Page 84 - EW-January-2026

Teacher-2-Teacher

Six-year plan to university

admission success

SHEILA BAUER RAY RAVAGLIA

VERY ADMISSION SEASON, THE SAME stories What we call 'overnight success' in
race through WhatsApp groups and school corri-
dors. “A student from XYZ school just got into a top university admissions is really the
EUS university with a massive scholarship. She must visible tip of a very long below-deck
be a genius. Or they must have hired an amazing consultant
in class XII.” iceberg. Universities investigate a multi-
From a distance, it looks like an overnight miracle. Up year pattern of growth and achievement
close, it almost never is.
What we call “overnight success” is really the visible tip
of a very long below-deck iceberg. Universities don’t exam- encing engagement. She still did reasonably well in admis-
ine just a final exam marksheet or a polished essay; they sions, but everyone felt she had left potential on the table.
investigate a multi-year pattern of curiosity, growth, resil- Same talent. Different timeline.
ience, and achievement. The problem is that most families The six-year plan matters because growth compounds.
only start thinking seriously about this pattern when it’s In classes VII-VIII, the focus should be on building foun-
too late. dations and exploring interests across domains while
We recommend a six-year plan for “overnight” success, strengthening core literacy, numeracy and communication
from class VII to class XII. Spread over these years, a delib- skills. In classes IX-X, students should narrow to one or
erate, well-designed study plan is likely to make exponential two serious areas of focus and produce higher-level work —
impact. But if you pack this effort into the last 18 months, rigorous projects, competitions or research — so that their
and it will seem like panic. academic direction is clear. In classes XI-XII, the emphasis
Let us illustrate with a few stories. is on deepening strengths, adding a few high-impact experi-
Take ‘Ananya,’ a representative of several real students ences, and aligning academics and activities into a coherent
we’ve worked with. In class VII, she was shy but loved read- profile for favourable university admission.
ing. Her school ran a short leadership and public speak- In our experience, three pillars matter more than any-
ing workshop; she discovered she enjoyed speaking up in thing else: Evidence, purpose, and university-level engage-
small groups. In class VIII, she joined an online storytelling ment.
course and narrated a modest project on her city’s history. • Evidence: Not just claims of interest, but tangible output
In class IX, she attempted her first serious academic such as projects, papers, competitions, courses, and port-
writing course with structured feedback from a university- folios.
trained instructor. In class X, she took a social impact proj- • Purpose: A gradually emerging sense of direction. Not
ect course and worked with a local NGO, to improve com- “I figured out my entire life at 16,” but “over three years, a
munication with parents in low-income neighbourhoods. pattern has developed and I can explain it.”
In class XI, she added two more advanced courses in • University-level engagement: At least some experi-
areas she genuinely cared about and spent part of her sum- ences where the student has worked at or near the level
mer in a short residential program on a university cam- expected of a first-year university student with documented
pus, experiencing seminars and campus life firsthand. By credit, grades, and recommendations, through advanced
the time she applied in class XII, her application showed schoolwork, dual-credit courses, serious online pro-
several rigorous courses, a three-year track record of com- grammes, or summer school.
munity engagement, and clear interest in policy and devel- For Indian schools and school leaders, this type of
opment. To the outside world, her scholarship offer looked thinking has powerful implications. The real measure of
like lightning from a clear sky. To anyone who had tracked a school is not its infrastructure or its brand but student
her for six years, it was inevitable. success after they leave. Rankings that focus on long-term
Now contrast this with ‘Sara,’ who followed a more fa- outcomes and real-world readiness, such as the Education-
miliar path. Her family assumed that strong board marks World Launchpad Rankings, are beginning to capture this.
with some test prep would be enough. Until class XI, she A six-year approach is exactly what such metrics reward.
focused almost entirely on school exams. Suddenly, in class For families, the takeaway is simple and reassuring: you do
XII, the alarm bells rang: “We need profile building! We not need magic; you need time and structure.
need internships! We need courses!” The world will continue to be dazzled by “overnight suc-
In the space of a few months, she added three short cess” stories. Our job, as educators and parents, is to re-
online certificates, a rushed ‘internship’ that amounted to member the truth behind them: Overnight success is simply
shadowing, and a generic community service project. On six quiet years in a row.
paper, she looked busy. But there was no depth, no sus-
tained direction, and no real evidence of university influ- (Raymond Ravaglia and Sheila K. Bauer are co-founders of AccessUSA)

84 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2026