Gwyneth shares her college application story where she went against her doctors who told her she wouldn’t graduate high school and her counselors who told her to drop all her IB classes and extracurriculars. Good thing she didn’t listen to them because she is now a junior at Georgetown University.

Part 2 is here.

Transcription

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

Gwyneth
Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for having me. Um, my name is Gwyneth Murphy. I am currently a student rising junior at Georgetown University in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. And I’m studying International Security and Religion, Ethics and world affairs.

Kamila
Alright, so give us some of the basics. Who are you as a person, you know, like your demographics? Kind of like what kind of environment you grew up in? What were your expectations or your family’s expectations for education?

Gwyneth
Yeah, lots of questions. So in terms of my demographics as an applicant, I was applying as a white female student, a disabled student. And, you know, my family. My dad went to college, my mom went to college, so I wasn’t a first gen students. So they had a lot of expectations that I carry that on. My dad’s number one priority was education. And so yeah, the goal was get into a top university. And pretty much everything in my life was leading up to that. I’m not sure that that’s the best way to look at it. But that is sort of what I what I had going on.

Kamila
And if you don’t mind sharing, can you tell us about your disability? Did it affect your academic performance in any way?

Gwyneth
Um, you know, it did in some ways, I was out of school a lot in high school. So I had multiple hospitalizations that took me away from school for, you know, at least a month each time. And one was during my end of junior year, which everyone knows is so important. It was during finals like, absolutely horrible. And the second one was during my fall senior year, which is the other worst time that you can possibly be away from school, I actually missed my Georgetown interview. Entirely. I missed my, my AC T, three times. So yeah, in terms of that, it was very difficult, but ultimately, it didn’t affect my grades. You know, I obviously still got into college. And we can talk about this more later. But it definitely is a challenge that not a lot of people think about, you know, how disability and time away from school affects your college application. It’s difficult.

Kamila
Yeah. So I want to start, the thing I always start with is like the great portion, which is, you know, good transition here. And I’ll give a little background there. I interviewed a girl who went to George Washington University. I think she’s already graduated right now. But she also had, it wasn’t a disability, but she had a really bad sickness. And she was, I think it was during sophomore junior year. And she was like, out of school, like, yeah, for a month. She was like in the hospital. And she said that really affected in her like, in her terms, it affected her performance. So when she came back, she really grinded. And she ended up she ended up with like a 3.8 GPA. So can you share, like, if you you said you were ended up fine. But can you share, like your journey throughout high school and how you were able to maintain your grades? Because I’m sure they had to be good to get into Georgetown.

Gwyneth
Yeah. So

Kamila
grades were,

Gwyneth
you know, a challenge, I would say I was lucky in the sense that school was actually very positive for my recovery. Like, I really enjoyed learning, I enjoy challenging myself. So in that sense, I think I, you know, getting back into school and pushing really hard to catch up on everything was actually a really positive experience for me, and, and luckily, it worked out. But that being said, that’s not the narrative for most people who go through that. So, you know, I have to preface it by saying that in terms of my GPA, I ended high school with a 4.4 GPA. I think the highest GPA I had was a 4.7 in my junior year, which was when I had just had my first hospitalization um, I really don’t know what happened it I think it just is like, if you really love school, sometimes it can work out that you’re able to get back on track enough. Um, but yeah, so that was my GPA. And I was doing the International Baccalaureate degree, the IB program, which is how it’s able to be above a 4.0 because some of my classes were IB and technically all of them. And yeah, so I did the IB program and that was my GPA.

Kamila
And can you tell for people who are listening in are not very familiar with it? Can you tell us a little bit about the IB program?

Gwyneth
Absolutely, I could talk about the IB program forever, I recommend it to every single person, I think it’s incredible. But the general idea is that it’s an international degree. And so all the things you’re learning are based on international content. So it’s international math, international history, it’s not super us focused, which is why I really like it. In terms of structure, it is way more writing focus than it is like multiple choice, you know, science, math, even my science exams were written exams typically. So there’s a lot of writing involved. And then there’s different components that you have to check off in order to be a full ib diploma candidate, which is different than just taking IB classes. So to be a full IB candidate, you have to take theory of knowledge, I took it after school, incredible class, so good for college. And then you have to write an extended essay, which is a 4000 word paper that you submit the fall of your senior year, I wrote mindfully in Spanish, which I sort of regret I’m sort of happy with. But um, it was an interesting experience to challenge me. And ultimately, you write those paper links in college every week. So it’s great practice. Um, and then there’s a third thing, oh, volunteer hours, you have to do like 300 volunteer hours in various categories. So like creativity, athletics, typical volunteer service. So yeah, it’s all about enriching yourself as a person as well as learning and has a lot of great value. So I love the IB program. Recommended.

Kamila
I, I’ve known a little bit about the IB program. I don’t have it at my school, but I’ve interviewed enough people to know like the basics of it. But this is the first time I’m hearing the volunteer part. Do you have like free rein over what you do? So, so like me, so requirements?

Gwyneth
Exactly. So it’s called Cass hours. And what’s great about it is that some things, you have to do new, like, you have to come up with an idea, like, let’s say you don’t do athletics, and there’s an athletic portion, what I did is I went to the gym. And that counted, because it was like, as long as I was tracking my fitness and showing that I was trying to grow myself as a person that counted. So sometimes you have to do new things. But for example, like I’m being editor in chief of the newspaper counted for my creativity hours, since that was work, but I wasn’t being paid for it or anything like that. So I didn’t have to do something new to gain those hours, like the things I was already doing counted, which was great. And then you also do a cast project, which is like a big, huge volunteer project that you do, that’s supposed to, you know, enrich someone somewhere. And you put a lot of time into that. And then what’s great about it is you don’t just submit the hours, you have to write long reflections reflecting on why that service changed you, you know what its impact was. And so it’s not just like, I’m I’m going to do this and check off the box for college, or for the IB program. It’s like, I’m going to do this and think about how it’s developed me as a person. So yeah, it’s really cool.

Kamila
And for the volunteer portion of it, because that’s the I guess, not the least academic part of it. But it’s the one that’s like not grades, I guess focused. When you have your, you obviously show that you have an IB diploma, can you write those volunteer, whatever you did as a volunteer? Can you write those as extracurriculars, like separately? Yeah,

Gwyneth
that’s the other thing that’s great about cast everything you do double counts. So cast is really just pushing you to do all this great stuff that’s gonna look amazing on your college application. So I think that’s why a lot of IB candidates have such strong college applications, because they are kind of forced to do a lot of extra stuff outside of their normal class hours.

Kamila
You were like, I like how it’s not us focus. And now you’re majoring in something International. Alright, so we’ve gone through IB, and you shared your GPA with us. Amazing GPA, considering your situation, let’s go on to LSAT AC t. So again, tell me the preparations that you did for the LSAT or a CT and you said you missed AC T every time. So my, we need to hear the story behind those.

Gwyneth
My AC T story was a disaster. Um, I first took my AC T, I think it was like, end of my junior year like maybe June right after my junior year or something like that. I feel like that’s the right timeline. And I did not study a single minute I went in just to take it as a practice test. So I was going to do one that was fully in the pressured environment where I could see what it was like and what my score was. So I would know how much I had to improve. I really recommend doing one time where you you can study for it if you want but where you do it knowing that like this is not necessarily your final score like this could possibly be a practice. And so I went in and I took that I hadn’t even looked at a practice test. On that one. I got a 34 This is the AC T and God I got a 34 on the AC T which I was happy with but I actually wanted a 35 like that was my goal. I’m going to terrible test taker because of my disabilities. Luckily, I had a lot of accommodations for the exam, which helped a lot. But I really wanted that 35. And so I scheduled it to take it again, I think like, August, September, I don’t remember the exact months that they allow you to take it, but I scheduled it for three more times. And because of my medical situations, I missed every single one. So unfortunately, the score that I took without having studied, which was not my intention, and you know, just as a practice test ended up being the score, I had to submit because I ran out of time. So two things to take away from that are one, at the end of the day, the score is not that important. Like if you end up in a situation like that, you’re going to be fine. But to try and take it as early as you can, so you have at least one score in because you just never know like, look at COVID look at personal life situations like you just can’t guarantee that you’ll have all this endless time to retake the exam over and over. So yeah, just take

Kamila
it as early on your first attempt. That’s like, the average for most better than the average for most top schools.

Gwyneth
Yeah, no, I was happy with it. But I was just it was a funny situation

Kamila
was like a one that I wanted a 35 regular three, four. You didn’t no preparation?

Gwyneth
No, I Well, I went over to my friend’s house the night before the exam, and she like retaught me basic, like trig equations or something. Just because math is not my strong suit. But that was it. And I really just did that just in case. So again, like studying, it’s not the end of the world, you don’t need to shell out hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a tutor, like just try your best. And most schools are leaning away from testing anyway, it’s not the most important part of an application. So

Kamila
alright, alright, so let’s go on to the fun fun stuff, which is extracurriculars. And then we’ll go into the actual college application or the essays, the letters of right. So extracurriculars. Can you walk me through all? Okay, you don’t need to do every single one. Because I know some people have like 15 that they did or something. But I’ll at least all the major ones. Can you walk us through? You know where you started? And you know how you came about those extracurriculars? And eventually, throughout high school? What kind of position did you hold with them? Or what kind of initiatives did you take with those extracurriculars?

Gwyneth
Yeah, so I’ll start by giving an overview of like, what the titles are, like, which clubs I was in, and what I ended up, you know, being a leader in them as, but then I can like focus on one or two, if you want to know the actual stories, but yeah, for

Kamila
primary purposes, we need to like the official, I guess, names of them.

Gwyneth
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So the primary thing that took up all my time, like, I would stay after school until 10pm, almost every day, that was newspaper. So um, I actually was the student teacher of the journalism class. But then I was also editor in chief of the newspaper. And that was incredible. That was my favorite activity, took up all my effort and time and energy, um, I was on the IB advisory board. So if your school does have IB, then you’ll, they’ll have an IB advisory board. And you can join that. And basically, you go around the county promoting IB and talking to students helping them through the process, which is a really great opportunity. I was like a student government representative for my class, which I love I did my whole life. I was vice president of Young Democrats. And then I was treasurer and captain of the first all women’s team in cybersecurity. So we competed in like fake computer simulations, you know, trying to protect different companies. And then I was a Lead Tutor in the Writing Center, which I recommend for people because it builds your skills, like while you’re helping other people, it counts as service hours. So really good activity and then think I was like club liaison of a service club. I think it was called the Octagon something. So I did service stuff as well. And those were like my primary clubs that I focused on. And then in terms of honor societies, I did National History, English, Spanish journalism and business. And I was president of the journalism and business honor societies.

Kamila
Okay, let’s go back to square one or something. Yeah. So zero, whatever they say. So you said the major, major one that took up a lot of your time was editor in chief. Yeah. Tell us all the editor in chief, what did you do? What responsibilities Did you hold? Yeah. So

Gwyneth
basically, the way it works at my school is like, you start by taking journalism one, so you’re not actually on the newspaper. And then once you’ve taken the class learned about journalism, you move up into the actual newspaper. But luckily, I was able to convince the teacher my freshman year to just let me join the newspaper immediately. I was like, I don’t want to take journalism one. I’m so excited about it, please just let me join. So he let me join and that’s how I was able to get like the positions fast enough to make it to the editor in chief my senior year. So I was a section editor for the new section. And then the next year I was managing editor and then the next year I was editor Chief. And the newspaper is amazing because you learn about design, you learn about writing, learn about taking photos. And what’s amazing is like the skills that I learned in my journalism Time, My Time on the newspaper, have landed me so many jobs. It taught me Adobe, which everyone wants an intern who knows Adobe, like it taught me copy editing, everyone, Adobe is that red one with the white. So Adobe is like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, in copy. Um, and everyone’s looking for graphic design these days, as I’m, you know, I’m sure you know how Instagram stuff has, like taken off. So in terms of editing, in terms of Illustrator in terms of like concrete skills, it taught me so much and it helped me get into college. It helped me get clubs in college, and it helped me get jobs in college. So I recommend journalism, like hands down, it was amazing. And there was a lot of like, when we talk about my essays, I did write about journalism and one of them and it was there’s so much to talk about, because you’re competing nationally for different awards. So you can talk about that. There’s a lot of ethical dilemmas like I had somebody plagiarize an article, I had somebody misquote someone on a really important article about a gun that had gone missing in the school. There’s like a lot of legal, you know, a gun back went missing in the school. Yeah, so we have like a criminal justice department in our school and a gun went missing from a locker in the room. And it was super bad. And the person quoted the teachers who of course, were taking the heat on the missing gun. And he just completely miss quoted them, like so poorly, which is the worst article to misquote on. Because it’s such a like, you know, there’s legal implications for an article like that. And so we had the most stressful meeting with them. And they were like, ex cop, so they were pissed. And so there’s a lot of real life ethical decision making, you have to do in journalism. And it’s also good, because it’s your, you know, I worked all day in school on journalism, I would go there for lunch, I would go there for like, study hours. And then I would stay after school into the night and work on the newspaper. And that kind of like, long stretched out day where you’re doing tons of stuff is exactly what college ends up being like, so it was really good prep for that. Um, so yeah, I learned a lot. And we won a couple awards. So it was it was a great experience.

Kamila
Yeah, I honestly don’t know my school too. Well, I don’t know if we have a newspaper or what? So can you explain what you do as a school newspaper? Like, what do you write about? I don’t know is does the principal come to you with these like topics that he wants he or she wants you to write about, like the

Gwyneth
things? Yeah, we kept things pretty professional. So we were doing all the work. It’s an entirely student led publication, which means at the start of each cycle, like let’s say we’re doing an October cycle, that means at the end of September, every student pitches to me the ideas that they have for the October issue. So we know there’s going to be a big track and field meet, we know there’s going to be controversy over the principal’s decision about Halloween, whatever. And we try and mix it with like very school relevant stuff, but then also like national issues. And yeah, and then we go through, filter out the ideas, pick the best articles, people go off and write them. So you do interviews, or maybe you write an opinion piece, which means you don’t have to interview anyone. And then we come together. And there’s a week that you have to stay after school into the night, the whole week, and it’s called production week, and everyone comes together. And we design every single page, every graphic, we have to make ourselves so that it’s not copyrighted. So you had to learn how to create graphics in Illustrator, we would edit the photos, we would, you know, design the entire static of the page. And we tried to be really innovative because we were competing in a national competition, so we wanted to win. And you put it all together, and then I get to print them and take them all home. So when everyone else goes home at 9pm, I go home and read every single page and copy edit, you know, word for word, every single text, the newspaper is usually about 12 to 14 pages. So, um, and I spend about an hour per page. So it’s, you know, it’s a lot of work on, and then we bring it in, and we actually send it off to a real publisher who prints it on real newspaper, we deliver it to the entire school. So it’s very much like a real functioning work environment, which is if you can get access to a club that simulates a real work environment in high school, like that’s going to be unmatched experience for the future. So

Kamila
is this every week that production week, every week every month? Luckily,

Gwyneth
it’s yeah, it’s once a month. Yeah, that you are required to be there that late. We would hopefully try and finish so that we wouldn’t have to stay after on Fridays. That was usually a fail though. Um, yeah. And it was good experience to being a student teacher because I got to write exams that I gave to the students and then I would grade them and I got to teach lessons. So it helps with like leadership building and confidence and that kind of thing.

Kamila
I want to get here otherwise extracurriculars. But just one more thing you said you were in a competition for?

Gwyneth
Yeah, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association CSPA. That’s like the national newspaper magazine, you know, publication competition is held out of Columbia University. So once a year, there’s a big conference, you go there, you take classes at Columbia University, and you learn about journalism. And then at the very end, they like award different newspapers, different statuses, so yeah, so you can win like a silver crown or a gold crown or whatever.

Kamila
Well, do you have to like, is there some sort of test that your school needs to pass to be able to take part in this,

Gwyneth
anyone can enter, anyone can enter their newspaper, you just have to submit? I think it’s like three or four examples of your newspaper. So we would go through like, September through May and be like, Okay, what were our best months, and then you submit those months. And yeah, and then everyone competes across the country. So if your school has a newspaper, register for CSPA, go to the conference, it’s amazing, you’ll learn so much.

Kamila
And I just need to know, so you’ve like, listed a lot of things that you did related to newspaper, in I know, with college apps, you have your extracurricular and then you have like, a few lines to write whatever you want about the extracurricular. What did you end up squeezing into those lines telling the colleges what you did?

Gwyneth
It’s hard. That’s part of what’s hard about a college application is that like, you know, we’re all very dynamic people who have dedicated years of our lives to, you know, doing the things that end up on that application. And then it comes down to like three lines. And it’s like, that’s not I’m not a three line person, I’m 1000 line person who’s done a million things. And, um, you know, you have to strategize. It’s like, what are the things they care about, they care that you were ranked nationally, they care that you spent X number of hours, I would say, oh, you know, 30 hours a week, they care. That’s a big commitment. So it’s about putting things like that numbers and rankings. And then in your essay, you get to talk more about the human side, which is like, Why was I passionate about it? And, you know, what were the ethical questions that I had, but I stayed away from all of that, because there’s no room on the activity sheet, like you just have to give the numbers that they really care about.

Kamila
So just stick with the numbers. Yeah. All right. Okay, moving on to your other extracurriculars. What other ones would you like to deep dive into?

Gwyneth
Ooh, that’s tough. Um, I would say the other one that I learned a lot from was the cybersecurity competition. It is also a national competition. So any school can register and sign up. It’s called CyberPatriot. And I really recommend doing it. If you’re interested in tech, if you’re interested in politics, international security, computer science, like anything like that, I recommend doing it. Basically, you learn how to use different systems, so like, Linux, or Windows, or whatever, and you learn how to navigate through that computer. And then once a month, usually there’s a competition. And it goes for like six or seven hours on a Saturday, and you just sit down with your team on like, I think there’s like three or four usually competitions for your team happening simultaneously. So I’ll be like, I’ll take this computer, you take that computer, you take that computer, so you’re pretty much working alone, even though you’re on a team. And basically, it’s like a, it’s almost like a fake computer has been loaded into a real computer. And on the fake computer, there’s like a fake password, fake desktop, fake everything. That’s how it’s like a simulation. And your goal is basically just to protect the company. So they’ll say, Hey, we’ve been having these issues, our firewall is broken into, you know, we’ve lost all our passwords, people are trying to get into XYZ websites, and XYZ files. And it’s your job to protect us as a company. And you go in, and you try and get as many points as possible out of 100. And by the end of the six hours, what have you’ve done, you’ve done and then you rank. And if you move on to the next stage, then you move on to like the state competition, and then the national competition. And it was a big learning experience. And obviously, what I study now is national security. And counterterrorism is a big part of that cybersecurity is a big part of that. So it’s a skill that I like transferred into college. But yeah, it’s good experience. And again, like it adds a lot of things on your resume because you can put cybersecurity in your, you know, activity section, you can put the awards that you want from cybersecurity in your award section. And you can put the different programs you worked with in your skill section. So there’s like a lot that it provides you for your resume.

Kamila
And what did your team end up making it to Nationals without cybersecurity? No. So we were

Gwyneth
we were like completely new to the activity when we joined and we were actually really just trying to prove a point there was no girls like in cybersecurity and we were the all women’s team and so we were kind of just existing in the club primarily to prove a point In terms of our actual tech skills, they were not the best. So we did make it to states, but we never got further than that. Thank God, I don’t think I could take that level of pressure. But, um, but yeah, so we were just like, a lot of people believe that, you know, women can’t do stuff in STEM. So. And luckily, we got fully funded in order to compete, because we were an all women’s team. And they are looking to like, push women forward. So we didn’t have to pay the fees, which was awesome.

Kamila
And before we like, go on to your other extracurriculars and talk about them, you obviously, you weren’t like majoring in anything in high school, obviously, you know, it’s really your extracurriculars, like show your passion. But in high school, did you have any idea that what you were doing at that moment with your, you know, international baccalaureate and your extracurriculars? That they would transfer over to something that’s very similar to what you’re studying?

Gwyneth
Was that no, I really didn’t. I mean, my biggest tip is like, freshman year, I think I was in 12. Clubs. And I know that sounds ridiculous. But like, I got to test out a bunch of different things. Without thinking about college at all. I didn’t think like, what story? Is this telling? Is it all fitting in one like clear timeline of what my interest is like, Oh, I know, I’m gonna study politics. So I need to be in the political clubs, and like the service clubs. And that’s it. I didn’t think about that at all. I said, I’m going to try everything. And then sophomore year, I’m going to Windell it down, junior year, I’m going to Windell it down, etc, etc. And that strategy worked out so well for me, because by around sophomore junior year, you have a sense of what you want to do, you know, you know, if you’re going to be in nursing or business loosely, like, those are very different things. And so I was able to be like, one, did I enjoy the activity? And should I keep it or not? And two, does it sort of fit the narrative that I’m trying to push for my college resume of like, I’m really interested in politics, and therefore I’m going to do XYZ, or I’m really interested in science. And so I did XYZ. And so that curating happens over time, do not curate off the bat for freshman year, because your interests will change. So it’s not going to help you in the long run. And to you’re going to miss out on an opportunity to try stuff that you would have like loved. So it worked out.

Kamila
Great, it’s great. So we can, do you have any other extra? I’m completely fine with you talking about any of your extracurriculars, but it’s

Gwyneth
not. That’s, you know, the other stuff is pretty self explanatory. So I’ll, I’ll leave it at that.

Kamila
Alright, so let’s go on to the actual college application tells when did you start not the extracurriculars or not the grades prep? Or when did you actually start thinking, Okay, let’s look at the prompts that I need to do for these colleges. Let me think about my recommendation letters. And like just the college app application portion. When did you start thinking about that? When did you start actually filling out?

Gwyneth
Yeah, so I got to see my answer. But I hope it doesn’t scare anyone, because this is not the normal answer, and you have plenty of time. That being said, I was like, in love with the college process. Like I thought it was the most fun. Like I love thinking about my future. I love planning. So I honestly like I got my first college map in seventh grade. And I started like looking up old college prompts. I started practicing, like, what would I say in interviews all through middle school? Like I thought it was middle school. Yeah. So like, but that being said, it was just because it was fun for me. Like, it’s fun to think about your future. And honestly, I recommend to everyone to find the fun in the college application process. And what’s great about starting it early is that you can frame it in your mind as something fun, because it’s so far away. If you start the college application process in your junior year, you’re still going to get into college, like you’re going to be fine. But those are the years where you’re completely stressed about it because college is two years away. And so it’s not fun at all. And so people who start that late typically hate the college application process. So what I always recommend for people, not for the sake of getting into college or having a better application, but for the sake of your own, like mental well being and enjoying the process is to start really early on if you think thinking about your future is fun and freshman year, it doesn’t matter yet. Like it’s so far off. So just enjoy, like looking up colleges watching YouTube videos on people getting into college, like, maybe go on a college tour your freshman year. That’s what I did. And it’s so fun, because it’s like not reality yet. So if you can start it early, then you’re going to actually love the process. So yeah, I started doing it early. I mean, I did a lot of my college tours my freshman and sophomore year. And

Kamila
actually, yeah, before we get into the college apps, yeah, forgot. Can you tell us how you narrow down to the colleges that you did eventually apply to tell us which colleges you chose? We’ll go to college out portion and then we suppose you got accepted wait listed and then rejected from?

Gwyneth
Yeah, so um, the colleges that I ended up applying to, um, well, the ones that I was looking at, I basically looked at a few different categories. So the first category was like my reach schools like my dream schools. And for me, like my dream school when I was, you know, early in high school was Princeton that was like, my, oh my gosh, I thought it was so beautiful. I went to a tour with them. And I thought it was amazing. I was so excited about it. Um, so I ended up applying to Princeton and Harvard. And those were like my reach, you know, throw in an application schools. And then I had like, sort of another category of schools, which were more like, schools that really focused on my major, they’re really good schools like, this is like I could get in, but it’s still going to be difficult. And, um, obviously, Georgetown was in that category, as one of my top choices. And then there was like other random schools, I was applying to Boston College, which is super similar to Georgetown. So anyone’s looking at Georgetown, also look at Boston College. And American University. Obviously, that’s not as difficult to get into, but it’s very similar to Georgetown as well. And then I was looking at, like schools that were very small liberal arts schools. So these are, they usually have very low acceptance rates, like, you know, anywhere between like, eight to 10%. But they’re much smaller, you can usually sense if you’d get along there. Well, and I applied to Haverford Trinity. And I don’t know there was like a few others of those like smaller northeast liberal schools. And they usually have an emphasis on service, like they’re good schools to look into. And then I threw in at the end, like super backups. Like I had, I think I applied to Arcadia, which is, like, 60% acceptance rate or something. And I threw that in because I was like, I’m going to college, regardless of what happens if I mess up my application entirely. I’m going to college. So I’m applying to Arcadia. And, you know, also you never know what’s going to happen with your financial status. So applying to a school like that, you’re most likely going to get a full ride. And then you know, you can always rely on that. So I’m, what are you from? I’m from Northern Virginia. So um, yeah. So it’s a very competitive area, which kind of makes the application process much harder. Pretty much everyone in my school was applying to the same top schools. But, but yeah, and I didn’t look at Virginia schools. But obviously, if you’re in Virginia, or in whatever state you’re in, look at your state schools, especially if your financial need because most state schools are good as well. But yeah, that’s how I looked at it was like reach schools, schools that I love based on what I studied, smaller liberal arts, schools, and then safety schools. And that’s how I broke it up.

Kamila
And did you go on a college tour for all of that I

Gwyneth
toured every single school? Yeah, I spent my spring breaks in high school doing college tours. And again, like, I didn’t frame it as like, this sucks. I framed it as like, awesome. I get to travel up the northeast and visit all these pretty schools. And I went to California as well in the schools weren’t really my vibe, but it’s just a chance to like, look at these amazing campuses, see all these smart people. So I loved my college tours. Um, you’re into California,

Kamila
you’ve moved to California. And I just have to ask a question. Nothing related to college, really. But what I’ve heard I live in northeast, y’all live in Maryland, actually. People are like the people in the north or not the north, what’s the east side, the East Coast are like, it’s like hustle. It’s like more like fast paced. And then they say California, just the West Coast is much more like chill and go with the flow. Is that what you sense for

Gwyneth
100% and that’s why I didn’t like it. Like my brother went to Oregon University. And my sister went to Columbia. And the difference between their two experiences are so stark, like, you know, he was so chill all the time. All his friends were so chill. And they were about like, slow paced life and parties and outdoors stuff. And if you’re looking at schools in the northeast, it’s very much like Brian culture, you know, like making it to your dream career. And everything is like steps up the ladder. And that has its negatives, but honestly, I love it, it pushes me and so it’s just about finding your fit. Um, if you’re somebody who is way more chill and you want to like, take it back a step from what your high school experience was, then the California state schools are a really good option.

Kamila
Alright, alright. Okay, back to back to college app. We’ve gone through the schools that you apply to now tell us about your we were talking about college app, can we go to the Common App essay, the big, huge essay? What did you write about?

Gwyneth
Yes, so my common app essay was a bit of a risk. And so I’m not going to necessarily recommend people do this. Because who knows into Georgetown? Yeah, well, I don’t know. It was still a bit of a wrestle. I don’t know if I recommend it. But, um, I ended up writing about what I was talking about earlier, which was, you know, my experience being in and out of school. So I specifically talked about, like, you know, my challenges when I first got my diagnosis, which was in high school, um, my challenges with applying for accommodations. But it was primarily about the fact that like, you know, when I was admitted to the hospital, the first time in junior year, when the people that are typically admitted are not people who are, you know, high achieving college focused students. And that’s mainly because of a lot of factors about disability that, you know, institutionally hold those students back. So it’s not of their own fault. But that’s just the reality of it. And so as a result, a lot of the doctors in the hospital, and a lot of the people at my high school, sort of saw that as like, that’s a stopping point for me, like my doctors in the hospital told me that I was not going to be able to go back to school period, like, I was not going to graduate high school. When I did go back to high school, they had me their original plan was to have me drop, like half my Courseload, they wanted me to drop the IB diploma, drop my extracurriculars. take a year off, like

Kamila
a doctor’s recommendation, or the lack of experts,

Gwyneth
the counselors, and then the doctors did not want me to return at all. And, you know, obviously, they were wrong, because hearing them, but that’s generally like the way that they institutionally prevent people with various disabilities from entering higher education. And so that was really difficult because it was me trying to say like, I know myself best. And this is not the best thing for me, like I’m perfectly capable of continuing on. So that’s a lot about what I talked about was like that battle between, do I take other people’s advice? Do I take my own advice, and what some of the challenges were about that and how I overcame it. And there’s a lot of risk in writing something like that, because especially when you’re talking about disability, people typically see that as like, a risk for their university. And so it’s sort of like, I want to be honest and share this major part of my identity and something I struggled with. And in a lot of cases, as you said, something that can affect people’s GPA and their extracurriculars. And so it may need some explanation. But then at the same time, you don’t want people to x you off, because they’re like, oh, this student is going to be a liability for our university. And who knows if that played a role in any of my rejections? Like, we’ll never know. But, um, but yeah, and I decided to take the risk anyway, I think I ultimately decided that any school that would accept me knowing this information is the right school for me, and any school that wouldn’t accept me knowing this information is the wrong school for me. And it’s that simple. At the end of the day, a lot of people think like, college is about getting into college, but they forget, they then have to go to that school. So you know, if a university rejects you, because they don’t like an aspect of your identity, or an experience that you went through, you may be sad, because that’s a great school for you. But you would have actually had to go there. And the administration that rejected you is the same administration that’s going to be there when you’re a student. And a lot of people forget that. So that’s ultimately the way I looked at it is like, Who do I want to actually have like taking care of me when I’m a student? And so yeah, I submitted it. And I did get some, like the smaller liberal arts schools, they’ll actually write comments on your acceptance letter and say stuff about your essay, and they were all really positive about it. So I do think it was the right decision. But yeah,

Kamila
okay, one thing before we continue on, and let me give a little back story to this. I guess I was interviewing one girl, she goes to Chicago. But in high school, she she obviously still does she struggled struggled with dyslexia, which severely affected her testing abilities. I think she said on like, one of her AP exams like the physics one, she just couldn’t get past the first question. Like it was that bad for her. And she’s, she heard her parents tried to petition the College Board for more time. And they didn’t grant it. So can you tell me did you struggle with any of the accommodations for college apps because of your disability?

Gwyneth
Yeah, so College Board is it’s very difficult to get accommodations. It’s not like the process you go through in your high school to get accommodations. That being said, I personally have like six or seven disabilities, which worked to my advantage, because it was like, it’s not like I have one thing and they can say, oh, and our experience, students with XYZ thing are able to manage fine. I had like a whole slew of things that really made me like a unique case. But it did take a lot of advocacy. And unfortunately, it’s a financial barrier because they require medical documentation. And a lot of students don’t have the financial ability to go to a psychiatrist and a psychologist and a medical professional and or whatever, to get it proved. They have whatever disability testing, like especially testing for different intellectual disabilities can be 1000s of dollars, right? So in order to medically prove that you have whatever you have to get what you need. Need, it’s really like something that only higher income students have access to. And for that reason, I’m very grateful that I’ve had that a lot of students don’t get the testing simply because they can’t afford to prove it.

Kamila
You had you say you have six, so you had to prove every single one of them.

Gwyneth
Yeah, and it’s something I still face in college, like, I have the most accommodations in college of like anyone I know. And for each accommodation, I still have to go back and new letters. And when a doctor writes you a letter you pay for their time. So it’s not even like, even if they’re your regular doctor, you still have to pay them for even writing the letter to begin with, let alone the testing. So there’s a lot of barriers in that sense. Um, but I think you can appeal the College Board, usually. And if you have your counselor on your side, and you have multiple medical professionals, and if they know how to write the letter properly, then usually it works out. And you know, the best thing you can do is try.

Kamila
That is absolutely ridiculous. If you’re a low income student, you have a disability, you’re pretty much not screwed, but everything is against you. Yeah, correct. Let’s go back to college. I’ve shared your common app, the long, long essay. Now, can you tell us quickly about the supplementals? Did you I don’t know put in your extracurriculars, maybe to talk about them more in your supplemental.

Gwyneth
So I can talk about Georgetown, particularly, which I know some people have a lot of questions about because they don’t use common app. They you tell us all about the Georgetown application. Yeah, yeah. So Georgetown uses it’s completely own portal, you can’t, you know, auto send your information like you can’t every other school, you start from scratch, which a lot of people hate. But ultimately, in my opinion, it makes sense, right? They only want Georgetown students who really want to go to Georgetown, and a lot of people just give up on the application. So if you do really love Georgetown, you’re going to be fine. Um, and in terms of like how the application looks, it’s very different. So you can’t log all of your different activities, I think they only give you like four slots, which is horrible. Luckily, they give you the option to attach an optional document, I recommend doing that and attaching a full resume that includes all your information, there’s no reason to undersell yourself simply because of space. And then they have different essays for different schools. So they have the regular essays, which are talk about an activity, talk about a talent, and then your common app essay, which is obviously not on the common app. But it’s usually like almost identical prompt. It’s like something about an experience or your identity or whatever. And then they have a fourth essay, which is about whatever school you’re going into. So Georgetown has the business school, the nursing school, the college and the School of Foreign Service. So I applied to the School of Foreign Service. So my question was, I think it was like something, something about an international issue that I cared about. And I talked about, like the work I did volunteering in Thailand and the teaching that I did there and how, like in a lot of rural areas abroad, there’s not great access to education and materials and how a lot of NGOs are corrupt and aren’t providing the things that are actually equitable. So that’s what I talked about. And then the talent one, I think I talked about my synchronized skating national championship, win. And then for the, the activity, I talked about journalism, so they give you a lot of space to like, share, which is great.

Kamila
And does this Georgetown application, does it have like a separate fee? Is it something?

Gwyneth
Yeah, there’s some website? Yeah, there’s a separate fee. It’s entirely separate, like nothing that you submit. So you’re gonna have to type in like your parents financial background, again, you know, your social security number, everything like that all over again. Um, but again, that being said, like, I still think it’s worth it. Like, you know, but yeah, it is difficult, for sure. And I’ve

Kamila
visited Georgetown, I’ve done an info session, because I mean, it’s like I live really close to DC. So I’ve done info session, I’ve done a walking tour there and Walsh School of foreign foreign service, many famous people have passed through that school. I know and it is one of the top schools obviously it’s in DC. Many schools in DC are the top when it comes to, you know, politic government stuff. So when you’re applying to Georgetown, and you’re selecting which school you want to go into, does it make a difference in like, the competition is the Walsh School of Foreign Service, like the hardest one to get into?

Gwyneth
It is yeah, it’s the hardest one to get into. I believe the easiest one to get into is the college but I’m not 100% Sure. And the nursing and business is more specialty. So you know, if you’re a really good nursing student, like you’re probably going to get into the nursing school. Um, but yeah, the School of Foreign Service is incredibly competitive. It also has high post acceptance transfer rates. So like, once you’re a student, a lot of people transfer from the college into the School of Foreign Service, because which is a good like, loop around for how to get into it, but um, you know, that’s the thing you can transfer after you get in so, um, whatever school you think you’re gonna fit into, well apply for that one, don’t even think about if it’s harder or easier, because if you’re a great applicant for the School of Foreign Service, but you’re you’d rather apply to the college because you think it’ll be easier, they’re gonna look at you and go, but your application is not a good fit for the college and they’ll reject you. So apply for the one that you think is best for you. And that goes for any school that has these, like sub schools, which are actually a lot of universities. And then you can always transfer in but yeah, the School of Foreign Service has an amazing record in terms of presidents senators, like State Department officials, everything in politics, and yeah, and I love it. The classes are amazing. So

Kamila
yeah. Oh, so let’s, oh, one more thing, which schools did you get accepted waitlisted and rejected from and then we’ll go into college experience.

Gwyneth
Yeah. So like I said, I cannot remember all the schools that I applied to, which is a bit sad now, but um, I obviously got into Georgetown, I applied regular decision and was accepted, no scholarships, so I didn’t apply for financial aid. But I did, like I was eligible for merit scholarships. So I’ll include if I got a scholarship or not, but it’s merit based scholarships. And I got into Boston College, which I almost ended up going to because I was just so in love with it. And I was accepted with Scholarship, which is great. Um, I got into Haverford. And I was accepted with a scholarship. I got into American accepted with a scholarship. Arkady, obviously, because that was my safety accepted with a scholarship, Trinity College accepted with a full ride scholarship. And then my, my reach schools, Princeton, I was deferred early action. So that’s the one I applied early to. I was deferred early action then rejected in like the regular pool. And then Harvard, I applied regular decision, and I was wait listed, and then I took my name off. So who knows what ended up happening with that? And yeah, I can’t remember the others. There may have been one other one. I can’t remember. But that’s the general results.

Kamila
Why did you choose Georgetown over Boston College? You said you’re almost going to go there?

Gwyneth
I was. Yeah, it was tough. I mean, part of it was like, Georgetown is super expensive, obviously. And you know, even though that wasn’t a massive barrier. For me, it’s still a big factor, no matter what your income level, like, it’s, it’s a hard decision to make to say goodbye to over $80,000 a year. Like that’s horrible. So yeah, that was that was a part of the decision. It’s also super close to where I lived, which ended up being a major benefit, actually, if anyone’s questioning if they should go to college, like nearby where they live? Absolutely. Like, every person I know who went to college near where they live, said it was the best decision they’ve ever made. And everyone I know, who went far away regretted it immediately in their first year. So yeah, I was I that was part of the factor was like, I love Boston, and it’s far away from home. So I’m going to be independent, you know. So that was part of it. And it was a slightly more beautiful school. Like, in my opinion, Boston College is the most beautiful school I’ve ever toured. And that did kind of influence me a little bit. I was like, you know, you want to be happy when you’re at college. So esthetics does matter, in a sense. And, yeah, so I loved the way that the campus looked. And ultimately, though, I was like, at the end of the day, I think the number one factor for when you’re choosing a school, it has to be if you know, what you want to pursue, it has to be, do they have a good program for you, if you don’t know what you’re going to pursue, then think about other factors. Location is big. Obviously, like, you know, size of classes, there’s lots of other factors. But if you have even the tiniest sense of what you want to do, like, you know, you want to go into the sciences, or you know, you want to go into, you know, politics or whatever, pick based on that, because at the end of the day, you’re walking away with a degree, and that’s the goal of college, none of the rest of it will matter. And so, if it’s a good program, then you’re going to walk away into a great career with an amazing degree. And, you know, that’s what it’s about. So I knew that this is what I wanted to do. It was the only school that had a Security Studies program. And that started to interest me. And so yeah, that’s what I ended up choosing based off of. And the internships they really push internships like, I had four internships this summer, and that’s like very common for Georgetown students. So, um, you know, the job walk away

Kamila
with a job after college and nobody will.

Gwyneth
I hope fingers crossed anyone hiring out there.

Kamila
That wraps up part one of my interview with Gwenyth make sure to subscribe so you know, when part two and future episodes are released, make sure to check out my blog college reality check.com and email me at kid at college reality check.com with any questions, hope to see you in part two.