"Would not recommend this service"

The two stars here are for the second counselor I was assigned, who was generally pleasant to work with and gave some decent feedback on my essays. However, I enrolled in the premium package with the understanding that I would be getting strategic advice on college lists, how to approach them and how to maximize my chances of getting into a top ranked school and none of this occurred with Empowerly. I was first assigned to a counselor who was a college student- he was also very pleasant but not strategic in advising. At some point he forgot that we had a meeting, and we had to request a new counselor. My new counselor, supposedly more experienced was very pleasant but again mostly gave specific feedback on essays and answers to my questions not on how to improve my chances. The advice was often generic and vague. He often appeared to read the essays during the meeting, not ahead of time. He rarely responded to my email requests All of the advice I got here I already received with my school counselor. The Adcom review of the admission package was contrary to the advice given by my counselor, adding to my confusion. Contrary to what was advertised, working with Empowerly did not increase the likelihood of my getting into higher ranked schools- I got in where I would have without this. To top it all, there was no personal approach from my counselor. To date, I have yet to hear from him to follow up with my college admission results. The Empowerly services were grossly misrepresented during the presentation to sell it.

"Great decision!"

Empowerly has been a huge help in my college admissions process. From helping me find meaningful and relevant internships to curating a college list that perfectly fits my statistics, from helping me pick classes and extracurriculars that make a positive impact on my transcript to helping me get into competitive summer programs, Empowerly has really elevated me to a level of academic and extracurricular rigor that I feel confident about and would not have reached without their help.

The only negative comment I would have would be about their essay services. The editing process often turned by essays from authentic to scripted and unnatural, and I had to go back and edit them on my own after because I didn't like how they sounded, and was sure that the summer programs I was applying to would think the same.

"Better experience than I could ever…"

Better experience than I could ever imagine. Danielle was extremely helpful and kind throughout the whole process and made me look forward to our meetings and I would recommend Empowerly to anyone. Overall great experience.

"Less than I expected"

It seemed like a good choice at the time and was helpful keeping me on track with submitting applications. My counselor was nice as well, though there was some lack of communication and she was often late to meetings. That being said, it was definitely not worth the money and they pushed for schools I was not interested in. I also did not get into any schools that I had not anticipated getting into and the essay editing services were not particularly knowledgeable on the different kinds of essays that applications require. AdCom was also not particularly helpful, as it was pretty generic advice. Overall, I get what they were trying to do, I just wasn't impressed.

"My daughter got into Berkley!!"

My daughter got into Berkley!!! Enough said!

"Great experience"

Great experience. My daughter got into Berkeley!

"No time management"

The counselor was nice, and helpful, however the main reason we wanted a college counselor was to keep our son "on track", and we wanted him to finish a lot of his essays in the summer before school started. However, the counselor left it up to him to make his appointments, and so they did not happen enough, and he also did not get any essays finished before school started. He ended up rushing through his essays and applications and turning them in the day they were due (almost up to the last minute!). The essay review was fairly helpful, but I'm not sure it was worth it. The main reason we went with Empowerly as opposed to a different college counselor, was because of the promise of a summer internship. He DID get a summer internship, but unfortunately, the company cut it short and he didn't get much value out of it. (This was not Empowerly's fault of course.)
Our main objective was to have good time and project management for our son, so we wouldn't have to be involved. Unfortunately, we did NOT get this.

"Absolutely not helpful."

Cycled through 3 counselors in 2 months. 1st counselor was not helpful. 2nd was better but she left the company after a week or so. Third was like the first, provided little to no feedback. The counselors did not help at all on my application. The second star is a pity star.

"Choose Empowerly at your own risk"

This review would be much higher if a couple things were changed:
1. The biggest issue I experienced with Empowerly was that they were not clear with how sessions were timed. When buying a package, there is an outlined numbered of sessions (ex. 18 sessions in the base if I remember correctly). Although it was not made clear in the beginning how sessions would be timed. This was not made clear in the beginning, so when I thought I was buying more sessions, I was really buying time but my account was already in the negative which I was not notified and did not know about. The situation itself is somewhat complicated to explain what happened to me, but the point is that the whole process was not clear and somewhat confusing.
2. The counselor I was assigned seemed like that they had too many other students to give each and every individual a personalized experience. The counselor was only somewhat helpful for general college questions that you could find out by asking a school college counselor or google.
3. Empowerly's internship program, a large part of their program that they emphazise was completely useless for me as the whole process was convoluted, with the companies they partnered with also seeming confused about the whole process.

Overall, if I had to do everything over again, stay away from Empowerly.

"Well done Empowerly"

This was a wonderful program that made the difference in our son’s admission process. I don’t usually write reviews but credit is due to Empowerly. They helped from beginning to end and our son had multiple choices. A great way to start his college experience.