November 7, 2026 · GlobalStudyConsulting database

What Consultancies Charge: The 98 Offices That Publish Their Fees

Only 98 of 1,506 offices publish any fee statement, and most of those say free. The handful of real prices, quoted in the agencies' own words.

Ask a simple question across this whole database: what does it cost? Only 98 offices out of 1,506 publish any fee statement on their own websites. Bangladesh leads with 53, then Australia with 22 and the United Kingdom with 19. China and the Philippines publish none at all in this dataset. And here is the twist: most of those 98 statements do not name a price. They say the service is free.

The true prices are a short, interesting list. In London, A-List Education publishes this:

Oxbridge Applications, also in London, publishes a £395 consultation and postgraduate advising at £240 an hour. Holland Park Education charges a £150 lifetime membership fee. Medlink Students prices first-year entry support at £2,500. In the USA, College Transitions in Atlanta publishes a range of $500 to $4,000, and Posner Brown College Counseling in Washington starts from $8,000. In Dhaka, EduExpress International publishes a China package:

The pattern is clear. Mass-market agencies working on university commissions publish free. Boutique counselors selling scarce expertise, Oxbridge and Ivy League advising, medical school placement, publish prices like professional firms. Neither is automatically better. What matters is that the number, or the free statement, exists in writing before you commit. If an office will not state its terms on its own website, ask for them in writing at the first meeting.

Why so few publish, and why it matters

Silence about fees is partly habit and partly strategy. Commission-funded agencies gain nothing by discussing money they do not charge, and priced counselors often prefer a consultation before quoting, because their product is judgment, not paperwork. But the effect on students is the same: the first meeting carries the entire price discovery, under social pressure, with a counselor who does this daily and a family doing it once.

That asymmetry is why this database treats a published fee statement as a first-class field, quotes it verbatim, and marks its absence honestly. An office that publishes nothing may still be excellent and fairly priced. It has simply chosen not to compete on written terms. Knowing which of the 1,506 offices do compete that way, before you visit any of them, is a small structural advantage, and it is free to use.

Data: the GlobalStudyConsulting database of 1,506 consultancy offices in 384 cities, collected from consultancies' own websites and verified November 7, 2026. Try the Agency Fit Finder or browse consultancies by city.