The following applies to our Some Help and Full Help application packages, only.
Most private college counselors do not offer money-back guarantees because it is impossible for anyone to guarantee that a top 100 national university will accept you. However, we will guarantee a full refund of the Some Help or Full Help Application Package counseling fee if you meet all of the terms and conditions below:
Eligibility:
| Some Help Application Package: | Top 100 University Guarantee |
What you have to do: Apply to at least four top 100 national universities on the US News & World Report’s Best Colleges of 2012: National University Rankings list or four top 100 national liberal arts colleges on the US News & World Report’s Best Colleges of 2012: National Liberal Arts College Rankings list where your academic qualifications are on par with the academic qualifications of applicants admitted into the entering class you wish to join. Important: at least three of those institutions must offer you the opportunity to appeal a rejection letter. Then, if you are accepted by not a single top 100 ranked institution, you get your money back.
| Full Help Application Package: | Top 4 Choices Or Top 35 University Guarantee |
What you have to do:
A) Apply to your top 4-choice universities (i.e. the four you most want to attend) where your academic qualifications are on par with the academic qualifications of applicants admitted into the entering class you wish to join. Important: at least three of those top 4 universities must offer you the opportunity to appeal a rejection letter. Then, if you are accepted by not a single one of those top four choices, see B.
B) If you are not accepted to your top 4 choice colleges where you are academically competitive and you are still not accepted by at least one top 35 ranked national university or liberal arts college on the US News & World Report’s Best Colleges of 2012: National University or Liberal Arts College Rankings lists, you get your money back.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Academic qualifications (for the purpose of this guarantee coverage) include your: (a) weighted and unweighted GPA (or university calculated GPA if applicable), (b) course rigor (which can be measured by evaluating the discrepancy in grade points between your weighted and unweighted GPA), (c) class rank, (d) sectional and composite standardized test scores, and (e) SAT subject test scores (if required by a college). The following academic qualifications will be qualifiers for guarantee coverage only if they are reported on a college’s official admissions profile: (i) the number of semesters in honors level coursework (e.g. AP, IB, school-based honors, or transferable college courses) and (ii) the number of semesters in college preparatory classes. All of these measures are used by universities when they evaluate your application to determine your academic competitiveness for their school. Universities collect this information from applicants to determine the average academic qualifications of students who get accepted into their entering classes (UCLA example [A]). Usually, this information is made publicly accessible after all decision letters have been mailed.
You are academically competitive if your academic qualifications are on par with the average academic qualifications of students who get accepted into the entering class you wish to join (i.e. you must be as good as or better than the average). If and only if a middle 50% range is reported instead of a mean: you must fall within the middle 50% range. You won’t know whether you are academically competitive for your incoming class until you’ve received your decision letter and the college you applied to releases those statistics, but you can predict your likelihood of being academically competitive by comparing yourself to the academic qualifications a college reported for its previous year’s incoming class.
Method 1: Search Google using the following input as your search terms: “[name of university] freshman admission profile” or “[name of university] transfer admission profile”. With a little research, you will find the official and most recent entering class profile for the university of your choice.
Method 2: Call the office of admissions and inquire with a representative about the average weighted and unweighted GPA, standardized test scores, class rank, and course rigor of the previous year’s incoming class.
Method 3: For academic qualifications statistics that cannot be ascertained through methods 1 and 2 above, College Data’s College Admissions Tracker Results for students who reported that they were admitted to a particular college will be referenced instead.
Calling a university’s admissions office and speaking to a representative will usually allow an inquirer to determine the academic qualifications for a specific college (and major program), even if that information is not published online. If official academic qualification statistics are not released by a university, College Data’s unofficial “College Admissions Tracker Results” statistics will be used for reference. In this case, your academic qualifications must be on par with the average for students who reported that they were accepted by a particular school (UCLA example [B]). Outside of official admissions profiles released by universities, verifiable admissions statistics released by admissions representatives, and College Data’s College Admissions Tracker Results, no other sources will be used for the purpose of determining money-back guarantee coverage.
If you are a transfer student and an average transfer GPA is not reported by a university: a 3.8 cumulative transfer GPA will be the benchmark you must meet before your second to last semester before transferring to become eligible for our guarantee eligibility.
In the extremely unlikely event that academic qualification statistics are neither released by a university nor found on College Data’s College Admissions Tracker, the university will not be eligible for College Zoom’s money-back guarantee coverage.
Your Responsibility:
For any college to be covered by this guarantee, you must assume responsibility for the following:
1. You must submit all of your application materials on time.
2. You must ensure that you satisfy the college’s minimum requirements (including academic prerequisites) for admission before and after you apply.
3. If you are an international student who is required to take the TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) or its equivalent, you must meet or exceed the minimum score the college requires of you.
4. You must not experience a significant drop in academic performance or engage in any conduct that causes a college, eligible for this guarantee coverage, to withdraw your admissions offer.
If You Are Not Accepted:
Note: being admitted or offered the option of mid-term enrollment constitutes an acceptance. If you are not accepted by a single university that qualifies you for our guarantee coverage, you must allow us to help you appeal the admissions decision of at least three of those universities (provided free of charge). You must also submit the appeals, and any supporting material, on time.
If the Appeals are Unsuccessful:
All you have to do is verify that you submitted your applications and appeals on time, provide copies of the decision letters and post-marked envelopes mailed to you by the universities, and send us your latest unofficial transcript to verify that you have not experienced a significant decline in your academic performance since you applied (e.g. grades of D or F).
Note: PayPal Transaction Fees are Non-Refundable:
Any time you pay for our services with a credit card, PayPal charges us a nominal credit card transaction fee that is equal to 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. This transaction fee, is not part of the counseling fee that is refundable under this money-back guarantee. If you qualify for a money-back guarantee, we will refund full amount of money that you paid for our counseling services minus the credit card transaction fees that we incurred for processing your PayPal payments. If you do not want transaction fees deducted from your refund: do not pay through PayPal. Pay by check.
If you cannot satisfy all of the terms and conditions described on this page, you will void our money-back guarantee.
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