The summer before a high schooler’s senior year is a popular time to kick college admissions prep into high gear. Where does one even begin? We’re glad you asked! Before you or your child begins to think about essays or prospective colleges, you must determine a competitive strategy for optimizing the odds of admission to a highly selective college. This is easier said than done!

If you think framing your child’s application around a grandparent’s illness or foreign community service trip will get them through the door, or enrolling your child in a pre-collegiate summer immersion program at Stanford University or the University of Pennsylvania is the best use of these precious weeks, you would be wrong on both counts! The road to elite admissions is paved with many pitfalls and misconceptions. Don’t gamble your child’s future on a strategy that is not guided by former top college admissions officers who know what plays well in admissions committees and what torpedoes an applicant’s admissions chances.

The Summer Before Senior Year is the Ideal Time for an Ivy Coach PreMortem!

Ivy Coach has been helping get academically ambitious high schoolers into elite schools for decades because we pioneered the singular hook strategy. These days, the students who get into Yale University and Harvard University are the experts and specialists who have honed in on a highly specific, uniquely unusual, and often small passion. The Ivy Coach PreMortem is a one-hour senior strategy session with a former elite college admissions officer that will correct the mistakes your child likely doesn’t realize are mistakes and forge a singular hook that will be irresistible to admissions officers before they begin preparing applications.

We understand that your top priority is preparing the best applications possible. The PreMortem is designed to save you the time and hassle that is bound to come if you go into the application process with the wrong strategy. Before essay topics even glimmer in your child’s eye, they need to zero in on their Early Action/Decision strategy and how they should position their case for admission. After all, if they spend time working on a misguided essay topic, such as sports, music, community service, grandparents, illnesses, or travel, it won’t matter how strong their writing or test scores are — elite colleges will remain out of reach.

Every Day Counts in the Months Leading Up to Senior Fall

You might think your child’s senior year courses, extracurriculars, and test scores are set in stone by the summer before their senior year, but they are not. These factors are still malleable, but you have to act fast. For example, wouldn’t you want to know if taking AP Statistics in lieu of math or discontinuing a foreign language will torpedo your child’s application? The wrong courses will undoubtedly put your child at a competitive disadvantage to other students.

Moreover, wouldn’t you want to know if your child’s extracurricular docket makes them seem well-rounded, which is a death sentence for elite admissions odds? There is still time to adjust! A singular admissions hook is a matter of strategic pivots to more competitive activities.

Finally, whatever you do, do not enroll your child in a pre-collegiate summer program sponsored by an elite university. These programs often come with five-figure price tags and do not convey your child’s academic potential. They only convey wealth, which makes your child seem less diverse and, therefore, less likable. Those precious summer months must be spent engaging in a unique pursuit to make your child stand out. A pre-collegiate program only signals that they have phoned it in!

Ivy Coach’s PreMortem is a Wake-Up Call

Signing up for a PreMortem with a former elite college admissions officer at Ivy Coach is still possible. If your child has already begun drafting essays, they will likely be sent in a different direction following your strategy session. 

If you want to optimize your child’s case for admission to a highly selective college with a PreMortem session, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form, and we’ll contact you.