Grades 9–12 · Strategy, counseling & essays
Most counseling starts in a panic junior year. Ours starts before the first prerequisite is missed.
A month-by-month college admissions plan from the summer before 9th grade to the deposit deadline. Seven workstreams — transcript, competitions, the spike, testing, research, recommendations, essays — run in parallel, each with deadlines that close long before the deadline you can see. Strategy, counseling, and essay coaching in one plan; only test prep is a separate IvyStrides program.
Which program is right for us?
Two programs, by grade of entry. The earlier you start, the more can actually be built — but both remove the avoidable mistakes for the years you have left.
College Counseling for Grades 9–10
The full arc — the widest runway, nothing left on the table.
- The full multi-year arc
- Widest runway — nothing left on the table
- Ends at the deposit deadline
College Counseling for Grades 11–12
The focused application years — honest about the runway.
- The focused application years
- Honest about what's still reachable
- Ends at the deposit deadline
Starting earlier costs less per year — and works better.
Most of this industry is built around the panicked junior, because that is when parents are most willing to pay. We would rather you started in Grade 9, when a course-sequencing decision still has four years to compound and nothing has yet been foreclosed.
It is the cheaper path and the stronger one. That is not a coincidence — it is how we set the fees, on purpose: the earlier you start, the lower the fee per year, so our economics point the same direction as the honest advice.
What you actually get.
Targets set, progress reviewed, obstacles removed. This is where the plan gets executed rather than admired.
Honest progress, honest gaps. No surprises at the end of the year.
You always know where things stand.
The four-year course map, the activity plan, the testing recommendation, the college list, the per-school submission audit.
When something time-sensitive comes up: a deadline, an opportunity, a bad grade, a change of mind.
We spend the time the plan needs. We don't run a meter.
Billing by the hour quietly rewards slow progress and punishes the student who needs an extra conversation in a hard month. We charge for the plan and the outcome of the work — so a difficult month costs the family nothing extra.
What sits outside this engagement.
Counseling is the strategy layer — and it includes essay coaching. The one thing kept separate is test prep, taught in separate, separately-priced IvyStrides programs, so you never pay counseling rates for tutoring time. Counseling decides which and when; these do the teaching.
No one can guarantee admission. We guarantee the process.
At colleges with single-digit admit rates, no plan, counselor, score or project guarantees a seat. Any company that tells you otherwise is selling a feeling, not a service.
What a plan does is remove the avoidable failures — the prerequisite missed in Grade 10, the competition whose registration closed in October, the recommendation letter asked for a week before the deadline, the personal statement started in November. Those are the mistakes that quietly end applications, and they are entirely within our control.
We build the strongest honest version of a real student, then present it without gaps. That is the whole job — and it is more than most families get.
Common counseling questions.
What is a “spike”?
One narrow, student-owned project that produces external validation — a publication, real users, funds raised, a placement. Not a long list of clubs; one thing done deeply enough that an admissions officer remembers it. We help pick it, scope it, and hold the student to shipping it by spring of junior year.
Do you help with the essays?
Yes — essay coaching is part of counseling. We decide the college list and the essay strategy (which story, which supplement, in what order), then coach the writing itself, draft by draft. Coached, never ghost-written: the words are always the student's.
Is test prep included?
No. Counseling sets the testing strategy — PSAT baseline, SAT-vs-ACT decision, how many sittings and by when. The actual prep is a separate paid IvyStrides program. Keeping them separate is deliberate: you're never paying counseling rates for tutoring time.
How is this priced — by the hour?
No. You pay a fixed annual fee for the plan: the calls, the deliverables, and the judgment behind them. We do not bill by the hour, we do not meter your access, and a month that needs more of our time costs you nothing extra. Book a free consultation and we will walk you through the fee for the plan that fits your child's grade.
What if we start late?
We'll tell you honestly what's still reachable. At Grade 11 a spike, a testing plan and a strong final-two-years transcript are all still on the table. At Grade 12 we package what already exists — four years of depth can't be manufactured in nine months, and we won't pretend otherwise.
Do you guarantee admission?
No, and anyone who does is selling something. At colleges with single-digit admit rates, no plan, counselor, score or project guarantees a seat. What we guarantee is the removal of the avoidable failures — the missed prerequisite, the competition that closed registration in October, the recommendation asked for too late, the essay started in November. We control the process; the process is what most families get wrong.
Who is this for?
Families who want a plan, not a panic. It works best starting in Grade 9 or 10, is still very worthwhile at Grade 11, and is honest-but-useful in senior year. See the two programs above by grade of entry.
Start with a 30-minute call.
Free, no pressure. Tell us the student's grade and goals; we'll tell you honestly which plan fits — and what's realistic from here.