It’s June. For rising ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders, it’s high time to begin your summer activity planning. And, no, that fancy summer enrichment program at Stanford University (or any other highly selective college) won’t do. If you don’t know why, you are not a regular reader of our college admissions blog. But there is no time like the present. What some prospective clients sometimes ask us is this: “Do you just put our kid into one of three activities so he or she can stand out in admissions?” No, no, and no. At Ivy Coach, we tailor the activities we recommend to students based — of course — on their interests, on their unique talents. But if a student’s interest is swimming and this same student goes a 1:56 in the 100-yard breastroke, well, that won’t do. Because no college coach in America is going to be interested in a student who swims a sub-2 minute 100 breast. A sub 1-minute 100 breast? Then we’ll talk (though even this time won’t do at various highly selective colleges).

In Los Angeles and San Fransisco, in Austin and Seattle and lots of places far and wide, the word ‘organic’ is quite popular these days. From organic cleaning products championed by the likes of Jessica Alba (whose Honest Company has become quite a phenomenon, we might add) to organic produce and even organic haircare accessories, organic is in. At Ivy Coach, we are all about organic. We are all about tailoring a student’s activities organically with their passions, with their interests, though we don’t let students eat exclusively organic apples for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Organic apples do not a diet make. Are you following our analogy? We, admittedly, may have even lost ourselves. Pretend swimming is organic apples. If you’re not that superstar breastroker, avoid the apples. Eat something else that also happens to be organic. We hope we’ve successfully moved this analogy back on track.

If you’re interested in our assistance with your child’s summer activity planning, fill out our free consultation form today to get started. We’ll be in touch within the day. Summer is also a great time to correct mistakes in coursework that you may not even realize are mistakes on your child’s transcript. We can help you fix those mistakes before they hurt your child’s chances for admission to highly selective colleges.