Planning by Grade
The Best Applications Are Not Built Senior Year.
A grade by grade view of how I help students from eighth grade through the fall of senior year.
My approach
It starts with a question, not a checklist.
I don't begin by telling students what to join. I ask them what they want to solve, figure out, or invent. I tell my students that the most selective colleges are looking for the next Einstein or Gates: young people with ideas of their own. My work is to help each student see that their aspirations are reachable, then give them the agency to pursue those dreams.
Ask your kid
Ask your kid. Then listen.
The best plans start with your child's answers, not yours. Ask these often.
- What do you want to solve, figure out, or invent?
- What did you learn this week that surprised you?
- What would you do all day if nobody assigned it?
How are you going to save the world?
Stanford's Challenge Success encourages parents to ask what their child found interesting at school, rather than how they did on the test. Source
Not parent driven
Their idea, not ours.
Admissions readers can tell when a summer was planned by a parent. What persuades them is a student who acted on a genuine interest without being asked. I work directly with students, so the plan is theirs from the start.
One commitment pursued for four years says more than ten clubs joined for a semester.
Consistency
Showing up is the whole game.
Selective colleges say it again and again: depth matters more than breadth. The strongest students don't just join clubs; they start them and keep showing up, year after year.
Grade by grade
8th & 9th Grade: Start Exploring
Try things, work, volunteer, and find the question that lights you up.
Read more →10th Grade: Get Real Experience
Jobs, research, and responsibility with real stakes.
Read more →11th Grade: Own Your Story
The year and summer that become your application.
Read more →12th Grade: Tell It Well
Essays, lists, and applications that sound like you.
Read more →Where my students have been admitted
The research
What colleges say.
Stanford
Stanford's admissions office says depth in one or two activities can show more passion than light involvement in five or six clubs.
Source →MIT
MIT asks applicants to choose quality over quantity, and wants students who are excited to do something about a problem, not only think about it.
Source →Harvard Graduate School of Education
The Turning the Tide report, endorsed by a coalition of admissions offices, urges colleges to value quality over quantity and authentic, sustained engagement.
Source →Admissions policies change. Last reviewed October 2026.
Questions from families
Frequently asked questions
01When should my student start working with you?+
As early as eighth grade. With younger students I meet just a few times a year, shaping summers and habits rather than adding pressure.
02Do you tell my child what activities to do?+
No. I help students discover what genuinely interests them, then build a plan around it. The ideas are theirs.
Begin
Let's find what your student wants to build.
Initial consultations are complimentary.