Current Juniors/Rising Seniors
Timeline FAQs

What should I be doing junior year?

Your top priorities are

  • Preparing for SAT/ACT, if applicable

  • Keeping your grades up and doing well on final exams!

  • Doing well on AP tests, if applicable.

  • Building rapport with potential recommenders.

  • Working with your coach to build your story and plant flowers in your gardens!

In the winter/spring, you also want to focus on

  • Choosing senior year classes that support your story

  • Updating your resume

  • Confirming recommenders and sending them your resume with an email explaining your interests and approach

  • Completing the Junior Questionnaire form for your College Counselor, if applicable

  • Planning activities for the summer that build your stor(ies)

  • Scheduling sessions for the summer with your coach.

When do I start working on the Common Application?

The optimal time to complete the Common Application (and the Coalition Application if your coach determines that will give you an advantage) is June and July, before the supplements come out. 

How many sessions should I book? 

The Common Application (including the personal essay but not including the supplements) takes roughly 5-10 hours, although this estimate can vary widely, depending on the student. Students whose activities sections are full and complex require extra time and strategy. If you have been working with a coach already, you will have a huge head start!

We recommend clustering sessions and even doing back to back sessions to take advantage of momentum! We find that doing five 2-hour sessions in a week is a great way to get the Common App done (including the personal essay) quickly and efficiently! Sometimes of course, schedules don’t allow for this intensity. 

What will I do with my coach in these 5-10 sessions? 

Your coach will get to know you, if you are new. If you have already been working together, you will start to refine your stories and think about which stories go where in the application.

You will also draft

Please note: Not all schools take the Common Application. Some students will also use this time to repurpose writings from the Common App for the Coalition App, UC system, or college specific applications like Georgetown, MIT, and Loyola. 

When do I complete the college-specific supplements? 

Students who complete the Common/Coalition Application in June and July are ready to tackle the supplements when they are released August 1. Often, we can get started on the supplements before this date since we are focused on the stories WE want to tell. Then we can tailor what we’ve written if the questions have changed from the year before.

How many sessions do I need for supplements? 

There is no way to estimate time needed for supplements, since every school has its own requirements and students have bespoke lists of colleges. After researching how all aspects of the school match a student’s activities, background, and academic interests, we repurpose what we have already written, expanding, shrinking or fine-tuning to match word-count limits and prompts. 

If I’m not already a client, how do I get started? 

Book a free consultation!