Jordan's Timeline:
The Next 6 Months
Class of 2027 · Engineering / Product Design
Sample timeline from our consultation on April 23, 2026 · Prepared June 12, 2026
You built a working desk lamp from scrap plywood, from the ground up, with a counterweight arm you designed yourself - about eight hours of work, just because you wanted to. That instinct to design and build real things is the thread running through everything you do, and this month-by-month plan is built to carry it into application season so you walk into August with the hard parts already handled. It draws on our April 23rd conversation and my Class of 2027 materials - so treat it as a working draft. If we work together, refining and reprioritizing it as your list, essays, and summer take shape is exactly where we'd start.
Focus on:
Jump to:
June
Get the foundation in place
Turn the schools you named into a real reach / target / safety list. You'd mostly looked at the UCs your senior friends mentioned and visited one private campus nearby - we'd build a balanced list that fits how you actually want to learn and build. This is the milestone everything else hangs on, and it's my first priority.
List & Visits
Add the categories we discussed: a wider range of UCs, 3–5 CSUs (the Cal Polys especially - San Luis Obispo's learn-by-doing engineering fits you), and a set of selective and private targets. The UC application counts as one; the CSUs as one.
List & Visits
For each school, check how it admits engineers - direct-admit into your major vs. apply-or-declare later - and confirm your major (and product / industrial design, if you want it) is actually offered there. It shapes all four years. You can preview every school’s portal in my 2027 application portals list.
List & Visits
For your strongest projects - the plywood builds, the 3D-printed bike mount, the sensor rig from your camp - write one sentence each naming the problem it solved or the design choice you made, not just what it is. That framing is what the most selective programs press on.
Project
Before junior year ends, ask your two teachers and your counselor to be recommenders. The teachers who wrote for your summer program application carry over. Since your counselor is new and has a heavy caseload, you'll want to help them with specific examples.
Recommendations
July
Build depth, write early, visit with intent
Start the UC Personal Insight Questions - four of eight, ~350 words each, on different topics. Write them the way you said you write: like you're chatting with someone, factual and direct, leading with what you actually did. They're aimed at the UCs as a group, since your one application goes to all of them at once. My UC application prep resources include the PIQ tip sheet.
Essays
Set up your Common App account and fill the parts that roll over (profile, courses & grades, activities) so that when the new cycle opens August 1 you're writing essays, not doing data entry. My 2027 application portals list links every platform with direct sign-up.
Applications
Keep documenting your summer internship work as you go - photos, what you tried, what broke, what you changed. Push for a harder problem you can point to; that progression is what colleges look for, and it's portfolio and essay material later.
Project
You've seen one private campus - try to add a different type of campus: a large public (Berkeley or San Jose State) and, if you can, a selective one, just to calibrate what fits. Go past the tour - ask what students are building right now and whether the makerspaces stay open late. (Use my questions to ask colleges list before you go.)
List & Visits
Watch for Honors Colleges (ASU's Barrett, Penn State). They bring perks like early registration, housing, and research access - and some have their own earlier deadlines, so flag them now. See my honors colleges list.
List & Visits
Take a proctored practice SAT with one of the local providers - I can give you options - to get a baseline, and register for the August test while you are at it, since registration closes well before test day and nearby seats go first. The UCs are test blind, so this is only to find out whether a score would help at the private schools on your list.
Testing
August
The hinge month - applications open
August 1 is the date everything points to: the UC application opens, your Common App (set up in July) is ready to pick back up, and the MIT application for the Class of 2027 typically releases this month (preview it in my MIT application preview). Cal State Apply, including the Cal Polys, opens October 1.
Applications
Draft the Common App personal statement around your one through-line - the maker who designs, builds, and brings people in. Map which supplemental prompts overlap so you write roughly six strong essays and reuse them; the UCs never see the Common App.
Essays
For MIT's Maker Portfolio, you can link your existing digital portfolio and upload an artifact for each project. You don't need a brand-new research project - you need to articulate what you've already built, clearly and specifically.
Project
Submit a couple of rolling / early-response schools (Penn State, Arizona State). Some return a decision within a few days in August - a real confidence anchor before senior year begins.
Applications
Aim to have most of this done before you go back to school. Whatever's left after August 1 is mostly supplements and interviews - the lighter lift.
Applications
Take the August SAT. One sitting is enough to decide with - we would add an autumn date only if the score comes back close enough to be worth improving. If the practice test in July said otherwise, we skip this and put the Saturday into essays.
Testing
September – November
Application season
Work backward from every deadline. The UC application is due November 30 - submit well before (aim for mid-November); private early-action / early-decision deadlines often land around November 1 (the Common App requirements grid lists each school's EA/ED windows). Glitches spike near deadlines, so never submit on the last day.
Applications
If MIT is on your final list, submit early. MIT offers its interview only after you apply, so getting in early helps you secure a slot - and I'd prepare you for it, drawing on my six years interviewing for MIT. We'd prep any other interviews too; for you, being able to show what you've built on camera is a real advantage.
Applications
For schools with their own forms (MIT publishes its questions), brief each teacher so their examples match what they're actually asked - that's what turns a generic letter into a strong one.
Recommendations
Iterate the way we'd work: you draft in Google Docs, I comment, we meet for strategy, you revise - until each essay is tight and dense with content.
Essays
FAFSA and the CSS Profile (a second aid form some private colleges use) typically open in the fall (date to be confirmed). File early even if you don't expect need-based aid - some merit aid and scholarships still key off it.
Applications
How we'd work together
You and Jordan are clearly capable of running much of this yourselves - the plan above is yours to use either way, and your questions on the call were sharp (how recommendations work across MIT and the Common App, whether one teacher can write two letters, how essays get reused). Where I add value is the part that's hard to self-serve:
- Judgment: which of your “maybe” schools are real targets once we run your actual numbers, which essay thread lands hardest, and how to present a profile that spans engineering, design, music, and service so it reads as one person - not a list.
- The timeline off your plate: I track every deadline and keep you a step ahead of your school's, so the summer goes to building and writing, not logistics.
- An engineering-specific read: I'm a licensed engineer who interviewed for MIT for six years and have visited and personally evaluated 100+ engineering programs in person - so you get what actually moves the needle for your major, including the maker-portfolio and product-design angles most generalist advisors miss.
Day to day, that's a meeting roughly every week or two over the summer, with Jordan drafting in Google Docs between them so our time goes to strategy - plus access to my complimentary Class of 2027 UC sessions, including the Personal Insight Questions walk-through.
Jordan and Family: Next Steps
I would warmly welcome the opportunity to work with your family!
If you would like to proceed with college advising, please let me know and I'll send three items: (1) my short contract for your review, (2) the invoice, and (3) a link to book our first meeting.
My first priority would be to turn the schools you named into a balanced, fitted college list - so the summer is about visiting, writing, and building, not deciding where to apply under pressure.
Comprehensive Package for continuity through the fall - the path I'd recommend for Jordan - or Hourly for lighter-touch support; full details on the Fees & Services sheet. Pricing holds through June 30, 2026 and locks in once your contract is signed. Class of 2027 availability is limited.