HelloCollege · Data & Reporting Standards
Every statistic HelloCollege publishes is documented here: where the data comes from, how each figure is calculated, and what the denominator is.
Last updated: September 4, 2026 · Next scheduled review: January 2027
HelloCollege is a college admissions consulting company founded in 2012. We publish outcome statistics on our website, in our marketing, and in materials given to families deciding whether to work with us. This page documents the method behind each of those statistics.
Every statistic published under the HelloCollege name should have its basis described here. To report one that is missing, or a figure you believe is wrong, see data requests.
These conventions apply to every figure on this page and to HelloCollege published copy generally.
| Source | What it holds | Nature of the data |
|---|---|---|
| Student portal database | Applications and admission decisions, standardized test scores, essay assignments and completions, enrollment and service records, student geography | Administrative records entered by HelloCollege staff and families over the course of an engagement |
| Annual exit survey | Student-reported admissions outcomes, scholarships, and experience ratings, collected at the end of each senior year | Student-reported; optional |
| Accounts-receivable and company records | Withdrawals, refunds, written-off balances, workshop registration and attendance, founding and location records | Finance and operations records |
| HubSpot CRM | Lead source, referral attribution, consultation records | Sales and marketing system records |
| Staff roster | Degrees, licensures, admissions-office and counseling experience | Staff-reported credentials, maintained by HelloCollege |
| Third-party sources | Google and Trustpilot ratings, Forbes Advisor recognition, BBB accreditation, NACAC membership, press coverage, published institutional acceptance rates | External. Owned and published by the third party. |
Most HelloCollege experience and satisfaction statistics come from a single instrument: an exit survey completed by graduating seniors at the end of their engagement. The figures currently published are from the Class of 2026 survey.
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Population | 618 students in the HelloCollege Class of 2026 senior cohort |
| Respondents | 301 distinct students submitted the survey |
| Response rate | 48.7% (301 of 618) |
| Collection window | June 16, 2025 – June 23, 2026, rolling as each student completed their cycle |
| Instrument | 19 questions across three service lines: counseling (13), essay coaching (2), tutoring (4) |
| Question format | 17 Yes/No, 2 multiple choice. All questions optional. |
| Administration | Delivered inside the HelloCollege student portal; responses stored in the portal survey database |
| Response basis | Student-reported |
Every published exit-survey percentage is Yes ÷ (Yes + No) for that question. Two categories are excluded from the denominator:
Because every question was optional and some applied only to a subset of students, the denominator is different for every metric. It is stated with each figure. The all-response figure including N/A is recorded for every metric and available on request.
Survey figures describe survey respondents, and each is published with its response base.
Rounding. Class of 2026 survey figures are published as whole numbers with two deliberate exceptions. “Felt more confident applying” and “Stayed organized and met deadlines” are held at 99.7% rather than rounded to 100%, because exactly one student answered “No” on each.
| What we publish | Figure | Basis | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accepted to one of their top three college choices | 92% | 268 of 291 | Share of respondents accepted to a top-three choice. |
| Accepted to their single #1 choice | 49% | 142 of 291 | Subset of the figure above; the two overlap. |
| Accepted to at least one reach school Also published as “3 in 4” | 76% | 207 of 273 | “Reach” is identified by the student. 51% (140 of 273) were accepted to two or more. |
| Reported earning private or merit scholarships | 89% | 262 of 295 | Student-reported. |
| Believed they had better outcomes than peers who applied alone | 79% | 230 of 290 | Student perception. |
| Felt more confident applying to college | 99.7% | 297 of 298 | Held at one decimal. One student answered No. |
| Said HelloCollege made the process less stressful | 98% | 290 of 296 | — |
| Stayed organized and met application deadlines | 99.7% | 296 of 297 | Held at one decimal. One student answered No. |
| Said HelloCollege helped them avoid a costly mistake | 94% | 269 of 286 | Student’s characterization. |
| Built a well-rounded, strategic college list | 99% | 291 of 293 | — |
| Would recommend HelloCollege | 99% | 295 of 297 | Recommendation rate. |
| Introduced to a college they had not known before | 72% | 214 of 296 | Measures awareness. |
| Willing to be a resource for future students | 77% | 226 of 293 | Stated willingness. |
| Said HelloCollege helped elevate their application | 96% | 262 of 274 | Base is students who did this planning; 22 answered N/A. |
| Felt more confident about their college essays | 98% | 284 of 290 | Measures confidence. |
| Said their essay coach helped them tell a more compelling story | 95% | 273 of 287 | — |
| Tutoring clients who felt more confident in the subjects tutored | 100% | 60 of 60 | Tutoring clients. Zero No responses. |
| Tutoring clients who looked forward to weekly sessions | 95% | 54 of 57 | Tutoring clients. |
| Tutoring clients who would recommend HelloCollege Tutoring | 92% | 58 of 63 | Tutoring clients. |
Two different kinds of admissions claim appear in HelloCollege materials, and they are calculated in completely different ways.
This analysis compares the rate at which HelloCollege students were admitted to ranked institutions against those institutions’ own published acceptance rates.
| Tier | HC applications | Admits expected at published rates | Admits actually received | HC rate | Benchmark rate | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivy League (8) | 52 | 2.8 | 8 | 15.4% | 5.4% | 2.8× |
| Ivy+ (12) | 76 | 3.7 | 12 | 15.8% | 4.9% | 3.2× |
| Top 25 national | 267 | 25 | 61 | 22.8% | 9.4% | 2.4× |
| Top 25 liberal arts | 24 | 2.5 | 8 | 33.3% | 10.4% | 3.2× |
It is a descriptive comparison. Read the table as expected-versus-actual. Across 267 applications to Top 25 national universities, the published rates of those specific institutions — in the mix HelloCollege students applied in — predicted 25 admits. Those applications produced 61. At the eight Ivy League institutions, 52 applications predicted under three admits and produced eight.
The school mix is held constant. Each application is benchmarked against the published rate of the institution it went to, so the ratio does not vary with the selectivity of the schools students chose.
These are observational figures. Families who hire an admissions consultant differ from the general applicant pool in ways this analysis does not measure — academic preparation, family resources, planning start date and college-list strategy among them.
Tier is the smallest unit reported. Application counts at individual institutions are frequently under ten, so ratios are published at tier level only.
A separate measure. Coverage means at least one HelloCollege student has been admitted to a given institution across a stated multi-year window. It is a count of institutions over that window.
Coverage counts institutions with at least one recorded admit during the stated window. Admission volume and admission rates are reported separately, in 3a above.
Test-prep figures come from the student portal and are score records. All figures below are from the Class of 2026 analyses.
| Figure | Result | Basis | Official-sittings-only basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average point gain, 10+ hours of SAT tutoring | +150 | 28 students (median also +150) | +142 |
| Average gain, students starting below 1260 | +177 | 18 students | +170 |
| Share gaining 100 or more points | 82% | 23 of 28 students; 54% gained 150+ | — |
| Highest single recorded gain | +350 | One student, 1180 → 1530, 18 hours of tutoring | Verified official College Board score |
The +177 figure applies to students who started below 1260; the general figure is +150. The +350 figure is a single case, on a verified official College Board score.
The Class of 2026 SAT analysis includes a comparison group drawn from the same graduating class: 32 students with two or more SAT scores and zero hours of SAT tutoring. Gains are compared within the same starting-score band, which holds prior achievement constant.
| Starting score | 10+ hours of SAT tutoring | No SAT tutoring |
|---|---|---|
| 1100–1250 | +187 | +72 |
| 1260–1350 | +139 | +72 |
| 1360 and above | +70 | +47 |
Holding starting score constant controls for the possibility that tutored students began with more room to improve. The comparison is observational: students chose whether to purchase tutoring and how many hours to use. The figure describes the point gain relative to untutored classmates in the same starting-score band.
| Figure | Result | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Average point gain, 10+ hours of ACT tutoring | +5 | 19 students; mean +5.3, median +5. Official sittings at both ends: +3.7 (18 students) |
| Comparison group within the class | +1.4 | 39 students with no ACT tutoring, from the 88-student dataset |
| Highest single recorded gain | +10 | One student, 21 → 31, with 9.5 hours of tutoring, on official sittings at both ends |
The ACT dataset is the 88 Class of 2026 students with two or more valid ACT records. Best-case figures are published only where both ends are official sittings.
The Enhanced ACT phased in during this testing window, so some baselines and outcomes were taken on different versions of the test. No adjustment has been made for this. It applies to the ACT figures only.
Named or identifiable use of an individual student’s score requires signed family consent on file. Published best-case figures therefore state the score change and the tutoring hours without identifying the student.
Coverage is stated with each aid figure.
| Figure | Result | Basis and denominator |
|---|---|---|
| Reported earning private or merit scholarships | 89% | 262 of 295 exit-survey responses. Student-reported. |
| Median best financial aid offer per student | $30,000 | Median of each student’s single best recorded aid offer, among the 230 of 618 students with a recorded award — about 37% coverage. |
| Students offered $40,000 or more | 24% | 56 of the 230 students with a recorded award. |
The source field in the portal mixes annual award amounts with four-year totals. A mean would be distorted by that mixture, so the median is reported.
The figure is the median among the 230 of 618 students with a recorded dollar amount in the portal — about 37% coverage. It is reported as a median for that group, with its base stated.
These are administrative counts from the portal, company records and the staff roster.
| Figure | Definition and as-of date |
|---|---|
| Founded 2012 | Company records. |
| 5,700+ students and families | Student portal, cumulative all-time since 2012. Distinct from currently active clients. |
| 900+ active students and families | Student portal: 927 as of August 17, 2026. “Active” means currently enrolled in a HelloCollege service. This count is seasonal — it peaked near 1,364 in May 2026, before the senior class graduated. |
| 618 students | Class of 2026 senior cohort, student portal. Counts students, not families — one family can enroll two students. |
| 48 states and 18 countries | Student portal, all-time student footprint. |
| 5,000+ consultations by Kevin Krebs | Internal sales tracking records of one-on-one family consultations, cumulative since 2012. 2,905 consultations are individually logged across the 61 months of surviving month-by-month records — calendar 2019, January to October 2020, and June 2023 onward — including 2,223 in the 39 months from June 2023 to August 2026. Periods before 2019 and between November 2020 and May 2023 predate the current CRM and are estimated at or below the rates recorded on either side of them, which makes the cumulative figure conservative. |
| 50,000+ families reached | Event and registration records: 53,000+ registrations since 2019. “Reached” means registered. Attendance is a separate and smaller figure — 16,500+ attendees since 2021. |
Counted from the portal database as essay assignments marked Completed, synced through July 4, 2026. These count completed assignments rather than individual drafts.
Students write their own essays; HelloCollege coaching is feedback and guidance.
Source: the HelloCollege staff roster, as of August 19, 2026. Headcounts and credential counts change with staffing and are re-derived from the roster each publication cycle rather than carried forward.
| Figure | Definition |
|---|---|
| 25+ college counselors 20+ tutors 40+ essay coaches | Roster headcount by role. |
| 15 doctoral degrees | Completed doctoral degrees spanning PhD, EdD, DMA, MD, DMD and JD. A further 6 are in progress and are excluded from the 15. |
| 75% hold a master’s degree or higher | 66+ team members, including the 15 doctoral degrees above. |
| 60+ combined years of admissions-office experience | Summed across the team, from staff-reported histories at institutions including Pepperdine, Occidental, UC Berkeley, Northeastern, the University of Chicago, Washington University in St. Louis and others. Summed across the team. |
| 120+ combined years of college counseling experience | Summed across the team. |
| 300+ combined years of essay-coaching experience | Summed across the essay team. |
| 7 licensed school counselors | Team members who are or have been professionally licensed school counselors. |
| 10+ years average professional experience | Career experience in their field. |
| All college counselors are NACAC members | HelloCollege pays for individual National Association for College Admission Counseling membership centrally for every college counselor. Rechecked each hiring cycle. |
These ratings are calculated and published by the platforms, not by HelloCollege. Figures are as of September 2026. Each links to the live source, which supersedes this page if the two differ.
The two platforms use different rating models and different review-verification rules, so each is reported separately with its own review count.
Retention is a finance measure, calculated from accounts-receivable records joined to portal enrollment counts.
Retention rate = 1 − (distinct students who withdrew or had a balance written off during the calendar year ÷ distinct students served that calendar year)
Numerator: distinct students appearing on the annual refunds-and-write-offs record. This captures both families who left and received money back and families whose unpaid balance was written off as bad debt.
Denominator: distinct students with at least one hours transaction — purchased or consumed — in the portal during that calendar year.
This is the broader of the two definitions available in the source records; the narrower one is given below.
| Year | Students served | Withdrawals + write-offs | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 886 | 33 | 96.3% |
| 2024 | 1,207 | 17 | 98.6% |
| 2025 | 1,504 | 28 | 98.1% |
| 2023–2025 weighted | 3,597 | 78 | 97.8% |
97.8% is the weighted three-year figure, covering 2023–2025. The three-year window is stated wherever the figure appears.
Three further notes on this figure:
Retention here is measured in students, not dollars.
Four figures are published on a different basis than in earlier HelloCollege materials. The current basis governs.
| Metric | Class of 2025 | Class of 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted to at least one reach school | 82% | 76% |
| Reported earning scholarships | 96% | 89% |
| Introduced to a college they had not known | 80% | 72% |
| Accepted to a top-three choice | 93% | 92% |
| Made the process less stressful | 99% | 98% |
| Stayed organized and met deadlines | 100% | 99.7% |
| Felt more confident applying | 99% | 99.7% |
| Felt more confident on essays | 96% | 98% |
| Avoided a costly mistake | 90% | 94% |
| Built a strategic college list | 95% | 99% |
| Would recommend HelloCollege | 92% | 99% |
HelloCollege collects and calculates it internally. Survey responses are captured in our student portal; admissions, test-score and essay records are held in our portal database; retention comes from our accounts-receivable records. Review platform ratings, Forbes Advisor recognition, BBB accreditation, NACAC membership and press coverage are the only third-party items on this page.
Exit-survey figures are student-reported and labeled as such. Figures drawn from our portal database — test scores, application decisions, essay counts, enrollment — are administrative records. Every statistic on this page identifies which of the two it is.
Because “N/A” means the question did not apply to that student, and including inapplicable students in a denominator understates the result among students the question was actually about. This matters most for tutoring: most survey respondents were not tutoring clients and correctly answered N/A. We publish the applicable-student basis, always with its denominator, and we hold the all-response figure for every metric on request.
As expected-versus-actual. HelloCollege Class of 2025 students were admitted at about 2.4 times the published rate of the Top 25 institutions they applied to, with each application benchmarked against the published rate of the institution it went to. These are observational figures describing students who worked with us. The test-prep analysis in section 4 adds an internal comparison group of 32 untutored classmates, matched on starting-score band.
It means whatever the student considered a reach. The survey asked how many reach schools each student was accepted to and let students apply their own judgment; HelloCollege did not supply a selectivity threshold or classify schools on the student’s behalf. The 76% figure is a student-defined measure, published as “accepted to at least one reach school.”
Exit-survey, essay, aid and test-prep figures are from the Class of 2026, whose survey closed June 23, 2026. Acceptance-rate comparison figures are from the Class of 2025 analysis; the Class of 2026 acceptance-rate analysis is in progress. Admission-coverage claims are cumulative across the Classes of 2024–2026. Retention is a weighted three-year figure covering calendar years 2023–2025. Scale, team and third-party figures carry their own as-of dates in the sections above.
Two reasons. Figures are re-derived each year as a new graduating class completes its cycle, and some are published on a different basis than before — section 8 lists the changes. Third-party directories and review sites sometimes carry older HelloCollege figures that are no longer published; HelloCollege requests corrections where it finds them but does not control their content. This page is the authoritative source for any HelloCollege statistic. If a figure elsewhere conflicts with this page, this page is correct.
The full response distribution for any exit-survey question — including the all-response basis, the N/A count and the No count — and the tier-level detail behind the acceptance-rate analysis are available on request. Student-level records are not, as they contain personally identifiable information about minors. Request details below.
For the detail behind any figure on this page, or a figure you believe is wrong, contact [email protected]. Responses include the numerator, the denominator and the source.
HelloCollege
Marketing and data inquiries: [email protected]
Results overview: sayhellocollege.com/our-results/
Press coverage: sayhellocollege.com/news-and-press/
Reviewed on publication of each graduating class’s results, and at least twice per year. Last updated September 4, 2026.
