In the first part of our interview, Duhita tells us about the struggles of the college application process as a first-gen student of color. However, she eventually got accepted into Bard College and is in the last year of completing her bachelor’s.
Part 2 is here.
Transcription
Kamila
hey, college kids, welcome back to my podcast who cares about college? In today’s interview, I’ll be interviewing to heeta. So could you please introduce yourself?
Duhita
Hey, my name is Duhita. I’m from Brooklyn, New York, and I attend bar College. I’m a rising senior, and I am majoring in economics.
Kamila
So let’s start with the very beginning. Let’s start with like a few simple questions. Did any of your siblings go to college before you?
Duhita
Yes, I have one brother who attended college also in upstate New York, went to the University of Rochester. A little bit older than me. Um, you went about 10 years ago?
Kamila
I see. Okay. And let’s see, when did you start preparing for college? That could be anything you know, LSAT, AC T, or when did you even start thinking about it? So
Duhita
coming from an immigrant family, a South Asian immigrant family, I think college is something education is something that’s really valued from my parents, my community. And I knew that attending college is something that I’ll have to do, eventually. And I think that basically, I started preparing for the LSAT, a CTS. And like college apps around my junior year, I think that was a little bit later than a lot of my peers, I went to a boarding school feel like they were preparing a lot earlier than me and I had no idea. But I started thinking about college. Seriously, probably my junior year. Also, it was always in the back of my mind. But I never knew where I wanted to go to school. I didn’t know what I wanted to study. And I think I took the AC T or the sh t sorry, early on in my junior year. And that was really it up until like the end of my junior year. And I think I took it one more time because I was not doing well. Testing is my it’s not something that I’m really good at. So it’s not my forte, but I was really late in the college process. I think in terms of my peers, because they were doing college tours, a lot of my peers were getting recruited for athletics and going division one division three. And that was not something that I had really been considering. So my parents work full time jobs, my mom works a late night shift. My dad works all the time. So doing college tours was never really, it thought for me. I didn’t really know what it meant my brother never really did them. I think he did a couple. So I was pretty shocked when I heard that my friends were driving across the country flying cross country, visiting 1020 schools. And I had seen like, two I had seen the college my brother had attended, and maybe one by my high school. And that was really it. So I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. I went to a prep school. And I think college is something they always talked about, but it’s not something that I personally thought about. I think it was kind of I don’t I don’t really know, I think I always knew about it. But I never actively began the process up until my the end of my junior year really.
Kamila
So is is that because you didn’t know how much like, you know, effort it would take how many components went into your college application? Is that why you started a little bit later?
Duhita
Yeah, I think I knew that, you know, colleges want to see things on my transcript, like they want to see not just grades, but scores, extracurricular sports, you know, arts, things like that. So I knew those things. But I didn’t realize I had never understood the, you know, school can have a better fit for you. Like I never understood the word fit in terms of college because I had no idea what I wanted. I just knew that I wanted to go to a good school, you know, hopefully, eventually get a good job, maybe get a master’s degree down the road. I’ve always been interested in health and health care, but I didn’t really know that that much back then. I think it’s something I’m coming to the conclusion now. But I think my parents were just really concerned with me getting good grades and getting the test scores, but not the actual application process. So that portion was not made clear to me and or maybe I just missed it. I think maybe I was just focusing on the curricular extracurriculars, my grades and things like that and let the idea of actual applications and schools kind of go by me, which I regret a little bit.
Kamila
Okay, I see. So well, if you were working really hard on your grades, let’s start with that. So freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year, how many APs? Did you just take? Overall?
Duhita
I think I took. So I went to Tabor Academy. And typically students didn’t take APS up until they’re usually their junior senior year. So I want to say I took four or five in total, in total. Okay.
Kamila
Okay. And then did you What was your average score for those tests?
Duhita
Oh, my gosh, I don’t think I did. Well, I think I probably like a three as an average. Yeah. The tests were not. Were not emphasized at my school. So like, the AP tests at the end of the year is out. Yeah, yeah, those tests are not really emphasized, I think, at least not to me, so I never really cared about them. I just cared about my grades in the class itself.
Kamila
I see. So were there any tests that you test scores that you didn’t submit to a college II, so the
Duhita
college that I ended up going to Bard, only accepted fives on your APs. So I only had to submit AP test scores to them. And they didn’t accept mine because they weren’t fives. I think I got a four on one of them. But they clearly had high standards for APS. But I was not a strong test taker, and didn’t do as much as I wanted, do as well as I wanted. But I ended up applying to test optional schools, a lot of test optional school. So that’s something we can get into in a little bit, because I have a story.
Kamila
Okay. Okay. Very interesting. So if you did focus really hard on your grades, what was your unweighted GPA and then weighted GPA? And what what are they out of? Because different schools do different? GPAs?
Duhita
Yeah, I don’t think I had a GPA. I think we just had great averages. And I want to say I had like a high B plus average, I think it was like an 89. Okay. Throughout high school, I want to say cumulative is that I, we did a weird system, like we didn’t necessarily do weighted and GPAs. So that’s just kind of the grades I got in total. Okay, I see. 9089 average.
Kamila
I see. Good. Okay. So let’s move on to sh t, which I assume you took because you’re New York, right?
Duhita
I don’t think I think I blocked my scores out. Okay. Well,
Kamila
let’s talk about what you did to prepare your junior year.
Duhita
So I think what I really did was I took practice tests. And I believe I got tutored by a family friend for a little bit, because I knew that I was really bad at test taking. It’s something that I’ve been consistently bad at my whole life. And I was just trying to get over test anxiety a little bit. So a family friend of mine helped me out, I think at the end of my junior year, but earlier on, I took the LSAT, by taking a couple practice tests, I had done a couple of a bunch of practice sections, I want to say. And I think I had a really, I had like a family emergency two days before my first LSAT. So I think my mind was pretty scattered. And I wasn’t doing too well emotionally. And I didn’t do that. Well that time. But I continued to take practice tests throughout the year I did a little bit better. I only took it once more. The end of my junior year, I think in June, the first time I took it was, I would say October or Yeah, October of my junior year, and then June of my junior year. And then I realized the LSAT was not for me I did like I looked at the AC t and I realized that I was much I was much more comfortable with that format because the LSAT was trans was transitioning between the old LSAT which is the out of 2400 points. Okay, so I was just not well accustomed to either because I knew it was transitioning, so it was just a little hard for me I just wasn’t good at it. And then I over the summer before my senior year of high school. I took practice tests pretty consistently. I worked like a bagel job like a bagel shop job. So I had some time to study I did some practice sections a couple times a week and I did a lot better on the AC T I remember so is wanted it to be but definitely better than the SVT Okay,
Kamila
so is the AC T the score you submitted all to all schools.
Duhita
So I applied to a lot of test optional schools but I ended up submitting my AC t score to five colleges
Kamila
of colleges. Okay, and then what did the AC t score end up being?
Duhita
I believe it was a 26 It was not that good.
Kamila
But was that was that like average for the schools you’re applying to?
Duhita
No, I think I was pretty like at the bottom. And I was very unhappy with that. And I wish I had spent more time focusing on the AC t, because I think I could have definitely gotten a higher score had I only taken the AC T. Like, had I known that the LSAT and AC T were so different. I wish I had prepped for it a little bit more.
Kamila
I see. So were there any schools that you wanted to apply to? But you didn’t because you thought your standardized test score was too low for them?
Duhita
Yeah, I think I always wanted to apply to brown. And I did it because I felt like a lot. I felt like I could potentially be a good fit there. But I didn’t think my grades reflected that I had, I had a very interesting experience in high school that now I’m looking back and thinking that some of my grades should have been higher. And due to certain biases, they weren’t. And I am only realizing that now. But like the past few weeks, but I did want to go to brown. And I think the top of my list I wanted Brown was definitely reach for me. But I really wanted to go to Emory. And I did not meet the test score requirements for that. And I tried, but it just didn’t work. And I actually applied to transfer there. And that’s also a different story that I can get into
Kamila
if you in America, I I’m pretty sure in America, they really emphasize you like your grades need to be good. The you know, the more elite the college is, the more better your grades need to be. But in America, they emphasize you know, extracurriculars? Do your essays reflect you as a person? So do you think having so you had a 26 on the AC T. But do you think having a 29 or 30 would have helped you more in the application process or like getting accepted?
Duhita
I think so because I feel like I was a pretty strong student, even though my GPA didn’t reflect that I had some low grades in science, usually, like my science grades were never as high as I wanted them to be. But I kept taking them and it kept bringing my GPA down. I don’t know why I did that. But I definitely looking at my peer group. I felt like for some reason, even though I had seen us as like some of my friends, like we were maybe had got some got similar grades. In high school, we did similar extracurricular activities. And I mean, I spent a lot of time in extracurriculars, I was a part of student council, I was a part of a bunch like community service, I was the head of a bunch of things. And I like was in Big Brothers Big Sisters, I thought I did so many things that could really promote the character part of my application, you know, the other others that you’re talking about? I feel like I’m a decent writer, I think my college essay was relatively strong. And I think the biggest thing that was really lacking in my application was my test score, which is when I didn’t make this decision up until like, December 22 of 2016. So the year before I graduated, that my senior year, I sat down had a conversation with my family. And I was like, how am I going to get in to colleges that I actually want to get into because I had been applying to really to safety schools, because that’s what my college counselor told me to do. She really didn’t encourage me to apply to schools that I wanted to go to and thought that I’d be a good fit at but but we quote, because those were the types of environments I wanted to be in the type of networks I wanted to have eventually, City’s places I want to be in. And she was very not supportive of my, of what I thought I could do. I mean, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I, I thought it was a pretty bright kid. And I felt I was really discouraged going into the college application process, which feeds a lot into my, my thing before where I don’t think I was, I knew what I was getting myself into. I had no idea how competitive it was. I thought by getting good enough grades and doing extracurriculars and having an okay, test score, I would be fine. I could get into the schools that I wanted to get into. And I had no idea there was so much more there. There was so much more politics, and I mean, I didn’t realize that people really had pull with legacy. And
Kamila
yeah, that’s so dumb. I cannot get over legacy at all. Right?
Duhita
And I mean, I was sitting there getting rejection letters from schools that I thought that were pretty attainable to me and then I would see kids in my class that had significantly lower grades than me, they had less extracurriculars than me. But they had a parent that was friends with someone on the board or they, their parent went to the school and they were getting into the schools that I had just gotten rejected at. And, you know, being a woman of color, I feel like I am let down a lot. And I went to a predominantly white institution. And I think that I was blinded my senior year, I thought that we were relatively equal. In my head, I was pretty naive when I was younger. And it only hit me that December when my early decision. Oh, yes, I applied early decision to Skidmore. So I applied early decision to Skidmore, because my college counselor, I knew nothing about the school, I couldn’t I still know nothing about the school. And my college counselor said that because I would be a financial aid recipient, I should apply, because they might give me financial aid. And it might be something a school that I want to go to. So I kind of just went blindly into it and applied ed, and didn’t get in. But then some kids that I knew that definitely were not comparable, in my application process in the application. Were getting in. And I was shocked. And I was disheartened. Because I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. I didn’t know what I did wrong. I think I could have studied more for the AC T, for sure. But other than that, I was just blindsided. And I wish I hadn’t been.
Kamila
Okay, so your relationship with your guidance counselor was not like the best. Right? So what kind of a recommendation letter Do you think she wrote for you?
Duhita
So she actually, I went to a prep school. So things were a little bit different. So I was aligned to a college counselor, and this college counselor. This I don’t know how it works in other prep schools. But in my, we were aligned to one I think there were like four or five. And she happened to be the wife of my advisor. So I had been very, very close with them. And those my my recommendation letters were written by an English teacher that I had a really great relationship with. And I feel like I really grew in his class as a writer, as a reader. And as a student in general, I think I learned a lot from him. And also my lowest grade in high school. My recommendation letter was from my physics teacher, where I, I think I got like an 80 or something. It was the lowest grade I had gotten in high school, I was so sad. And because I’ve worked hard, and I still wasn’t doing as well as I thought I could. And I felt like I showed persistence in my physics class, which is why I asked him to write my recommendation letter, I felt like he just knew me because he had seen my downs. And I think I grew a lot also from his class. Those are the two classes I really remember the most. I believe my advisor also wrote a letter of recommendation, and he is great. I really treasure him and admire him as a mentor. And he is probably the biggest reason why I went to the high school I went to which I’m glad I am very lucky for that. But I had, I wish that I had a different guidance counselor of my college counselor, I wish I had a different one. I don’t know, I don’t think she had my best interest in mind. And I feel like I kind of knew that in the beginning. And I should have gone with my gut and switched. But I didn’t I thought you know, her husband is my advisor. They know me. Well. They’ll look out for me. And I don’t think that that’s what happened. And that was made very clear during the application process to colleges.
Kamila
So you think she had too much influence on you?
Duhita
Yes, definitely. Because I was away from home. I went, it was a boarding school. So I wasn’t with my parents every single day having these conversations. And, you know, they trusted my teachers, my faculty, my staff to really help me navigate these waters. And I’m sure she had a lot of influence on me. And I think my family couldn’t really believe the things that she had been saying to me until they saw it themselves. She sent me one email once I wish I had it screenshotted but I was I was finally submitting a bunch of applications and I needed someone to add them into my Naviance account, which is I believe, like this account where you also I could be wrong
Kamila
but it’s like that account everything goes into all your information, all your
Duhita
recommendations, your transcripts, everything is through there. I needed my these new schools and added to my list so I will get to that story in a second. I needed them to be added to my account. And it was late in the year definitely but she said I’m sorry, I can’t help you. And I was freaking out. I mean it was like December 29, applications were due either December 31, or January 1, I can’t remember now. And she said that she couldn’t help me. And I was devastated. Because I’ve worked relentlessly for a few days to get my application materials together my college essays, I’d written like 20 to 25 college essays within a week, and fairly celebrated Christmas, like, didn’t do anything, just worked on my college apps. And she said, I don’t know if I can help you. And I had to reach out to so many people to just get someone to add these colleges into my Naviance account. And I mean, if that doesn’t show you how little care she really had for me at the end of the day. I mean, she said that I don’t understand. I remember her saying, I don’t understand why you’re applying to these colleges. You’re not a competitive applicant. And, you know, I got into a good number of them. So she was wrong, clearly. And I’m glad I didn’t listen to her after a point. I mean, I was done with it. I didn’t want to be discouraged. I felt really, I felt really dumb. I felt like everything I had done over my high school career was useless, because she was telling me that I couldn’t get into a community college. And I was like, What is going on here? Why are you telling me that? Why are you allowing me to undersell myself? And that was very, very sad for me. And I think I sat down with my family before Christmas. And they talked to me and they said, you know, you’re worth a lot more than what you think you are. And you should apply to the schools that you want to apply to. And if you are concerned about this is after I got I got deferred deferred. Yeah, deferred from Skidmore, a couple days earlier. And I think I’d gotten into a couple of my safety schools. But she’s they said, you need to, you need to apply yourself, and you need to apply to the places that you want to go to and where you see yourself. And if you’re a CT, a CT scores, or you’re concerned, let’s find test optional schools. And what we did was literally find a PDF document of all the test optional schools in America. And I researched the crap out of them for like, 24 hours, and I made my list of schools that I’d heard of, had friends that I read their websites, tried to look them up and really get a feel for them as quickly as possible, and added 15 schools to my list, which is crazy. So in total, I applied to 20 schools. Well, and it was very stressful, because this is something that I had, I should have done way earlier, I should have had my college list, in my opinion, that summer, that previous summer, and I didn’t because I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I didn’t realize that people would care about legacy so much. And, you know, like, I was told that I should pull the diversity card. And I think that’s completely horrible to say to a person, like your old girl, you should not say pull the woman card, pull the diversity card. Whoever said that to me, I don’t remember now. But I remember hearing that a lot. And so that should not be said. But I ended up applying to 15 schools, submitted all of my applications like I don’t even know like December 31, January 1, all test optional. They were mainly liberal arts colleges. I think I really, I didn’t really understand what a liberal arts college was. I didn’t sound appealing to me at first, but I mean, now I go to one. So yeah, I do see the benefit of it. But my brother had gone to university, my parents both went to universities back in their home countries. And they had never really heard of liberal arts either. So I ended up applying to not 15 liberal arts schools, but around there. And also a couple of my reaches in that list. And I can’t remember exactly how many I got into them. But Bard ended up giving me the biggest scholarship, and I wanted to go I had also gotten an acceptance to Tulane University, which is another school I wanted to go to really bad for their public health program. I think they have a really good public health major community service oriented school. I really loved that. And they offered me
Duhita
like a one year I would be coming in as a sophomore like a second year acceptance. So I would have to go to a different a four year institution for my freshman year of college and then I would owe a guarantee transfer at Tulane University offered me a guaranteed transfer for my second year. And I was hooked. I was like I’m going to go to Wayne. I’m going to transfer after my first college here and That’s it. So, you know, that whole application process, I got into one of my top choices, which was to weigh in at the time, and was really happy. And I was like, Okay, I just need to find a school that is going to give me a good aid package from my freshman year. I also in the back of my mind was thinking, if Tulane because they hadn’t given me an aid package for my second year, it was in the back of my mind, if they don’t give me a high good aid package, it’s not a school that I’ll be able to attend.
Kamila
I have a question about the guarantee transfer thing. Why do colleges do that?
Duhita
I think, in my opinion, I think it’s so that because my test scores were a little bit lower, too. It was a school that I submitted my test scores to, um, I think it’s so that they can have a lower acceptance rate for their freshman year for that first year. And I would be, I wouldn’t be in that acceptance rate, like my application would be moved into the incoming year of transfers. So I wouldn’t be in the incoming year of first years, I would be in the incoming your transfers that year later. So I think that’s why and you know, how your average their class averages, like, maybe it was like Tulane, incoming first year class has an average AC t score of 31. I didn’t meet that requirement. And usually for transfer rates, I noticed that requirements egpa test score requirements are a little bit lower. So I think that’s why I was admitted into the second year transfer class.
Kamila
I see. Okay, so we’ll get into that later. But let’s go. Let’s backtrack a little bit and talk about your extracurricular. So can you give us all the extracurriculars you can remember in sort of the position you held in them?
Duhita
Yeah, so I was a dancer and involved in drama. Um, I ended up doing dance, I believe, three or four of my years, I don’t remember if I did it the full year of my senior year, but I was involved in drama. I ended up being a theater director, I was one of the student directors. And we went on an exchange program. I did this twice my sophomore year and my senior year, where we took a play that we were doing in school and performed it abroad in Dublin, and in England, so Wow. Yeah. And the dancer for that. I did dance for a few years, we were required to do extracurricular. So these were my main ones. I also play tennis for a short period of time, at high in high school, and I was the I was one of the heads of community service. Um, I was a part of the Big, Big Brothers Big Sisters program. I was a big sister
Duhita
for a couple years. What is that? What program is that?
Duhita
Big Brothers Big Sisters is a mentoring program to kids, young kids that come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. And you mentor them and, you know, hang out with them? A couple times a week and you know, kind of serve as really, yeah, a mentor to these students. Big sister. Yes, yeah. So big sister. And it was really nice and fulfilling, like, these kids had really difficult lives. And we were there to listen to them, talk to them, and be of as much help as we could be. And also remind them that even though things might be tough where they are right now, there are other opportunities out there. And hopefully, we can kind of lay that groundwork and be a part of a network for them down the line. So that was Big Brothers, Big Sisters. I really love that program. Community service. I was on my high school student council, I think all four years. I’m trying to think of what other things,
Kamila
what was your position in Student Council.
Duhita
I remember my junior and senior year, I was a representative. So I had run for like Head of School student body president and I think I came in like third or something. So I didn’t win that but stayed on Student Council, and was a representative. I think there were two presidents, co presidents, I think like Secretary type positions and representatives, there were six of us. I can’t exactly remember because the terminology changed. But there were six of us and I was representative, one of two. And so I did that all four years. I believe I held the same position all four years. I really that position. I was more of a liaison between students, faculty and staff. So that was really great. Think of other things. I know I did other things. I believe I was a global partner like I helped international students out.
Duhita
What about that bagel shop job? Oh, yes, I
Duhita
worked at a bagel shop in the summers, just down the street from my house in Brooklyn. And I did that for a little bit. I don’t know why I can’t remember what else I did right now. But those are the main things. I think those are the things that I spent. Oh, I was a head tour guide. And sorry. Oh my gosh. Now I’m finally remembering. I was a tour guide. And I was a proctor which is like a high school ra i went to boarding school. I used to dorm there. And I was basically like the RA in my dorm. I was also a peer counselor. So that was a confidential confidant type of person. We worked with the school therapists and really just served as a as a person that students could come to confidentially and talk to us about anything. And received a lot of training for that position. Yeah, I think those were the main thing. So I was a proctor, which is an RA as peer counselor ahead tour guide. I was on Student Council. I was on the I was the head of the Community Service Board. And I did Big Brothers Big Sisters. I did you know tennis and drama. That’s it. And I was global partner.
Kamila
Give me that’s a lot. So how much of your week was dedicated to extracurriculars.
Duhita
So our school was laid out in a way that we attended classes from like eight to three every day. And then from like 333 45 to six o’clock you were doing sports or the arts. So I used to dance a be on the dance team, as was on the Brahma teams. And I believe I also did ceramics for a little bit. So I was doing ceramics. And that’s mainly what I did around and then between the hours of like six and eight, it was when I was spending my time doing community service doing Student Council, things like that. tour guides. I know I was doing that throughout the week, once or twice a week, I would give a tour. peer counselors that was kind of all the time I received training for a good number of months, until I was able to become a peer counselor. And a proctor. I was a proctor all the time. So that’s the RA position. We were in the dorm. We were there for the for the girls in my dorm. And you were mainly in the dorm from eight onwards at night. I think I was like a library proctor too. So it was like sitting at the library desk like checking books out and stuff, which was different. But the dorm proctor took up a ton of time. Because I mean, you’re living with like I was living with like 26 girls or something. And a lot of things can happen. And you were you were the student leader, like that’s what you were. And I dealt with a lot of issues. Well, I had a really great time doing that. So.
Kamila
So did you end up writing your essay about any your common app essay, at least about any of these colleges? I mean, any of these extracurriculars?
Duhita
I don’t think so. My Common App essay? Well, my I had college essays like the smaller essays that definitely reflected a lot of my on a lot of my extracurriculars. Like I remember some of my essays talking about my experience with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, my community service. And also, I remember talking about being a proctor being a pure listener, kind of what that does. But that wasn’t my main common app essay, my main common app essay was about microaggressions. This is a term microaggressions was a new term. Back and not a new term, but definitely a new term to me in 2017, which is only a few years ago now. But they I talked about racial experiences with me and my father, and how certain moments in my childhood that I had never realized where race, race based, like kind of traumatizing experiences really made me who I am today, I think so I finally realized that a word for that was microaggressions you know, little comments that are made, that you might not think are that harmful, or the person making those comments might not think that they’re that harmful but have to do in my case with my race or my gender. So that’s what my essay was about. And it was definitely on the sadder side. I think my classmates and I were encouraged to have really light essays like quirky fun essays and that’s just not something that I thought really spoke to who I was I think what I wanted To talk about were very formative experiences in my life and what made me who I am. So I went with what felt right. And so talking about microaggressions.
Kamila
I see. So how long did you spend? Not on your supplemental essays? But how long did you spend on your common app? And did you do maybe multiple drafts of that? Oh, and then did you have people check up on it? Like, you know, mom, dad edited maybe siblings too.
Duhita
Yeah. So I want to say I spent, like, a couple weeks on my common app essay. I feel like it kind of all came to me it was I think it was only 500 words. So it wasn’t that long. I think that was that’s what it is. And my English teacher at the time, who I really loved. With two of them read it. I think my college counselor read it. She didn’t give me a lot of edits, I think I think she just wanted to see if I had it. But my English teacher read it. Two of them did. And my brother, Reddit, he’s a really great writer. So I really appreciate his feedback. And he actually didn’t make any edits to it, which I was, is like the biggest compliment to me ever in the world. He’s very, he provides the most criticism to me ever in a really constructive way, I think. And it was just such an honor to feel like I wrote something good.
Kamila
That’s great. Yeah, good. Okay, so we’ve been through most of your application. So let’s move on to like how you selected at least the colleges before, you know you did the PDF of test optional colleges. How did you choose those colleges without actually visiting them? Because you said you didn’t your parents didn’t have the time to drive you across the country. So how did you choose those colleges?
Duhita
I think that’s how I did it. I went through the PDF and I went through the websites and kind of based off of what I had heard about some of those schools. A lot of these schools were liberal arts schools in the Northeast. So that’s a pretty niche realm of schools there like Bowdoin Bates, Middlebury. I don’t think I applied to Middlebury, but Wesleyan, Bard, union, Trinity, kind of think of some more that I applied to. Those are the main ones that I can remember. I think I did Franklin and Marshall. Yeah, I can’t really remember anymore. Hobart. And they’re all like New England, New York. Colleges, except for Franklin Marshall, I think. And Skidmore, which was, you know, that school that I ed to, um, and I really just, I like the idea of a liberal arts college. Once I started looking into it, I thought that I do like small classroom environments. Yeah. And I think it’s somewhere I really thrive in and being in a high school where I was able to get to know a lot of people. Looking back on my high school experience, I think there was a lot of negativity that I didn’t recognize, internalize until now. But one of the best things that my high school had to offer me was the extracurriculars and the interpersonal connections that I made with faculty and students. I really treasure those relationships. And I think that that’s something I wanted to continue on into college. So that’s how I applied to test those test optional schools. And what’s really hit it was just that like, initial research and what I had heard from some friends, that’s it. And then I got into a couple of the schools I was waitlisted by a couple and rejected by a good amount. But I didn’t mind because I’d gotten into Bard, which I didn’t think I would actually like that much. I didn’t really love it in the beginning. I chose to go there for my first year, because remember, I was going to guarantee transfer to Tulane, because they gave me the biggest financial aid package. So I received nearly a full ride to Bard. Oh, yeah. And it’s very expensive school. Very, very, very expensive. And because I’m a New York State resident, I also received a couple of other scholarships. From New York State, there’s something called Tap, which is tuition assistance program for New York students. And I received something from there, I have a couple loans. I think I have the maximum amount of loans for for student loans. And I based it basically covered my first year of college. I paid not too much. I think I paid less than $10,000 My first year of college, and the bill was like 76,000. So I, I got a huge amount covered, for sure.
Kamila
Okay, and did you choose you chose Bard College because of the scholarships, but did any programs appeal to you? Were there was there any field that you wanted to go into? Or was it just the scholarship?
Duhita
I think the scholarship was really the biggest thing for my family because then I was like, Okay, let me look into the school. And at that point, I I looked into the school, because that’s what I was kind of doing. I think I had a couple of acceptances from bigger schools that weren’t liberal arts colleges. And I was like, Okay, if I got into this one liberal arts school, I want to see what it’s about. So I researched it, they have this, this program called the levy Economics Institute, which is this really great Economics program and think tank that exists on bards campus. And they do. They’re a Keynesian economics school. So school of thought. And so there are different schools of thought within economics. And Keynesian is more like a contemporary. More more on the liberal side of economics. I didn’t really love the neoclassical school of thought, which is, sometimes the bigger institutions not always, but like, it’s called the Chicago school of thought, based in Chicago, some of the ivy League’s follow that school of thought it’s not something that appealed to me. If you’ve heard of the green New Deal, you know, a lot of the economists at my school back it and do a lot of the research for it. So that is a program that I really was drawn to because I was like, Okay, I don’t necessarily want to be in upstate New York. But this is a program that looks special, they have three plus two programs. So in three years, you do your undergraduate degree, and then your last two years. So you do an extra year college, you get your master’s degree in economics. So I was planning to do that I opted out last minute and decided to this year I’ll be completing my four year economics degree, I won’t be doing that. But that is the program that specifically attracted me to Bard, I now I’m thinking that I don’t necessarily want my masters in econ, I think I want to go into more of a finance field. So or healthcare oriented feel I’m not really sure. So that’s the main program. So at that point, my parents were like, You got a huge scholarship, you should maybe consider the school and I knew that that kind of meant, you’re going to go to the school. I just needed to make the best out of the situation. I don’t think that BART is best fit for me. But I think that it’s a small school, it has great academics, I was able to walk on to the tennis team, which was really wonderful. And I run a couple of organizations and clubs on campus, which is exactly kind of what I wanted to do. When thinking about college. It’s not something that I saw the second I stepped foot on campus, but it’s something that I’ve gone through the past couple years. And yeah, so that was really it was that program. I see.
Kamila
Okay. But yeah, and thank you for being honest here. Because I think a lot of people that I talked to, especially in the more elite schools, it’s like they had the choice. They were like, Oh, my God, I got accepted into this great school, let me go, you know, but like you had to choose because of the money aspect of it. And I think that’s the reality for most people.
Duhita
Yeah. And I think that I think that it’s something that needs to be talked about more, I think we need, I went to a elite private school, and I felt left out for a lot of all of my time there. And I’ve seen my peers get in and kind of have the freedom to choose and get into really, really wonderful schools that I don’t know how they got in in the first place. But that’s, I mean, that’s not my business. And I really, it just came down to the money for me, and I’m okay with that. Because there, I didn’t, I don’t ever want to have to burden my parents any more than I already am. But it came down to the money and I just had to make the best of it. And I think I am, I had a hard time with that. In the beginning, I wanted to transfer out a bard, the students that I met, right off the bat, were not my cup of tea. It’s a very alternative school, I guess, very, very, very liberal. It’s similar to Wesleyan if you know a little bit about Wesleyan. But it’s not somewhere I necessarily fit in, I felt out of place. It’s a predominantly white school, once again, even though they’re very liberal. They’re very, very white. Also, something I didn’t really want to be in. That’s not I, if I knew one thing about college, it’s that I didn’t want to be in a PWI I didn’t want to be in a very white school. And that’s kind of where I ended up. But I decided to kind of, I mean, it’s difficult sometimes, but 20% of kids at my school are in the 1% of America, which is one in five students, and there are only 2000 students at my school. That’s a lot. That’s a lot of kids that I was interacting with. And that was very similar to my high school experience. J didn’t love but, um, I, I became part of this organization group called the scale project, which I now run and they focus on equity on campus and focus on you know, sure shifting the conversation on to finding ways to accommodate students from lower economic statuses and first generation low income families. And so we really work on being able to provide the resources that we were not aware of upon entering college, school, to those students. And I think there are opportunities that you’re not made aware of when you’re one of those students, or students of color, there’s a huge range, obviously, but we really tried to make information accessible. We tried to simplify it. So it’s not like within the depths of a college website, we try to like really emphasize equity and sharing those resources with students that deserve them and need them. So I think I was able to turn my situation around for myself, I didn’t end up going to Tulane obviously, they did not give me the package that I wanted. And I really started to like Bard, I found my place in terms of a community that supported me. And it was not my first choice school at all, I did not want to go there. And it’s very, very resistant. At first, and I really only want because my parents told me I had to go save money and I completely understand that it’s not even just that they told me to go because of money. I knew that that was my reality. And it’s reality that a lot of other space but obviously there are issues with every school and I have my issues with mine. But I thought about it and said you know I have to take advantage of the situation that I’m in like, there, right there are not a ton of students of color that I’m surrounded by and students have that are first gen low income fgli students but I really have tried to make it work and find opportunities for myself and it’s been really difficult, but hopefully it’s getting better. Yeah. It’s a work in progress.
Kamila
I hope you guys enjoyed part one of my interview with do heeta Make sure you subscribe so you’ll know when Part Two comes out. But other than that, I hope to see you guys