Rising Junior Recruiting for Consulting: Am I Too Far Behind?

I’m a rising junior recruiting for summer 2027 consulting internships, and I’m starting to feel pretty behind in the process.

I had some personal/family things going on this summer that genuinely took up a lot of my time on top of my internship, so I wasn’t able to focus on recruiting as much as I wanted. I’ve only recently started networking more seriously, but I’m still not getting many responses. Even with the conversations I have gotten, I haven’t gotten a referral, and I feel like the relationships I’m building are still pretty surface-level.

My case prep is also very basic at this point. I can get through a case, but I know I need to improve my structure, be more insightful, get faster with the math, and generally become much more polished.

Now that the school year starts in about a week, I’m worried I’m going to get even busier with classes and extracurriculars. I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve put myself too far behind to realistically get an offer.

Has anyone else been in a similar position going into junior recruiting? How did you approach networking and case prep while balancing school? And, most importantly, did you still end up getting an offer?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through this.