Short answer: it's later, not too late. Longer answer, keep reading, because the difference matters more than it sounds.
Parents usually reach out to me in a bit of a panic once Class 11 has already started. They've heard that profile-building should begin in Class 9 or 10, and now it feels like the window has closed. It hasn't. It's just narrower, and narrower means we have to be more deliberate, not more anxious.
Here's what changes when you start in Class 11. We don't have time to "explore" five different interests and slowly narrow them down. Instead, we look at what your son has already shown some pull toward, even in small ways, and we go deep on that instead of wide. Depth is something admissions officers can see in twelve months. Breadth without follow-through, they can also see, and it doesn't help.
We also get more selective about where his time goes. A late start means every activity, every recommendation, every essay topic has to be doing real work. There's no room left for things done just to fill a resume line.
What I'd ask you not to do is let the panic leak into him. Kids can tell when a parent is anxious about time, and it makes them freeze instead of move. The plan changes when you start late. The calm shouldn't.