When we mention “college admissions season,” what time of year springs to mind? Is it the fall semester of your senior year of high school? Surprisingly, the most competitive college applicants start preparing in the spring and summer before their senior year. It’s not a race to the finish line, but a strategic journey. Like the tortoise beat the hare, students who start early have a better chance of securing a spot in a highly competitive school. This early start gives you a sense of control and proactivity, setting you up for success in many ways.

The Ideal Timeline for Elite College Admissions

Before the senior year begins, it’s wise to arrange a complimentary consultation with Ivy Coach. We work with families of students as young as grade six, providing a unique admissions hook and a clear path to success as early as possible. Our former elite college admissions officers will guide you in choosing the most competitive classes, activities, and framing, ensuring you’ve done all you can by senior year.

Assuming you’ve taken the most challenging coursework available at your school and started pursuing a unique hook related to your passion, cause, or artistic discipline, it’s time to kick it into high gear. The first significant step is to request letters of recommendation from teachers who taught you in core subjects during your junior year. By this point, you should have also identified potential schools that align with your goals. Remember, it’s good to aim high, but don’t underestimate the competitiveness of schools like the University of Michigan, which some erroneously consider a “safety school.”

By the time summer rolls around, you should be in full writer’s mode. Those essays showcasing your singular hook are not going to write themselves! All of your application heavy lifting should be done by September. It’s not easy to juggle a full course load with the weight of your academic future. It’s also not easy to work on your applications with the summer sun in the air, the birds chirping, and your friends blowing up your phone, but it will be worth it in the long run. Think of summer as the primary college application season, and then let yourself enjoy a relatively stress-free senior year filled with positive memories.

How Ivy Coach Helps to Bear the Weight of College Applications When It Matters Most

We at Ivy Coach are familiar with the pitfalls of delaying the application process. It’s common for students who were not our clients to put all their eggs in the Early Decision/Action basket, only for the wrong decision to come back. Suddenly, these stressed-out high schoolers are scrambling to assemble Regular Decision applications due in two weeks. This nightmare scenario happens much more than one would think!

Fortunately, Ivy Coach offers a PostMortem service to determine what went wrong with your application and how to pivot to a more competitive strategy immediately. And there’s a lot that likely needs to change about your application. We also help deferred and waitlisted students craft powerful Letters of Continued Interest. Very few of our package clients find themselves in this bind. They’ve applied to their top choice school in the Early round, following months (and ideally years) of planning on our part to optimize their admissions odds. They’re not going into the process banking on luck or prayers. They’ve made the right choice early on and are much more likely to be admitted to a highly selective school than those who dragged their feet.

Would your child benefit from a former elite college admissions officer encouraging them to take initiative on the college application while the distractions of summer seek to distract them from their future? We’ve got you covered. Summer is our busiest season, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Fill out our complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch.