Gina’s family circumstances required her to sacrifice a lot of extracurricular opportunities in order to work. However, the work she did throughout all of high school turned into one of the strongest parts of her application.

Transcription

Kamila
Hey, college kids, welcome back to my podcast who cares about college? In today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing Gina. So Gina, could you please introduce yourself?

Gina
Sure. Hi. My name is Gina Esposito. I am a student at Ball State University. Originally, I’m from Chicago, Illinois, within the suburbs of the Southwest area, I originally came to Ball State to study public communications. This is something that I just have always had interest in. I’ve always been a big talker, I’ve always loved words. And I personally had heard that they had a really great program. So after looking into that, I decided to pursue that. And while I’m here, I also have two minors in Spanish and French. Some other things that I do at my university, I am the chief administrator to the ball, State student government organization. And I’m also a member of the varsity debate team as well. And in terms of other things people should know about me, I love to be involved on all over the place. I’m super busy. Normally, I love filling my schedule with as much as I possibly can. So typically, I’m normally engaged in something.

Kamila
So we’ll get into the stuff you do in college a little bit later. But let’s start at the very beginning. And talk to me about the kind of the situation the college situation in your family. You know, were you expected to go to college? Were you the first in your family to go to college in America? How important was it for your family for you to go to college? So can you take me through that?

Gina
Yeah, absolutely. So actually, within my family, I am the first to go to college, my parents did not go to college, my grandparents did not go to college, none of my cousins did. So practically, when I was exploring the thoughts of college, it was a rather blind process. I had, I had definitely utilized my counselors in high school a lot more than like most individuals that had help at home. Chose to, I personally felt like that that was a great help. In terms of like the application process, it was a little difficult for me at first, just because like I know that nobody around has ever done that before. But also, I felt relatively well prepared to, you know, sort of figure those things out. In terms of my family support. I mean, my family has always thought that I had been like an intelligent individual worthy of pursuing higher education. Um, however, we have some disputes over whether or not I should pursue a junior college at first compared to a four year university. And I was pretty dead set on going to Ball State. So yeah,

Kamila
I see. Okay, and did your parents ever or just anybody around you ever kind of pressure you to go to college? Was that always on your mind? Like, I’m definitely going to college? Or did you ever think like, maybe I’ll just do something else instead?

Gina
Yeah, no, I always knew that I wanted to pursue college. I basically growing up, I kind of looked around, and I was like, There’s nothing else I can really do besides school. Like I’ve always loved school. I’ve always really enjoyed, you know, learning. So that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I knew it was going to be difficult for my individual, like circumstance at home, per se. But I knew that like I’d figure out a way to make it work. And here I am making it work. Almost done. So

Kamila
that’s good. So, so you know, you wanted to go to college? When did you start preparing for college? And that can be anything like did you start a CT or a CT prep, like really early? Like, when did you first start thinking about and then start thinking, Oh, look, looking at the different components that you needed? Oh, I should start on this or I should start on this. I should focus on this.

Gina
Yeah, certainly. So um, I actually personally never chose to pursue taking like an si t or a CT prep course. Simply because of like costs. Those things were very like costly. So I personally felt like I just it was something I needed to prepare for on my own. I started preparing, you know, at the start of my junior year, because I took that exam, you know, going into senior year so that way I was able to apply for colleges. So I just I began in the fall my high school had a really good had a really good program where we kind of like prepared students for these exams. So I worked with the school a lot I was attended, like the, the sessions that, you know, my high school would would host. Those were very beneficial to me. So I would definitely say that like I started early within the year, I didn’t panic too much. But I definitely know personally from the way that I had scored on those things that I should have. There are different angles that I could have used to study. I personally didn’t purchase any prep books. I simply just kind of use whatever resources I had at the time.

Kamila
So what if you don’t mind sharing? So first, let’s talk about did you take the LSAT or a CT? I took the LSAT, LSAT, and do you mind sharing what you got on that, or at least like the final score that you sent to colleges,

Gina
I will be quite honest with you. I don’t remember the exact score. But I do remember that like it was lower than I had anticipated. In fact, actually, a majority of the universities I had applied to didn’t even require a score for any sort of standardized test, simply because I had a really high GPA in high school. I like finished with like a 3.8 3.89, I think it was. So I basically use letters of recommendation, my GPA, and whatever other resources I have, like on my resume at the time, I worked a lot in high school as well. So I use that to specifically target universities that kind of didn’t really care about a score as much. And I found really great success in that actually, I’ve gotten a lot of college acceptances that way, compared to schools that like required a certain benchmark of the score. Yeah. And that makes sense.

Kamila
Yeah, that makes sense. And since you said your LSAT score was lower than the like average that to the schools that you applied to, did you find yourself restricted in the schools you could apply to because Harvard, the average is like basically a perfect score. And so if you don’t have a perfect score, like 1580, you might as well say, like, Oh, my chances are not very high. So were you kind of restricted in that, and you didn’t apply to as many as you wanted.

Gina
Yeah, so um, once upon a time, I dreamed of going to schools like NYU, Syracuse, to lane, just really, you know, schools with flashy names that had really great programs that like people were very successful in. And I had applied to Tulane just because the application process was relatively easy. I had gotten accepted. However, I’d like, at the end of the day, that dream was kind of crushed by like the greater financial need to like, physically move myself to those states, rather than actually paying for the costs of schools, if I had gotten accepted. But those those scores Yes, I definitely felt as though like I, I wouldn’t have gotten in, had I submitted my score, therefore, I was like, less likely to want to pay the application fee for that school.

Kamila
Yeah, because there’s like a $90, or something application fee or $75.

Gina
Yeah, I mean, I definitely explored my options. But I was also very selective with where I chose to apply. Just because I knew that those applications had, you know, specific costs. And also I, I wanted to be realistic on which ones I would actually choose and be able to choose.

Kamila
So in terms of the money aspect, were there other things in high school, maybe, I don’t know, certain clubs, or I don’t really know. But anything in high school where money was a constraint, and you feel like if you had the money, maybe your options would have been like your horizons would have been widened, and you would have had more options. So were there any other aspects in high school? Because, like, because of money that you couldn’t do?

Gina
Yeah. So looking back on my high school experience, I actually come from a very, you know, middle class, upper middle class, suburban town, I love it there. You know, like we have a great schooling system. I am grateful for the experiences I’ve had, however, personally, like within my individual circumstance, I have had a, you know, a few hurdles. You know, paying for things like for example, like in high school, I ran track for two years. However, I didn’t continue with that, because there was like a greater pressure for me to start working, you know, to help my family with costs or to help combat the cost that I was causing on my family, and then also to prepare for like, leaving for college eventually, you know, within the next two years. Also, I mean, like most extracurriculars happened after Your school as well. So normally, if I was working, I wouldn’t be able to participate in those as much I remember I would be involved in certain clubs that would meet, like, on a once a month basis and like, it’s almost like I wasn’t in the club because I was focused in on why, like just making sure that like I can work and you know, make money. And I feel like the way that I have prepared about that, like, has left me with amazing experiences and a ton of knowledge. I don’t regret like, you know, going down that path because I needed to at that time. However, I definitely now that I’m in college, I’m putting less of an emphasis on, you know, working and focusing more on academics in preparations for you know, if I choose to continue, you know, a master’s program, or if I would consider going to law school, I think there’s like a greater need for academics now.

Kamila
Yeah, and a job is still an extra curricular so we can get into that a little bit later when we talk about those extracurriculars. But let’s backtrack a little bit to your GPA. So can you tell me in high school starting from freshman year? How did you kind of tackle your class schedule? When did you start inserting honors and if your school had them AP or IB into your schedule?

Gina
In terms of like course, credits,

Kamila
yeah, like so you know, how we all have to take like math, English history, whatever. So in but then you have the option when you go to high school, and usually, you know, your sophomore, junior senior year, you can take higher level classes if your score.

Gina
Yes, in terms of AP credit. I took a few AP classes, but I was selected with the ones that I took, I certainly recommend students choosing to take AP classes, assuming that they have a general sense of where they want to go, or at least a few different universities that are like their top priorities. Because I think it’s really important to look at what those scores and what that credit will actually translate to. When you go to that specific university. For me, I came into Ball State with a ton of credits, I’m graduating a full year early because of these credits, I didn’t have to take an English course at all in college, I basically just kind of went straight on into my major almost. And in reality, I only had taken like a handful of AP classes and dual credit courses. I think it’s worth the investment. But also you need to be willing to invest like the same amount of work that those require in order to achieve those, like results. Because I also do understand that many people feel as though they’ve been, they’ve wished their time or money for not receiving, you know, the kind of credit that they wanted to receive from taking that, that test or that course.

Kamila
Okay, that’s, that’s very interesting. And I, I understand what you’re saying, like, it’s really smart to look at your college choices, and then which credits they’ll accept. So when When did you know which colleges that you were going to apply to was that like something you initially did, and then just focus your entire, like, high school life on those colleges.

Gina
For me, it was always kind of hard picking universities because I really had no form. I didn’t really know a lot of people that were going to colleges, I didn’t really, I didn’t really know many individuals that attend colleges around me. I knew that if I wanted to go to college, I didn’t want to stay at home locally. However, I think I chose to I think I chose to pursue looking into colleges in terms of programs rather than like, things that would be interesting to me. I, I kind of like made the interesting part come last in terms of my search.

Kamila
I see. Okay, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. And you also mentioned dual credit, dual credits, which I think you take at a college right, those dual credits.

Gina
So I was referring to dual credits in terms of high school courses. Like, for example, I took my senior year, instead of taking an English course, I essentially took a course of, you know, college writing, that was assessed through a local community college, but that instruction came in my local, you know, high school classroom and college credit for that course.

Kamila
I see. Okay, that makes sense now, okay. And what did your unweighted and weighted GPA come out to be? And can you tell us the scales that your school went by? Because different schools have different scales? So it may sound weird to somebody who has a different scale?

Gina
Right? I actually I believe we use the 4.0 scale. If I’m correct in that, I’m really not sure what what my actual final numbers were, I would definitely say that my weighted GPA was much higher than my unweighted. Because I know that like I never scored as well in classes, such as you know, math and science in which I didn’t take the accelerated levels, compared to when I would take like accelerated, you know, foreign language courses, or, you know, college writing, I would always score higher in those. So those would certainly affect my GPA more than the alternative ones. Okay.

Kamila
Can you just give us a guesstimate though, because you said it was somewhere around a 3.8? For your?

Gina
Yeah, I believe that I applied with a 3.89 or 3.87?

Kamila
And is that above four? Because your LSAT may have been lower, but is that GPA above or average for the schools you applied to? For the schools I

Gina
applied to? I would say that that was a applying with over 3.5 would be a decent average.

Kamila
Okay. Okay, that’s good. So let’s move on to my favorite part, which is extracurriculars. So I know you had a certain, you know, circumstance where you had to kind of brush off some extracurricular, so you could do some jobs. So can you take us through that and, you know, the extracurriculars that actually mattered, and you put on your application?

Gina
Yes. So in terms of extracurriculars in my high school experience, I ran track for two years, originally, you know, forfeited that time to work. Um, however, I joined, like, the National, like, Honor Society, within my school, and also the National Spanish Honor Society, as well. And those were very, like low time commitment, but also like high importance organizations, like I did work for those organizations, however, like, it didn’t require me to be present all the time. So I was a member of those. And then I would say, those were the only academic extracurriculars I had in high school. However, I noted my work experience quite a bit during my applications for different colleges.

Kamila
Okay, so let’s first talk about your actual, you know, the extracurriculars that you did in relation to your high school. So National Honor Society and Spanish national Spanish honor society. So you said it was low coming in. But what exactly did you do there? And why did you choose those two.

Gina
So they actually were selection processes. So they selected me, it was like an invitation based off of like, my GPA. My involvements, like my recommendations from, you know, individuals, like throughout the high school, and basically, it was just like, I had to, you know, do my fair share of community service, be, you know, an asset to, you know, the foreign language community. And also, like, just be, you know, continue to be a good student, that also helps us out others, I think I got recognized with the Spanish National Honor Society, because I was a Spanish tutor for a while, I was helping out, you know, individuals that were in lower level courses, as I was, you know, a year ahead in Spanish. So I would, I would always want to, you know, try to make it more of like a populated, kind, of course, at my high school. So, in terms of like, low commitment, it was just stuff that like I had time for within my school day, like I would tutor during my advisory periods. Whereas like, that was very low time commitment outside of school. And then, our meetings for that would always be in the mornings before school, so I would always have time to attend those. And I think it really brought me closer with a lot of my educators, for example, I remain in contact with my advanced Spanish for Spanish professor from senior year, and we actually, like went to DC together and lobbied for some foreign language policy. Because she does a lot of more like, big picture foreign language policy work.

Kamila
Can if you don’t mind mentioning some of the jobs you had because I’m sure you put those on your application and jobs are like something. Some usually colleges like like when people have jobs because it gives you just this whole new range of assets that not a lot of students have. So can you talk me through some of the jobs you had?

Gina
Yeah. The very first job I ever had actually was a small family owned burger restaurant, like American food burgers, hot dogs, milkshakes. It was, you know, four blocks from my home. It started off with one owner and then within the first month of me working there, we got new owners and I actually worked with them, you know, for three years until I ended up moving away for college. They were like a second family to me. I eventually by the end of like, you know, my time there I became a manager. I would always, you know, train new servers because I was always there from the start. Me and this one other cook there also had this like very deep rooted connection because we also had started, you know, around the same time. It was great experience. I mean, I learned really how to talk to people in that job. I had to deal with customers being like 15 1617 years old, like grown people, it really taught me how to, to communicate with individuals and more especially how to communicate like in a workplace, especially being that young. And I think like the fact that it was such a small business, also really, like, aided in my, you know, learning of that. Beyond. Beyond that, I also interned a little bit for this nonprofit organization, in which I did more like office based work for about over a year. I eventually stopped working for that company, and went back to serving this past summer, I’ve also worked at targets. I’ve also worked for a beekeeper, I kind of I’ve also worked for, you know, a feminine financial planning group. And so I’ve kind of been all over the place with my, my resume, I tried to, I try to have as many areas of expertise as possible.

Kamila
I think that’s pretty interesting. Yeah, it’s good that you like committed. So do you think that like helped you being committed to the work at the burger place for three years?

Gina
Yeah, I would definitely say that the commitment helped a ton. However, I think eventually, I felt like, you know, as it was my senior year, I was like, you know, I need to branch out a little bit because I feel like if this is my only area of expertise, that may come off as me not looking as well rounded. So that’s why I decided to like pursue an internship that ended up just, you know, keeping me on for a few more months.

Kamila
And can you talk to me a little bit about, you know, what you did in that internship, even though you did it for only a year?

Gina
Yeah. So I basically started off by working with this, you know, office, that was a smaller section of a political nonprofit organization. And essentially, what I would do is I would just research I would serve as like an information gather. Sometimes, you know, I would, I would work a lot with files. I would serve as like an office assistants, when there would be conferences, I would help, you know, set up special events, really just contribute to whatever my directors needed at the time.

Kamila
That’s amazing. Yes, that’s really good. So do you think that in terms of extracurriculars, you were like really strong because you had something that not a lot of people had?

Gina
Yeah, I remember like, during that time, when I was working for that organization, people thought it was really flashy. Because like, I really would just like do kind of some fun stuff. Like it was just very interesting working in like a really nice office at that age being like, wow, like, this is what it’s like to be, you know, driven, and like successful, because like, I was constantly surrounded by like, older coworkers, and mentors. I would say that, that definitely helped me a lot. However, I would say like, whatever you choose to pursue, whether it’s flashy, or whether it’s a burger restaurant, I would always advocate, like, get to know who you work with, get to know who your bosses are, like, establish like, really like deep connections with them. So that way, it’s almost like, it’s almost like they’re like a connection to you in the future. And I think that’s what’s actually really helped me out because I still remain in contact with a lot of the people that I used to

Kamila
work with, oh, and have have those connections with, you know, specifically the office internship help you?

Gina
Yeah, so I would say it’s definitely, like established a lot of connections for me. Um, so as I said, it was like a political nonprofit. So sometimes I would have opportunities to meet, you know, legislators, members of Congress, just like a few, like different individuals are not necessarily like spent a lot of time with them just more so like, have more exposure to them. And it was just very, it was humbling, because it was, you know, like I had to be, I had to be, you know, professional. I definitely aim for different areas of my resume to attack different aspects. So basically, I specifically designed my resume to target different areas for different reasons to like establish like my growth. Like for example, I worked in the burger restaurant to teach myself how to communicate. I wanted to work in an office to teach myself how to, you know, be a professional individual and how to carry myself. I wanted to work, you know, as a beekeeper to learn more about like agriculture and how like environmental workers, you know, operate. I, I, I try to create a wide variety of different things in order to, you know, make myself as as much of a well rounded person as I possibly can be because I personally don’t really know what truly I have interest in yet. So I’m constantly looking at new things.

Kamila
And I just had a curiosity, how did you get that internship at like a nonprofit, because I don’t think a lot of people understand that they can do that kind of stuff in high school.

Gina
Yeah, so I actually got that internship, from a personal connection. I was friends with an individual who went to school with me in high school. You know, I was kind of known at my high school for being very like, instigated like, I was very, like, political in high school, I was very outspoken. I, like everybody knew I always had an opinion on something. And he basically had reached out to me one day and said, hey, you know, my grandfather has connections to this organization. That’s looking for interns. It’s like, politically based, I know, you’re like insane. And I think you’d be a great fit. And I was wondering if I could pass his name off to him. And at first, I was like, sure, like, go ahead. I’m so ready. Like, I’m super excited. Like, I’m, I was like, I was thrilled. And then I actually, when I found out more about the organization, because I had received a call, you know, later that day, and in that phone call, I had learned that the political organization was based in a slightly different ideology than I was at the time. And so I also knew that that was going to be a really, really, really different learning experience for me. So I, I did accept the decision. And I learned so much through my through my time. So I certainly, I certainly don’t regret anything. In fact, I actually learned a lot even though it was it was different from what I had. imagined.

Kamila
See. Okay. So, and obviously, it seems like you have a lot of like, strengthen your extracurriculars. But let’s move on to the essays you wrote, because you did say you did excel in writing and language. So can you tell me about what your common app was about?

Gina
Like common app,

Kamila
like not in detail, but like, you can tell me the relative idea and how you approach the common app? Because I know it’s been quite a while since you’ve probably seen, right?

Gina
Yeah, I haven’t actually even considered the common app for a really long time. I believe I pulled out the common app for I believe, just like one university, and I think that was DePaul University, which is an A school, I had always loved the thought of going to Ball State’s application was just directly through the school. So I had not used the common app, I don’t believe I’m remembering that correctly. I definitely remember focusing my essays on like, my work ethic. Because really, all I had going for me at the time was like, I work really hard. And I worked really well because I would I would go to school, and then I work normally a lot. Um, and it was just because I enjoyed it personally. And also because like, the need of it was nice. When I didn’t like have to work, I’d wanted to work more to get ahead. Like, like, I just I realized in high school that like, I could open more opportunities for myself if I make myself like more expendable. So I definitely focused in on like, those values I have towards working hard to like, get to, like, go out, do something new, try something fresh, like, you know, apply for college, even though my family’s normally not about that.

Kamila
Yeah. And so you said that you only applied to the common app for one college, and that was DePaul University. So can you tell us a little bit a little bit about how your other applications were like, I know the comment of you have a relative essay. And then for each college, usually there are supplementals that you need to answer and they’re quite short answer. So how, how was it different for each university?

Gina
Yeah, um, I really don’t remember any specifics. I know like some universities accept their applications only through the common app. Like I remember DePaul. I had to use the common app. I think maybe a Ball State, you could use either I’m really not quite sure the application was fine. Either way I personally enjoyed when I had the option to write an essay or, you know, respond in short answer form. On top of my letters of recommendation, I definitely feel like those matter.

Kamila
Okay, okay. Yeah. And let’s move on to your recommendation letters, because you did have connections. So I’m wondering if maybe you got like a recommendation letter from any of those people that you knew from, you know, your workplace,

Gina
your boss? Right? Yeah, I definitely cited those as like resources. However, they didn’t write, like formal letters for me, simply because those individuals were. Like, I just felt as though like, I talked a lot about my work experience. So my, my letters of recommendation needed to come from My academic background, I almost feel like I needed to balance it out that way. So a majority of my letters of recommendation came from my teachers in high school. That knew me the best

Kamila
I see. Okay, but did you get so you said they didn’t write any formal recommendation letters, but did you have them like on standby just in case someone asked?

Gina
Yes, I actually did have my, my very first boss prepare a letter in the event that I needed more, it did. Okay. Okay.

Kamila
Okay, cool. So let’s move on to the actual colleges that you apply to. So can you give us at least the I don’t know how many you applied to if you apply too few? Can you give us all of them? Or if you applied to like a lot? Can you just give us the ones that were kind of like the ones that you really wanted to go to? Or like your top choices?

Gina
Yeah, um, I definitely. I applied to a lot I believe I applied to like nine different ones. A very few are long shots, very few, I was more centered and on, I actually only visited a handful of colleges. And that was, you know, Ball State DePaul. Other ones in Illinois that I were looking at. However, I knew that I knew very quickly come like the winter of, you know, my senior year that I was between DePaul and Ball State. And at that point, I just had to make a decision between one of the two. So I definitely narrowed it down to two from, I’d say about nine.

Kamila
And how did you choose Ball State over DePaul?

Gina
So I actually, like I said, I was really about the different programs for communication. I knew DePaul was a great school. However, it was a little bit close to home, it was really only about an hour away from where I normally live. And I felt as though at that time, I really need to needed to, like switch up my pace a little bit and try something new. And I’m not sure that being in the city alone, at that time for me would have been for me. So I I kind of chose Ball State more so for like the, the equally as good program, plus more so of like the college experience, small town feel. I didn’t really, you know, ever consider living in Indiana before. But I mean, now that I’m here, I kind of like it a little bit low acquaintance different. I feel safe here. Like I, I respect my choice. So I also, as I said before, when I was first considering colleges, I first looked at you know, the programs, in which you know, both schools were about the same. And then later I looked at more of so like the experience aspect. And so that’s when I chose Ball State was for the experience.

Kamila
And did finances have any effect on your choice?

Gina
Yes, I would say the difference intuitions was only about $3,000. And realistically that is sort of expendable in terms of you know, loans. However, I did choose the cheaper option which was Ball States.

Kamila
That’s it for part one of my interview with Gina if you enjoyed that episode, make sure to subscribe so you get notifications when other episodes come out. And one last thing if you are a college student or you know somebody who is a college student and would like to be interviewed, please email me at kid at a college kid.com Well, other than that, I hope to see you guys in the next episode.