Theresa S.

Once you get on Jean Keller's email list, she sends you email after email telling you that if you don't hire her to help you through the college application and financial aid maze, what you don't know could end up costing you tens of thousands of dollars. So you buy in to the hype and plunk down $2-5K in hopes of saving $20-80K on your kids' education. Well, she might know her stuff, but her delivery is sooooo bad, that I probably would have been better off buying a book for $20.00 on Amazon to help me instead.

I got way too much email, including her marketing stuff (I already purchased-- take me off that list!) as well as stuff that applied to a child graduating in a year that did not apply to my family (in spite of several emails asking them to fix the error).

Then I received a 68-page document to weed through that was supposed to help me fill out the FAFSA and CSS. It didn't help at all because it was based on my tax return estimate that I had to give to her six months before the end of the tax year. It was useless.

My "coaching sessions" had to be scheduled weeks in advance in order to get on her calendar. Who really wants to wait two weeks to ask a question? Most of my questions were time-sensitive, so after reviewing the availabilities on her online calendar, I usually just proceeded without getting any advice from her.

When I had a critical point of indecision and did get her on the phone, she would not give me her opinion. She kept telling me that "it was a risk" either way. I thought she had expertise that I was paying her to share with me?

Multiple email and phone inquiries went unanswered. And if I did get an answer, it was only after I sent at least two (usually three) follow up emails.

She did have a monthly group Q&A that I could have participated in, but it was always on the same day of the week, and I have an unmovable commitment on that day; not her fault technically, but wouldn't it make sense to vary the schedule to accommodate everyone?

I received multiple requests telling me I had to update them on my status. Each time I was reminded that I had to enter ALL of the information I had previously submitted in addition to the updates because any new information would overwrite anything previously submitted.

In the end, I don't think her service saved me one red cent. My son got in to his first choice college, and got a nice scholarship. But I don't think that I did anything different with Keller College Services that I would have done without it. A complete waste of money.