The college admissions strategy built around who your teen is and the high school plan to make it real.
A learning platform and live cohort where teens build their admissions strategy, find career direction with real data, and learn the skills to run it all. Led by a national award-winning teacher.
Free 12-page guide for parents and teens · Spring 2027 cohort forming now
Live Saturdays
Money Lab- National teaching awardSymantec Award for Innovation in Education
- 2,000+ students a yearAcross 15 Bay Area high schools
- Harvard Kennedy SchoolMaster in Public Policy
- UC BerkeleyEconomics and Political Science
Which of these sounds like your teen?
Capable, motivated high schoolers who are ready for what comes next.
Works hard, and is ready to see where it’s all leading
Grades and activities are strong. The next step is connecting them into a clear direction and an admissions strategy that reflects who they are.
A direction and a strategy that are genuinely theirs. Effort gets easier, and their talents finally have somewhere to go.
High-achieving, and wants to keep their spark
A full load of classes, activities, and expectations. They want to keep performing at a high level without running on empty.
A planning system and calm-under-pressure habits. More done, more breathing room, more fun.
Curious how their talents could become a career
They’re starting to think about majors, colleges, and earning a living, and they want real information instead of guesswork.
Real salary data, a model of the return on college, and a map of where their talents meet real demand.
Capable teens don’t need more pressure. They need a clearer picture, better tools, and a space that’s genuinely theirs.
A learning platform, led live by a teacher
Teens build their plan steadily, one piece each week, with three ways of learning working together.
Learn and build, week by week
Short weekly modules and interactive tools, so the plan takes shape a piece at a time: the Student OS, the Money Lab, the Career Dashboard, and an AI prompt pack.
Apply and test
Saturday sessions with frameworks, hands-on workshops, and peer feedback, in a small cohort of 8 to 12 teens.
Make it yours
Weekly drop-in office hours with Neil, plus a 1:1 coaching session (parents welcome) before the capstone strategy presentation.
Learn it on your own, test it live with peers, make it yours with personal guidance.
Real work your teen keeps using long after the program
Not a course they watch. A set of plans and tools they build themselves and actually run.
A college admissions strategy
Courses, activities, and college and major targets, built around your teen’s strengths and direction.
A multi-year academic and activity plan
A living map that gives every course and activity a purpose, 9th grade through 12th.
Career clarity from real data
Labor-market data and AI research tools feed a career dashboard your teen builds and tests.
The Money Lab
Compounding, the return on college, and student loans, modeled live, plus a post-college budget.
The Student OS
A weekly system for goals, focus, and follow-through, built on what high performers use.
A personal strategy presentation
Their plan, presented to the cohort and ready to share with counselors, mentors, and recommenders.
Start with the High School Strategy Guide
- What admissions and the job market look like for your teen’s class
- What to focus on in each grade, plus the dates that matter
- A 5-part Snapshot of where your teen stands today
- A one-year plan to build together
Built by a teacher. Sharpened by a strategist.
Neil Dandavati built his first life design course as a San Francisco public high school teacher. It won the Symantec Award for Innovation in Education and, through the Pearson Foundation, reached 15 Bay Area high schools and 2,000+ students a year.
Since then he has advised Alameda district leadership on long-term planning and led strategy work at Kaiser Permanente and an early-stage AI company. Designing High School brings all of it together: a teacher’s care, a strategist’s tools, and the technology teens already live in.
From the parents and teens in the room
I especially valued the clear, practical strategies for college admissions and the way you made the activities and digital tools engaging.
I now feel very prepared in my college admissions, even as a 9th grader. I feel like I already know what points to hit and what to include, even though I still have another 3 years ahead of me in high school.
The Spring 2027 cohort is forming
A small, application-based group of motivated high schoolers, working through the full Designing High School program together.
Two easy ways to start
Whichever fits where you are, you’ll come away with a clearer picture of your teen’s path.
Get the free strategy guide
Twelve pages to skim, then fill in with your teen. Includes the 5-part Snapshot.
Send me the guideBook a free 20-minute call
Tell me about your teen and get honest advice on next steps, whether or not the program is the right fit.
Pick a time