<p>I am currently involved with College Admissions Assistance (CAA) and their program is not a scam. There however is a fee. They give you a website, a coach (will explain later on) and many other things. On “your website” you have options to take practice SAT/ACT tests, choose colleges your interested in, and take tests that will show you what a good career choice would be. The earlier you get involved with the program, the better. When you apply to a college, and you get accepted, they help you get more merit aid, which is scholarship money. They help you get the maximum amount of merit aid. This is a great program.</p>
<p>I recieved the letter the other day. All i’m wondering is the CAA is a scam?</p>
<p>I, like many others below, attended a workshop with my daughter several months ago and I did sign up. And am I glad I did. I was asked to sign up at the workshop and the cost was $1995 (in my case for almost 4 years help), but it was not a high pressure sale. I could have just walked away, but am glad I didn’t. </p>
<p>I have read on here that one can do all that CAA does by yourself for free. I don’t believe that. They have done many things I would not have done on my own nor even thought to do. I have checked out SAT Prep courses and they cost from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand. I looked at hiring a college planning consultant which cost $150-$225 per hour in my area. I honestly don’t see how College Admissions Assistance can do what they do for $1995. </p>
<p>To get value out of the program you do have to use it, but they are very good about proactively sending email reminders and calling back. They even call my daughter without asking to just check on her progress. All of the “coaches” (councelors) have been very knowledgeable and helpful. </p>
<p>The financial aide help they are giving me is worth the program alone. If I don’t get $2000 more in financial aide than I would get on my own with the high school councelor’s help, I will be very surprised, since all they have to do is get me an extra $500 per year. And If I do, the program will end up costing me nothing.</p>
<p>Those who call this company a scam either are not in the program or just not using it. If I sound like I am trying to sell the program, I am sorry. I just don’t like seeing people who don’t know what they are talking about flame this program. It is working for my family.</p>
<p>Does anyone wonder how this company got the information about your child???
Did they buy it from somewhere, get it from the schools or school district, or are they fishing??? They knew my son will be starting his freshman year next year and stated such. We are not in the poverty catagory by any means however, if I’ve learned anything from my very wealthy friends scholarships make it easier on the parents later on and can put those saved college funds to other uses as well as the current financial climate is making my 529’s look bad.</p>
<p>yeah i’m a sophomore in CA and have my workshop thing this sunday… it’s early in the morning so i’m not sure if i want to go ahha i don’t want it to be a waste of time and not learn anything… so do think that the workshop was worth it to go to? oh and yeah i guess if they are offering scholarships, i’d need it ahha poverty levelllll but yeah thanks!</p>
<p>I attended one of these conferences and I can’t decide if it is worth the cost. I would like to check it out, if your offer still stands.</p>
<p>its not a small fee its 1k plus i went to one of those conferences</p>
<p>I attended a session this morning with my child. It doesn’t appear to be a scam. It wasn’t hard sell and I am able to go back if I decide to do it. I was tempted simply because I’m not sure where to start and my time is limited. My daughter (senior next year) has decided on where she wants to go and what she wants to do. I just need help finding financial aid possibilities.</p>
<p>I could say the same thing.
My mom and i just got back from a seminar at some hotel where they had a CAA meeting. It seemed legit cause i got an ad in the mail but when we sat down with the lady, she refused to let us even contact the office in Texas to arrange costs. She said all they do is sit down payments after each seminar. Weird.
And…they wanted the money upfront, they said if you could pay now that would be great. Also weird. Their program seemed really large and extensive but I thought it was weird that there were only 4 or 5 families in the room with us and they only have one office in Texas for the “thousands” of students who apply to CAA?</p>
<p>On the other hand, my mom did ask how long theyve been up and running and she said shes been working with them for 8 years and its been going on for 11…she did not seem like a liar…</p>
<p>Everything they had to say seemed promising but in the beginning of the presentation I cringed when they explicitly stated, “we do not help with scholarships.” But later when I asked our counselor about it, she said no, we help you apply to the college you want but we do not do private scholarships. I’m still sort of confused on that one. Theres another workshop tomorrow so my mom and I are still debating whether this is good or not.</p>
<p>If anyone else has feedback about this program, CAA, I would love to hear from you, cause no one needs to be scammed $2000. Even if it isnt a scam, it would help if people told me how helpful the program actually is before we invest in it.</p>
<p>I had one to, I have an appointment tomorrow, so I wanna make sure that I won’t be scammed</p>
<p>Many of the glowing reviews were posted by brand new members to the forums here. Perhaps some of them have a vested interest in CAA and only joined to pump up their product.</p>
<p>We just got back from the workshop, I am a parent and I was saddend by the whole thing, they want $1995.00 for their services and they repeatedly pushed that we use a credit card…it all sounds good, but most of what they offer is available free if you look around…I think they should be up front with the price and services in the letters they send :(</p>
<p>I attended a workshop on July 19th 2009 in Mahwah, NJ. The speaker, Sylvia Balfour, was very polished. She spoke for roughly one hour and then all the families in attendance met one on one with a “counselor”. I was a little skeptical as she never mentioned anything about their fees. After an hour and 15 minute wait to speak one on one with someone, the first question I asked was what their fee was. I was astonished to learn that they charge $1,995 for one student or $,2995 for a “family”. They had dirrerent methods to pay them off that include one time lump payments or monthly payments with roughly 16% interest.</p>
<p>They told me that if I did not sign the contract before I left, the rates would go up to $2,495 and $3,495 respectively. They claimed that the original rates were “only for people who attende the seminars”. </p>
<p>I did not feel comfortable making a large payment to them not knowing much about them as a company. I would advise doing your due diligence before making a payments to this company.</p>
<p>after reading all of these dismal conversations I thought I should add on to the discussion.</p>
<p>I signed up w/ this private corp. last year in my junior year and had the same exp. that you guys described “45 min presentation… etc”. Well lets get on with the CAA stuff…</p>
<p>Here I’ll put it in bullet points… what the CAA offers</p>
<p>-Coaches (Counselors) that you call every now and then. You can ask about ANYTHING. There are many people working there so sometimes you get a really bad coach or a really good coach. One time I asked them when I should take the SAT and then some dude said “YOU CAN TAKE IT IN THE SUMMER”… which was pretty stupidd seeing as though you really cant take SATs in July or august
-Checklist >>> There is a checklist that they give you on CAA that is pretty much a lengthy piece of B.S. that gives you a generic overview of the College Admissions process ---- from NCAA sign ups to college app essays.
-TEST PREP: CAA uses a piece of **** online testing that can barely load on my computer and has numerous problems such as <em>page does not load</em> and sometimes the text can’t be scrolled down on. There are practice tests… which CAA CLAIMS to be REAL practice tests… but i don’t believe they are. They use friggen PROPER NAMES like Jason or Adam in the Reading Comprehension SAT tests which is definitely fake>>> they try to make SAT FUN by using practorials >> microcourses >> and then a VOCAB QUIZ that is sort of like a game~ the vocab game is pretty cool and I like it but you really don’t learn a thing playing it… I’d rather just use flashcards or take a Barrons 800 HOT WORDS book~
-Scholarships/Merit Aid Opportunities: The CAA are nice enough to give you financial aid information for your needs. I guess they do have a decent financial aid program BUT you can really get this info online or at the college’s website. Merit Aid is almost impossible to get… you gotta get top scores, high GPA, and write lots of essays (scholarships)</p>
<p>Overall its an okay program that I used in the fall of my junior year but I haven’t touched it since. I had really nice conversations with a coach who was pretty interested in my Asian Heritage. But I haven’t really used my CAA program for a while… I do check back on it for the checklist now and then. It is really up to you whether or not you want to use this program. It was pretty helpful for me because my parents know literally nothing about college & stuff bcuz they barely speak English and our state budget can’t afford counselors for a public school T_T… I guess CAA helped me b/c they made me feel like I wasn’t alone in this process. </p>
<p>I hope this info has been useful to some of you guys!</p>
<p>hello,
I attended the meeting and went through the entire interview with my mom. We bought in to it, as it sounded very good-- guaranteed financial aid (average of $17,000+) are given to participants, 97% of all students have gotten into either their first or 2nd choice of university. Being that we’ve never invested into such testprep/college assistance by a fee, I felt it was too good to be true. It’s only been a day since we signed up for it, and now I’m regretting having allowed my mom to accept this for me. Should we cancel the plan?? Will there be a penalty? Please- I need your opinion on this!</p>
<p>Thanks for Oxford’s post and so many others, today was our interview and appointment and they sure as hell got me pumped up into joining them (especially for my sister who is in 8th grade). But after reading many posts I am convinced not to buy their program</p>
<p>um. .my parents and i went to CAA and we want to know wat we are getting our selves into before we give our money is it possible for you to tell us what was done with you??</p>
<p>dr.B do you think CAA is really legit and if it is. .is it possible to get out of the contract we signed with them to pick you up?</p>
<p>HenryClay and all the other posters, thanks for all the info, i read through all of it and it really helped me with deciding whether or not i want to stay with the CAA program (i just went to the workshop and signed up today). </p>
<p>i’m going to be a senior this year and i haven’t had a lot of experience with financial aid, merit aid, scholarships, etc. and the CAA seems like it can help me out a lot. again, i just signed up with the CAA so i was just browsing through this thread to check out if this is or isn’t a scam. many of the upperclassmen that i know (who graduated 2008, 2009) told me that they didn’t get much money from the schools they applied and got accepted to (i live in California and we’re going through a major budget crisis). one of my main worries is the financial aid and if i can get that $1900+ back from merit based aid, financial aid, etc. i will be a very happy camper.</p>
<p>looking through the folder/documents that they give you, i have to say that it does look fairly helpful, it gives you this questionnaire to fill out that actually seems quite nice, it asks for personal (but not too personal) questions such as your parents biggest concerns about sending your son/daughter off the college, and what makes you proud of your son/daughter. they also give you a full refund but only “if CAA does not make available the services listed in the ‘Program Description’”.</p>
<p>i am still a little skeptical but i know other “college aid” businesses (one of which my friend’s family owns) in my own city who charge at least $1000+ to help you in only one area that CAA claims to help you in (SAT prep, financial aid, college application review). </p>
<p>again, i am not too concerned with my SAT prep, raising my GPA or anything, just mostly financial aid and applying to college, so if anyone could give some more insight as to whether CAA helped you in those fields, that would be great.</p>
<p>So I get this letter in the mail from an outfit called College Admissions Assistance. I thought out loud “This sounds familiar.” I Googled the name, tacked on “Arlington” from the return address, and the top link took me to Page 2 of this thread.</p>
<p>Gee, whaddya know: I’m Post #20.</p>