On June 6, Sanjeeta and I did a short AltView briefing for Class 12 students and parents applying abroad this year.
The title was deliberate: Class 12 Has Started: What Students Applying Abroad Should Do Before June Disappears.
For many Indian families, August feels like the natural start of application season because the Common App opens around then. I understand that instinct. Forms make the process feel real. But for a Class 12 student, August is often too late to begin the real thinking.
By then, school is active, coaching schedules are running, board pressure has started to sit in the background, and families may still be debating countries, courses, budgets, testing, and college lists. If the student is also discovering their essay material for the first time, the whole process becomes more rushed than it needs to be.
You can watch the recording here:
What the session was really about
I was not trying to say that everything must be finished in June. That would be unrealistic, and it would probably create the wrong kind of pressure.
What I do think is this: June and July should leave the family with fewer blank areas than they had at the start.
By August, these areas should not be blank:
- what the application needs to make visible about the student
- the country, course, and college-list direction
- at least a few essay possibilities, even if the final personal statement is not ready
- activities described with evidence, not just titles
- which teachers can speak with specificity
- the main testing, scholarship, and deadline decisions
Why essays need earlier thinking
One thing we spent time on was the essay. Many students think essay work begins when they open a document and try to write 650 words. In practice, the harder work comes before that.
What should the essay reveal? Which parts of the student’s life have texture? Which activity belongs in the main essay, which belongs in a supplement, and which should simply stay in the activities list? And very practically, what sounds like the student, and what sounds like a parent, tutor, or AI tool has cleaned it up too much?
Those questions take time. They are much harder to answer honestly when school tests, coaching classes, application deadlines, and family decisions are all arriving together.
Why the list and the essays are connected
We also discussed why the college list and essays cannot be treated as separate tasks.
A student applying to US liberal arts colleges, UK academic courses, Canadian universities, and Indian options is not writing one generic “abroad application.” Each system asks for something different. The US application usually wants a broader view of the person. The UK statement is more course-focused. A Why Us essay needs specific college research. A UCAS-style academic statement has a different job from a Common App personal essay.
When the list keeps changing late in the year, the writing usually suffers. The student is trying to understand the college, the genre, and their own story at the same time.
More colleges do not automatically make the list safer
Another point we came back to was this: adding more colleges does not automatically make a list safer.
Sometimes a larger list is sensible. Cost, country risk, major competitiveness, and family constraints can all justify more options. But a college added only because everyone is nervous can create more essays and more deadlines without making the application strategy stronger.
The better question is: what job is this college doing on the list?
If no one can answer that clearly, the list may be growing because of anxiety rather than judgment.
A simple next step
For families who attended the session, the most useful next step is probably not a dramatic new plan. It is a simple working check:
- write down the current college list and the reason each college is there
- test two possible essay directions
- identify recommenders and gather the specific classroom moments they can speak about
- put testing, school paperwork, early deadlines, scholarship deadlines, and family decisions on one calendar
That exercise alone often shows where the real uncertainty is.
If your child is in Class 12 and applying abroad this year, this is a good moment to get serious without getting frantic. The year will only get more crowded. June and July are useful because they still leave some space for thought.
If you would like a one-on-one conversation about your child’s application direction, you can reach us here:
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