Will you be applying for colleges soon and would like assistance in choosing colleges and managing financial aid? If so, you may have found Help for College Now reaching out to you. Is this a service that you should trust, though?
Here is all that you need to know about Help for College and whether it is a legit service:
Is Help for College Now a Legitimate Service?
Technically, Help for College Now is a legitimate website, but the business is based on rather fraudulent practices and promises – unwitting college students are guided into signing up for the expensive program and very few of these services are provided afterward.
How Does Help for College Now Work?
The premise of Help for College Now is that they help high school seniors and those who are applying to colleges with financial aid information.
According to the website, they offer college selection coaching, admissions coaching, financial aid coaching, and career coaching.
College Selection Coaching
The Help for Now organization claims that this tool is to help you identify the best colleges based on your degree and financial capabilities.
They provide you with in-depth profiles about each college to make it easier to select the right school for you.
Admissions Coaching
The company is supposed to provide you with an expert review of college applications so that you can create the right impression. The service also includes showing you how to manage everything from college visits to your social media so that you get the right kind of attention.
The company is also supposed to provide you with college essay coaching.
Financial Aid Coaching
The company is meant to give you in-depth information about all the financial aid options available to you. They are also supposed to help you determine what kind of financial aid is best for you.
They are meant to show you how to find different ways to reduce the cost of your tuition as well as manage your finances better.
Career Coaching
The Help for College Now initiative is meant to identify special gifts, talents, or capabilities and to recommend career paths for you based on this. They will also outline growing fields to increase the chance of you getting a good job.
The company is also meant to guide you to maximize your capabilities to improve the chance of you getting a job.
What is the Main Issue with Help for College Now?
The main problem with this organization is that they aren’t transparent about how they operate. They invite high school students and their parents to their seminars.
Afterward, they urge these students to sign up for their program to the tune of $2000. You are urged to sign up at that very moment as there are limited spots.
There is even a sign-up booth at the seminar where you are coaxed into signing a contract.
If you don’t have the $2000 to pay it then and there, then you are given the opportunity to pay for the program in installments. Choose to do this, however, and the overall cost will be raised to $2300.
Even if Help for College Now does provide the services that they claim, their fees are outrageous. You can get these same services for free from not-for-profit organizations.
You can even do your own online research and discover this information for yourself.
Does Help for College Now Live Up to Its Claims?
No, Help for College Now does not provide the kind of services that the website claims. You may get a few meetings after you have paid your fee.
However, it is unlikely that you will find nearly as much assistance as you are looking for. You will certainly not get access to the services or tools that have been mentioned on the website.
What are the Other Red Flags Associated with Help for College Now?
There is an indication that Help for College Now targets first-generation college-goers. It also appears that its target audience is also poorer immigrants.
According to the experiences reported, the service is going after people who don’t much about the college system and are looking for assistance. As these individuals don’t know the ropes, they are also much more likely to be duped into making payments.
The service lacks transparency. They do not go into detail about what kind of features they have or how they will assist students. There do not appear to be any plans and everything is spoken about in broad terms.
To add to this, there are no positive reports regarding Help for College Now. Whenever you go to do research about the website, you get results relating to college and scholarship exams.
Is Help for College Now a Scam?
This is a difficult question to answer. On the one hand, because the company does provide some of the services that they provide, it can’t be considered a total scam.
That being said, the fees associated with this service are way too high. The fact that they increase it to a greater amount due to multiple payments is also unfair.
Last but not least, the service is very predatory and they do not offer the exact services that they talk about which makes them scam adjacent.
Is Help for College Now a Legit Option?
No, neither this service nor this website is a legitimate option for any student – they don’t live up to their promises, charge way too much money, and tend to target a vulnerable percentage of the population to make money.
