11,397):

• Includes all Platinum Tier services
• Unlimited essay reviews for an unlimited number of schools

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 BeMo has a large team with a wide range of expertise in different fields, including grad school, MBA, law, vet school, and dental school. This can be a plus, especially for students who want additional insights for a particular career track.

We do have some concerns about their undergraduate admissions consulting. One issue is that the founder, who is very qualified and the face of the company, doesn’t work on undergraduate admissions. Instead, he focuses on grad school admissions. This makes us wonder how experienced the undergraduate admissions consultants are.

In digging into the profiles of some of the consultants, we noticed that there’s sometimes a big difference in the qualifications of the undergraduate admissions consultants. Some of them haven’t gotten into top-tier undergraduate schools themselves, which could affect the quality and relevance of their advice.

Additionally, the same undergraduate consultants also work on admissions for different levels of education. But the requirements, efforts, style, and advice for undergrad admissions are very different from grad school admissions. This overlap could mean that undergraduate applicants don’t get the tailored guidance they need, because the consultants don’t fully understand the nuances of the undergraduate admissions process

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.

BeMo trains their consultants the exact same way, which is a good way to maintain consistency. 

Initially, you’re paired with a consultant based on your specific needs. But as you progress through the program, you’ll work with a variety of experts, each leaving notes about your profile along the way. This seems like a great idea in theory – having multiple perspectives can be beneficial.

However, in practice, BeMo’s scheduling system is based on availability rather than expertise. This means for your 5th session, you might end up working with whoever is free at the time, regardless of their background or experience with your specific needs.

So, the mentorship phase involves multiple consultants, which can mean rehashing information and getting the new consultant up to speed with your profile.

When it comes time for application, they promise that you’ll have the same consultant who reviews your application documents from first draft to final draft.

Overall, while BeMo’s multiple-consultant approach has some theoretical advantages, the execution may fall short. If you could somehow ensure you get a highly qualified consultant or have a say in who works on your case, then the odds of a favorable outcome would improve.

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 BeMo Academic Consulting review we’ll consider their pricing to the most common needs:

• They only offer 3 schools, 10 schools, and unlimited schools options.
• 12th graders who need help with essays for 3 schools: $3,997 minimum (Gold Tier)
• Non-12 graders who want advice on the college admissions process: $190 per hour (minimum purchase of 15 hours via their package). *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.

BeMo’s pricing is competitive: sitting below industry average. While their application services might seem a bit pricey at first, you do get unlimited essay revisions for up to three schools for their base package, which is a decent deal.

Plus, they’ve got a strong refund policy that lets you get 100% of your money back if you’re not happy after the first session. So if you can get paired with one of their stronger undergraduate consultants (and make sure you keep getting them in subsequent sessions), you will be getting your money’s worth.

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.

You can contact BeMo Academic Consulting via phone or email, and they provide a free initial consultation. However, when we attempted to call them several times on a weekday afternoon, our calls were redirected to voicemail, which recommended using email for further communication. Their email support is notably more responsive and effective.

Regarding their matching and scheduling process, BeMo initially pairs students with a consultant based on their profile. Students then access the BeMo Member’s Area, a dedicated portal, to conveniently schedule sessions, thus avoiding lengthy email back and forths. However, subsequent matchings are based on consultant availability, ensuring students can always secure a session at their preferred time, but possibly with different consultants. For any issues, BeMo provides a dedicated Student Support team, reachable via email.

BeMo has efficiently streamlined its processes, eliminating common scheduling challenges often faced by smaller consulting firms.

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.

On the one hand, the rotating consultants (and the consistency of their qualifications) concerns us. The availability matching system is different from most companies. It works to streamline the user experience. But it comes at the expense of having one consistent quality consultant.

On the other hand, we really like BeMo’s satisfaction guarantees and refund policy. For both of the programs we listed above, you get a “Love It Or Your Money Back” guarantee. This means that if you don’t like your consultant after your first session, you can get a full refund. This is a great way to try out the service without any risk.

If you choose BeMo’s Platinum or Titanium Tier for either of those packages, you also get a “Get In or Money Back” guarantee. This means that if you follow all of the advice that your consultant gives you and you still don’t get into any colleges, you can get a refund. There are some specific rules to this guarantee, such as having to strictly follow your consultant’s advice and making a request for a refund within 5 days of receiving your admissions decisions. There’s also a chance that you might not get all of your money back, but you can repeat the program for free.

While it’s unlikely that you’ll ever need to use the “Get In or Money Back” guarantee (since most students will get into at least one college, especially if they have safeties on their list), BeMo’s guarantees make sure families are comfortable with the approach and can try out the service before they commit to a full program.