As a junior, Margherita does know what it’s like to be a student at Brown during pre-COVID times, so she tells us about the dorms, classes, and expensive meal plan.
Part 1 is here.
Transcription
Kamila
Hey college kids. This is part two of my interview with Margarita. So if you have not checked out part one make sure to do so subscribe and check out my blog college reality check.com For more information, but other than that, I hope you enjoy
Okay, well, you go to brown because you think you’re going to be happiest there. Let’s see if it lived up to your expectations now. So going in to brown. I actually the last person I interviewed, he actually also goes to Brown. He says, so I believe he was a sophomore, right. So I don’t think you know, but he was sophomore, and he was talking about the curriculum at Brown. So can you tell us actually the lack of a curriculum at Brown? So can you tell us about how brown sets up their requirements for students? How do students arrive upon a major and such like that? Because a lot of schools have set requirements, like you need to do this many STEM class this many humanities, but brown doesn’t have that they have like one requirement?
Margherita
Yeah, no, it’s super easy. There’s no requirements. You have to take a writing class, but my writing, it’s not like there are science classes that are read classes, basically, by writing, they just mean you do you write in them. So you could take like a math class, and it could be a class, you could take a science class, you could take a physics class, like have most of the classes I’ve taken or read classes, and you only have to do one, or like one for your first two years. And one for your second two.
Kamila
Is this why Brown students are ranked as the happiest?
Margherita
Well, I think that there probably is a pretty high correlation because it is nice when you’re in class, like everyone, we also have something called the shopping period, which is what’s going on right now, which is you can go to any class you want. Right now I can go and sit into a grad seminar, sociology seminar, I can go to class on Mars and different planets, I can go to an English class, a history class, and I have two weeks to decide what classes I want to take. And I choose four classes. And those are the four I take for the semester. So you end up in an environment where everyone in that class wants to be in that class, no one was forced to take any class, no one has like a requirement other than your major requirements. Everyone chose to be in that class. So it’s really nice. Having that environment where everyone’s excited to learn and excited about the classes they’re taking, because they chose it themselves.
Kamila
And so coming into freshman year, what classes did you meet you do your shopping period? And what classes did you end up choosing? Were there any that were like related to your major and automatically off the bat? You were like, Oh, yes, this is what I want to do.
Margherita
Interesting. I feel like I can probably find them by Okay, yeah, on them. I took. I took a class called Introduction to international politics, which ended up being a requirement for poly psi, which is my major. Now, one of my majors, I took ethics and public policy, which was like an upperclassman class, but I was a freshman how was I want to do this? Well, they just let me do it. Because I was really annoying. I took science and social controversy, which was a really good class that I really enjoyed. And then I took Introduction to Music Theory. So that’s, that’s why the open curriculum so great, I could take like, an STS class about science and social controversy. And I could take a music theory class and a poly Psych class and a philosophy class on the same semester.
Kamila
Okay, and did you have I was supposed to ask this, like, in high school, but did you have any idea coming into high school like what exactly wanted to do because you were when you’re applying to the UK schools, you said specifically, like this, this, this is why I’m qualified for politics. So coming into Brown, were you already kind of set with politics? Yeah, I
Margherita
always like politics. My parents are diplomats in the UN. So like, I was like, that field. Now, ever since getting to Brown I joined the mock trial team. And so I started thinking about law a little bit more, which is really funny, because I never wanted to do law. I looked at my parents and I was like, I will never be like them. Like considering being like them. But yeah, I kind of always wanted to do like, politics. I are maybe law. Yeah.
Kamila
So you’re still like undecided. Okay, not undecided, but you’re not 100% sure where you want to go into?
Margherita
Yeah, I have no clue how I know kind of what I want to do. Like I want to be some sort of politician I have no clue how to get there. But I think that’s that’s also what you’ll find when you get to university. Like you’re not supposed to know your path when you’re 20.
Kamila
And also with a guy was interviewing the one that went to Brown. Again, you’re gonna have to elaborate on this again, but he said the grading system is also pretty chill, like
Margherita
grading systems. knows you either have an A, B, C, you can’t fail. If you fail, it doesn’t show up on your transcript done. Yeah. And then you can take any class pass fail. So instead of getting a grade, you either pass the class or you fail the class, can
Kamila
you use all your classes to be passed? Fail?
Margherita
Yeah, you can. And it’s so nice. I think it alleviates so much pressure because like, imagine you have to take or, like, there are major requirements, right. And if there’s a requirement that you really dread taking, like, I had logic and philosophy that I took, while also taking, like, I took five classes instead of four, so like an increased course load. And that alleviated so much pressure, like I was able to take an increase Courseload by taking logic pass fail. It’s also so nice that we don’t have plus and minuses because we’re a school full of like perfectionist and overachievers. So we would all like rip our hair out. And we were all trying to have a pluses everywhere. And this just makes it so much easier. Like you just get an A and you don’t worry about the difference between the 99 and the 91 or 95 or whatever. And I Yeah, and I genuinely think that that contributes to like a certain level of happiness or like stress reduction on campus because people just, there’s so many outlets to alleviate academic pressure around, in fact, round doesn’t calculate our GPA. We technically have no GPA.
Kamila
Yeah, so that’s the other thing I remembered. And another question I have is, let’s say you’re like in a class, and you have the C in the class, which is the lowest, I guess you can get without like failing. Yeah, so if I have like a C in the class, and I’m like, Sure, I can lift it up, can I change it to a pass fail?
Margherita
No, there is a deadline. So even deadlines, like three weeks into the semester, so you have to choose the point of essence, pass fail is not to like, make your grades look better, it’s to encourage you to take classes that are like outside of your concentration or that are like, more rigorous or whatever. So I the administration purposely doesn’t want to design it so that students can just pat up the resume they want it to, but rather to like encourage learning and curiosity and experimentation.
Kamila
I mean, yeah, having the completely stress free environment is I can understand why students aren’t happy. Yeah. Okay. So, one thing that I did not get to do with that guy that I interviewed, was a Mr. fleshes. I’m gonna keep saying that guy. But the with him is, he didn’t have much was a college experience. And the way he described how brown handled the COVID situation was like, really, really weird. But you did have like, a semi normal year, freshman year so into Brown, can you tell us about you know, the dorms and the food? And how did you make friends? Were you? Did you make good friends with your roommate? Did you hate your roommate? What was like the situation there? You know, your experience, like the social part of it? Yeah, I
Margherita
probably have way more positive view of brown than any sophomore because the sophomore is really good. You know, like starting during COVID. And having virtual classes and everything was like rough for everyone, and especially as a freshman. I love freshman year. I was so sad. When we got kicked off campus, Everyone’s crying. I love my roommate. I went to international orientation. And most of my friends I’m living off campus this year with eight of my friends. They’re all international students. We all met in pre orientation. We’ve been friends since then. Yeah, I went to international orientation and made great friends.
Kamila
My international orientation.
Margherita
It’s like a pre orientation program for international students. Okay, um, my roommate wasn’t part of that friend group, but I was still friends with them. And we’re still friends. We’re getting dinner soon tonight. I joined the mock trial team and I made a ton of friends through their through their so I feel like mock trial is a really big part of my time at Brown. I also really liked like the other extracurriculars. I did some mock trial, I traveled a lot with mock trial. So it was really fun. Also, we got to travel to Georgia, or different different states like Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with our friends and compete. I did like volunteering in the in Providence in the Providence Public Schools. I can’t think of all the other things I’ve done, but I did more than that. But it was just like a great experience. I like the classes I took I love the people. I like my extracurriculars. It’s also like really so I went to a French school where in my opinion, the social climate was a little clicky and I got to brown and everyone was super nice, super open. Like you want to go to a party member it’s always there like the friends are not super like I forgot the word in English but they’re not Exclusive, like there isn’t anyone can go to anything. So yeah, it was great. I had a really positive experience.
Kamila
And a lot of people I interview again, these are the people who have had a, quote unquote normal year like at school free COVID They would say like the first semester of freshman year was horrible for them. Like they felt so lonely, since they were far away from their home as well. Did you not feel that way at all?
Margherita
Not at all. But I think that’s because I came in expecting that I came into college and I was like, I ended up high school was like friends that I thought were like, really close friends. And I was like, a little sad. I did a trip after graduation with everyone. And at the end of the trip, everyone was sad. And we were like, We’re gonna miss each other, etc. So I came into college expecting to be lonely. Um, and because I expected that I think I was surprised the other way about, like, Oh, my friends, I found friends so easily. This is dope. I have a lot of friends in high school, who had the opposite, who expected to get to college and just make friends and didn’t expect the loneliness. And so they had that experience that was kind of negative and kind of rough. And so that’s a really big piece of advice that I have, like, expect to go into college and experience a tiny bit of loneliness. Like it makes sense, right? You’re in a new place. The first couple of months are going to be you getting used to it and making friends. But it’ll get better. It always gets better. Everyone loves college, or most people love college.
Kamila
Yeah, my dad tells me it is the best years of your life, at least just the age, not the college, but 18 to 22.
Margherita
Well, hopefully I don’t get better after this. Yeah, we won’t be going to any two. But this is pretty great.
Kamila
Okay, let’s go on to the dorms and food at Brown. So tell me what is the dorm situation are brown much better than Georgetown? Where what’s the food? Like? Do they have like multiple options? Or is it standard burgers, pizza, stuff like that.
Margherita
So the food is the bane of my existence. It’s so expensive. And now I’m off meal plan because I’m finally living off campus. It’s honestly not that bad. I think if you interviewed most people, they’d say it’s fine. There’s a lot of up again, the freshman’s are now sophomores who have never been inside the cafeteria probably won’t be surprised when they go in. They can look yesterday was the first time it opened in person since March of 2019. But um, there’s like a pizza station and omelet station a salad bar or plays a hot plate plays like there’s a lot of options. It’s just really expensive. I think if you do the math that comes down to like 15 bucks a meal, which is much Yeah, it’s so so expensive.
Kamila
Do you what kind of meal plan do you guys have?
Margherita
There’s different ones. There’s like 20 meals a week. There’s 14 meals a week. There’s like, off campus meal plan, which gives you like 12 swipes, so it’s just expensive, which is why I just like it. And also the lack of control. I think I just like controlling what I eat. Um, and then the dorms the freshmen dorms are actually pretty nice. The sophomore ones a little less so. And so that’s why I’m living off campus this summer. It’s just again, it’s expensive. Like it’s I’m paisa cheaper
Kamila
to live off campus and make your food.
Margherita
Exactly. It’s way cheaper to rent a room off campus. And it’s way way cheaper to like cook your own food. If you buy at a grocery store like pasta and tomato sauce, that’s a two bucks, two bucks to make that meal, as opposed to the $15 you’re paying at the cafeteria. So you save a ton of money by living off campus. And it’s fun. It’s fun to live in a house with your friends.
Kamila
How was it living with eight other people?
Margherita
It’s a house so there’s four people per floor. And we’ve been here for a week. Nothing bad so far. Super, super fun to come back home and just be with your friends and yeah, it’s super fun. But yeah, there’s not much more I can say the week has been good.
Kamila
That’s got me I just only first week I can imagine like a bunch of girls living in one house. So. Okay, so I want to get on to more. I guess the last like main topic before we end here, which is internships like extracurriculars at college. So you’re a junior now have you had any sort of internships in your college career or
Margherita
yours? Yeah, I so because I got an internship to work at this NGO in Durban, South Africa, my display, an NGO and a nonprofit, okay. And South Africa for educational attainment. So it was like an education NGO nonprofit, in Durban, South Africa. Obviously, I didn’t get to go because of COVID and that was the year that we got kicked off campus and then everything was in lockdown that summer. So I still did that remotely.
Kamila
And what did you do in your internship, like, and how did brown help you find that,
Margherita
honestly, not a ton. So the the person who offered me the internship was a Brown alum. So that’s how I got it that there was there’s like a Brown Connect, that’s it, um, this website with listings that have all these different internship opportunities, and you can sort by whether the person offering the internship is a Brown alum. And so you have higher likelihood of getting good if they’re also Brown alum. So that’s how I got the internship. And then Brown also, I like, got one of their sprint awards. It’s one of those, like, I got $2,000, because I wasn’t getting paid for the internship. So I got $2,000, from Brown. Um, and I didn’t do that much. It was the year of COVID. So it was a little bit unorganized. Like, I wrote a research paper, I developed a, a education curriculum to teach youth in South Africa, and in Durban, about climate change and sustainability. I, I wrote two research papers actually. And just, I mean, I did do quite a few things, it does sound like quite a bit, I would have been doing substantially more if I were there in person. And I could actually we have this program about like, of like sending seeds and like a mini garden to people there. But obviously, it’s really tough when you’re not there in person to build strong connections or see your long term impact.
Kamila
So if let’s say there was no Kogen, you had this internship, would it be more like study abroad that you did?
Margherita
I wouldn’t be studying. I just be interning there working at the NGO, I wouldn’t really protected classes now.
Kamila
Also, you would be in South Africa actually interning there?
Margherita
Yeah, I think so. I think I would, I would have had to convince my mom. But that was the plan. Yeah. It would have been good. But
Kamila
and let’s talk about you did mention quite a few and mock trial, specifically extracurriculars at Brown. So can you tell me how did you get into mock trial? And how do college extracurriculars differ from those in high school? To the best that you can? Because you didn’t go to a traditional us high school?
Margherita
Yeah, so I don’t know. For my understanding, you don’t have to. But this is something that shocked me when I got to brown you have to apply to clubs, because it’s kind of like, kind of doesn’t make sense. The clubs are more competitive, are high stakes. So you have to like apply to get into them. So I applied for mock trial. And I think there were a lot of people who applied in very little spots. So it was also like it was lucky to get a spot on the team. Yeah, and since being on mock trial, I’ve started thinking a lot more about if I want to do law if I want to go to law school and stuff like that. So what do you
Kamila
do in mock trial? I usually there are a bunch of competitions too. So do you compete with like other colleges across America?
Margherita
Yeah, exactly. There’s competitions we traveled to this year, I think we’re traveling to Vanderbilt to can you? And also maybe Florida, but we don’t know about whether or not we should fly to Florida. So we’re still debating that one. And you have a case that’s really long, it’s like 100 pages. And based on that case, you have to put on, yeah, a mock trial. So you get either the fence or the prosecution, or the plaintiff is a civil case. And you Yeah, if you’re a prosecution, you’re prosecuting someone. If you’re defending someone, you’re on defense, and you have the witnesses that you pretend to be. So you call up a witness, and you’re like, Hi, I’m a witness, this is what I saw. Or you could be an attorney, and you’re the one who’s asking the questions or giving a speech.
Kamila
So are you guys like within mock trial at Brown? Are you guys competing, obviously competing, but doing it all together? Or are you preparing to do it against another school?
Margherita
So the teams, there’s three witnesses on each side, and then there’s three attorneys, so the teams are of six people, actually more than six? Because there’s contingencies. So like, if they take the witness, you want to have to have another witness? So yeah, it’s from six to 10 people on a team and you compete against another team from another school. So we compete against teams from all over the country since they also fly to the environments that would go
Kamila
to which schools have you competed against?
Margherita
So many? I don’t even remember all the ones we’ve got like George Washington, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, Yale, but also those are not the most. The best Mock Trial teams are not from the top schools also like I don’t know, you Florida State University is a pretty good team. I know we’ve compete against Rutgers or UMBC or Williams and Mary like some state universities have some of the best Mock Trial teams
Kamila
and with this dude guys, place like placed win a 123 like that.
Margherita
Yeah, if you make it to Nationals, there’s like, you’ll go through like regionals. To get to Oryx, you go through Oryx to get to Nationals. And then at Nationals, there’s like the winners.
Kamila
How far has your team made it?
Margherita
We we went to Nationals before I was on the team. And then in my experience, I’ve never gone but that’s also because my freshman year was COVID. Right? So yeah, we got stumped Ray before. And then last year was virtual. So we made it to orcs. And then we didn’t get a bit for nationals. But it was also a very different experience competing online as opposed to in person.
Kamila
Yep. Okay, so I think we can wrap up here. One last thing I do with everybody is advice. So it’s good, because I’ve been interviewing a lot of sophomores who have not really gone through much of college. And hopefully, you know, next coming years are going to be normal college experience. So, number one, what advice would you give for high school students, it can be about anything it can be, you can do something for like, you know, students who are in your circumstance that went to a different type of school in America, or you can do for like, you know, regular high school students, general life advice in high school, anything you want. And the same thing, one piece of advice for college students, maybe college students who are coming in, since it’s the beginning of the school year, so what advice would you give for those two groups,
Margherita
um, for high school students, I know a lot of times, students are really stressed out about their college application. And I think, or at least what school they end up at. And something that I found super comforting was, there was a study done on students who got into Harvard, and went, as opposed to students who got into Harvard and didn’t go. And like long term, 30 years out, people have the same level of achievement. Like, they both had similar levels of income, similar levels of, of like, the status and their job was similarly as just as high. So it doesn’t matter what school you go to, especially if it’s for financial reasons, and you have to take a state school as opposed to one of the like, a prestigious ones or whatever. It’s you the person who will be successful, it’s not the college that will make you successful. So don’t stress out about where you end up at. Also, you’ll be happy wherever if you already happy person, you will be happy wherever you go. So I don’t think that there should be that much pressure as to what school you go to just pick the one that you feel is right, and go.
Kamila
Oh, can we pause here? So there’s one question I keep forgetting because you do go to an Ivy League and such as Ivy League, but a lot of top schools, a lot of rich kids like rich rich kids go to those top schools, you personally, your experience at Brown, have you ever encountered is sort of like, elite kind of atmosphere? Is it obvious who the rich kids are versus those who are middle class or have lower income? Was? Is there any sort of like, I guess, you could say, like, elite atmosphere at Brown?
Margherita
Um, I don’t, I don’t know I’m, I’m in the international community a lot. And there’s no denying that there tends to be a correlation between like high socioeconomic status in the in the international community, because Brown offers very little financial aid to international students. So a lot of international students have to pay full price. So there, it’s definitely true that there’s a lot of people from very, very high incomes at Brown. That being said, I don’t think I can tell. And I have friends who come from very different socio economic backgrounds. But it’s definitely true that there is kind of a monolith of like, a back a type of background that ends up at these schools. I have never felt it super elitist. But I don’t know if my perception of it is accurate, because I have always gone I went to school on the Upper East Side in New York. And even though I didn’t pay full price for that tuition, either, I still grew up around so much wealth that yeah, I’ve always been in these environments. So I don’t feel like it’s super elitist. But I don’t know if my perspective is the most accurate one are the boys to listen to about that. I was
Kamila
asking because I mean, everybody knows that people who go to these schools are like, I’m not talking like upper middle class. I’m talking like rich rich go to these schools. So I was just wondering because I keep forgetting to ask that with an overly prestigious schools. Alright, so last thing, college advice. What advice would you do for incoming college students?
Margherita
Um, I don’t know. I think college is one of those things where you just have to go and mess up and then figure it out for your own. So I don’t know my advice would just be like to try everything or like Don’t overwork yourself. That’s a very big one. My rule is if it’s not done by midnight, it’s not getting done. Just go to bed. Because I will not sacrifice my eight hours of sleep for any class or club or whatever. I’m also like, try out bunch of clubs and then you can like, do the cut of the ones that you actually like. Also, you don’t need to work that hard on your academics is one of I guess that’s my big advice like, obviously make sure you’re doing well. But don’t like stress out so much about having perfect grades or the perfect transcript or the perfect, like even internships you need one internship for summer. Some people go a little crazy and they have like, four or whatever, or like they try and like overboard themselves so much. But at the end of the day, all you need is to like really dedicate yourself fully to like a couple of things, and you will end up find my very best friends who have graduated, and who have very good, like starting salaries at very big prestigious companies. They also were they were able to achieve all of that, despite not having perfect grades. And despite not doing a million things, what they did, they did well, and they really focused on it. And that was enough to get them a very prestigious high salary job. So yeah, just really treasured this social time. Like the time fostering friendships and connections. And don’t focus on your academics as much obviously don’t flunk out but just be work smart. Not hard. Grades are not everything. Yes, grades or even like some people are like really adamant about doing every single reading, being every single etc. And like sometimes she’s taking the shortcuts to prioritize other things in life are end up being more valuable in my opinion.
Kamila
All right. All right. Thank you very much for coming today. Have a good evening. I can say. Yeah, thank you. Right.
Margherita
Bye bye.