Trajecta vs · Crimson Education
Crimson Education is the premium end of college admissions consulting: a team of strategists, mentors, tutors, and former admissions officers around one student, with reported packages starting near $30,000 and averaging $48,000 for premium tiers. Trajecta is an AI college counselor covering the work-product side of that engagement for $249.99 a year. This page lays out what the team buys, what the software covers, and where each honestly wins.
01 · The price
Crimson quotes prices privately after a consultation, so the figures here come from reporting: Fortune put undergraduate packages at roughly $30,000 with families paying up to $60,000, and 2025 pricing reviews put premium packages around $48,000 on average. The independent-consultant band is IECA-reported. Sources under the chart.
Trajecta Pro
$249.99 a year
Typical independent consultant
$4,000–$12,000
Crimson-tier packages (reported)
$30,000–$60,000+
Crimson package figures: Fortune, Dec 2024 and 2025–2026 pricing reviews (e.g. PrepScholar's 2026 comparison). Independent-consultant band: IECA-reported averages. Retrieved July 19, 2026. Trajecta pricing current as of the same date.
02 · The package
A Crimson engagement is several distinct services under one contract. Here is each part next to what Trajecta does in the same territory.
01
With Crimson
Crimson assigns a team, not a single counselor: a strategist who owns the roadmap, essay mentors, tutors, and former admissions officers who review the application. For a family that wants a staffed operation around one student, this is the real thing, and it is what the price buys.
With Trajecta
Trajecta gives you one system instead of a staff. The profile drives everything: a direction compass with evidence, missions that turn the years before application season into weekly steps, an AI coach on every activity and award entry, and a committee of AI readers at the end. It does not attend meetings for you. It also does not bill for them.
02
With Crimson
The Crimson model starts early and goes deep: academic acceleration, guided research projects, capstones, competitions, and internship placement. Much of the fee pays for humans who help a student build the record itself, sometimes starting in middle school.
With Trajecta
Trajecta works on the record from your side of the table. It maps direction from what the student already does, recommends activities and courses that fit, evaluates any new idea for fit and selectivity before a summer gets committed, and tracks which of six profile-strength categories is thin. The student still does the building. The map costs $249.99 a year, not five figures.
03
With Crimson
Essay mentors work drafts one-on-one across the application season, and a former admissions officer can review the finished product. This is careful human coaching, rationed the way any human service is: by the hours in the package.
With Trajecta
Every draft gets inline AI feedback tied to the full profile, which catches an essay that contradicts the activity list or repeats what another part of the file already says. A brainstorm workspace comes before drafting. There is no hour meter and no rationing: ten drafts of one supplemental cost the same as one.
04
With Crimson
Crimson sells review of the finished application by former admissions officers. Experienced human eyes on the final file are worth something, and this is one of their strongest offerings.
With Trajecta
Committee Review stages the room itself: a specialist essay reader files a report, four AI officers read the entire application through different lenses and disagree in writing, and a chair resolves the split into a decision with next steps, anchored to the school’s own Common Data Set numbers. It is a rehearsal of the conversation, repeatable every time the application changes.
Watch a real committee run →03 · Side by side
| Crimson Education | Trajecta | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Quote-based. Reported packages start around $30,000 and average $48,000 for premium tiers. | $249.99 a year for Pro. Free tier to start. |
| The model | A staffed team: strategist, mentors, tutors, former admissions officers. | One system computed from your record, available whenever you sit down. |
| Building the record | Guided research, capstones, competitions, internships, academic acceleration. | Direction compass, missions, activity coaching, and fit-scored ideas. You do the building. |
| Your essays | One-on-one mentoring, hours set by the package. | Unlimited inline feedback on every draft, aware of the whole file. |
| The final read | Former admissions officers review the finished application. | A simulated committee deliberates it: four reads, a recorded split, a decision with next steps. |
| Honest limits | The price excludes most families, and outcomes still depend on the student. | No human team, no research placement, no network. The deep features cost money, just far less of it. |
Both columns are honest. The limits row applies to us too.
04 · Credit where due
Crimson's price draws easy mockery. The honest version is that some of what they sell has no software substitute, and pretending otherwise would make this page worthless.
The team is real
Crimson employs actual former admissions officers and subject mentors, and coordinating them around one student is genuinely valuable. Families who can afford a staffed operation and want one are not wrong to buy it.
Record-building has no software substitute
Placing a student into research, a competition, or an internship takes human networks. Trajecta can point at the right kind of opportunity and score the fit. It cannot make the phone call. That part of the Crimson fee buys something software does not sell.
Structure over years
A multi-year engagement with scheduled humans keeps some students on track in a way no app will. If the alternative is drift, and the budget is real, structure is worth paying for.
05 · FAQ
Crimson does not publish prices. Its site quotes packages after a consultation. Reporting puts undergraduate packages at roughly $30,000 to start, with families paying up to $60,000, and 2025 pricing reviews put premium packages around $48,000 on average. Sources and retrieval dates are on this page.
A staffed team around one student: an admissions strategist, essay mentors, tutors, and former admissions officers, plus guided record-building like research projects, capstones, and competition prep, usually across multiple years. It is the most complete human service in the industry, priced accordingly.
For most families the honest answer is that the question never applies, because the price is out of reach. If the budget is real, the value depends on what you need: the record-building and human network are things software cannot replace, while the work-product side, essays, list strategy, and application review, is now well covered at a small fraction of the cost.
The work-product side of the engagement: direction and planning from the student’s actual record, activity and award coaching, unlimited essay feedback, a Common Data Set grounded college list, and Committee Review, a simulated admissions committee read of the finished application. That is most of what the counseling hours in a package go toward.
People. Mentors who meet with the student, former admissions officers on staff, tutoring, and a network that can place a student into research or internships. Trajecta is software: it computes from your record and works on your file, and it costs $249.99 a year instead of a used-car price.
Yes. Trajecta’s free tier covers profile building, the direction compass, mission planning, and college list organization, with no credit card. Pro adds the essay feedback, activity coaching, and Committee Review.
Build your profile free. Pro covers essays, coaching, the college list, and the committee for less than one hour of premium consulting.