Terms of service.

Who you are contracting with

Altior Academy is a business name of SEOD LLC, 480 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94108. Your enrollment agreement is with SEOD LLC, doing business as Altior Academy.

The short version

You pay for one school year at a time. Nothing renews or charges automatically. Refunds only before service starts. We never guarantee an admission. Every word of every application is your student's own.

Services and prices

Current programs, what each includes and 2026-27 prices are on the Programs and pricing page, which is part of these terms. Your enrollment confirmation states the program, the term dates and the price.

Family Roadmap

The Family Roadmap costs $950 and runs about three weeks. If you enroll in an Annual Membership within 60 days of the planning meeting, the full $950 is credited toward your first year.

Annual Membership term and renewal

A membership covers one school year, from August 1 to July 31, or from your enrollment date to July 31 if you join midyear. It does not renew automatically and we never charge a stored card for a new year. Each spring we invite families to re-enroll for the next grade; you choose whether to continue, and a new year starts only when you confirm and pay.

Where enrollment happens

Families enroll online, by signing the enrollment agreement electronically after a call. We do not accept enrollments, signatures or payments at seminars or during visits to a family's home.

Payment

Every program is paid in full, up front, when you enroll. We prefer bank transfer (ACH); cards are accepted. We never store a payment method to charge you again.

Cancellation and refunds

Refunds depend only on whether any service has started. Service starts at the first of these: we deliver any part of the intake review or audit, or we hold any meeting with your family or student.

• Cancel within 24 hours of paying, before any service: full refund.
• Cancel after 24 hours, before any service: half of what you paid is refunded.
• Once any service has started: all payments are final and nonrefundable.

You can stop using our services at any time, but once service has started, stopping does not entitle you to a refund of any part of what you paid. We hold a place for your student for the full term and plan our staffing around it, so please enroll only after the fit call and after reading these terms.

The one exception after service starts is our own failure: if we cancel your program, cannot provide a counselor, or materially fail to deliver what your program lists, we refund the fees for the service not delivered, in proportion to the time left in the term. Nothing in these terms takes away a right the law gives you that cannot be waived.

What we promise, and what we do not

We promise the meetings, reports, feedback and deliverables listed for your program, delivered on the schedule described. If we fall short, see Cancellation and refunds above. We do not and cannot guarantee admission to any college, a scholarship, a test score or any other outcome. Admission decisions are made by colleges. Altior is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any college, university or testing organization.

Sessions, substitutions and limits

Meeting counts, feedback hours, reply times and application limits for each program are on the Programs and pricing page. Reschedule any meeting with 24 hours' notice at no cost. A meeting missed without notice counts as held, though we offer one makeup per term. If your mentor is unavailable for a stretch, we may assign another trained, background-checked mentor and tell you first; your lead counselor stays the same. Work beyond your program's limits happens only if you ask in writing, at a price we quote first.

Ending the agreement

You can end your enrollment at any time by email; refunds follow the rules above. We can end it if a family asks us to write application content, or if conduct puts a student or staff member at risk. If we end it for one of these reasons, payments are not refunded.

Who owns the work

Your student owns their essays, activity descriptions and application materials. We own Ascend and our quests, templates and guides; you may use what we share with you for your own family's admissions work.

Academic integrity

We coach, question and give feedback. We never write any part of an essay or application for a student, and students must not submit AI-generated content as their own. If a family asks us to cross that line, we will decline and may end the engagement without a refund.

Communication

We communicate by email, video, phone and text, and through Ascend. Replies to messages come within one business day; urgent deadline questions the same day when possible. Mentors do not meet students privately offline; meetings are by video or in a shared setting, and parents may join any meeting.

Student safety

Every Altior staff member, founders included, completes a Live Scan background check and California mandated reporter training before any contact with a student, and follows our written conduct policy. Each session is led by one mentor, and a second trained staff member reviews every student's messages and session notes and can join any session. Any staff member can report a concern about a child's safety directly to the authorities, without approval from anyone at Altior.

Students and consent

A parent or guardian enrolls a student under 18 and agrees to these terms on the student's behalf. Ascend student accounts are for grades 9 to 12 only. When a student turns 18, we ask the student to confirm whether the parent who enrolled them keeps access to their Ascend records; if the student declines, that access ends. See the Privacy Policy for how we handle student information.

Stories and testimonials

We never publish a student's name, story, results or photo without written consent from the parent (and the student, if 18 or older). Consent is optional, separate from enrollment and never a condition of service, and you can withdraw it at any time for future use. We never ask families to limit honest reviews, and we never reward a review for being positive.

Limits

For ordinary contract claims, our total liability is limited to the fees you paid for the current term. This limit does not apply to fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, harm to a student, or any right the law does not allow us to limit. If a dispute comes up, we will first try to resolve it directly with you, and either side may suggest voluntary mediation. Nothing here limits your right to use small claims court. California law governs these terms.

Changes

Changes apply to new terms only; the terms in place when you enrolled apply for the rest of that school year. Last updated September 30, 2026.