Is BeMo a Legit Company?

So, Is BeMo Academic Consulting Legit: Why BeMo? 

It's helpful to first explain what we don't do. right off the bat, it's important to state that we're incredibly sensitive to the sometimes anxiety-enhancing aspects of the way academic consulting presents itself. Any academic service that positions itself as universally needed, or as the last chance for students to not fail, is doing way more harm than good.

An undergraduate student applying to law school, for instance, is in almost every case going to be teeming with entirely rational anxiety, and to weaponize that to make money is simply unethical. Moreover, the kinds of students who often feel the most fear are those for whom their hoped-for career is steeped in meaning and personal, even emotional investment, but struggle to meet one or more of the central admissions criteria like a high MCAT score or highly polished medical school personal statement.

The whole reason we’re here rests on two assertions:

1. That admissions screening practices often have a hard time selecting students based on their sense of intrinsic motivation—the best predictor of future success
2. And that students from historically underserved or underrepresented demographics are often those who have the hardest time with the “big” quantitative elements like admissions tests and GPA, MCAT, personal statements, Multiple Mini Interview, and CASPer.

This is a complicated intersection of a lot of different forces—some sociological, some economic, some political, and a whole lot else. If you like to learn more click here to watch our CEO TEDx talk or review this article which includes references that point to some of the shortcomings of most selection tools out there.

To some extent this can all be classified as "admissions bias," but we find terms like this can be a bit misleading to some extent. Committees in general do genuinely want to recruit intrinsically motivated students—they're not consciously falling into the same patterns of favoring the already-privileged—but the problem is, as we just mentioned, the tools they have to accomplish this task.

A big part of why we started BeMo, then, is enabling better communication between students and committees. Our number 1 goal is always, always, to deliver improved results/outcomes for our students, but this doesn't occur in a vacuum. And so, in addition to standardized tests, our strategies focus on elements like essays, situational judgement test and interviews which many students struggle with, in order to not only improve performance on them but to make sure that this is done in a way that's immediately apparent and impactful for admissions committees.

To do all this, we’ve come to focus on some specific strategies.

Is BeMo Legit: How We Do What We Do 

BeMo's Team and Purpose

Our team is not, and never will be, a bullpen of assembly-line tutors who work for peanuts, or worse yet solely on commission or something else grotesquely sales-oriented. When we interview for our positions, whether as an admissions expert or content writer, student support or accounting, a huge part of our interview was to discuss why we want to do this kind of work, and why we were attracted to the BeMo mission.

No one is here because it’s “just a job"—we’re here because we actually, genuinely care about education and specifically about making higher education as accessible as possible to everyone. There are ZERO commission-based positions at BeMo. In fact, our student support is given instructions to dissuade people from using our services when we believe the students don’t have a realistic chance of success. And beyond this, it’s work we don’t just feel passionately about, but have considerable skill in performing. We're all here because we have students' best interests at heart, and most of us arrived with this motivation already established, whether from prior admissions work, teaching, or other very public-facing vocations. Moreover, each person at BeMo shares this single overarching goal, from our marketing department to student services and everyone in between.

Want to hear from one of our own students? Watch this video!

Here's another review from our students:

"I recently has a brainstorming session with Mikky Atser and it was fantastic! I was completely lost with my thoughts and was unsure how I would make them all connect into a coherent essay, but with Mikky's help I was able to piece something together that I am proud of." - Geoffrey, BeMo student.

How We Develop Our Strategies

But let’s be even more specific. Our founder is, frankly, a bit of a nerd. And the people who run our student services fit that label pretty well too. In particular, we’re data nerds. We don’t do things because they’re just basic consensus strategies, nor do we latch onto strategies that have worked for us (nearly all of whom have been through graduate education of some kind) personally and just farm them out to students. Rather, we, like any worthwhile educational cohort, are in a never-ending process of refinement and analysis—we’re self-critical and continually learning from every experience and planning session we participate in. Everything we do, from top to bottom, is scientifically tested and proven.

For instance, we recently did an analysis of our CASPer and interview prep programs, and found that students who utilized our services did a whopping 23% to 27% better on average on practice scores, respectively. You can read the full report here. The tests are, for anyone unaware, tests that boast being impossible to prepare for, that you should just "be yourself" and hope for the best. Of course, this made us happy, for our students and for our sense of implementing successful strategies, but a statistic like this is just a guide for further evolution and refinement of everything from consultant methodology to content design.

"People may say test prep companies aren’t worth it, but honestly I feel that this course was an investment for me. Helen Martin was incredibly gentle, patient, honest, and clear with me during my CASPer prep sessions. The way she structured our time together, I was detecting my own mistakes in no time. I am sure the rest of their tutors and instructors are equally as qualified and empowering. If you do choose to go with BeMo, put in the effort and you will be satisfied! Trust the process !" - A. Natt, former BeMo student.

We don't simply pull our strategies out of thin air—we test, research, and use only those methods that have proven to help our students. And to our stated mission, these strategies aren't just available to people who enroll in our consultations or paid services—those same strategies are a part of our blogs, videos, and other free content, because successful academic strategy should be accessible to everyone. Will you get more mileage out of a series of one-on-one sessions with an expert? Of course, but we don't water anything down when we make it publicly available either. The only difference is personalized coaching.

Is BeMo Legit: What Our Services Do

What We Offer

We’re transparent about what we offer and what we do not offer so that students can make an informed decision as to whether or not we’re a good option for them. Whether that’s application review, interview prep, or standardized test prep, we’re happy to simply talk about what our strategies are and how each session will work, for free.

Additionally, we are completely transparent about our “inner teachings” by revealing them in our free resources, such as blogs, videos, and books. If you can independently apply these free resources to compose applications or prepare for interviews, we’re happy to hear about it! And gratefully, we do hear about such success stories very often. As the person writing what you’re reading right now, it’s sincerely an honor to hear when an article has helped a student. Most of our revenue goes into creating free content because that’s part of our mission to make information available for free instead of telling people “just be yourself”.

Obviously though, our paid one-on-one consultations are what keeps the lights on (and the free content generation), so these are the most comprehensive and time-consuming for us. Each of our programs involves direct communication and planning sessions, live sessions, and copious resources. And, admittedly, a lot of time and effort goes into these programs, not just once but continuously over the years we administer a given program or module. Even the training for our admissions experts takes thousands of dollars and over 100 hours. And it pays off!

"Dr. Simon Marmura Brown was wonderful and really helped give me clear and direct feedback and how to improve my profile. He especially helped me with the strategy going forward for my personal statement and activities. He was very thorough, friendly, and fantastic overall. I trust his expertise." - Former BeMo Student.

"I used BeMo to proofread and provide feedback on my secondary applications to medical school. Throughout the process, they were communicative, prompt, and constructive. I strongly recommend their services for any premed students looking to get that extra edge!" - CF, BeMo student.

What Does BeMo Cost?

And let’s get right to a point that often causes concern—some of our services are relatively expensive but not when compared to cost of rejection and years of delay or cost of tuition fees. We need to charge for our services to compensate our team members and our missions accordingly. The same way you would be charging your patients or clients as future doctors, lawyers, dentists, pharmacists, etc.

Nevertheless, our prices pretty reasonable compared to some of our competitors, but the difference comes from what we offer and the level of feedback and direct instruction/practice with our experts. We also offer interest-free installments to make our prices accessible to everyone. Our consultations are totally tailored to each student, and our consultants spend a lot of time crafting individualized feedback and study plans so that we're able to provide a unique and highly specific counterbalance to the often very non-individualized classroom experience offered by expensive and larger universities – which unlike BeMo do not provide any form of satisfaction guarantee.

Who are, again, seasoned professionals with extensive academic and admissions experience and continuous training. We don’t train just anyone into our way of doing things, and in pretty much all cases our consultants have been hired because they’re adding something new and valuable to BeMo. We seek out people who care and have a passion for education, arm them with a truly staggering array of data and accumulated knowledge and strategy, and then work together, even collectively, to tailor this to each student’s specific needs. This is the only way to create lasting success—not just a one-off bump on a standardized test score, but rather an actual educational experience that can be adapted to much of what comes after the initial ordeal of admissions as well.

Premed Reddit is just as problematic as MCAT Reddit! Check out this video for our top 4 reasons to avoid it:

Is BeMo Legit? Our Track Record Speaks for Itself 

We’ve been keen to publicly provide as much student feedback as we can gather, and our BeMo reviews on sites like Trustpilot are among the highest in the industry. This should go without saying, but to be clear, our student reviews, video testimonials, etc. are all 100% real. There’s great reason to treat academic consulting businesses with skepticism, and you absolutely should, but hopefully what our students say reads as authentic because it really, truly is. If you are still on the fence, you can always start with a simple free strategy call first, then if you like to work with us you can do so absolutely risk-free because of our 100% satisfaction guarantee.

We won’t deny that ours is an industry that often doesn’t do enough to specialize its approach for individual students, and also falls into profit-motive above helping students. Some companies are just single persons shows to make a living with no other mission in mind. Some are running part-time operations because they are full-time physicians and therefore, don’t have the time to dedicate full-time attention to student needs and the broader problems of admissions we are trying to address.

This is the unfortunate reality of our era, and while we’re trying to change that from our small piece of the world, we do nonetheless encourage any and every student who’s considering study or prep services to really grill their potential tutor or company, and really press them for specifics on past student performance, structure of programs, and qualifications. Anyone who isn’t willing to be completely transparent with you is choosing not to be for their own benefit, and we can promise you we’ll never be vague or skittish about addressing your concerns.

If you’re interested in employing us to help you, we’re going to make sure you’re confident in your decision at the very outset—there’s no benefit in us trying to misguide students into a service that isn’t going to work for them, as that inevitably leads to very public negative feedback. Our success as educators is quite literally dependent on yours as a student, and we take this relationship seriously. In fact, the number one reason we have and continue to grow exponentially is because of the positive word of mouth. What we do works, and it works consistently.

"Today was my first meeting with my Vault plan. Emily Tang was great. She gave me all the information and recommendations for preparing my medical school application. Emily gave great advice on what I should do to have a well-rounded application. She gave me information on many medical school systems and how their application process works. Emily suggested what my next steps should be, now I just need to do the homework!" - Shelby, Former BeMo Student.

"My session with Dr. Cutler was extremely helpful. The way she gave feedback while explaining what I needed to work on really helped me realise how to improve my interviewing skills. She was very thorough, I truly appreciated her genuineness and willingness to help me improve!" - Malika, BeMo student.

Conclusion

If you’re made it this far, you hopefully have a better sense of what we’re all about, and we hope you’ll consider us if you’re in the market for help with admissions or test prep. But the overarching point we hope to have gotten across is that we do genuinely understand and in most cases agree with the skepticism many students feel about academic support services generally.

There’s often so much marketing language and obfuscation at play in trying to shop through different services and packages that it often feels like an unwinnable game, one entirely beholden to the meat-grinder of the market and pure profit motive. That’s not why we’re here, and in fact our goal is to find a way to approach test and admissions prep in a way that further moves away from the historically cookie-cutter, rapid turnover model that our industry has used. If you have questions about any aspect of what we’re doing here at BeMo, don’t hesitate to reach out.

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting

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