$300
Per hour for a private counselor. A full engagement runs $3,000–$10,000.
$0
To start with Applicans. The core four tools are free, forever.
482
Students per school counselor on average. Most get a few hours total.
24/7
Applicans is always on. No appointment. No waiting three weeks.
Three options
Know what you're actually choosing between.
Before you look at a feature table, understand what each option fundamentally is — and isn't.
Option 1
$300/hr
$3,000–$10,000 for a full engagement
Private Counselor
The gold standard — if you can afford it. A great counselor knows your file, gives strategic advice, and has real experience. But they're expensive, hard to schedule, and only available to a small fraction of families.
Most students never get access to this. If you do, it's still only a few hours a month.
Option 2 — Applicans
Free to start
Free to start · Paid plans announced at launch
The counselor built for everyone.
Everything a private counselor gives you — essay coaching, school strategy, interview prep, financial aid guidance — but loaded with your actual profile, available at 2am, and accessible to every student regardless of zip code or income.
12 tools. One profile. Free to start. Rate locks in from today.
Option 3
$20/mo
Or free, with significant limitations
ChatGPT / Generic AI
Powerful general tool. Genuinely useful for many things. But it starts every conversation knowing nothing about you. No profile, no school data, no memory. You're not a student to it — you're just the next prompt.
Generic advice built for no one specific. Including you.
The real cost
What you're actually paying — per year.
A counselor isn't $300. It's $300 times every hour you need them. Here's what that actually adds up to.
Private Counselor
$6,500
average full engagement / year
Essay review and feedback
School list strategy
Interview coaching
Available nights and weekends
Instant feedback on any draft
Scholarship matching
Financial aid optimization
SAT / AP practice
Accessible to most families
Applicans Legacy
TBD
Pricing announced at launch — waitlist locks your rate
Essay coaching — live, on every draft
School matching for 350+ schools
Interview prep with scoring
Available 24/7, no scheduling
Instant feedback, unlimited drafts
Scholarship finder, matched to you
Financial aid & cost optimization
SAT/AP practice, 10 subjects
Free to start — no credit card
ChatGPT Plus
$240
per year for ChatGPT Plus
No knowledge of your profile
No verified school data
No structured interview scoring
No deadline tracking
No scholarship database
No financial aid strategy
No essay version history
General AI assistant
Good for generic questions
The math will be simple: Applicans pricing is announced at launch — but waitlist members lock in a discounted rate from the day they join. What we can tell you now: the average private counselor engagement costs $6,500. Whatever Applicans costs, it will be a fraction of that — and it includes everything they charge for, plus 9 things they don't.
Real scenarios
It's 11pm. Essay is due tomorrow.
What happens next?
The difference between prepared and scrambling isn't talent — it's access. Here's what the same moment looks like with and without Applicans.
Without Applicans
You email your school counselor. They have 482 other students — no response until next week.
You paste your essay into ChatGPT. It gives you generic feedback about "showing not telling." It doesn't know your school, your story, or your voice.
You submit something you're not sure about. You'll never know if it cost you the admission.
With Applicans
You open Essay Workshop. It already knows you're applying to Georgetown, your GPA, and your extracurriculars.
Feedback streams live — it quotes your specific words, names the exact paragraph that loses momentum, and tells you what Georgetown's readers need to see.
You revise, resubmit, and watch your score improve across dimensions. You submit knowing your essay is as strong as it can be.
Feature by feature
Every row is a real difference, not a marketing claim.
We didn't cherry-pick the rows we win. This is the complete picture.
Feature
Applicans
ChatGPT
Counselor
Knows your academic profile
✓ Always loaded
✗ Starts from zero
~ If you update them
Essay critique on your actual draft
✓ Quotes your words
✗ Generic feedback
~ Yes, but $300+/hr
Verified school acceptance data
✓ 350+ schools
✗ Often hallucinated
~ Varies widely
Interview prep with scoring
✓ School-specific
✗ Generic Q&A only
~ If they offer it
Financial aid strategy
✓ Based on your income
✗ Generic at best
~ Sometimes included
Scholarship matching
✓ Filtered to you
✗ Can't search databases
~ Rarely included
Path to Acceptance roadmap
✓ Step-by-step
✗ Not available
~ Sometimes
Tracks all your progress
✓ One dashboard
✗ No memory
✗ Usually scattered
SAT / AP practice
✓ 10 subjects
~ No scoring
✗ Not included
Available at 2am
✓ Always on
✓ Yes
✗ Scheduled only
Data never shared with colleges
✓ Never
~ Varies by plan
✓ Yes
Cost per year
✓ Free to start
~ $240
✗ $3k–$10k+
The decision is
already obvious.
Free to start. Rate locks in from today. No credit card required.
Join the waitlist