College Planning Solutions — Local services in Dublin

Ayden has been amazing help.  For 2020-2021 school year I have a son starting college and a daughter moving into her Junior year in College. I was using a college financial service for the last 2 years and was very unhappy for 2019-2020 school year.  Therefore I spent a lot of time searching and interviewing in Pleasanton, San Ramon, and Dublin Areas for a replacement.  I finally found Ayden and the minute I spoke to him, I can feel the difference here are just a few key points: He doesn't talk like an insurance salesman, he talk like a parent. He doesn't try to scare you to get your business He is very busy, initial consultation may not be immediate, but once he takes in the student, he is very prompt, very reachable via email and phone and appointments.  He has never taken over a few hours returning my email. He is very articulate and explain things/situation/processes very well. He spend time knowing the family he is working with, I absolutely don't feel like we are just ANOTHER family using his service He knows what he is doing, I spent time going through the completed application and asked a lot of questions, I must say he has his strategies... and articulated them to me very well. This is not a franchise service, this is the original and the only one "College Planning Solution" Founded by Ayden himself.  I think that why I never felt like just I am a number. There are so many college planning services around here, I have experienced one that doesn't return emails for days, kept parent password and won't give it up to encourage you to use their service (I can show you email evidence, if you want to know who these people are, contact me) and many that  try to sell you all kinds of add on services during consultation.  I am so glad that I found Ayden - College Planning Solutions.  I don't usually write reviews, but feel I must in this case due to the service I receive and hopefully help others find this great service. Ayden is helping us with our scholarship search as well, I will post an update in Feb or May/2020 once everything is finalized.  I will also be sharing what I have learned during this process with the Tri-Valley Asian Association. Good luck in your college...

It's hard to express how happy I am that I found Ayden and College Planning Solutions. I started working with Ayden and team when my oldest son was a sophomore and my twins were freshmen, and I'm glad we started early. They started working with my sons on rounding out their high school activities and experiences long before the college application process and CPS provides access to tools and data that helped my sons better identify their strengths and interests. As we got closer to college application time, the team helped to identify schools that were a good fit for my sons' academic and extracurricular interests. I was also able to get a good idea of the likelihood of financial aid and how much.

During the application process, Ayden's team did an outstanding job of reviewing essays, taking the pressure off of me in keeping my sons on schedule in meeting application deadlines. My sons responded so much better to the coaching, prodding and encouragement from Ayden's team than they ever would have if it were solely up to me.

In the end, my sons all got into at least one of their top school choices and have been very happy with their decisions. Ayden also pointed me to his colleagues at College Planning Experts who have been very helpful in mapping out how to pay for 3 kids in college over a 5-6 year period.

It has been a joy working with Ayden not only because he's extremely knowledgeable and efficient in what he does, but he's also an incredibly nice guy and he hires and works with people who are equally knowledgeable and...

I've been fortunate to work with Ayden and his team at College Planning Solutions for over one year. I first met Ayden at an informative presentation on college planning at Castro Valley High School. During all my interactions with Ayden, one thing was apparent--his kind attention to my concerns for my son's success in the college admission process and his wealth of knowledge about how best to maximize my son's financial aid award. I called Ayden recently to get a quote on the cost of having him assist me with my son's financial aid submission for next school year, and I was surprised and pleased that he wouldn't charge me additional for this service! He also gave me income threshold information for my son and other important information about private lenders that will allow me to be removed as a co-signer after the first year of the loan. As a single parent with a fixed income, I appreciated knowing this information.

I also found Ayden's proprietary database on college statistics very helpful. The database gave me access to information all in one convenient place and saved me tons of research hours. And, as a result, my son was considered and accepted to two respected private universities in Northern California for which he would not have had it not been for his on-campus interviews and...