Next Step Admissions Terms 

Next Step Admissions is only an educational consulting company. Although we strive to maximize your capacities and enhance your chances of achieving excellence in your academic and professional path-development, we cannot guarantee results and outcomes unless otherwise clearly stated for a specific service. It should be noted that all final decisions with regard to grades, applications, and/or interviews are made by external, non-affiliate parties. Next Step Admissions operates in an ethical manner.  It is our primary objective to provide you with all the essential tools in order to give you a competitive edge, however, we cannot in any shape or form complete your applications on your behalf, write your letters/CV/autobiographical sketches, guarantee admission decisions, etc. It is the responsibility of the applicants to follow the specific instructions of their school of their choice in order to ensure the safe and timely arrival of their applications. It should be understood that academic performance is dependent upon many other variables outside the control of Next Step Admissions.

Availability of our counselors & editors:

Next Step Admissions shall have discretion in selecting the dates and times it performs such as consulting and editing services giving due regard to the client’s needs. No edits will be returned later than 96 hours after receipt of initial draft, except in extenuating circumstances. Typically, edits will be provided within 72 hours. Zoom or phone counseling sessions should be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance. Mock interviews should be scheduled at least 72 hours prior. However, we are available on shorter notice if anything “urgent” is needed!

Cancellations or Rescheduling: 

With regard to cancellations or rescheduling of any counseling or interview preparation sessions, including interview preparation, we ask that you provide us with at least a 24 hours notice.  We understand emergencies and unforeseen circumstances can happen, so just contact us if they do. In case of multiple late cancellations and/or reschedules, and depending on the circumstances, a fee may be charged to your account.

Editing Services: 

We acknowledge that when working on essays, Next Step Admissions will never write my essay for me. Next Step Admissions will provide guidance in the writing process and offer detailed revisions, however no portion of the personal statement or application will be written by Next Step Admissions. 

Confidentiality:

All communications between Next Step Admissions and clients are strictly confidential. At Next Step Admissions we take every step to secure your privacy and confidentiality. Any and all information gathered from you throughout our sessions will be held in confidence, not shared with a third party (i.e. individual, group, corporation, etc.), or used as data in a study, without your written and signed consent. Written documents, such as personal statements, secondary essays, experience descriptions, and other written application components may be shared with Next Step Admissions students as examples, though all personal, identifying information will be redacted. Clients will never be identifiable. 

Termination of Services: 

Either party may terminate this relationship at any time for any reason by giving written notice to the other party. Upon termination, no refunds can be issued.

Expiration of Services:

All services at Next Step Admissions expire after one admissions cycle, unless arrangements have been made by the student and Next Step Admissions team (ie in the case of a deferred application). Any unused services are forfeited. 

Refunds:

For counseling and editing services, we strive to make every single student experience exceptional, but if we haven’t met your expectations we have some simple rules to initiate a refund:

Refund Policy for Services:

• All refund requests must be initiated within 30 days of purchasing services. No refunds can be issued after this time, but can be processed as Next Step Admissions credits as below. Refunds cannot be issued for services already provided in any circumstance.
• If a refund is requested within 30 days of purchasing services, the refund amount is at the discretion of Next Step Admissions; for advising services, refunds are calculated based on any services rendered and the billed hourly rate. For editing services, refunds are calculated based on any services rendered and the billed rate per round of edits.
• In addition to any service related charges, a 5% administrative/processing fee will be charged on the total purchase amount for all refunds to cover the cost of credit card processing fees and returned payments. 
• Any cancellation of services after 30 days will be processed as “Next Step Admissions Credit”.  Next Step Admissions credits can be used towards any Next Step Admissions services for a period of two years and are eligible to transfer to friends or family.
• Note, for counseling students who are currently on a wait-list for a medical school and signing up for services for the next application cycle, we allow up to 120 days to initiate a refund request if the student is accepted off a waitlist to attend medical school (proof of acceptance is required). In these cases, refunds are provided based on the unused services to date. 

No Guarantee:

We acknowledge there is no guarantee that the services provided by Next Step Admissions will improve chances for admission to an undergraduate or medical school. However, every effort is made to put forth the best application possible with the help of the Next Step Admissions team.

Student Responsibility: 

The student is solely responsible for his/her own application in its entirety, including the submission, meeting of deadlines and communicating with application service entities or schools.

Additional Terms:

Non-Disparagement. Applicant and applicants family agrees to take no action which is intended, or would reasonably be expected, to harm Next Step Admissions or their reputation or which would reasonably be expected to lead to unwanted or unfavorable publicity to the Next Step Admissions. By purchasing Next Step Admissions’ services, I agree with the aforementioned under any applicable law or regulation.

All disputes, controversies, or claims arising out of or relating to this contract shall be submitted binding arbitration in accordance with the applicable rules of the American Arbitration Association then in effect.

In the event of litigation relating to the subject matter of this Agreement, the non-prevailing party shall reimburse the prevailing party for all reasonable attorney fees and costs resulting therefrom.

Content on WWW.NEXTSTEPADMIT.COM

Unless otherwise specified or clearly recognizable, all content available on www.nextstepadmit.com is owned or provided by the Owner or its licensors.

The Owner undertakes its utmost effort to ensure that the content provided on www.nextstepadmit.com infringes no applicable legal provisions or third-party rights. However, it may not always be possible to achieve such a result.

In such cases, without prejudice to any legal prerogatives of Users to enforce their rights, Users are kindly asked to preferably report related complaints using the contact details provided in this document.

Rights regarding content on www.nextstepadmit.com – All rights reserved

The Owner holds and reserves all intellectual property rights for any such content.

Users may not therefore use such content in any way that is not necessary or implicit in the proper use of the Service.

In particular, but without limitation, Users may not copy, download, share (beyond the limits set forth below), modify, translate, transform, publish, transmit, sell, sublicense, edit, transfer/assign to third parties or create derivative works from the content available on www.nextstepadmit.com, nor allow any third party to do so.

Where explicitly stated on www.nextstepadmit.com, the User may download, copy and/or share some content available through www.nextstepadmit.com for its sole personal and non-commercial use and provided that the copyright attributions and all the other attributions requested by the Owner are correctly implemented.

Any applicable statutory limitation or exception to copyright shall stay unaffected.

Prices: 

Users are informed during the purchasing process and before order submission, about any fees, taxes and costs (including, if any, delivery costs) that they will be charged.

• either exclusive or inclusive of any applicable fees, taxes and costs, depending on the section the User is browsing.

Intellectual Property Rights:

Without prejudice to any more specific provision of these Terms, any intellectual property rights, such as copyrights, trademark rights, patent rights and design rights related to nextstepadmit.com are the exclusive property of the Owner or its licensors and are subject to the protection granted by applicable laws or international treaties relating to intellectual property.

All trademarks — nominal or figurative — and all other marks, trade names, service marks, word marks, illustrations, images, or logos appearing in connection with www.nextstepadmit.com are, and remain, the exclusive property of the Owner or its licensors and are subject to the protection granted by applicable laws or international treaties related to intellectual property.

Assignment of Contract: 

The Owner reserves the right to transfer, assign, dispose of by novation, or subcontract any or all rights or obligations under these Terms, taking the User’s legitimate interests into account. Provisions regarding changes of these Terms will apply accordingly.

Users may not assign or transfer their rights or obligations under these Terms in any way, without the written permission of the Owner.

Severability: 

Should any provision of these Terms be deemed or become invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, the invalidity or unenforceability of such provision shall not affect the validity of the remaining provisions, which shall remain in full force and effect.

Governing Law: 

These Terms are governed by the law of the place where the Owner is based, as disclosed in the relevant section of this document, without regard to conflict of laws principles.

Prevalence of national law

However, regardless of the above, if the law of the country that the User is located in provides for a higher applicable consumer protection standard, such higher standards shall prevail.

Dispute Resolution

Amicable Dispute Resolution

Users may bring any disputes to the Owner who will try to resolve them amicably.

While Users’ right to take legal action shall always remain unaffected, in the event of any controversy regarding the use of www.nextstepadmit.com or the Service, Users are kindly asked to contact the Owner at the contact details provided in this document.

The User may submit the disagreement including a brief description and if applicable, the details of the related order, purchase, or account, to the Owner’s email address specified in this document.

The Owner will process the complaint without undue delay and within 21 days of receiving it.

How and when we are expected to handle your request

We will respond to your request without undue delay, but in all cases within the timeframe required by applicable law. Should we need more time, we will explain to you the reasons why, and how much more time we need.

Should we deny your request, we will explain to you the reasons behind our denial (where envisaged by applicable law you may then contact the relevant authority to submit a complaint).

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your request unless such request is manifestly unfounded or excessive and in all other cases where it is permitted by the applicable law. In such cases, we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on the request. In either case, we will communicate our decisions and explain the reasons behind them.

Changes To This Privacy Policy 

The Owner reserves the right to make changes to this privacy policy at any time by notifying its Users on this page and possibly within www.nextstepadmit.com and/or – as far as technically and legally feasible – sending a notice to Users via any contact information available to the Owner. It is strongly recommended to check this page often, referring to the date of the last modification listed at the bottom.

Should the changes affect processing activities performed on the basis of the User’s consent, the Owner shall collect new consent from the User, where required.

Modified October 1, 2024