The college consulting industry is full of band-aid approaches: helping with essays in 12th grade, polishing the Common App activities section, narrowing down school lists at the last minute. But without the roots of a student, without a proper foundation, the flower has no way to grow. After 16+ years of helping students reach their full potential, I can tell you that foundational college planning built over multiple years is what leads to dream school admission, not last-minute tweaks. Here are three strategies to grow your student from the roots.
Year after year, I hear the same story. “I hired that consultant and they helped me with my essays. Why didn’t I get in anywhere?” Or, “I took advice from a college coach who really looked over my Common App and made sure my activities section was great. Why didn’t I get in?” The problem is always the same: the approach wasn’t foundational. The approach wasn’t at the roots. Today I’m going to share three concrete strategies that will help your high schooler work on their foundational college planning, grow as a student, and yes, as a byproduct, drastically improve their college admissions chances without even trying.
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The band-aid problem in college consulting
The college coaching, college planning, college consulting industry is wrought with the following pattern. Families go through high school. They reach late 11th grade. They say, “Oh wow, we’re less than a year from applying to college. Let’s find someone to help us with our college essays.” Or, “Let’s find someone to help us narrow down our school list.”
Why this approach fails
The problem with this approach is you’re not dealing with the roots of the student. You’re dealing with the very topmost portion, the flower if you will, the part that you think is all that really matters.
But without the roots of the student, without a proper foundation, the flower has no way to grow.
Colleges want to see a strong foundational student. They don’t want to see a student whose profile is built on a house of sand. They don’t want to see that grind student who doesn’t have study systems, who doesn’t have processes to follow, who is just staying up until 2 a.m. absent-mindedly doing problem after problem, not knowing when they’re done.
They want to see a student with strong roots.
The timing problem
Here’s the thing: you can’t work on your roots if you start thinking about college in the back half of 11th grade or 12th grade. You just can’t.
The college coaching industry seems to be full of, “Oh, you reached 12th grade fall? Yeah, we’ll help you with your essay.” That is a band-aid. “Oh, you reached 12th grade fall? We’ll help you with the activity section on your Common App.” That is a band-aid.
I’m not saying that’s wrong. But it’s far less effective than a four-year plan. Helping students at the start in ninth grade make their roots strong, their study habits strong, their processes strong, their confidence strong, and then saying, “Now that you have all that foundation, go flourish.”
That’s what gets me excited when I wake up in the morning. Being able to watch a student’s transition over four years. Not just, “Oh yeah, we helped you with your essay. There you go. That was a fun week.”
My breaking point: a personal story
As many of you know who have followed me on this channel, my background in 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009 into 2010 when I graduated from high school was that I was a high performing student. I wanted to reach my full collegiate potential.
I didn’t have a plan.
The grind student trap
More importantly, I didn’t have a plan when it came to how to navigate the high school classroom. I was a grind student. I just made up for not having a plan by saying, “I’ll work harder. I’ll study later into the night. I’ll just keep going.”
I reached a point junior year that was, I would say, my breaking point. I was deep in sports seasons. I was deep in taking the SAT and ACT because I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to take. I was taking all the hardest classes in my high school: AP classes, honors classes, whatever the highest was in each subject.
And I was completely burned out.
I didn’t have a proper plan. Honestly, my roots were not strong. And I was taking a band-aid approach of, “Well, I’ll just work harder.”
What’s crazy is it actually worked for many years. For many years, I could grind out A’s and grind out A’s and grind out the occasional A-minus, grind out the occasional B+. But eventually, I just reached a point where it was unsustainable.
The book that changed everything
That led me to the book that today has still changed my life the most: “How to Become a Straight A Student” by Cal Newport. Fast forward, yes, I actually got to meet up with Cal Newport in person. We had an amazing breakfast together. He’s the best.
But at the time, I was just a high schooler. I read his book and it opened my mind to the notion of: wow, if I take one step back here, if I think about how I’m going to tackle my high school experience, my class selection, once I’m in those classes how I’m going to tackle preparing for class, how I’m going to tackle sitting in the classroom and taking notes, how I’m going to tackle studying for tests, what’s the teacher going to ask about on the quiz so I can optimize my studying for that?
High school became easy. High school became fun. I had a plan. I worked the plan.
Senior year, I got straight A’s and I probably worked half the time that I had been working in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade, grinding for my A-minuses.
The physics teacher coming to my wedding
I’m actually getting married this year, and my high school physics teacher, my senior year physics teacher, is coming to my wedding. We were texting and our relationship really blossomed because I remember when he told me halfway through senior year that he just really hadn’t seen any other high schooler with the systems and organization to tackle his class before and how impressed he was by that.
That was really cool to hear. But what’s funny is it didn’t feel that hard. Once I actually had a system, once I had a plan of attack, I realized: oh, high school can be fun. High school can, crazy as it sounds, feel easy in an honors class or an AP class.
I think he had two sections of students, so probably 45 to 50 students. I believe I did finish number one in terms of rank. And again, I’m telling you, it all stemmed from me reading Cal Newport’s book and saying: instead of just diving into high school physics, honors physics, one of the harder classes at my high school, let me take a step back and spend a little bit of time thinking about how I’m going to dive in.
That’s it. That is the roots. That is working on the foundations of a student.
Strategy one: always have a plan when choosing classes
Always have a plan when you’re choosing your high school classes. Always. Yes, this means in ninth grade, in 10th grade, in 11th grade, in 12th grade. Have a plan when you’re choosing your classes.
The plan gets narrower over time
Now, just so you know, that plan will be less robust when you’re in 9th grade. Why? Because ninth graders might not know what their ultimate end goal is. You might not know what you want to study exactly in college. And therefore, your plan might be a little more vague. You might take those normal ninth grade classes.
But guess what? At least know that. Take the time to say, “I’m in ninth grade. I don’t quite know what I want to do. Therefore, I don’t have a clear path. Therefore, I’m going to take some of the normal general ninth grade classes that are offered.”
Great. You see how liberating that is? Instead of just saying, “I wonder, is this right? I don’t know.” Have a plan. Know that’s your plan.
Then comes 10th grade. You’ll have a little bit stronger of a plan. You can start narrowing down. “I really like English and social studies. I don’t like math and science.” Or vice versa.
By 11th grade, when you’re choosing your 12th grade classes, ideally you should start to really focus in. “Hey, you know what? I’m not going to take that AP World Lit class because I know I want to go into computer science and I kind of struggle in those classes. I’m not going to put myself through that.”
Align classes with your story
This connects to our Different > Difficult framework. It’s all about allocating your time toward the eventual story you want to tell colleges.
The amount of students I see who come to us struggling through AB Calculus and they’re like, “I want to be a journalism major.” Stop. That was a wrong choice when you chose your classes.
It might have simply stemmed from the fact that high schoolers don’t realize they have that choice, that they have the ability to say, “You know what, I know I want to be a journalism major. I’m not going to take AB Calculus.”
And by the way, if you think you have to have four years of math in order to get into an Ivy League school, you are mistaken. You don’t have to. Every year we have students who do not take four years of math, who do not take four years of a language, and do get into the top schools in the country.
But it’s about working backwards from the story you want to tell.
If your student is struggling to figure out what story they want to tell, start with my free Saturday Morning Test. It’s a simple exercise that helps students discover their authentic interests, which then guides everything from class selection to activities to essays.
Strategy two: the B+ rule
Never, ever take a class in high school for your four years that you don’t think you can at least get a B+ in.
Now, there are always asterisks to this. I’m doing a YouTube video for the public. I don’t know your specific situation. Could you come to me with some very unusual situation where my team might say, “Yeah, you know what? Given you told me XYZ and you think you’re going to get a B, I still would take it”? Sure. But 95% of the time, nope.
The research behind the rule
We’ve researched this a ton. We’ve looked at thousands of data points of our past students over the last decade. We’ve talked to admissions reps. We’ve talked to those who are in the college admissions world. We’ve talked to those who have actually looked at applications. We have several members on our team who have been in the application review rooms at the top schools in the country.
And we’ve come up with our B+ Rule: getting a B+ in a higher level class is deemed equivalent, or about equivalent, to getting an A in whatever class is lower.
So it’s really B+ as the minimum. But if you think “I can scrape out a B, maybe B+,” you still might want to consider dropping down a level, getting that A, and then focusing on other areas of your application.
The question everyone asks but no one answers
You go to any top school’s information session, and they’ll say, “We want our high school students when they apply to get the highest grades in the most rigorous classes.”
Thank you. Now, what does that mean for me, the high school student, as I’m choosing my classes?
Everyone would love to get an A+ in BC Calculus. BC Calculus is likely the typical hardest class in most public high schools. But when I think about Jack Delehey senior year, I wasn’t going to get an A in BC Calculus. So at what level do I need to not take that class?
I think we’d all agree that if I said, “I think I can get an F,” everyone would say, “Don’t take that class.” But where is the line?
That’s where the B+ Rule comes in.
How to apply it
If you think, as you’re planning your high school classes, “I’ve done this in order for a reason.” Have a plan with your high school class selection. Then apply the B+ Rule.
Go look through your entire course selection and go class by class and say, “Can I get at least a B+ in this?” If the answer is likely no, and by the way, if you’re like, “Well, I’m not sure,” there are ways to find out.
You can ask older students. You can go walk into that teacher’s office hours, knock on their door, and say, “Hey, I’m considering your class next year. Can you show me the syllabus?”
It’s amazing. We do this every year with our students and it’s amazing how many students are spot on. They know. And the amount of times I get that little look and they say, “I just really don’t think I can get a B+.” Great. Drop down a level or potentially eliminate the class altogether and do something else.
My C+ that still haunts me
I’ll never forget the one C that I got in high school. Still to this day. Junior year, pre-calculus. One of the hardest classes I’ve taken between all of high school and all of college. Absolutely brutal.
And if I had known the B+ Rule, I wouldn’t have taken it. But hey, I wasn’t the founder of College Consulting then. I was just a 16-year-old with no plan, just blindly going through. And I took pre-calc and I struggled.
By the way, yes, if you’re wondering, it’s very, very rare these days to have any C on your transcript and be able to get into Vanderbilt. I applied in 2010. Just wanted to put that out there because I know some people might say, “Wait, Jack, you got a C and got into Vanderbilt.” Yes, I had one. It was a C+. I’ll never forget it.
The B+ Rule not only will help you improve your profile. It will save you. It will give you sanity. It will help you feel more confidence. Because nobody likes to see C’s.
Strategy three: know when you are done studying
No high schooler does this. By the way, no college kid really does this either.
Here’s why this is so powerful.
The revelation that changed everything
When you actually have a plan of attack that says, “I know the upcoming test is going to involve chapters three, four, and five of my physics textbook, and I know that my teacher has said that any of the homework problems or problems we went over in class are fair game for the test,” then all you need to do is be able to do every single one of the homework problems and every single one of the problems that you went over in class.
This may sound like a lot, but this was revolutionary for me and it has been for many, many of our students.
It is revolutionary for two reasons. One, it’ll make you a way better student. You’ll get straight A’s. You’ll do so in half the time. That’s incredible.
But two, it is freeing mentally. Instead of doing what I used to do in my early high school years of basically studying at my desk late at night until 2 a.m. until complete exhaustion, at which point I’d say, “Well, I’m closing my book and going to bed for 5 hours,” you actually have a signal that says: I am done studying. I am ready to ace this test.
The system in action
First step: figure out what’s fair game on the test. You high schoolers, if you’re watching this, you can do this. You can figure out what’s on the test. Go look at the syllabus. Go ask your teacher specifically.
With a little bit of effort, you can figure out what’s on the test. If you say, “I can’t figure out what’s on the test,” that’s a far bigger issue that you need to solve immediately. How are you supposed to study for a test, a midterm, a final if you don’t know what is fair game on it?
Step number two: spend 10, 20, 30 minutes max creating a plan. This plan can be bullets in a notebook. This plan can be typed out on a Google doc. But all that plan is, is you writing down every single thing you need to do so that you know everything that could be on the test.
The green check mark system
My senior year in physics, I followed Cal Newport’s advice and said: I will have an endpoint to my studying for every single bit of preparation I did for every physics test.
So again, the upcoming test is on chapters 3, 4, 5, every homework assignment and every problem we went over in class. I would literally find every single homework assignment, every problem that was on every homework assignment, every class problem, and then I would write them in a notebook.
Meaning: okay, problems on pages 272 to 274, the odd numbers, those were assigned on homework, those are the ones that could be on the test. Also, chapter 4, pages 313 to 316, questions 27-58, the even numbers, that was also assigned. And then the 7, 8, 9, 10 problems that we went over specifically in class that weren’t in the textbook but could be fair game for a similar question to get asked on the test. Write that down with a little checkbox next to it.
Then I would go through every single question. Remember those colored pens? Green check mark if I went through the question and got it right. Red X if I got it wrong or didn’t even know how to get to an answer.
Keep going. Green check mark. Green check mark. Red X. Green check mark. Green check mark. Green check mark. Red X.
Now, several days before the test, I have maybe a dozen, maybe 16, maybe 20 questions that I don’t know how to answer. All the rest? Green check marks. I’m good.
The freedom of being done
I make sure I know how to answer those red X questions. That might mean going to the answer in the back of the book and looking at the explanation. That might mean going to office hours like I did many times with my physics teacher to say, “Question 17b on page 343. I just don’t know how to answer. Can you help me?” “Oh yeah, sure, Jack. Let me walk you through it.”
Then I know how to answer it. I go back that night, second night of studying. You can see how quickly you can whittle down.
What was amazing about this is I had an end to studying when I was 100% green check marks. It was done.
That moment when I got 100% green check marks, closed my notebook, put my pen on my notebook, wiped my hands, and said, “I’m done. It’s only 7:00 p.m. I’m done. I’m going to go hang out with my family. I’m going to go watch a sports game downstairs. Because I’m done studying.”
And that is how, pretty quickly, pretty efficiently, in a pretty fun, stress-free manner, I just got straight A’s in physics senior year, applying half, a third the amount of hours of work that I had just one year prior in all my classes, grinding away till 2 a.m. with no real plan, just waiting until I got so tired my eyes drooped.
If your student feels like they’re constantly studying but never making progress, start with my free High School Time Audit. It shows exactly where time is going and helps students reclaim hours for what actually matters.
The roots are what we deeply care about
In today’s post, I talked about the roots. I’m passionate, and my team is passionate, about helping high school students reach their full potential.
Yes, at the end game, junior year into senior year, there’s a lot of flower petals that we work on. We help students craft an amazing essay. They write it, we give advice, they go back, they revise it, we give more advice, they go back. We help students make sure that their activities section, their additional information section of their Common App is awesome, represents the best of who they are. We help students decide: do you want to take the SAT or ACT? And help them come up with the study plan for them.
These are all the flower petals.
The roots are what we as a team deeply care about. We help students achieve their full potential because we work with them for ideally four years. We help them establish these foundational roots early and often.
One: picking the right classes. Two: the B+ Rule. Three: knowing when you are done studying.
What’s fun is to see the teenagers who join our program, and the parents of them, grow. Their smiles increase because college planning doesn’t have to be stressful. And in fact, when you focus on the roots, while it may seem harder in the early stages, in the long run it’s the most rewarding.
And yes, as a byproduct of working on the roots, you’ll get into your dream school.
Ready to take the next step?
If you want to work on the roots with your high schooler, you can book a 100% free college planning strategy session with my team. We’ll talk through your student’s situation and see if our foundational approach is the right fit.
And if you’re not ready for a call, start with my free College Story Audit. It’s a 15-minute assessment that shows you whether your student’s current profile is built on a strong foundation or a house of sand. Because the best time to strengthen the roots is before you need the flower to bloom.
Frequently asked questions about foundational college planning
Isn’t it too early to think about college in 9th grade? There’s a difference between obsessing over college and building strong foundations. Working on the roots means developing study habits, making smart class choices, and growing as a student. These benefit your child regardless of where they end up applying.
What if we’re already in 11th grade? You can still work on the roots, but you’ll have less time. The best day to start is today. Even implementing these three strategies for one year will make a significant difference compared to just focusing on essays and applications.
My student is a grind student. How do I help them change? Start with the “know when you’re done studying” strategy. It’s the quickest win. Once they experience the freedom of having an endpoint to studying, they’ll be more open to the other foundational changes.
Do I really need four years to build strong roots? No, but more time is better. I grew more between 11th and 12th grade than I had in any other high school year, and that was over the course of just a couple months. But imagine if I had started in 9th grade.
How does this relate to actually getting into college? Here’s the coolest thing: as a byproduct of growing the roots, you’ll get into your dream school. Colleges want to see a strong foundational student. When you focus on the roots, while it may seem harder in the early stages, in the long run it’s the most rewarding.
What about the “flower” stuff like essays and activities? We absolutely help with that too. At the end game, junior year into senior year, there’s a lot of flower petals we work on. We help students craft amazing essays. We help make sure activities sections represent the best of who they are. But those flower petals only bloom when the roots are strong.
