Not Recommended High Cost with Limited Benefits

We were quite disappointed with Solomonpaying $12K, we had hoped for much more. It felt like they played it too safe and offered minimal assistance beyond what we could handle ourselves. Let me outline the situation as clearly as possible; your results might differ based on your unique circumstances.My son is South Asian, ranked 3rd nationally in public forum debate, and among the top five high school jazz saxophonists. He scored 1570 on the SAT and has an unweighted GPA of 3.7 (weighted 4.1) from a reputable school. In December 2024, his school jazz band recorded with a seven-time Grammy award winner at Abbey Road Studios.Initially, John Crowell assured us they would use “strategic positioning” to enhance his admission chances, which sounded promising, especially with their strong Ivy League admission track record. However, when it came time to select schools, they pointed out his lower GPA and recommended institutions with only a 20% acceptance rate. More competitive schools were labeled as ‘high risk’they wouldn’t even consider applying to any top-15 universities.The guidance counselor, Breanna Eschlemeier, suggested NYU Steinhardt as an ED option due to his jazz background and also recommended applying to public policy as an alternative.For public policy majors, the colleges suggested were Emory/Oxford, BU, Fordham, University of Wisconsin, Wake Forest, and George Washington (with the first two considered high risk). If we wanted to apply to different universities, we had to formally acknowledge that we weren’t following Solomons recommendations and would be following our own plan instead.Feedback on his draft essays from Breanna was minimaljust a few word changes. The “editorial team” provided very little input; it felt like we might as well have used Grammarly.While my son was admitted to NYU Jazz and is happy there, I can’t attribute much of this success to Solomon, as admissions to jazz programs rely heavily on performance videos, a music resume, and live auditions with faculty.Solomon offered little guidance to improve his chances at higher-ranked universities and actively discouraged applying to them. In contrast, we previously used IngeniusPrep for my daughter, which was more effective and cost less than half the price.A noteworthy point: once you sign up with Solomon, you cannot downgrade your package. When we realized their services weren’t very helpful, we wanted to downgrade, but it wasn’t possiblenot clearly stated until we read the fine print.Hopefully, this information is usefulevery students situation is different, and the admissions landscape is competitive, but we expected more from Solomon.On a positive note, all our interactions with Solomon were extremely professional. Breanna was very pleasant and did help advance my son’s application by providing timely reminders. I credit her for recommending Steinhardt, given her background in NYU admissions.