Planning for every grade, covering school courses and outside activities. StudyPug Learning has been rooted in this community for 25 years. We write down what a student should be doing in each year from Grade 7 to Grade 12, then walk through it with them.
A university application is not built in a day. Most families know that. What they do not know is where to start, and they are afraid of missing the moment when something had to be done. Listing the work in the right order for one particular child, then having the energy to keep after every step, is hard on parents and students alike.
Four things actually need someone to put them in order:
Choosing schools and choosing a major work the same way. Which universities to apply to and what to study are questions to settle early, and most students and parents have no clear starting point. An academic planning advisor turns those questions into actions you can take one year at a time.
Which courses have to be finished between Grade 9 and Grade 12, and which prerequisite belongs to the program your child is aiming at.
Which subjects a university will look at, and which year is the right one to fix a weak subject.
How an activity connects to the intended program, when to start it, and how far to take it.
The order of essays, references, standardized tests and deadlines.
Students and parents from Grade 7 through Grade 12. Families who want to start earlier can begin with the assessment.
Common target fields include computer science, engineering, business, sciences and humanities. A different field means a different combination of courses, activities and exams. That is the reason planning is done early.
No direction settled yet, but you want courses and activities paced properly before high school starts.
School marks, AP course choices, competitions and activities all arrive at once, and someone has to coordinate them.
Essays and applications are concentrated in the first half of the year, and someone has to hold every document and every deadline.
Parents see this: one plan that names what happens in which year, one advisor who stays the same person to talk to, and written feedback at every step.
Focus: A structured assessment, plus an interview with our lead academic planning advisor, to establish a student's strengths, how they learn and study, their interests and their goals.
Who it's for: Families where no direction has been settled, or where parent and child do not see the goal the same way.
The edge: The assessment ends in a written first-draft plan, not a verbal suggestion.
Focus: Working from the BC curriculum's own course and graduation pathways, a senior academic planning advisor assesses the student and builds a plan specific to them.
Who it's for: Grade 7 to Grade 8 students whose school work and outside activities should be laid out ahead of high school.
The edge: The plan comes with activity recommendations and a yearly review, so it is updated each year rather than written once.
Focus: Working from the BC curriculum and each university's published entry requirements, a senior high school academic planning advisor sets the school-selection and application strategy.
Who it's for: Grade 9 to Grade 11 students carrying school marks, AP courses and competitions and exam preparation at the same time.
The edge: The strategy comes with a language and grade-improvement plan and a competition plan, and we supervise whether the plan is actually being followed.
Focus: Working from each university's published requirements and deadlines, a senior North American university applications advisor and our teaching team build the application plan and the written materials.
Who it's for: Grade 12 students who have to complete and submit essays and applications in the first half of the year.
The edge: Several rounds of essay revision, interview coaching, supervision through to submission, and a plan for the first year after admission.
Advisor meetings are 1-on-1. Essay and interview work is scheduled in a small group where that helps. Online or in person is your choice — meet us at the Richmond campus or run the whole engagement by video. Day-to-day practice and replay of school subjects sit on the StudyPug online learning platform, which is open 24/7.
Five steps, from the assessment to the offer:
Establish the applicant's strengths, how they learn and study, their interests, their goals and which courses suit them.
Match the applicant's profile to each school's admission standards, plan activities outside school, build the strategic timetable, schedule standardized tests, and track application progress and deadlines.
Coordinate applications and testing, assemble transcripts and supporting documents, set out what makes the application distinctive, guide the parent statement and the student essays, support the forms, and manage references and other documents.
Online mock interviews and interview practice, working through standard questions and how to answer them.
Handle routine follow-up, waitlist decisions, and how to argue for the last available seat.
To see where the schools you are considering sit, start with our university rankings reference, then talk about school selection. Private school, Canadian university and U.S. university applications are handled through our academic consulting service.
Parents see this: before each school year starts, you know which courses to take, which activities to join and which exam to prepare for.
Get the school courses right and fix a weak subject early. Start building activities that connect to the intended direction. Grade 9 is a good time to begin planning.
Settle the broad field, and sequence AP course choices and competitions.
AP courses and standardized tests come together, and essay material starts being collected. Waiting until Grade 11 to start planning leaves very little time.
Essays and applications are completed and submitted in the first half of the year, interviews are prepared, and waitlist and final decisions are handled.
Our lead academic planning advisor runs the assessment and sets the direction of the plan. Senior academic planning advisors and senior high school academic planning advisors carry it out year by year. A senior North American university applications advisor takes Grade 12 applications and written materials.
The advising team works alongside StudyPug Learning's English, math and science teachers, so a weak school subject gets fixed rather than worked around, and a student has something to show academically and outside class. Meet our teaching team.
The StudyPug online learning platform has served millions of students and is used by school districts across Canada. It has run since 2018.
96% of our planning and application students go on to post-secondary study. Across 25 years, StudyPug Learning has helped nearly 10,000 students reach the results they were aiming for.
A senior academic planning advisor takes the whole picture: where the student is strong, and how school work and activities outside school should be arranged around that. Our local applications team then builds the written materials for that particular student and a detailed application plan, with academic strengths and activities supporting each other. Your advisor stays with the family, meets you on a regular schedule, and reports back — so parents know where the plan and the application stand.
Grade 9 is a good time to start. Once high school begins, most students start thinking about which university and which program they want, and that is also when a lot of them start to feel lost. They are unsure which school courses to choose, some are struggling to lift their marks, and while they are looking for English, math and science support, they also have to pick AP courses, prepare for competitions and exams, and fit in activities outside school. An experienced planning advisor who can read the student's own situation and intended field, write the sequence down, and then keep after it, saves a great deal of wasted effort.
Starting in Grade 11 is late. Whether the goal is the application itself or a career after it, the preparation has to begin earlier. A student has to finish the main courses across all of high school with good marks, and on top of that take AP courses, sit exams and competitions and build activities outside school. International students whose first language is not English may also need IELTS or CELPIP, and students applying to U.S. universities may need SAT preparation as well. All of that cannot be fitted into Grade 11. Essays and applications have to be finished and submitted in the first half of Grade 12, so a student who begins planning in Grade 12 has run out of room.
Earlier than most families expect. Some hire an experienced advisor when the student enters high school. Some start once the child is in elementary school, and some start before that, planning both study and life outside school. Competition gets harder at every stage — at private school application time between elementary and secondary school, and again at university application time. Starting early is what lets a student and their parents arrange school work and outside activities without panic, and reach each milestone in order.
Getting into the university and the program a student wants is not a matter of submitting the required documents in Grade 12. Competition means every applicant has to be prepared well in advance to stand out. A strong application needs good school marks, real activities and experience outside school, and competition results. Some universities also ask for AP exam scores or SAT scores. A student who leaves AP courses and outside activities until Grade 11 is working against the clock, sometimes cannot finish at all, and carries pressure that can pull their school marks down with it.
Canadian university planning can begin as early as Grade 7, 8 or 9, preparing the school work and the activities that a future application will rest on. An experienced Canadian university applications advisor sets out each year's plan, and the advising team writes the specific school and activity arrangements and the application plan, then follows it through. U.S. university planning also starts from Grade 7 or 8, with an experienced U.S. applications advisor setting out the application steps and process, the study plan and the application plan, followed through the same way. Both routes run through our academic consulting service, and both are supported by our tutoring classes where a subject needs work.
Our senior university planning advisors become each student's own applications advisor. They set goals from that student's particular strengths, then plan and follow each step. They work with StudyPug Learning's academic tutors to lift marks quickly, so a student stands out academically and outside class.
Our advising team works across age groups — Kindergarten to secondary school, secondary school to university, and university into employment. Every student gets their own applications and planning advisor. The planning system keeps parents informed: we invite you to regular parent meetings, report on where your child stands, and share what they have been learning here and how the plan and the application are progressing. Parents and advisors work the plan together.
My daughter did so well last year after going to this tutoring centre. Definitely gonna encourage her to take more courses again in the future.
Good tutoring for my kids. Follows our school's curriculum. Great math help.
It is one of the best online education sites that I have ever used. You can really learn a lot from the tutors. Highly recommended!
Take the opportunity, and move towards success.
Call us at 604-288-8081, WhatsApp +1 (888) 881-6249, or email contact@studypuglearning.com. Visit us at 5831 Cedarbridge Way #102, Richmond, BC V6X 2A8.
In 2025-2026 our students received 212 Canadian university offers, and 96% went on to post-secondary study.
