Interview with Greg and Beth from College Flight Plan

Transcription

Kamila
Hey, college kids. Welcome back to my podcast, who cares about college and today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing Greg and Beth. So if you guys could introduce yourselves.

Beth
Hi, I am Beth Langston. And I have a degree from Purdue University. And I’m married to Greg Langston, this guy right here. And he has a degree also from Purdue. In business minds in education. And we live in San Diego, we have two grown children, a couple grandkids even. But we’ve been helping high school students for N some college students for 20 years. And in a nutshell, what we do is we help students figure out what their strengths and weaknesses are, and what they’re passionate about, and naturally gifted to do so that they can choose a career or a major. And if they go to college, that they can graduate in four years instead of the normal rate, which is six years and have a fulfilling career. Great.

Greg
Absolutely. One of the things that that people don’t know is that it takes approximately Well, 60% of the kids that graduate from college actually take six years to graduate. And that can be avoided if you know what, what you’re doing. But I I met Beth as she said at Purdue University. I’ve worked in 65 countries around the world in 10 Different industries run businesses in excess of a billion dollars and have mentored high school and college students for the last 20 years.

Kamila
So you mentioned strengths and weaknesses, like and passion as well. But I first want to focus on strengths and weaknesses. So what do you mean by strengths and weaknesses in relation to like the college process? Or like the college application? Do you mean like, strengthen like writing skills or just strings overall? And like certain subjects?

Greg
Well, actually, what we do is we, through a process of doing a 360 assessment, we help the student find out what other strengths, whether in whatever they do, whether it be education in life, are they an analytical thinker, are they presentation skills, problem solving skills, whatever those strengths might be, we also identify what their weaknesses are, so that they can be cognizant of those and work about making those better.

Beth
And they can address those, you know, clearly, because a lot of times, they might know their weaknesses, but they don’t know what to do about them. So we help them address that. But I think you’re also talking about interest, their strengths also are their interests at some times. And so it does go into what they want to study also in their, in their education and the classes they’re taking, is it their strength to take that AP math class, when math isn’t their forte, and it’s going to pull down their GPA? That’s a good thing to note too in their classes they take and what career they’re going to pursue. So

Kamila
yeah, you’ve mentioned like a bunch of strings, but for example, with like an analytical thinker, and I know what you mean, like analytical thinker versus someone who’s not? What exactly can you do with that? Like, what do you know from yourself, and how that can help you in the college process? Well, you know, such strengths about yourself strengths and weaknesses.

Greg
Well, I think that you can be more aligned with what major you want to study, as a result of knowing your strengths, as well as being aware of what your weaknesses are, because then it can help you connect better with a particular vocation or a major you want to study because if you hate what you’re doing, and you know, which a lot of people do over 70% of people that are in business today, hate what they do in their jobs. And that’s because they didn’t figure out what they were passionate about what they’re good at, and then get a degree or a vocation that supported that.

Beth
Another stat is that only 20% of college graduates are working in a role that is closely related to their undergrad degree. And that crazy.

Kamila
I know, I know, I’m actually researching about that this year. And I like did like the undergraduate degree and like going into jobs or whatever. And I was so stunned that like, most people don’t even like us with their degree is in their day to day job. I was like, okay, it was like, how do you find a job that way? Yeah. All sorts of things. Why

Beth
did you spend all that time studying

Kamila
so many years wasted? Okay. And then another thing you guys mentioned was core values. This is not here. Like if we were like emailing and visit your website, you guys are talking about core values. So can you elaborate a little bit on what you mean by that?

Greg
Sure, core values are your core beliefs that really motivate you and help you in your decision making process. Whether it be academic excellence, or integrity or community, whatever that those values are, the way I best describe it as if you if your audience can envision a cutaway of a large tree. And a large tree has a strong root system that’s deep down to the ground, those roots are equivalent to your values, because you’re going to be challenged in life when you go to school when you have a job. And you need to have a strong root system to make sure the tree doesn’t topple over the trunk of the tree is equivalent to what we call your purpose, or your why. And the branches of the tree are your objectives and your goals. And so we believe that there has to be alignment between your values, your purpose, and your goals and objectives. And so let you produce correctly. And so that’s why we help students to determine what are their core values, and then we take them through a process to really identify what their core values are, and then help them do decision making based upon their core values to help them stay aligned.

Kamila
And going off of like what you just said. And also you kind of talked about like the purpose and the y, which is like how I guess you determine your core values. Yeah, as a, let’s say you’re coming into high school is like a 1415 year old who hasn’t honestly, given been given much opportunity to do anything, because there’s not really much you can do at 1415. So what kind of process like someone coming into you guys who are just starting high school, and like, because in middle school, you just do the courses that they give you high schools when you can take those like electives and see like, oh, do I like this? Or this? So someone who’s just coming in and is not really sure about their why or their passion? How do you help them at least find out or maybe hone in on a more specific area, when they just come in and ask you guys for help?

Beth
Well, what I would say is in school, yes, the classes are great, and go for the ones that you think you’re interested in. But it’s even more important to explore your interests, or what you think you’re interested in pursuing as a career in those early high school years, all the way through high school, try to get on the job, training and exposure. Because sometimes we find that students think that they’re interested in one area, and then they go to work with someone in that area. And they’re like, No way, I don’t want to do that our son is a great example, his whole life, he thought he wanted to be in the medical field. And so in high school, he’s like, I think I want to be a surgeon, and he had the opportunity to go to work with a neurosurgeon and a cardiovascular surgeon. And after doing both of those jobs, surgeries, surgeries he was in, in the operating room. After doing both of those, he ended his summer saying that is not at all what I want to do. I don’t want to go into the medical field anymore. And he went into the financial world go forward, you know, he never had that on his list of things. But he he does very well in that but all because of that exposure, so he didn’t waste the years of education and the money getting educated in a field that he would not have enjoyed.

Kamila
And how do you find those like experiences like, I know your son’s went to a private school, but if you like go to a public school, and obviously not all public schools are the same, like some are really good, not considered private schools, but they’re really good education like APs. A lot of like help with students, like my high school has, like specific internship class, where the whole thing is helping you find an internship, but other like public schools don’t have that. So what do you suggest for those students who don’t have those resources available to them? Like direct,

Beth
knock on the doors? Go, be proactive, promote yourself? There are so many companies and workers and professionals who are who are more than willing to open their door and say, yeah, come on in for a week or a day or whatever it takes to get some exposure to that line of work. You have to promote yourself, nobody’s going to do it for you. You cannot depend on your high school. Like you said, yours happens to have a great class. That is so rare. I love that it has that. Yeah, yeah. But most do not. You cannot rely on the college advising counselors at college advisors to to give you everything that you’re going to need to prepare you for, for your college application. Even as a young person or the parent of a young person. I don’t know if any parents listen to this. You need to keep track of everything that you’ve accomplished and done and worked at every job you’ve had every class you’ve taken outside of school from the summer before freshman year until your senior year, which all counts on your resume but you’re filling out these, these applicants At the beginning of senior year, so really what you’re do senior years never going to go on your college application, your grades will, but the rest of it won’t. So that’s why it’s important to be active in all these areas before that, and go out and pursue Do not wait until senior year to get all these experiences that you need in order to write about them in your essays.

Greg
But we’ve had some clients that said, so how do I do this? And we asked them, well, what are you interested in? Well, you know, I have braces. And so I want to go see what it’s like to be an orthodontist. And so we say, Go volunteer, ask your orthodontist, if you can just go and, you know, work in their office for a couple of days, and see what it’s like. And you’ll do it for free. And, you know, they find out, hey, I really like this, or you know what, this sucks, I don’t like doing this. And so it’s really important that you can ask your parents, friends in whatever industry they are, people are more than happy to help but particularly if it doesn’t cost anything, that they’ll open the door for you to ride along. If you’re if it’s a salesperson, or, you know, a doctor or a mechanic or a welder, you name it, though, they’ll open the door.

Kamila
And you were saying about like tracking a bit earlier, like the summer before freshman year, because you know, senior year against really just your grades, and maybe they’ll see what you were doing senior year. But that doesn’t really impact you and your like college application too much. But let’s say like, you have gone through high school and you’ve like, been here and you don’t really know if you like that, and you’d like tried this. And you don’t know if you like that. But junior year, I would say seniors probably like to a bit like junior year you find something and you’re like, Wow, I’m not like, I’m gonna do this for the rest of my life. But like, I genuinely have a passion for this. How do you incorporate that into your college app without making it looked like you add fluff? Because that like, I know, college, they’re gonna look at and be like, oh, there was like a last resort for them to do that. But some people genuinely don’t find something until those like junior year like end of junior year.

Beth
Yeah. And in your application, it’s all about explaining, how did you find this passion? What do you plan to do with it? Where did it come from? What were you interested in before? And how did you negate that passion, you know, it all. They just want to know about you where you are that you know, and what you’re planning for the future, because it’s very rare that students can talk about what their plans for the future are. But colleges love that there are three things that admissions officers look for, of course, academic success, you have to have the grades to get your foot in the door, to give you permission to play, you have to have good grades, good standardized test scores, and a quality curriculum. So and the second thing they look for is extracurricular accomplishment. And that doesn’t mean a smattering of every community project you could get into. They look for students within depth commitment to a project, or cars, or a team or something like that, you know what I’m saying? Because what colleges are looking for, they want to have a well rounded student body, not necessarily a well rounded student. So they’ll take your gifts and your strengths and fit you into an area that they need to fill in their in their student body. Does that make sense?

Kamila
Yeah, that does make sense. Yeah. So third thing,

Beth
the third thing that is most important for admissions officers is a student that has self awareness and future plans, a student that knows their values, and can speak about that and their purpose and their strengths, and their weaknesses and their natural inclinations. Because they want to see that you have plans for the future. And you have goals to pursue a major that will allow you to thrive. And they want you to be able to come on campus, jump in contribute positively, you know, hit the ground running and do well at school because they don’t want to have to worry about kids that are going to flunk out, you know or party too much. They want somebody who knows where they’re going so that they can graduate with honors go out and represent the college well get a good degree come back and mentor students at their college and give back.

Kamila
Another question I have regarding like finding your passion. So I guess in high school, you can understand yourself pretty well like Am I a stem person? Do I enjoy like the math and the bio and the cam that I have to take? Or am I more of a humanities person who enjoys like the English and the history? So you do have like those two general I guess you can say areas stem and the humanities that we most everybody does in high school. But how limiting Do you think the courses are in high school for people finding their passion? Like, for example, business doesn’t really fall in STEM or humanities and it’s not really something, a course that’s offered in high school. So do you think there are some people who genuinely just won’t find anything in high school because their courses are just not there?

Greg
That’s a really great question. I think that a lot of self discovery needs to take place in high school, and it’s not taking place. And as a result, we’re seeing that 87% of people that are 16 to 29 years old, have no purpose or meaning. And so that’s 87% 87%. So that’s, that’s speaking directly to your point that they’re not sure what they should be doing. As a result of this, you know, 12 years of education. And in so that’s why we’re so passionate about helping young person determine what they are passionate about, and they can figure that out. If they go through the process, what we supply or other people might be able to supply to determine what am I really passionate about, get feedback from other people to say, you know, what you should study this, this and this, these are your weaknesses, so that you can address them, because then that helps hone their interests, and hone their skills, so that they can be more successful in life and graduate in four years, instead of the six that I mentioned earlier,

Beth
and hone their interest to because if they know what they’re good at, they’re gonna be like, Well, I don’t want to waste my time doing something I’m not that great at, or if they’re playing three sports in school, right? Well, you don’t have time for three sports, and to explore all these other things. So we help them organize their priorities, to maybe drop out of one of those sports and enjoy the other two, and contribute positively. But you have to make time for yourself to explore these other things, you only get one life, there’s only one you and only you can promote yourself, you might get some promotion from others. But you have to be proactive, you cannot wait for the high school to do it for

Greg
you. And don’t think that the college advisors are going to do it for you. Because they’re on average, in the United States, there are 424 students per college advisor. And so there’s no way that they can give you the attention. In fact, we have 200 per college. And in new in in California, where we live, there are 900 students for each advisor. So, you know, we had one student who went to their advisor and said, Hey, listen, I’m trying to put this stuff together for my essay, can you please tell me all the things that I’ve accomplished? And they said, I don’t have time to do that?

Beth
Yeah, she wanted to know her awards for like, When was I on the honor roll, how many years what semesters, blah, blah, blah. And because she just tried to fill out her application, this wasn’t even an essay, which is another thing you have to get help with. And he’s like, I don’t, I don’t have time to look that up. That’s why, as an individual, each student needs to keep track of their own record, so that they can have, they can access this information when it comes time to fill out their applications.

Kamila
And on that topic, let’s take a typical 14, I guess we see a 14 year old coming into high school. And you know, they don’t really they’re not sure what they want to do. Maybe they have like some interest in STEM or something. And they’re like vaguely sure they want to do STEM, what would be the guideline that you give them coming into high school in order to find what they’re passionate about? Or at least hone in more on some like specific I don’t know, you like biology, you may not know what you want to do with biology, but you understand you like it. So what would be your guideline for someone coming in? What would they do freshman year, sophomore year, junior and senior year?

Beth
Well, starting early is key, get it researching an area you think you’re interested in, talk to the teacher who teaches it, you know, again, go out in your community and get exposure to it the earlier the better. And that would be every year. If you’re if you’re thinking you’re interested, you know, use your summers to go to camps that promote this stuff. Every there’s a camp for everything you know, and if you can go to a camp, if you can’t go to a camp, then seek out the exposure in your community, to the different areas that you like, show that you’ve made a dedicated interest in at least trying, you know, there will be a person who doesn’t know even after trying every year, they may still not know what they want to do. But showing the effort that you tried is key. And we can speak to that and express where your interests are in your application and your essays. But getting involved is key, doing entrepreneurial things like helping your community during COVID, one of our students, or two of them in their neighborhood, they had a food drive for the kids that went to school to get their meals. A lot of kids you know when they were home at COVID they didn’t they couldn’t even eat because they would have their meals at school at least their breakfast and lunch. And so they the neighbors were perfectly happy to dedicate their food to these kids and they took it to an agency that distributed to the kids that couldn’t eat if they weren’t at school. And then then Thanksgiving came and they did it again. They did another food Dr. So things like that, like exploring your community, what are the needs there? Because we don’t, we can’t possibly know all the occupational areas that are available unless you get out there and get involved and, and are exposed to, oh, I didn’t even know I could do that I didn’t even know that was a profession, you know, working in volunteer organizations, right.

Kamila
And you guys also mentioned one year goals and like five year goals. So can you elaborate on? I mean, I understand what the one year goal would be, and like what it would consist of, but like looking long term, how do you make a five year goal for yourself in high school?

Greg
Well, actually are in our process, we take the student through aspirational goals for their lifetime in the area of health, wealth, wisdom and relationship. And we actually help them to determine what are their life goals? When they’re 65. And you, I can see your eyebrows, you’re going Holy Cow under 65? How do I do that sounds awful. Based upon that, and we take them through a process that helps them determine those five in each category. And then based upon those, they then determine if that’s what I want to do when I’m 65. What are some things that I’m going to eliminate? What are some bad habits that I have? And universally, they say, number one, too much social media, and not enough sleep is what everybody says. But based upon those aspirational goals, then a student can say, Okay, if I want to get there at the, you know, when I’m 65, what do I have to do for me to get there when I’m five in, you know, in five years, and then if I’m going to do these in five years, what am I going to do when I’m in one year. And so that’s the way we take them through that

Beth
process, we take it backwards. So they know their bank goals, which will change over time too. But at least they’ve been given the opportunity to think about those goals in life. Some, most students can’t even think about the past the end of the week, and how much homework they have to get done, right? So it gives them an opportunity to think about that. And think there is more than just this week to life. And so in five years, what’s that look like? And now, in order to get that five year one, here I am at one year, what am I going to be doing a year from now, that’s going to improve my situation, and get me on the path to where I want to be?

Kamila
I can actually attest to that very quickly, when I started thinking like, oh my god, I have a math test. But I realized, in five years, I’m not gonna remember that math test, like, so I started to relax and look at the bigger picture and realize, like life is much more than just the math test. You’re worrying for the essay, you have to turn it so I can say to people who are listening right now, it really does work when you can like, look at the bigger picture and focus on like, like bigger life goals and like, you know, getting to Friday, so you can have like the weekend to yourself?

Beth
Yes. All right. Don’t worry about things that won’t matter next week. Right.

Kamila
Exactly, exactly. So another question I have, and this actually applies to me I know applies to a lot of people is having like a variety of interests, like genuine interest, not like I want to dabble in this a little bit. So kind of like sorting that out. And should you focus on like one interest in high school? So your I guess college app looks uniform? Or should you try to just spread yourself out and do as much as possible. And I’ll give myself as an example. I, I was interested in like journalism, and I do have like an internship related to journalism. And I mean, I have this podcast, that’s kind of how I figured out kind of like journalism. Yeah, I was like, oh, maybe journalism. And I always saw myself in business before that. And I still do, I really can’t see myself doing anything, but like more management stuff. So I like that, like, really like that. And then I found a new like, found love of chemistry last year, like it for you. Unfortunate I found only last year, because I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. But like, I’m really, really like all three of these. And I’m just really focusing on like the journalism part of it. So can you guys say like, should you focus on one? Or should you kind of like spread yourself out? If you genuinely have an interest in a bunch of stuff?

Beth
That’s a good question. I would say think about if you had eight hours in a day, to spend, which one would you prefer to spend it doing that will help you think because it’s a long day, you know, to be in a chemistry lab, or whatever you pursue with chemistry, or to be on a radio show, or television show or podcast, whatever you’re doing or preparing for that you know what it takes, but getting some experience in each one of those would be key. And it does help you say the yay or nay. You know, so again, it’s down to the experience. And you you’ll be able to eliminate it and you don’t only 24 hours in the day, you know, so it’s where you want to spend those hours where you would enjoy that for a lifetime of whatever you pursue, right. But colleges do like to see a dedicated interest in certain areas. It doesn’t have to be just one but they want to See a dedicated, not a surface interest in your endeavors and what you try and leadership they like to see leadership positioned. And that doesn’t mean being president or captain or one of those servant leadership is key and leadership just by being for like for you, the person that you are you, you’re in a leadership position, because you’re showing people what it’s like how to get to college, what it’s like how to prepare, you know, on your podcast, and how to help them do that. And that’s a beautiful leadership position, but you’re not President, right?

Greg
So you can also pursue multiple careers to multiple areas of interest. It doesn’t have to be this or that it can be this and this, you can have multiple degrees.

Kamila
And I had a question, let me think, what was it? Oh, yeah. So like, John, the topic of having multiple interests, let’s say, I don’t know, for example, me I honed in on journalism. I’m just trying it out in high school because I have my whole life ahead of me, I might as well just do it now and see if I actually like it in the future. So but with like other interests that I do have and just in general, for like, everybody, if you decide to focus on one, but you still like another? Should you include it in like your essay or something? Or should you still focus your essay more on your extracurriculars to show even more depth on like, how you like them? Like, should you put that, like other interests in any other parts of the application?

Beth
Yes, then, you know, here’s what happens when you’re applying. So you have your, if you’re doing the common app, you have your 650 word personal statement. And you you have eight different prompts that you can choose from, to write about that 650 words. And really, it’s if you could sit down with the admissions officers for 10 minutes, what would you want them to know. And so that’s what that is about. And it some colleges don’t accept the common app. Most of them do, but others have their own applications while they were. And a lot of them require you to write different essay. But once you’ve written that 650 word personal statement, a lot of times you can cut it down to fit another college that doesn’t take the the common app, like the UC University of California system, they don’t take the common app, they have their own application system. And you have to answer for essays of different topics. And there are 350 words each, so that, you know, you can explore many areas of your interest in these essays, it’s the way for them to get to know you better, but you don’t want to be redundant with things that have that are elsewhere in your application. You can elaborate on it. But you don’t want to be redundant. So we make sure in our UC essays, all four of those tell a different part of your story if possible. And, and then, in the Common App application, each university has their own set of questions or essays that are called supplemental essays. So sometimes I have students that we work on about 17 essays together, depending on which schools they’re applying to. So it takes a long time to get through these s essays to make them clear, and they all have to be in the students voice. So if we’re speaking about things you love, it really does come through on the application, and they can see it. But also the admissions officers, they know if a parent or an essay writer has written your essay for you, they know they can tell right away. So I make sure that they keep it in their own voice and how they would speak to their best friends. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate English class essay. They don’t like those at all. They just want you to speak like we’re speaking now to each other, don’t get the SARS out and look up those big words. They don’t want that they want you to be real and authentic. And you.

Kamila
And another thing that just came up to me right now is different. I guess you could say some extracurriculars look more impressive than others. Like obviously, just being a member of a club versus being like the president of that club. The President looks much more impressive on there. In in the college app process, are there certain extracurriculars like different ways of pursuing interests? Do they look better than others? Like having an internship versus just doing it at your school as a club? Is there anything that like weighs more to an admissions officer than like others?

Beth
Yeah, I would say yes, pursuing internships out outside of the school opportunities. And they also love to see that you’ve taken classes, even like our college flight plan, comprehensive self discovery class. There’s a place that shows that you are trying to learn more about yourself and where you’re going. And there’s a part of the apple Patient called additional information where you can elaborate on what you’ve learned about yourself, it’s a great opportunity. So any course that you take that’s outside of the school, you can address that in the Additional Information part and what you learned about it, what it meant to you doesn’t have to be an essay in those parts, we just touched the highlights of of what it meant and what you learned, and what you plan to do with it. So those are always great, they wait very well. And you don’t have to have a ton of activities. But it’s nice to show that you are committed to them.

Greg
And you need to realize also that the admissions officer only has between eight and 12 minutes to review if they’re going to accept you or not, or put you in the yes pile versus the no pile. So you can be in school for 14 years. And that translates down to eight to 12 minutes. So you got to make sure that what you express both verbally when you’re speaking with them, or in writing is clear, concise and compelling.

Beth
And you know what, you have to get all the help that you can, because especially in writing essays and proofreading it, I had a gal she was wonderful. She was the first generation applying to college, she was East Indian, totally capable, had done entrepreneurial things had developed websites for community. And but she didn’t want any help with her essay, apparently. So by the time they got to me, they were she was being rejected by some of the top schools that she wanted to get into, or she was put on the waitlist. So when you’re put on a waitlist, that’s not a bad thing, that just means they’ve already accepted other kids before you and they want to see what there, it means you have all the apps, the qualities that they’re looking for. But you have to also write another essay that says, What have you been doing since you first applied to our university? So you know, you have to say what you’ve been doing, how you’ve been improving yourself, what your goals, you know, something that you didn’t write in the beginning, and I said, Well, let me see what your original personal statement was that you send to these schools. And she gave it to me, and in the first paragraph, there were grammatical errors. And I’m like, That is why she got knocked out. Most readers essay readers will probably knock you out for that, if it’s if it’s that blatant in the first paragraph, because a lot of times, they don’t have time to even read the whole essay, I’m convinced if they only have eight to 12 minutes with your application, they’re gonna read through most of it, especially the first paragraph though, that’s where we have to allow them in the first paragraph catch their attention. So they want to read the rest. But that is why she got knocked out. So get help with those essays, get people proofreading, not people necessarily changing your idea about what you want to write about. But proofreading, and I help them brainstorm, I have an ebook on writing compelling essays. So brainstorming is sometimes much harder than writing the essay. So we try to get through that.

Kamila
Alright, and kind of going back to like what we first talked about, which is like core values, strengths and weaknesses. So I guess, should you use those, obviously, in your like application, and like figuring out your different like, what extracurriculars that you would like best method of like writing and like all that really, literally could be applied to everything. But when you actually get to your college list and making your like, which schools you want to apply for? Should you’re like strengths and values be reflected in the schools? Is that something you should prioritize when you’re looking at a school? Like, I don’t know, some people like a very collaborative atmosphere, and they strive off of that, or some people are more like competitive. So should you really prioritize that when choosing a college?

Greg
I think if you can identify with the school, both from an academics perspective, from a values perspective, from a financial perspective, you may want to go to a school, but you may not you know, you or your family may not be able to afford going to that school, you should probably deselect yourself from that unless you can get the scholarships and there’s a lot of scholarship money out there. But you really do want to understand if you fit in with the culture of that school. And the best way to do that is to go visit it. And you know, these schools, welcome people to come. And if you call an admissions officer and say, I want to, I want to come to your school, I want to interview that goes down on the record that you have demonstrated an interest in going to visit their school so that when you do apply, it’s going to be in your record. So it’s important that you figure out for all the reasons I just mentioned, what’s a good fit for you from a school perspective.

Beth
And in your application? Also, a lot of we always call it the why pen? Essay question, because our son went to Penn and but he had to say why. Why do you want to go to Penn? And so you have to do the research. You can’t just be a generic Oh, I like cuz it’s, you know, 10 miles from home or, you know, it’s in Philadelphia at, you know, you have to research what does the school offer? Who are these professors that are going to be teaching me? What do they? What do I like about them? What have they written that I like, and what research have they done, we have to get very, very specific on that. And if you can say, on my visit to Penn, this is what I noticed about the university and when I spoke to so and so when you go into college visit, take notes, write names, write thank you notes to the people that showed you around, or the professors you met, or the admissions officers that you met, this all goes into your record. And when you are applying, call that university and say I would love to have an interview with someone in my area. That’s alumni from your school? And could we please please arrange that and or call with a well thought out question that you may even know the answer to. But just calling with that question. They’ll put that in their notes. Oh, so and so really is has a dedicated interest in our school. And another thing is, if you get on the waitlist, our daughter in law is a great example. She got on the waitlist for UNC, and she was in journalism. She was a journalism major. And she drove the 12 hours from where we lived to UNC. So she was on the waitlist, he was on the waitlist. Yes, she sat in the admissions office and said, I’d like to see somebody she waited for hours till somebody could see her. She went in and she said, these are my strengths. And my weaknesses, this is what I do. Well, this is why you should have me at your university, how I will benefit you and how I benefit from being here. And sure enough, the next week or acceptance email came in. So you know, don’t know doesn’t mean no all the time. So

Kamila
alright, that is a lot of dedication, I admire your daughter in law. She’s maybe my new idol now never met her. So we’d love her. So one of the I guess the last major things I want to talk about is actually going into college. So, again, if you’re like me, and you have a lot of interests, and you don’t really pursue all of them, when you go into college is that like an opportunity, at least like your freshman year, just like when you’re going into high school to try out a bunch of new things. Like, because good colleges offer like a wider amount of courses, like more than high school probably ever could. So would you suggest like freshman year, if you still have a lot of genuine interest? And you can’t really decide maybe between like two of them? Would you say like spend your freshman year just shopping around like going to different classes and actually finalizing that?

Beth
Yeah, well, definitely, you know, freshman year, you have to take a lot of general classes. Yeah, most of the time anyway. So during that time, when you’re taking the classes that are required, go into each department that you’re think you’re interested in, talk to the professors talk to the advisors. And that’s a way to explore it even further, you have to be proactive, again, you’re not going to get it off from the class necessarily. Because a lot of those are general, like I said, but exploring the different areas and, you know, seeking opportunities to go along with that professor or whoever, you know, just find that information that you need, and that experience that will help solidify what you’re thinking about doing.

Greg
And just like in freshman year in high school, in college, as well, you need to focus on your grades. Because it’s really hard if you just go to school and say, Okay, I’m free, I’m only taking 15 hours, I have all these all this free time on my hands, let me just socialize and so forth. And you let your grades go down, you take another three to however long it takes you to graduate, you’re going to be working hard to catch up to get your grade point average up at the end of the year at the end of of your college, you know, time. So it’s important to focus on the grades the first year, particularly the first semester.

Kamila
Okay, and another question that’s kind of doesn’t really relate to college and whatever. I just want to get your opinions on it. Do you think that the I would say the reputation of the school and I guess more for like, if you’re interested in research, for example, some schools are much better than others. I don’t like Pitt has like one of the best like research for medicine, like biology, I think because I’ve recently interviewed someone from there. So do you think that the reputation of the school will affect you in the future? Or do you think that eventually, someone who’s still very genuinely interested in this, but they’re not as at a as good of a good school? Like, do you think they’ll eventually make it to the same level? This is like a very random question just came up. But do you think it matters in the long term?

Beth
Yeah, well, in our experience, there are people that didn’t even go to college that have done very well in life. So it’s not just about going to college or going to the college. You know, some colleges do make a difference. I know our son at the Wharton School of Business and then he moved to New York City. You know, there are a lot of connections there in the northeast and that was important to him. Our daughter was a volleyball player at Michigan State, she studied apparel and textile design. And she went into the professional sports with the AVP beach volleyball tour for a while and just pieced together her life. And now, she’s a medical device sales rep. And does very well. But it has nothing to do with really what she did in college. So there there are many areas, you know, where you if you’re driven and purposeful in your life, and you know what you want to do you know how you’re going to make a difference, you can do it no matter where you go to school.

Greg
Right, the AI will is more important than the IQ at times.

Kamila
All right. Okay, so we’re coming to pretty much an end here, I’ve covered most of the main topics I wanted to talk about. And last thing I do with every single person I interview is one piece of advice. If you could give just one like key advice that you think is the most important, what would it be? Like?

Beth
I guess, yes, I always say start early start earlier than you think. Because it takes longer to do this application process, if that’s what you’re doing, or whatever job you choose to take. Starting early, don’t wait till you’re in college to decide what you might like to do, or to explore the areas of what you might like to do start, you know, eighth grade freshman year, let’s start there and open up those areas that no one’s ever asked you about. What are you going to do when you’re 65? Oh, who would ever think you know, try to try to get those opportunities to learn? Or would you say

Greg
one piece of advice I’d give, it’s actually six parts. It’s what I call the high potential essentials that we taught our kids and and I’ll share with with you and your audiences. Number one, understand what your values are, and live by your values. Number two, do what you say you will do. Number three, arrive on time. finish what you start, say please thank you. And you’re welcome. And number six is be willing to apologize when you’re wrong if you do those six things. And if your family that all those six things all the time, just think how much better off he would be.

Kamila
That’s never heard that advice. But thank you very much for that. And I will email you guys when I do release the episode. In all likelihood. I’ll release it on Monday. And I’ll keep it as one part. So I’ll email you Greg with the email we’ve been using when that comes out. Yeah, and thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for coming and have a good year Pacific rights. So have a good rest of your afternoon, evening.

Beth
Thank you, you too. And thanks for having us. We appreciate you.

Greg
Congratulations on everything that you’ve accomplished with this podcast and the people that you’ve had on and you’re well on your way. So congratulations.

Kamila
Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. All right. Bye bye. Bye bye.