Envision Experience Reviews
Envision Experience by WorldStrides, found online at EnvisionExperience.com, describes themselves as a leading experiential education organization that's dedicated to enabling students to gain learning experiences in the real world.
How Does It Work?
Envision Experience states they use a team of professional educators to design hands-on programs for students that allow them to develop leadership, scholarship and career skills needed to succeed in today’s competitive college and career landscape.
These programs give students a chance to discover their career and life interests, as well as to build the necessary skills, access to resources, and have experiences that will help them achieve their educational and career goals.
In order to apply to one of their programs, a student must be nominated by a teacher, educator, mentor, or educational institution.
Interested educators and parents can search through available programs by student grade level, including Elementary, Middle School, High School, or College, as well as by topic, like Medicine & Health Care, Business, Law, Leadership, Diplomacy, Engineering & Technology, and much more.
You can also search for programs by region, including those in the Midwest, Northeast, Northwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Southwest, or West, and available programs in other continents, including Asia, Australia and the South Pacific, and Europe.
Cost & Price Plans
The costs of each individual program will vary, but the quoted tuition of each program will usually include the cost of lodging, most meals, curriculum materials and professional instruction and supervision.
It will not include transportation to and from the program location and any personal spending money used for souvenirs, snacks and other incidentals.
They do offer a limited number of scholarships to eligible students, ensuring opportunities for children from a variety of backgrounds, as well fundraising options which cover the majority of costs for many of their attending students.
And though they cannot guarantee your child a spot in any program, if you are waiting on a scholarship or fundraising before you can confirm your child’s attendance, they do ask that you contact the Office of Admissions to make them aware of your child’s intent to attend.
Refund Policy
Since this company does not charge any subscription or membership fees for their services, there is no applicable Refund Policy offered by this company at this time.
Customer Service Contact Info
Customers who would like to contact Customer Service with any questions, concerns, or complaints can do so by phone at 877-587-9659, by email at [email protected], or by submitting them directly to their website through their Contact Us link.
Reputation
Unfortunately there are some very serious accusations made about this company and the promises they make, much of which is well outlined and detailed in an article by the New York Times explaining a recent lawsuit settled by the company, in which they paid out more than $17 million in vouchers to students of a previous program.
The biggest complaint about this company is their emphasis on how exclusive their programs are, and how students must high achieving, promising students that are nominated by educators, when in reality this company markets their trips to tens of thousands of students per year.
The reason this is a serious problem, is that the students who then pay thousands of dollars to attend these programs expecting close, personal attention in a small group experience are then confronted with the reality that there are large numbers of students attending these programs, and very little opportunity for individual attention.
Competitors and Alternatives?
There are many other organizations that offer students learning experiences outside of the classroom, so parents and educators looking for alternatives to this program should be able to find more than one option to choose from.
If you have any experience with Envision Experience by WorldStrides or their services, please leave your reviews below.
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Envision Experience Customer Reviews
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Terrible Company
Save your money and find other educational programs where the investment is worth it! And no matter how Envision will respond to this, the program is a big scam, in my view.
What sounded like ab invitation ended with a program fee of $5,000. Supposedly without refund, once paid, regardless of the circumstances, which made me already skeptical - besides, there is always a way out, especially if the terms of the contract are not met. And that was the case in so many ways. The conditions on campus were unreasonable. All that money, certainly shared with Stanford, a brand name that is ticket to tricking lots of students on campus on a regular basis. 250 students had arrived to participate last week. What we did not know is that simple students are the actual and only show runners of the entire program. Not much older than the actual teen participants, there were a few young students only, who supervised the groups, entertained them, and also trained them, the little they knew themselves.
The teens saw barely actual professional teaching staff. In our case, only 2 contacts with professors in 10 days.
The student staff were not only totally overwhelmed with too many teens in each group (20 instead of 10 as announced in the paper forms), but they were not paid enough for their over hours (partly till 4.00am), so they went on strike, which added more complications to the supervision on site. The teenagers were sometimes held in overheated rooms, not allowed to leave. They were not permitted to use the bathroom after 10:00 pm. ALL the rooms were totally overheated and not air conditioned. Many, many teenagers got very sick, let it be from the food, or for what ever reasons. Shuttles to and from the emergency room at hospital were at private costs ... all for a $5000 program at Stanford. Finally, my child got a certificate with a wrong name.
If you want to offer your teenager a camp week for fun, you can get that cheaper. The program is unreasonable. It should be prohibited. And I do not understand Universities like Stanford ... do they really need this low level involvement? Envision is a NO Go!
Waste of Money
Don't fall for it!
DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! I wish I had never received the packet in the mail.
Absolutely terrible. DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THESE PROGRAMS. Our son was invited to attend, we raised money to cover the tuition and travel fees. We rented an airbnb and a car, purchased flights and were ready to go. THREE DAYS before we were due to leave, I received an auto-call that the program was cancelled. No explanation, or live person to talk to. We quickly cancelled as much as we could, but lost around $2,000 for the lodging and around $500 for flights they wouldn't reimburse. They refunded the tuition and the flight fees for only my son. Everything else, the lodging and flights for family, all lost. What a total waste.
Don't Do This!!!
Beware Do Not Send Your Child
DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILDREN HERE, They are not affiliated with any of the colleges/universities; they rent space.
After the complete misrepresentation they will not refund your money ; even after sending an email stating they will.
The call center is a sketchy joke. This is a very sketchy business.