Empowerly helps students reach the next step of their higher education journey through holistic, data-driven service offerings that go beyond the application process.
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Is Empowerly legit?
Empowerly (empowerly.com) has a 4.8 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 103 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Education & Training and its reputation is excellent. Praise is nearly unanimous, with 96% rating it 4 stars or higher; The business has replied to 100% of negative reviews; Reviews mostly discuss User experience, Customer service, App. Last updated 2026-09-01.
What reviewers say
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Reviewers overwhelmingly had a great experience with this company. Customers frequently praise the dedicated counselors for providing personalized guidance, deep knowledge, and steady support throughout the entire college application journey. Families highlight how mentors help students stay organized, confident, and motivated while working on essays and extracurricular planning.
Some people also felt that the structured platform features, comprehensive essay reviews, and organizational tools made managing deadlines much simpler. Reviewers consistently noted that these valuable resources significantly reduced stress, improved writing quality, and kept everyone completely aligned during busy seasons. Many consumers expressed deep gratitude for the responsive communication and flexible scheduling offered by the team.
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This company is aggressive, and I lost trust in them. I was just exploring their website to get information, and next thing I know they are emailing me to confirm an appointment. Then I kept getting emails and texts to confirm the appt. I cancelled it, then decided to reschedule a free consultation for the following day. Again, received too many emails and texts.
Then I received a phone call, they wanted to ensure that I was willing to pay the $8,000-13,000 required for a package.
I informed them that I felt they were being a bit aggressive, assured them that I was seriously considering their services, but was looking for a supplemental service (as seen on their website), not a full package. Representative said they could do that. So I agreed to continue with the consult.
Then I received a call back from the representative saying that they do not provide the supplemental service he had told me about. So I ended up cancelling, and I would not consider them again.
Unprofessional and deceptive.
Reply from Empowerly2026-04-23
Hi Carol,
We're so sorry this was your experience. We never want anyone interacting with Empowerly to lose trust in us or feel overwhelmed by texts or emails. We also strive to provide a supportive environment for families to consider their student's future, and it's clear that wasn't your experience. We're addressing this internally so it doesn't happen to future families, but if there's anything we can do to make it right for you, please contact us directly at [email protected].
The application process was 10000 times easier with the help of my councillor Courtney Ng. She was proficient with her research and taught me everything I needed to know. I am so grateful for empowerly!
Empowerly College Counseling has been incredibly helpful for our family. It truly takes a lot of the stress off parents’ shoulders by guiding the process in a structured and knowledgeable way.
What I appreciate most is how my child has become more responsible and proactive. Because the guidance is coming from someone experienced who clearly understands what is needed for success, my son is much more receptive and motivated to follow through. He takes ownership of his work in a way that is harder to achieve as a parent alone.
Overall, it has made the college preparation journey smoother, more focused, and far less stressful for both of us
They advertise on their website that they can help students get in person internships. Turns out that the internship opportunities are only remote.
Reply from Empowerly2026-04-15
Hi Nancy, apologies for any confusion. While most of our internships are remote, some of our internships are offered in person, but availability varies by cohort.
It was a great experience working with Mr. Ronnie Medure
It was a great experience working with Mr. Ronnie Medure throughout my college application journey. His expertise and advice were invaluable! His guidance and mentorship played a key role in helping me gain admission to my dream school!!! I'm so thankful for having the opportunity to work with him.
Snaky staff who do not actually care about the level of effort required from parents and students or value delivered. They just want your money, duh. I don’t know why I was led to believe otherwise.
They’re a high volume shop delivering low value, generic guidance. Pushy sales people. Remote ONLY counselors. Not worth $1800 a month or $22k+ for two and a half years. No phone number to call. They filter you through an email alias blackhole.
Once you sign, they will REFUSE to let you out of your contract for the next 2.5 years or however long your student has until graduation. They have a 60 day cancellation/refund policy and even if you try to cancel within this period, they will send you in circles until this period has passed and lock you into their program.
Empowerly team - cancel my contract, effective immediately.
Reply from Empowerly2026-03-31
Empowerly takes every family's experience seriously, and we are committed to ensuring each student receives high-quality support. Our team has reviewed this account, reached out directly, and offered additional support. If at any point a family feels the counselor fit isn't right, we're always happy to help find a better match. We'd welcome the opportunity to continue that conversation — please don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected].
I am so glad that I worked with Raisa Alam through empowerly. Raisa helped me through the whole college process whether that was essays, activities, or more. Raisa helped me get into my dream school and I would 100% recommend her and empowerly to anyone.
Raisa has been my daughter's advisor since her Sophomore year. Her guidance and support has been absolutely invaluable through out the college application journey resulting in her acceptance into her dream school. Raisa is a true professional but more importantly, she REALLY cares about her students. I highly recommend Raisa and Empowerly.
Empowerly truly cares about their students and does their very best to assist students in every way possible. Their counselors are very knowledgable and lead students in the right way.
Decent people but lackluster and awful experience recently
I generally had a decent experience with the counselors and staff here at Empowerly. However, my recent experiences with them were quite lackluster. I had an awful time because I wasn't able to get the feedback I wanted. I wanted better support and guidance, but I didn't get any of those. I was just disappointed since I paid for the company's services.
Reply from Empowerly2026-02-06
Thank you for your feedback. We’ve searched our records and haven’t been able to locate a student or parent enrolled under the name provided. We also reached out to you via Trustpilot for more information, but have not received a response.
Empowerly is committed to delivering personalized, high-quality support, and our team is always available to assist with concerns. If you're open to sharing more details, we’d appreciate the opportunity to better understand your experience. Please contact us at [email protected]
Our experience with Empowerly has been wonderful. They have a broad range of services, including essay review, counseling, research, and admissions committee review. Their pricing is reasonable. Our counselor is Betty, and she has gone above and beyond what we expect. She has been proactive in identifying what needs to be done next, including scholarship searches, follow-ups for letters of continued interest, and interview preparation. I would highly recommend Empowerly and especially Betty for college admissions preparation. Our only regret is that we should have started sooner. Thank you, Empowerly.
My Empowerly counselor, Mary Trieu was a tremendous help!
Mary helped me get into my dream school, Columbia University! Mary and I have been working together since my sophomore year and she has treated me with nothing but kindness, understanding, and diligence. Her skills are truly unmatched and you cannot find a better person to go to for college applications. Even while traveling, Mary made her schedule flexible so I could match the time differences and meet deadlines. I am so glad I started working with her early on because she pushed me to challenge myself academically and in other ways that made my application competitive. Even during stressful times in senior fall, Mary guided me to choose my ED school and helped me get in! I am forever grateful and couldn’t recommend her as a counselor enough!
I had a really good experience with Empowerly. They really helped me craft my portfolio, and present myself to colleges properly. My counselor, Katherine Chu, did an amazing job. She helped out with essays a lot, and was really involved in my extracurriculars activities throughout high school.
Highly recommend Empowerly for any family navigating the college application process. Our counselor, Lisa Lindberg, has been a game-changer for us. She is extremely experienced and offered us strategic analysis that we wouldn't have found elsewhere. Her expertise in the athlete recruitment process—especially her advice on coach outreach and team-specific selections—was invaluable. Lisa’s ability to balance athletic aspirations with strong academia is exactly what we needed. A 5-star experience for student-athletes!
Our experience with Empowerly has been very positive, and we are especially grateful for our counselor, Lara. During the whole application process, we found Lara thoughtful, organized, and genuinely invested in understanding our child's strengths and goals.
In addition to the counseling support, the Empowerly portal was extremely helpful. The platform is well-organized, easy to navigate, and made it simple to track tasks, deadlines, and progress in one place. Having resources, feedback, and next steps clearly laid out reduced stress and kept everyone aligned throughout the process.
My counselor Marilu was very helpful throughout the essay process. She has been willing to help me brainstorm and look over all of my essays since the start. I have also appreciated Empowerly’s AdCom feature, where a past admissions officer reads my application. These have been especially helpful in noting area of my application to improve.
Excellent Platform and Outstanding Counselor Support
Empowerly was invaluable in guiding my daughter through the college application process.
The Platform: Empowerly's database of essays and student profiles (including GPAs and SAT scores of accepted students) helped my daughter realistically assess her chances at various colleges. She applied to schools she wouldn't have considered based solely on common dataset averages and acceptance rates. The platform made it easy to research college rankings, narrow her list, and schedule counselor sessions and AdCom reviews—all hassle-free.
The Counselor: Lisa, my daughter's counselor, was fantastic. My daughter left every session feeling motivated and uplifted. The college process is overwhelming and stressful, but Lisa made it so manageable that my daughter wondered why everyone else seemed so stressed. She completed all her applications well ahead of schedule and actually enjoyed the experience.
I highly recommend Empowerly for both its comprehensive resources and exceptional counseling support.
Empowerly stands out with their services, like AdCom Review and Essay Edits. My son worked with Mr. Ronnie Medure. If you can chose your counselor you will not find a finer advocate for your student. My son just got accepted to Tufts! Throughout this whole college journey Mr Medure has been encouraging and extremely patient He has a tremendous amount of insights into every college and the whole industry.
Mr Medure recognized that my son had a real talent for math. He suggested research and a Multi-Variable Calculus course at UCSD. I believe this gave my son an edge in his application. He also nudged him to improve his SAT score and he ended up with a 1550. One of the best things about Mr Medure is that he is honest, in a tactful way, like if you are aiming too high or putting too much pressure on your kid. He will push back because he genuinely cares about your kid. Lastly, I must have emailed him five times a week, for three years, with anxious questions. He responded promptly and calmly with brilliant solutions. He doubles as a therapist. I recommend Mr Ronnie Medure without hesitation.
Empowerly has really helped my kids stay ahead with thoughtful, structured planning. I enrolled my daughter in Empowerly when she was in 8th grade, and their counselors guided her in understanding her strengths, interests, and long-term goals. With their support, she was able to plan her summer programs and school courses well in advance. She also secured two excellent internship opportunities through Empowerly.
Her coach, Katherine Chu, is incredibly organized, motivating, and provides the right balance of encouragement and reality checks to keep her on track. My daughter is now a junior, and we’re looking forward to working with Katherine on her college applications.
Marilu and the Empowerly team have been incredibly supportive throughout my college application process. They helped me stay organized, confident, and clear about my goals. Marilu always listened to my ideas and gave thoughtful, personalized feedback that truly improved my applications. The resources and guidance from Empowerly made a huge difference in reducing stress. I’m very grateful for their help and highly recommend them to any student!