Around mid-December of every year, we offer deferred and denied high school seniors and their parents — families who did not work with us during the college admissions process — a Postmortem Evaluation to understand what went wrong for them in the Early Decision / Early Action round. While there are some things we can’t fix at that late date (e.g., we cant change the activities they’ve been involved in through high school, we can’t change their courses or their tests, etc.), there’s still a lot we can correct at that late date. We can change how they convey their stories. Sometimes that which is actually interesting is hidden in plain sight on an application and it’s our task during that Postmortem Evaluation to bring it to the surface as well as to correct a multitude of mistakes that students and parents likely didn’t realize were mistakes when they submitted those Early applications.

But now is not mid-December. Now is less than a month before the Early admissions deadline. And so when high school seniors and their parents reach out to us at this late-in-the-game juncture, there are a few key differences: (1) they’re full of hope, even if their dreams are impossible (your 1420 SAT is not going to work for Harvard even if you’ve wanted to go to Harvard since you were out of the womb!); (2) they often don’t want to hear what’s wrong with their case for admission, convinced their application is top-notch when in fact it’s far from it; (3) they lack a sense of urgency to fix these mistakes; and (4) they just assume we crave their business. In short, they’re living in the clouds and so often don’t want a necessary reality check.

If you’re one of these seniors (or a parent of one such senior), we wish you all the best in the Early Decision / Early Action round. If you’re coming to us at this late date to be told how amazing your application is and how you’ve got a great chance of admission to Harvard with your 1420 SAT, you’ve come to the wrong place. We will not tell you what you want to hear just to make you feel better. That is not our style. Rather, we’ll tell it like it is to you — with no sugarcoating whatsoever. We’d rather you hear this news from us instead of the school that defers or denies your candidacy in the Early round. So if you’re prepared to hear such truths at this late juncture, then Ivy Coach’s Premortem Evaluation is for you.

If you’re interested in Ivy Coach’s Premortem Evaluation, fill out our free consultation form, indicate Premortem Evaluation at the bottom, and we’ll be in touch.