TERMS OF SERVICE

SERVICES AND PRICING

Sessions are typically 1-2 hours long (unless otherwise agreed upon) and can be held in person or remotely. To ensure that virtual sessions are as engaging as possible, we expect that students will log on (via Zoom, Google Meet, or Skype) with a camera-enabled, microphone-enabled device. If the student is unable to accommodate this request for any reason, the family should communicate this to the Tutor/Counselor in writing prior to the first virtual session.

Packages used for academic tutoring include any supplementary books/materials the Tutor deems necessary. ISEE and HSPT students receive sample exams, a GE College Prep strategy guide, and a silent stopwatch, while ACT and SAT students receive an official study guide, a GE College Prep strategy guide, a silent stopwatch, and binders of additional exams as needed. If any materials are lost or damaged, parents/students are welcome to purchase replacements by contacting the office.

All packages/hours purchased are non-refundable, but they are transferable among equivalent types of tutors/counselors. Remaining hours can also be transferred among staff tiers via a one-time conversion. Contact the office by email at contact@gecollegeprep.com or by phone at 888-917-7737 to request a one-time transfer. Hours can also be shared with siblings and do not expire. 

If the parent or student purchases a package and is not satisfied with the assigned tutor/counselor after the first session, Great Expectations College Prep agrees to send another tutor/counselor to repeat the first session, free of charge.

PAYMENT

Payment can be made one of four ways:

  • Online — pay by credit or debit card on our website at https://www.gecollegeprep.com
  • Phone — pay by credit or debit card by calling the office at 888-917-7737
  • Email — request an invoice from the office, and click the link to pay online
  • Mail — send check or money order to 12531 Mitchell Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90066

All payments must be received before sessions can be scheduled. If a payment has not been made but a session has been tentatively scheduled, the tutor/counselor reserves the right to cancel that session.

SCHEDULING

All parties are expected to update their contact information in the GE College Prep portal should it change at any time.

The Tutor/Counselor will communicate directly with the parent and/or student for all scheduling matters. Scheduling is done on a first-come, first-served basis; last-minute scheduling requests cannot always be granted, so booking sessions as far in advance as possible is strongly recommended. Great Expectations College Prep cannot guarantee availability of Tutors/Counselors and is not responsible for any resulting damages. The client acknowledges that changes in scheduling may result in students missing deadlines or failing to reach academic or test prep goals.

PUNCTUALITY

All parties agree to arrive on time, fully prepared. If any party is more than 10 minutes late, he/she must inform the other via text or phone to avoid the assumption of a “no-show.”

If the Tutor/Counselor is late, he/she will do whichever is most convenient for the parent and student: stay late to complete the full length of the session, or end at the agreed-upon time and only charge for the time worked, making up for the lost time at the next session.

If the student is late, the Tutor/Counselor is entitled to leave at the previously agreed-upon time and bill for the full length of the session.

CANCELLATION POLICY

Last-minute cancellations make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to fill time slots. Therefore, Great Expectations College Prep maintains the following cancellation policy:

Staff: 50% for less than 24 hours' notice and 100% for less than 6 hours' notice

Founder: 50% for less than 36 hours' notice and 100% for same-day cancellations

Group Tutoring Cancellations: If a student is unable to attend his/her scheduled group session, 100% of the session duration will be deducted from his/her account. If all students must cancel or reschedule, the entire group is subject to 50% for less than 24 hours' notice and 100% for less than 6 hours' notice.

If a Tutor/Counselor cancels on a student within the aforementioned parameters, the student receives one future cancellation free of penalty.

Cancellations must be made in writing via text or email. The parties can be reached at the contact information provided in the GE College Prep portal. Proctored exam cancellations must be made via email to the office staff (exams@gecollegeprep.com) by 12:00pm the Friday prior to the exam to avoid forfeiting exam credits.

COMMUNICATION

Students must be present and active in the process since these are their college applications, and this is their education. It is important that counseling students attend sessions with the Counselor and that the Counselor does not advise solely over email and/or only meet with the parents. Prior to an academic tutoring session, we expect the student to send the class syllabus (if applicable), assignment instructions, and/or writing prompts to the Tutor for review. Tutors/Counselors will primarily conduct written communication via email and will reserve longer discussions for sessions, which will then be documented in session reports. Tutors/Counselors will not communicate important information via text message; this protects both the Tutor/Counselor and the client from misunderstandings. Texting is appropriate for scheduling and communicating urgent matters.

PROCTORED EXAMS

Great Expectations College Prep offers proctored exams for standardized tests on most Saturdays and Sundays, both remotely and at various locations. Test prep students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of these exams, which are built into Great Expectations’ test prep curriculum and are a crucial part of standardized test training. Proctored exams can be scheduled by contacting your Counselor/Tutor. If no account credits remain but the student takes a proctored exam, Great Expectations College Prep will deduct 0.5 tutoring hours from the student’s account. Students should meet with a GE College Prep tutor within one week of taking a proctored exam to review the results in detail.

All test prep packages come with a minimum of three free proctored exams, which are valid for the duration of the package and must be used prior to the package completion. Unused exams are not eligible for refunds and cannot be treated as tutoring/counseling hours.

SESSION REPORTS

Session Reports are online summaries and updates of the student’s strengths, weaknesses, improvements, etc. Once the tutor/counselor enters his/her notes on the GE College Prep portal, the parent and student will receive an automatic report via email within 24 hours of a session.

The parent and student agree to review said Session Reports and contact the Tutor/Counselor with any questions or concerns. They also agree to clarify any assignments or suggestions that are, in any way, unclear.

REFERRALS

Great Expectations College Prep offers a 10% credit for any referrals parents and/or students send its way. The new family must mention the referring parent’s (or student’s) name when initially booking their package to activate the credit. If two unrelated parents and/or students refer the same family, they will each get a 5% credit. For new families who opt to split their package payment, referral credits may take up to 30 days to be reflected. The referring parent/student will receive an email notification once the referral credit has been processed.

The referral credit is not applicable if a new family joins a referring family’s group for group tutoring; it is only applicable for private tutoring/counseling packages. Referral credits are only applicable to the first package purchased by a new family.

NON-CIRCUMVENTION

All parties acknowledge that they have been introduced to one another by Great Expectations College Prep.

Parents and students specifically acknowledge that their respective Tutors/Counselors are employed by Great Expectations College Prep and have been referred in good faith; they therefore agree to not do business privately for a period of five (5) years after the final session with the company.

LIABILITY

Great Expectations College Prep recommends that a parent be present during all sessions held in the home. Should the parent disregard this recommendation, they release Great Expectations College Prep and the Tutor/Counselor from any/all liability.

Sessions may also be held in a public location, including but not limited to a library, coffee shop, bookstore, etc. Whether a session is held inside the home or a public location, the parent and student agree to hold harmless Great Expectations College Prep and the Tutor/Counselor from liability for personal injury or property damage which may arise by reason of, or as a result from, participation in or travel to/from said activities.

Great Expectations College Prep reserves the right to remove a Tutor/Counselor from any situation that it considers dangerous, inappropriate, or otherwise unacceptable.

 

CODE OF ETHICS AND EXPECTATIONS

 

COLLEGE COUNSELING

 A GE College Counselor Can: Advise on course selection, standardized testing, extracurricular and summer programs, activities lists and resume composition, college list building, early action/early decision plans, senior questionnaires/brag sheets, essay brainstorming, and Naviance/Scoir/Schoology. The Counselor can also review applications with the student to ensure accuracy, help the student to set up and navigate portals, prepare students for interviews with admissions officers and/or alumni, and assist students with composing deferral and rejection appeals and communications with admissions. The Counselor will share the essays with the parents upon request once the Counselor feels that the essays are developed enough to share; if the parents want input on the essay topic, the Counselor and parents can discuss it in a session or a call.  

Assignments: If assignments are not completed before the next session, it will slow the overall process, compromise the ability to meet deadlines, and waste time in the sessions while the student completes the work. Great Expectations College Prep is not accountable for lack of progress on the student’s part if homework assignments are not completed.

SENIOR AGREEMENT

In order to ensure a successful and minimally stressful college application process, each counselor, senior, and a parent/guardian will sign this agreement at the beginning of the application process to acknowledge the following policies:

A GE College Counselor Can: Advise on all parts of the application process, including building college lists, brainstorming and assisting with essays, deferral and rejection appeals, and communications with admissions. However, we expect that the student will be the primary writer and architect of the essays; parents will not rewrite the essays on behalf of the student and will instead communicate any concerns to the Counselor in order to address them. 

A GE College Counselor Will Not: Do the work for students; this includes research on schools and majors, filling out applications or creating resumes, writing essays or changing the student’s voice in a way that compromises the integrity of the piece, or procuring employment or internship opportunities for the student.

Assignments: The Counselor will assign the necessary homework for the student to successfully stay on schedule, and he/she will record assignments along with the date and time that they are due (if determined). If the student is behind, the Counselor will document it in session reports and emails (as necessary) so that the parents are aware of any delay.

Deadline-Based Rate Increase: 

In order to encourage students to avoid the frazzled, last-minute completion/submission of applications, we have implemented internal deadlines, after which the rate increases to time-and-a-half. This is to ensure that students have time to produce quality work, increase availability in Counselors’ schedules, and mitigate the potential (and frequent) issues of overloaded application websites crashing. We have seen diminishing returns when students work right up until official deadlines, so we adhere to the following schedule: 

  • For schools with a deadline of November 1, all applications must be completed and submitted by October 25. 

  • For schools with a deadline of November 15, all applications must be completed and submitted by November 8. 

  • For schools with a deadline of November 30 / December 1, all applications must be completed and submitted by November 20. 

  • For schools with deadlines between January 1-5, all applications must be completed and submitted by December 21. 

After these cutoff dates, if work on applications must continue, the time-and-a-half rate will be applied to all hours billed during that period on applications with those deadlines. 

 

ACADEMIC TUTORING

A GE Academic Tutor Can: Provide one-on-one or group instruction that aims to clarify, explain, substantiate, and deepen a student’s knowledge of academic course content. The Tutor empowers students to engage with course material accurately and thoughtfully.

The Tutor will also teach students the skills necessary for academic success (test-taking skills, essay-writing skills, analytical skills, etc.). The Tutor can assist students in brainstorming essays and offer guiding questions and feedback, as well as grammar edits on essays.

A GE Academic Tutor Will Not: Write academic essays or projects for the student or change the student’s voice in a way that compromises the integrity of the piece, do the research/assigned course reading entirely for the student, assist the student during online exams, or encourage academic dishonesty in any shape or form.

Assignments: The Tutor will assign homework deemed necessary for the student’s success and record assignments along with the date and time that they are due (if determined). If assignments are not completed before the next session, it will slow the overall process, compromise the ability to meet assignment deadlines, and waste time in the session while the student completes the work. Great Expectations College Prep is not accountable for lack of progress on the student’s part if homework assignments are not completed.
 

TEST PREP TUTORING 

A GE Test Prep Tutor Can: Identify standardized testing strengths and weaknesses for students and tailor curricula to enable student success on standardized tests. Tutors will outline for students the key components of a given standardized test, assist students in the review of concepts tested, and empower students with standardized testing strategies for specific exam sections and the exam at large.

Assignments: Improvement on standardized tests requires repeated exposure and practice. Students are unlikely to see improvement unless they are completing all assigned homework and reviewing concepts and materials outside of their lessons with tutors. Tutors serve as guides in test preparation, but the onus is on the student to put in prep time outside of sessions, particularly those who are aiming to achieve high scores or are looking to make substantial jumps in their scores. The Tutor will assign any homework deemed necessary for the student’s success and record assignments along with the date and time that they are due (if determined). If assignments are not completed before the following session, it will slow the overall process and jeopardize a student’s readiness for upcoming exams. Great Expectations College Prep is not accountable for lack of progress on the student’s part if homework assignments are not completed. All increases in scores are contingent on a student’s work ethic and innate abilities.

Scheduling: Tutoring, particularly test prep tutoring, requires consistency in order to yield maximum results. Students should therefore be meeting with their tutors at least 1-2 times per week to ensure their stated goals have the best chance of being achieved. Great Expectations College Prep heavily discourages students from taking substantial (greater than one week) breaks from test prep prior to an official exam. Breaks (due to vacations, sports commitments, etc.) are sometimes unavoidable, and in such cases, sessions missed should be made up in subsequent weeks to ensure retention of content knowledge and maintenance of progress. Additionally, sessions should ideally be scheduled up front, all the way until the student’s target exam date. This ensures hours are used appropriately for the specified goal and prevents clients from having leftover hours that should have been put toward meeting that goal. 

Sessions: We expect the student to be present and attentive throughout the learning process, as this is their education. Cell phone use, checking social media, and other behavior unrelated to the tutoring session are strongly discouraged. Additionally, students should be scheduling sessions with their tutors only at times that enable them to give maximum attention and energy to the session. This ensures students are getting the most out of their sessions and that time and resources are not being wasted by either party. The specific days and times that meet these criteria will vary from student to student, but in general, sessions taking place late at night – after an entire day of school, sports commitments, and tutoring for other subjects – are likely not optimal.