Just-in-time management doesn’t work for college applications

There’s controversy now about whether just-in-time management works in an era of snarled supply chains. This issue is immediately relevant to parents (like me) hoping to get kids’ holiday presents in time! That got me thinking about a just-in-time approach to college admission.

In the 1970s, Toyota pioneered ways to decrease production costs. One of them was just-in-time management, or “technique of arranging regular, small deliveries of exactly the correct amount required.” Not a lot of lead time, not a lot of inventory sitting around. It worked really well and cut production costs sharply.

Just-in-time management works well for inventory management, but it isn’t the way to apply to college. We don’t want to do anything at the last minute, and we want to build in some slack and redundancy. A process that is too lean is too susceptible to failure. It’s okay to use “just-in-case” management for college applications, too, because we’re only applying once for each kid, not getting thousands of cars rolling off the assembly line.

If you decide to work with me, I will guide your family to complete applications by the beginning of senior year. That self-imposed deadline will inform our workback planning all the way to eighth grade. If you follow my suggested timeline, you won’t face time crunches.

This approach preserves the option of applying early decision to any school on your list. Early decision is not the focus of this blog post, but it is a crucial element of admissions strategy. You don’t want to leave that money on the table. You could book an hour of one-on-one time to discuss why.

Another reason why we hew to an early and self-imposed deadline is because regular-decision applications that arrive closer to the deadline get less attention. An anonymous admission officer admitted as much to Inside Higher Ed earlier this year.

Here’s some evidence from Harvard’s instructions to alumni interviewers, with emphasis added:

“Your insights are most valuable if we have them for subcommittee—a case’s first hearing. We would of course love to read interview reports as we first read applicants’ files. But many students still wait to apply by the final deadline, making it virtually impossible for their reports to be here for a folder’s first read. […] Waiting an extended period before writing the interview report can disadvantage the student.”

Harvard will assign you an alumnus or alumna for an interview when it gets your application. Obviously, it can’t do so until it receives your application. We want to build in enough lead time for the office to assign you an interviewer, for that interviewer to schedule a meeting with you, and for him or her to write up and submit notes on you. Ideally, all those things happen before the admission committee (at Harvard or any school) meets to discuss you. We want all of the elements of your child’s gestalt-consistent application there, ready to tell one unified and compelling story, when the admissions office meets to discuss him or her.

You can improve the odds that those processes occur as they ought just by submitting your applications early—not just in time.

Before we get to the finish line of actually submitting the application, we have to make sure we have built in lead time to prepare for a standardized test, maybe take it a few times, get as far as possible in the math sequence, and ask for letters of recommendation well before the deadline. Asking for a short-turn-around letter of recommendation from a busy teacher increases the odds of an unflattering letter. This is an unforced error we can avoid with just a bit of forethought.

It also makes sense to build in a little extra slack in admission planning because the primary actor in this process is a teenager, not an auto executive. We expect that lost forms, naps, track meets, etc. will get in the way of perfect adherence to a timeline.

The most important reason, though, to plan ahead for college admission is to minimize your kid’s stress and unhappiness. By casting a careful eye down the road, making a careful workback plan, and sticking to it as best we can, we can minimize tears, stress, and all-nighters. Some people criticize me for encouraging families to think about college in eighth grade. But wouldn’t you rather take small, regular bites at this big task over years, rather than facing a sudden panic?

How can you make sure you build in enough lead time? You can download my application timeline for free here. If you’d like to discuss how to apply it to your family’s particular circumstances, you can book a one-on-one consultation here. I look forward to working with your family!