Early Action and Early Decision deadlines are November 1. Get your plan checked this week. Book a free call
Early Action and Early Decision deadlines are November 1. Get your plan checked this week. Book a free call
Category 05 of 8 · Grades 8 to 12
Two services covering the transcript and the test scores – the two pieces of the application that carry the most weight and get decided the furthest in advance. Planned in the same conversation, because a testing calendar built without looking at the course load is how students end up sitting the SAT the week three exams are due.
Free call. No obligation. You speak with a counselor, not a salesperson.
Part one
What this category is
The three services families use before anything else
The category
BeforeGuessing at courses, testing, and activities
Quick definition
Getting started is the diagnostic stage of college planning. Before essays, applications, or test prep, three questions have to be answered in order: where does this student stand as an applicant, what should they be doing between now and application season, and which colleges is that plan actually aimed at. The three services in this category answer those three questions, in that order, and each one produces something written that the family keeps.
Every grade-level package begins with this stage, so families enrolling in a package do not arrange these separately.
AfterA documented read, a dated plan, and a reasoned list
Families usually arrive here the same way. Something prompts the question. A friend’s older child got into somewhere unexpected. A school counselor mentioned course selection. A report card came back different than hoped. Suddenly there is a decision to make and no reliable basis for making it.
The instinct is to jump straight to solutions. Hire a tutor. Add an activity. Start essay prep early. Most of that happens before anyone has established what the actual problem is, which is why so much of it turns out to be wasted effort and money.
This category inverts that order. Diagnose, then plan, then decide where the plan is pointed. Application work comes later, and it goes better when these three are already done.
Why the order matters
The three services are sold separately and can be taken separately, but they were designed as a sequence and they work best in it.
The starting point
Four questions, and the order is not negotiable. Each one is hard to answer well until the one before it has been answered. This is the whole reason the category exists as a separate stage rather than as an add-on to application work.
Selective admissions reads several signals together. Planning has to start from an honest read of all of them.Context: university learning environment
01
Where does this student stand today?
Grades in academic subjects, the rigor of the courses taken, the shape of the activity record, and the interests underneath it. Answered by the profile assessment.
02
What should they do next, and when?
Course selection, testing windows, which commitments to deepen and which to let go, and what has to happen by which semester. Answered by the admissions roadmap.
03
Which colleges is the plan aimed at?
A researched reach, target, and likely list that holds up academically, financially, and personally, with the reasoning written out school by school. Answered by college list development.
04
What is deliberately not decided yet?
Essays, applications, and tutoring hours are downstream work in other categories. Naming that boundary early is what stops families paying for the wrong service at the wrong time.
Course planning runs once a year, every year, because course selection comes round every year. Testing planning happens once, usually in Grade 10 or early Grade 11, and sets a calendar that runs to the end of the process.
Annual
One planning session a year on course selection, rigor, and how the sequence lines up with intended majors. Taken before the course-selection form is due, not after.
Strategy only
Testing timeline and score strategy: which test, which sittings, what target is realistic, and whether to submit. Hourly tutoring is a separate service, billed on its own.
Both are included in the grade-level packages, so families on ongoing support usually do not arrange them separately. See all services and pricing.
The sessionTwo to three hours, one to one, with the parent welcome for part or all of it.
01
Next year’s courses
Which subjects, at which level, chosen from what the school genuinely offers this student – including prerequisites, scheduling conflicts and the courses that quietly close doors if they are skipped.
02
How much rigor to take
Where the harder option is worth it and where it is not. Four demanding courses done well beat six carried badly, and knowing which is which for this particular student is the substance of the session.
03
Alignment with intended majors
Whether the sequence supports what the student says they want to study, and what would need to be taken in the next two years for that to remain credible. Some fields have prerequisites that are painful to add late.
04
The trade-off conversation
Course load against activities, testing and the rest of life. This is usually where a plan gets more realistic, and occasionally where the recommendation is to take one fewer demanding course than the family expected.
“Your school counselor knows the course catalog, the prerequisites and the timetable better than anyone outside the building, and that advice is already paid for. This session is worth adding when you want dedicated time, an outside read on rigor, and the reasoning written down.”
The testing calendar and the score strategy: which test, which sittings, what target makes sense given the college list, and whether submitting a score helps this applicant. Strategy only – hourly tutoring is a separate service, billed on its own.
A plan with dates beats a plan with intentions.The roadmap exists so nobody is deciding course selection or test timing in the week it is due.
1Which testSAT or ACT, decided on how the student actually performs rather than on which one is locally fashionable. Colleges that use scores accept either and state no preference between them.
2The sitting calendarWhich dates, how many attempts to plan for, and how those land against course load, activities and the application deadlines. Registration deadlines fall well before test dates, which catches families out every year.
3A target score worth aiming atDerived from the college list rather than from a round number. Knowing what would genuinely strengthen an application tells you how much preparation is worth buying – and when more would not change the outcome.
4Submit or withholdTesting policies differ by college and change from cycle to cycle: some are test-optional, some have reinstated requirements, and the University of California does not consider scores at all. The decision is made per school, on the current policy.
“We do not tutor and we do not promise score gains. What this service does is make sure the preparation you do buy is aimed at the right test, on the right date, at a target that means something.”
| Academic & Course Planning | SAT / ACT Planning | |
|---|---|---|
|
The question it answers |
What should they take next year? | Which test, when, and should we submit? |
| Format | One planning session, annually | A one-off strategy session and calendar |
| What you keep | Course decisions and a multi-year sequence | A testing calendar and a target score |
| Best grade to do it | Grades 8 to 11, before each course form | Grade 10 or early Grade 11 |
| How often | Once a year, every year | Once, then revisited if the list changes |
| Includes tutoring? | No - this is planning | No - hourly tutoring is billed separately |
“If your child’s college list is entirely test-blind or test-optional and the scores are unlikely to help, we will say so on the call rather than selling you a testing plan you do not need.”
Four steps, running on an annual cycle rather than a single engagement.
Step 1
Free call
Thirty minutes on what your child is taking now, what grade they are in, and whether testing is even in play for their list.
Step 2
Course planning session
Held before the course-selection form is due. Next year’s decisions, plus how the remaining years should sequence.
Step 3
Testing strategy
In Grade 10 or early Grade 11: which test, which sittings, what target, and what preparation is actually worth buying.
Step 4
Revisit annually
Course planning comes round each year, and the testing decision gets revisited if grades, scores or the college list move.
Bring the course catalog
The session is far more useful with the school’s actual offerings and prerequisites in front of us rather than a general discussion of rigor.
Tutoring stays separate
If preparation is worth buying, it is billed on its own. We would rather tell you how many hours are worth it than bundle them in by default.
The list drives the target
A target score is only meaningful against a college list, which is why list development usually comes first.
Course planning rewards starting early and repeating. Testing has one right window and a good deal of wasted effort on either side of it.
Earlier decisions keep more doors open.The value of this stage changes by grade, but the timeline keeps moving either way.
1Grades 8 and 9The point at which the four-year sequence is still fully open. Course planning here decides what is even available later, particularly in mathematics and science where the sequence is unforgiving.
2Grade 10Course planning again, now against real high school grades. Also the point to settle testing strategy, since the sittings that matter are usually in the following twelve to eighteen months.
3Grade 11The heaviest year and the one where load decisions matter most. Testing runs in earnest here, and the calendar has to fit around a demanding course load rather than ignore it.
4Grade 12Course planning has largely done its work. Testing may still involve a final sitting and the submit-or-withhold decision per school, which is worth getting right even at this stage.
Human guidance matters. Your child is matched with one consistent counselor across all three services rather than passed between staff.
Every counselor working with a student is background checked, and the same person carries the whole cycle so nothing has to be re-explained in November.
Our counselors openly share their qualifications, certifications, and relevant professional affiliations, so families know exactly who they’re working with.
We do not publish predicted admission odds and we do not guarantee outcomes, at any price. Anyone who does is selling certainty this process does not contain.
Common questions
Have more questions? We’ll cover them on your free call.
Free 30-minute call. No commitment. Individual outcomes vary.
