Free Video Series · For Parents of High School Seniors
Get the applications finished before the early deadlines, November 1st.
A free 5-video series from Barbara Leventhal, Educational Consultant, on what actually gets college applications done: the strategy, the story, and the structure that turns “working on it” into finished.
Free. Five short videos. The first one arrives immediately.
Barbara Leventhal
30+ years inside independent schools.
Your senior is smart. Your senior is motivated.
And somehow the applications still aren’t moving.
That’s not a character problem. A college application isn’t one task — it’s dozens of small decisions spread across months, with no real deadline until the deadline is two weeks away. For a seventeen-year-old juggling school, a sport, and a job, that’s an enormous project with no roadmap.
So it gets pushed to “later.” Not because they don’t care. Because there’s no clear next step.
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This series is about finishing applications, not about getting in. No one can guarantee admission to any college, and we don’t.
What’s in the series
Five short videos.
Why applications don’t get done
The ten-minute exercise that shows you exactly where your student really stands.
The four decisions to make before the Common App
Early Decision, Early Action, Rolling, Regular — and which one for which school.
The Sun and Rays Method
Admission officers aren’t reading twenty pieces. They’re reading one story.
Why students get stuck
The reason smart, willing seniors sit down and nothing happens.
What finishing early actually looks like
The first week of October, with the applications done.
Who’s teaching this
Barbara Leventhal
Barbara has spent 30+ years in independent school education, including Middle School Director roles at Miami Country Day, Cushman, and Carrollton. She has walked hundreds of families through exactly this process.
November 1 is closer than it looks.
Early Decision and Early Action deadlines land on November 1 at most schools. Recommendation letters need a month of notice. Essays need two weeks between drafts to be worth anything.
Work backwards from there and you’ll know quickly whether September is comfortable or already tight.