Shemmassian Academic Consulting (www.shemmassianconsulting.com) has a 4.5 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 60 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Business Services and its reputation is excellent. 86% of reviews are 4 stars or higher and 10% are 1 star; The business has not yet replied to negative reviews; 44 of them were added in the last 12 months. Last updated 2026-08-10.
We cannot say enough good things about how professional Shemmassian Consulting was. We were a bit skeptical going in as we did not have the best experience with college counseling as our child transitioned from high school to college. We also did not have specific references to count on when we reached out to Shemmassian. That being said the following 6 months was worth every cent and some. Our child received multiple interviews and eventually a couple of really good offers. The staff consulting with these kids are exemplary. I cannot recommend them enough.
They have an outstanding team of advisors who provide expert guidance from the very beginning of the application process all the way through receiving your admission. Every dollar spent is well worth the investment.
Dr. Shemmassian, Dr. Jothishanker, Dr. Ajit Subhash, and Mr. Powell are highly experienced professionals who offered us invaluable advice and support throughout the journey. Their expertise and dedication played a significant role in our success. I highly recommend their services to anyone applying to medical school.
I am thrilled to start medical school next month at UCLA DGSoM! As a non-traditional student, I was very unfamiliar with the entire application process and felt the resources at my local university/AAMC were inadequate in preparing students for the entire process. I searched online and felt Shemmassian was the perfect fit and a smart investment for my future success.
I started my journey to medicine in 2023 and the Shemmassian team was with me the entire way, providing encouragement when I needed it most. Both my advisor and writing coach were pivotal to my success. They both helped to tailor the most important parts of my application, which ultimately resulted in multiple acceptances.
Thank you for everything and I hope to pay it forward in some capacity!
-Kelsey
I remember feeling stuck...til I met Dr. Shemmassian
I remember feeling stuck, like my dream was over before i even had the chance to begin. I saw an ad for Shemmassian Consulting and wound up speaking to the big man himself, who made me feel very reassured. He didn't pressure me or sell anything, he just empathized with a student doing her best, who had much to offer the world but didn't know how to put it on paper. I worked with them for around 1 year and at every step, every tiny little detail of my application. I felt they were flexible and kind, and personal. I appreciate their help and am now an incoming resident. :) Dream come true, mission complete.
Shemassian Consulting was of great help during my past application cycle for med school. My assigned mentors were very prompt with their responses to any questions I had and made the process easier to navigate. I had a very nice experience with the advising team, and I would recommend those who are applying to medical school to consider Shemassian Consulting for application assistance!
I would highly recommend Shemmassian academic consulting! Their support was invaluable throughout the process, and I wouldn't have had my acceptance without their support. They are dedicated to keeping you on track and getting you in and provide all the support and resources you need to be successful the first time and answer all questions in a timely manner.
I would highly recommend SAC for med school advising. They helped provide really helpful feedback on my application and school list to prepare me for the process well. With a process that can be as confusing and overwhelming as med school applications, my consultant was able to provide me really helpful insight and support throughout the process. Guidance with essay editing and interview preparation helped me be my strongest self in my applications and allowed me to be accepted into my dream program straight out of college. I would highly recommend SAC.
They will not do your work for you. This service is for those who want a guide and structure to prepare. That being said, the more work you put in, the more they can help you refine your weak points. Overall my experience was great!
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Anonymous · 1 review · Experienced 2026-01-24 ·
★★★★★
Excellent MCAT Tutoring!
Shemmassian Consulting was integral to my success as an applicant! Their MCAT tutoring services were very thorough. From face-to-face tutoring calls to practice tests, they covered every aspect of the examination prep. Thanks to them, I was able to target and tackle the sections I struggled with the most. I took the MCAT once and hit my target score! Highly recommend!
The experience with Shemmassian tutoring was excellent. The tutor was very helpful in creating short-term and long-term goals in an adaptable 3-month study plan. This plan took shape in a multiple sheet excel spreadsheet and included a daily schedule with checklist items. The tutor's wealth of experience in MCAT prep was very helpful in suggesting effective study materials (such as high-yield content videos, Anki decks, practice questions, etc.). The tutor was also helpful in teaching science & CARS passage strategy, approach, and breakdown. In our bi-weekly or weekly meetings, we met on progress with the study items and the tutor was helpful in making game-time adjustments to the plan based on time available. Lastly, the tutor's friendly and kind nature from day 1 allowed for good teamwork and was very helpful in building a good partnership throughout the process.
Shemmassian MCAT tutoring service is unlike any other in that an entire team is backing throughout the duration of your MCAT process. Tutors are well-equipped with content knowledge and MCAT strategy, and I particularly appreciated the flexibility in scheduling sessions amidst my other commitments. As a 'non-traditional' med school applicant 3 years out of undergrad, Shemmassian's support was invaluable in my successful MCAT preparation. I strongly felt that my team was there to help me succeed every step of the way - making a stressful process all the more approachable.
Hi! I loved my experience with Shemmassian! I thought that my consultant was very attentive, gave good, honest feedback, and my support was very personalized! I believe that Shemmassian played a very important role in my 4 acceptances to medical schools and my ultimate matriculation to Georgetown!!!!
I was interested in the BS/MD process. My counselor was amazing, and he helped me with writing spectacular essays! I also got into a competitive internship with their help. A con is that they aren't the most knowledgeable about BS/MD applications, and I managed to only get into one BS/MD and 4 BS/DOs, but most of that was my own work as they didn't necessarily help with finding extracurriculars that stood out, or made my overall application stand out. For example, they made me draft my own personal statement without really helping me understand what to write! I've been under them for 1 year, and it feels like a lot of money for such little success.
Working with Shenmassian was a really valuable part of my medical school application process. From the start, their team took the time to understand my nontraditional background and helped me translate my experiences into a compelling narrative rather than just a list of activities They pushed me to reflect more deeply on my experiences and clarify my motivations for pursuing medicine. They helped me develop a cohesive story about who I am and what I bring to medicine. That level of big-picture guidance made the process feel much more manageable. I would recommend Shenmassian Academic Consulting to anyone applying to medical school who wants thoughtful, personalized support and honest feedback throughout the process.
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AB · 1 review · Verified · Experienced 2026-04-14 ·
★★★★★
Couldn't have had a better experience!
SAC is hands down the BEST, most comprehensive, results driven academic consulting firm out there. I used them for both medical school admissions and the residency application process. When they say services are "comprehensive" they truly mean it. My specialty advisor and writing advisor went above and beyond to make sure all aspects of my application was the best it could be- from writing materials to application strategy and everything in between, while being extremely prompt, supportive, and encouraging the entire time. I felt fully confident with their support. If I had to go back and do it all over again, I would choose SAC every single time!!
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PdxMom · 1 review · Experienced 2025-04-05 ·
★★★★★
Eliminate the middle man. SAC is a SCAM.
Shemmassian Consulting ISN’T WORTH IT! Do yourself a favor and save your money by eliminating him as the middleman. Shirag bends over backwards sending you referrals, calling dozens of times even as late as 9pm and sending countless emails convincing you to sign up with SAC. Convincing us to trust him, he promised to personally and directly be involved in my daughter's application, but once we signed up, we NEVER HEARD FROM HIM AGAIN. I honestly can't quantify the amount of involvement he actually had and there certainly was no direct advice. Shemmassian is a great business man that has done an amazing job compiling free information that is out there to market himself as a leading authority in the Medical School Application process but that is all he is - a great business man that knows how to prey on, market to and convince anxiety ridden med school applicants and their parents into signing up with him. He knows exactly how to exploit our fears that the AMCAS application and cycle brings and will say and do anything to make you sign up for a plan. However make no mistake - Dr Shemmassian IS NO MORE THAN A FACILITATOR BETWEEN EDITORS AND RESIDENT Dr's that have no time for you. We paid for one of his top plans expecting his direct personal help and advice (expectations and concerns that were made VERY clear via phone conversations and emails prior to signing up) but we literally got zero . Emails I can't show due to word count.
Skip SAC and go to Fiverr or Leland because you will find great Editors, AdCom experienced Dr’s or both that work directly with you for THOUSANDS LESS. Then all you need to do is pay a la carte for the interview prep from wherever you want. You will seriously save tons of money this way and find equally capable editors and advisors. Don’t pay the premium for Shemmassian’s name because all you're paying for is for him to be the middleman. And for those of you that still want a comprehensive plan - I would go to Med School Coach. They have A LOT more experienced staff and experienced advisors to work with than Shemmassian does which we didn’t realize until it came to interview prep time.
Writing Editor - My daughter liked her writing advisor but there was NO direct input on my daughter’s content from her actual Dr advisor in terms of “focus on this, write about this, say this not that etc etc” - not even for his own school that he was a supposed AdCom member of (Hopkins). Once my daughter determined the direction of her essays and crafted them, her writing advisor helped her to rephrase things and refine it for grammar, sentence structure and flow. We appreciated the suggestion she did make, the schedule she kept her on and the reminders she provided like updating her AMCAS mid cycle but again her actual advisor had very little input and Shemmassian had absolutely NONE.
Interview Prep - Future applicants - buy the interview prep session ala cart. You'll not only save money but also have control on how many hours of prep time you need and which companies you get that help from. Also DON'T PREPAY FOR INTERVIEW PREP FROM ANYONE'S COMBO PLAN (esp SAC) until you get interviews. You don't know how many interview invites you will get and end up wasting money. If you are considering SAC - know that they are seriously lacking in Dr’s/staff from higher tiered med schools so if you are preparing for top tier schools avoid this SAC completely if possible. Before signing up we made sure to confirm that Dr. Shemmassian had advisors from top tier schools because we wanted to ensure that during interview prep time, my daughter had the experience and knowledge of various advisors from T10 schools to help her with interview prep. However when it came to actual interview prep, my daughter only had her main advisor from Hopkins because there was no one else from those T10 schools that could work with her. We feel like that was a bait and switch situation by Shirag. As a result, she only used 6 hours as it was restricted to only prepping with Dr Wang thereby making it NOT WORTH the price we paid for our entire plan.
In conclusion - Find experienced editors and advisors to help with the med school process but DO NOT USE SHEMMASSIAN CONSULTING! After locking you in, he just moves on to signing up the next cycle's victim's/income pool. My daughter and I regret using SAC instead of any of our other choices because Shirag personally brought NOTHING to the table to help her with AMCAS applications to warrant his EXORBITANT FEES and her "advisor" Dr Wang barely had time for her. We paid a crazy amount of money due to Shemmassian's lies of personal help which we never got and although the writing advisor my daughter worked with was good, SAC itself wasn't worth the hard earned money we disappointingly paid Shemmassian. If you want to know my daughters Stats - refer to Yelp.
Shemmassian Consulting extracted every ounce of competitiveness and confidence from my residency application
Using Shemmassian Consulting for my residency application was one of the best decisions I made in medical school. Having previously worked with them for my medical school admissions, I had high expectations and already knew the benefits of their advisors, but this experience far exceeded them. My advisors were attentive and detail-oriented from the start. They took the time to understand my preferences regarding location, program characteristics, and other priorities, and used that information to tailor my application, highlight every aspect of my competitiveness, and help me develop a well-rounded application.
All my questions were answered within 24-48 hours, and my advisors used research articles, data, and their professional experience to determine how I could best match my desired program. From developing my personal statement through more than a dozen revisions to preparing for interview sessions, I felt confident and supported throughout the application season.
With the help of Shemmassian Consulting, I matched into my number one program in anesthesiology. I believe the clarity, conciseness, and level of detail in my written application helped me receive more interviews than I otherwise would have. I highly recommend Shemmassian Consulting to anyone who wants to maximize their residency application and become a competitive applicant for their top specialty and residency programs.
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AT · 1 review · Verified · Experienced 2026-03-30 ·
★★★★★
MCAT Tutoring
MCAT tutoring
As someone who had been doing reasonably well along my premed journey in terms of academic achievement, I wasn't sure if I needed tutoring but decided to go ahead and purchase some from SAC as I had a great experience with their advising and wanted to maximize my potential. I ended up pushing my exam twice and my tutor was by my side every step of the way, providing much needed support and encouragement. I will say that you absolutely do not NEED a tutor to get an amazing MCAT score. With that being said though if you are unsure of your direction or are perhaps burntout or plataueing, it could be useful to at least schedule a consultation to see if it might be helpful for you along your journey.
What is great about this course is that they ask for a quick survey to gather information to model the teaching strategies specifically for each student. I had weaknesses in certain areas, so I was matched with a tutor who excelled in those areas. Therefore, my score increased drastically by targeting those weaknesses in my MCAT strategies! I highly recommend this; the 1-on-1 tutoring really makes a difference, the tutors are all clearly experienced in both the MCAT content and in teaching.
SAC was instrumental to my acceptance to Yale Medical School without gap years! From start to end, my advising team (an attending physician and a writing specialist) made the application process feel manageable, and they were quick to answer questions I had via email. Having an attending physician who's been on admissions committees for top medical schools and residency programs provide support throughout the application process made all the difference in my application. I would recommend SAC for anyone getting ready to apply to medical school.
Important note: You will be working with residents/attendings/editors who are part of the SAC team, not with Dr. Shemmassian himself. That is, unless you sign up for the "Reserve Tier" option, which is $20,000 in addition to your existing plan and is offered to only some clients.
