(For 9th & 10th Graders) Early Strategy Package
This 10-hour early strategy package is designed for ambitious 9th and 10th grade students who want to build a stronger, more focused, and more competitive college admissions profile before application season begins. The biggest advantage in college admissions is not starting essays early. It is building the right story, academic path, extracurricular depth, leadership experiences, and strategic direction early enough that your application has real substance by senior year. As the Founder & Executive Director of Ivy Journey and an elite admissions consultant with 15+ years of experience, I help students identify what makes them distinctive and turn that into a clear long-term admissions strategy. My students have earned admission to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Penn/Wharton, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Duke, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Cornell, and other top universities. In this package, we will take a comprehensive look at where you are now and where you want to go. We will assess your academic record, course selection, extracurriculars, leadership potential, interests, intended majors, summer plans, competitions, research opportunities, community impact, personal strengths, and early college goals. From there, we will build a personalized roadmap for the next 12-24 months. This is especially valuable for students who are high-achieving but unsure how to stand out, aiming for Ivy League/Top 30/UC schools, or wondering how to turn their activities into a more cohesive admissions profile. Together, we will clarify your positioning, identify gaps, prioritize the highest-impact opportunities, and create a focused plan for academics, extracurriculars, leadership, summer experiences, testing, awards, and early narrative development. The goal is to help you stop guessing and start making intentional choices that compound over time. By the end of this package, you will have a clearer sense of who you are becoming as an applicant, what you should focus on next, and how to build a profile that feels authentic, competitive, and memorable when it is time to apply.
What's included
- A full early-candidacy profile assessment across academics, extracurriculars, leadership, interests, awards, summer plans, testing, and college goals
- A personalized 12-24 month strategic roadmap that outlines what to prioritize now, what to build next, and how to stay on track before application season
- A focused extracurricular and leadership strategy to help the student build depth, initiative, impact, and a more distinctive admissions profile
- Academic and major-positioning guidance, including course selection, rigor, subject strengths, intended major exploration, and alignment with target school expectations
- Summer and opportunity planning, including recommendations for programs, research, internships, passion projects, competitions, service, entrepreneurship, or self-directed work
- A preliminary applicant positioning strategy that clarifies the student’s emerging narrative, key differentiators, and what they should become known for by senior year
Meet your expert
Becky S.
I’m Becky Song, a Wharton MBA, former Wharton admissions fellow, professional admissions and career coach, and Founder & Executive Director of Ivy Journey (theivyjourney.com). Over the past 15+ years, I’ve helped hundreds of applicants and professionals earn admission to top MBA, master’s, and college programs, as well as land offers across consulting, strategy, and business roles. My clients have been admitted to top MBA programs (e.g., HBS, Stanford GSB, Wharton, MIT Sloan, Columbia, Kellogg, Booth, LBS, Insead, etc.) and top Ivy undergrad & grad programs. I’ve also coached 500+ candidates through career transitions, resumes, interviews, consulting recruiting, and personal positioning. What makes my coaching different is the combination of admissions judgment, career strategy, and narrative positioning. I help clients understand what schools and employers are really evaluating, then translate their background into a clear, differentiated story that feels authentic and compelling. I’m especially strong with MBA applicants, college applicants, master’s candidates, international applicants, first-generation applicants, consulting candidates, and professionals making major career pivots. Personally, I’ve navigated several pivots myself: actuary, nonprofit leader, strategy consultant, Wharton MBA, admissions fellow, founder, and career coach. If you want a coach who can help you think strategically, sharpen your story, and move through a competitive process with more clarity and confidence, I’d love to work with you!