Money-back Guarantee (Discontinued for New Customers)

Important: as of 11:59pm Pacific Time on Sept. 13th, 2020, our money-back guarantee is effectively discontinued and is no longer in effect for new clients. However, the money-back guarantee and its original terms and conditions are still in effect for students who purchased an Express, Complete, or Elite Package prior to 11:59pm Pacific Time on Sept. 13th, 2020.

The following applies to clients who purchased College Zoom’s Express Package, Complete Package, or Elite Package (1) on or before Sept. 13, 2020, and (2) at least 2.5 months before their first college application deadline so the work is not rushed. Meaning, UC applicants must have purchased on or before September 13, 2020. Early Action or Early Decision applicants for any colleges must have purchased before August 15, 2020. Regular Decision applicants for any college must have purchased (a) on or before Sept. 13, 2020 or (b) 2.5 months before their first deadline, whichever is earlier. If you purchase a package after Sept. 13, 2020, and/or after any of these deadlines (relative to your first college application deadline), the Money-back Guarantee will be void.

Most private college counselors do not offer money-back guarantees because it is impossible for anyone to guarantee that a top 100 nationally ranked college or university will accept any applicant. However, we will guarantee a full refund of the Express Package, Complete Package, or Elite Package’s fee that you paid (minus any additional 1-on-1 help you purchased) if you give yourself enough time to fully complete your college applications by meeting all of the terms and conditions below (click on each section to expand and view details):

Eligibility:

[toggles type=”multiple”][toggle title=”The Express and Complete Package Guarantee is Fulfilled By Any of the Following: Being Admitted a Top 100 Ranked College, Any College that Accepted 39% or Fewer Applicants, or One Your Top 3 Choices”]

To be eligible, apply to at least six top 100 national universities from the US News & World Report’s Best Colleges of 2020: National University Rankings list or at least six top 100 national liberal arts colleges from the US News & World Report’s Best Colleges of 2020: National Liberal Arts College Rankings list where your academic qualifications (see definition below) are better than the average academic qualifications of applicants admitted into the entering classes you wish to join. Important: at least four of those institutions must offer you the opportunity to appeal a rejection letter. You must also satisfy the other requirements on this page. Then, if you are not accepted by either one of your top 3 choice colleges, a single top 100 ranked institution, and a highly selective college with an acceptance rate of 39% or less, you get your money back.
[/toggle][toggle title=”The Elite Package Guarantee is Fulfilled by Any of the Following: Being Admitted to a Top 50 Ranked  College, any College that Accepted 39% or Fewer Applicants, or Your Top 4 Choices”]

A) To be eligible, apply to your top 4-choice universities (i.e. the four you most want to attend) where your academic qualifications are better than the average academic qualifications of applicants admitted into the entering classes you wish to join. Important: at least three of those top 4 universities must offer you the opportunity to appeal a rejection letter. You must also satisfy the other requirements on this page. 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 50 ranked national university or liberal arts college on the US News & World Report’s Best Colleges of 2020: National University or Liberal Arts College Rankings lists and also not accepted by a highly selective college with an acceptance rate of 39% or less, you get your money back.
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Terms, Definitions, and Frequently Asked Questions:

[toggles type=”multiple”][toggle title=”What are academic qualifications?”]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 additionally be qualifiers for guarantee coverage 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 for your entering class after all decision letters have been mailed.

[/toggle][toggle title=”How can I tell if my academic qualifications qualify for guarantee coverage?”]You will qualify for guarantee coverage if your academic qualifications are better than 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 averages reported for any academic qualifications that the college lists in its admissions profile and other official university publications). If and only if a middle 50% range is reported by a college instead of an average: then falling within the middle 50% range for that academic qualification will do. However, 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 qualifying for this guarantee coverage by comparing yourself to the academic qualifications your various colleges reported for last year’s incoming class.

[/toggle][toggle title=”How can I find out if I am likely to be academically competitive?”]

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 drop in your academic performance or engage in any conduct that causes a college, eligible for this guarantee coverage, to withdraw your admissions offer (note: this includes admissions offers that are conditionally issued).
5. You must have completed the entire package program (e.g. used all of the 1-on-1 service hours and completed all pre-meeting exercises and College Zoom Tutorials).  
6. If you purchased the Complete or Elite Package with College Planning sessions but ended up borrowing hours from the Complete or Elite Package to add to your College Planning hours, then you’ll beed to have added back hours to your Complete and Elite package so that you’ll have ultimately gotten 10 hours of counseling with the Complete Package and 21 hours of counseling with the Elite Package. Otherwise, you won’t have enough time to complete either package.
7. The school(s) you attend must have the appropriate accreditation and be in good accredited standing during the periods of your enrollment. Note: this is because colleges may not accept unaccredited coursework.

If You Are Not Accepted:

Note: being admitted for any major or being 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, 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), and allow us to verify on Naviance whether your academic qualifications were better than the averages of students from your school who were accepted by your colleges in past years.

If you cannot satisfy all of the terms and conditions described on this page, you will void our money-back guarantee.