Consulting internship recruiting can start much earlier than students expect, especially at target schools and in offices that review applications on a rolling basis. Being late does not mean you should give up, but it does mean you should stop waiting for perfect preparation.

First identify what is still open: target offices, formal deadlines, school-specific processes and assessment windows. Then separate urgent application work from case preparation so you do not spend a week practicing cases for a role you have not actually applied to.

If your resume is already credible, submit once it clears a reasonable quality bar. Endless polishing rarely compensates for missing the application window entirely.

At the same time, keep a backup list of firms and offices with later deadlines. One missed early process should not become a reason to stop recruiting across the market.

First thing I'd do is split the list into firms that are closed vs still open. Saying "I'm late" is probably too broad rn.