In this episode, Catherine tells us how she maneuvered through high school and landed herself as a GWU student in the class of 2022.

Part 2 is here

Transcription

Kamila
Hey, college kids, welcome back to my podcast. Who cares about college? Today we’re going to be interviewing Katherine. So Katherine, if you could introduce yourself,

Catherine
hey, I’m Katherine. I go to George Washington University in DC. I’m a double major in art history and creative writing. And I’m a rising junior.

Kamila
Cool. So let’s start with the very basics, which state did you come from?

Catherine
So I’m from Virginia, so not too far away from the school.

Kamila
Okay, so is Virginia, a competitive state when it comes to college applications?

Catherine
I’d say it is. Especially the area that I’m from when the high school that I went to it’s a pretty competitive atmosphere. Yeah, with schools like UVA and Virginia Tech, and people from all over the country wanting to attend those schools, William and Mary, there’s a bunch, I would argue that it is pretty competitive.

Kamila
Okay, so you were saying the high school you went to had something to do with it? So what kind of high school did you go to? Was it public or private? One of like the best ranked in Virginia?

Catherine
Yeah, I went to public school. I’m from Virginia Beach. So a lot of high schools in my city. And there’s these programs that most of the high schools have. So the program that I went to with my high school was the IB program. So every high school, not every high school, but most of the high schools have a program, you don’t have to be a part of the program to go to that high school. But I did. So I B. So I took AP IB courses, a pretty rigorous course look, Courseload. And so there was a lot of others really smart people. So it just created a really competitive atmosphere.

Kamila
Okay, so can you explain the kind of difference with IB and AP? Because you’re saying you took both but you were enrolled in an IB program?

Catherine
Yeah. So IB and AP. They’re honestly pretty similar. But when it comes down to the kinds of courses, IB classes are just a little bit harder. I think it’s a European curriculum. So you’re just reading different books in English classes, you have different kinds of courses offered. They don’t they’re not too far from different AP classes or anything like that. But the tests are very different. They’re essay based, as opposed to like, you know, the multiple choice of AP classes. And I would say that they’re just ever so slightly harder, but that’s just me. Okay, so,

Kamila
AP courses, I mean, there’s like 30, some AP courses, and a lot of them are not core subject based. There’s going to be like AP micro economics, or AP AP macroeconomics. So does IB offer that as well?

Catherine
Yeah, so I have a lot of classes, I really don’t know how many because my school only had so many to offer, because I think teachers do have to get some sort of certification to be able to teach IB classes. Same with AP or something like that. Um, so we only had so many offered. So there’s so many classes, we only had a certain amount so everyone was kind of tasting taking the same classes every year. kind of deal.

Kamila
I see. Okay, so yeah, AP and IB classes. Did you take your freshman, sophomore, junior and senior year?

Catherine
I don’t think I took any AP classes my freshman year, my sophomore year, I took AP gov. And then junior and senior year is really when the IB program kicks you. You take Oh my gosh. It’s like IB, psychotic IB psychology, IB, biology, IB, English, IB. It’s like every subject, you take an IB class for it. And then to supplement those classes. I would take AP classes as like my extra so I would take like AP Statistics, AP Computer Science, like just Yeah, loaded schedule.

Kamila
I see. So basically, I B really starts in your junior year. Is that what you’re saying?

Catherine
Yeah, I think so. You can be in like the IB Diploma Program as your like IB candidate. And then junior year you start the diploma candidacy. So you would start taking the exams, your junior year into your senior year. And you would take classes that are two level Two year course classes. So like IB, biology, that’s a two year course. Interesting. Yeah. I don’t know if there are any others that are two year courses, but you do have to take different histories. And yeah, it’s a really weird system.

Kamila
I see. So by the end of high school, or at least when you apply to college, how many IVs and APS? Did you have?

Catherine
I want to say, probably like, 15. I don’t know the exact number off the top of my head just because I’m probably forgetting some. Okay, but yeah, quite, quite a lot like 10 to 15.

Kamila
So do I beat you said IVs, do essay based tests, do they also do the, the kind of the AP scoring system where you can go up

Catherine
to five, the scoring system for IB exams is so different, it actually goes up to seven. And the equivalence, I believe the equivalence to a five would be a seven. And then for a three in AP, it would be like four or a five in IB. But so the way that the IB program works, you get a separate diploma. And you have to gain a number of points. So since it goes up to seven, that would be like seven points. I see. So you take you take x amount of classes, have these projects, and all of these things to gain enough points. I think it’s above 30 To get your diploma.

Kamila
So like, if you don’t complete all those points, you’re just not getting the diploma and it won’t go to college.

Catherine
You won’t get the diploma and then you can’t use it. So you could use your ib diploma, I think to apply to colleges to apply to different programs, anything like that. But if you don’t reach that threshold, then you don’t get the diploma and then you can’t use it.

Kamila
So I assume you did get that diploma.

Catherine
I did. Yeah.

Kamila
So your average IB and AP scores were relatively like four to five and like six to seven. Yeah, I

Catherine
would say for me, I mainly got fives and sixes. But I know people who, like you know, their averages would be four to five. I know people who got straight sevens across the board. It’s difficult, but it’s possible. Okay.

Kamila
So you said that you started taking the IB courses in junior year, but that’s mainly because they don’t really start offering them until then. So when did you actually start thinking you know about college? How many extracurriculars Should I have? Is this extracurricular good enough? Is my are my grades good enough? Is my GPA going to count? So when did you start thinking about that?

Catherine
I think that pressure about thinking whether or not your college application will look good, depending on what you’re doing probably starts when you’re like a freshman or sophomore in high school. I know for me, it was constantly like I to make sure I get the best grades. You know, I want to be a part of this and that clubs, but I didn’t really start focusing on college. until junior year, I’d say like, maybe towards the end of junior year.

Kamila
Okay. You went to Virginia. So I assume you took the LSAT? I did. How many essay T’s did you take? And then what did your score end up being that you sent to all your schools?

Catherine
I think I only took the test twice. And I definitely should have taken it more. Because I got a I think my super score is a 1270. Which, you know, some people would say that’s good. Some people would say that’s bad. I’m just not really good. I’m not a good test taker. But I yeah, I didn’t really study too well, either. There’s just a lot of factors. I was lazy. I’m not taking all that. But I mean, a lot of the schools that I applied to you didn’t have to include your LSAT score like GW, you didn’t have to include it anyways. But if you have the option, I honestly you probably wouldn’t have to include your LSAT score. I know people who go to my school who didn’t so

Kamila
did you like kind of rush your LSAT and realize like, Oh, crap, I have to submit college apps. So I might as well like finish it at the end of my junior year or senior year. Is that how it went for you?

Catherine
I took the LSAT, I think my first time between sophomore and junior year, and then I took it again between junior and senior year. But it’s one of those things where you really have to take time out of your day, at least for me, it just felt like a lot that you would have to do. So I would always push it to the side like, No, I’m not going to take it this weekend or like no, I don’t really want to do it. Because I didn’t want to take an extra test. It’s so privileged of me to be able to say that I just didn’t want to do it, but I just didn’t want to take it so I would do my best to not have to.

Kamila
Okay, so But did you know that before you know while you were taking the LSAT and when you were thinking about it, did you know that a lot of the schools you wanted to apply to were test optional.

Catherine
I didn’t actually which was really nice. So what I ended up finding out that they were, I know, some of the schools that I applied to, I would look up the LSAT range, and then decide whether or not to include my score on there. And I think a lot of schools are also pushing to make LSAT scores test optional. Yeah. With the upcoming years, especially with COVID, like my sister’s applying to colleges next year, and her class didn’t even get the opportunity to take any

Kamila
special circumstances.

Catherine
Exactly. So I don’t know, I just don’t really think standardized tests are that important. So I didn’t put much emphasis on that in high school. And I think it paid off. I don’t know if I should say that for everyone. But at least for me, with a lot of my schools being test optional, that’s definitely something that you should look up, if you want to know. And then also look up the range in which your school like the the median, and average of test scores, because that will also let you know whether or not you should include it.

Kamila
You were saying about how like, you know, your school range and stuff. So were you near the top of your class in terms of ranking? Well, actually, let’s start with your GPA. So what was your unweighted versus weighted GPA?

Catherine
I think my unweighted was like a 3.8 versus my weighted, which was like a 439. Or not. Okay,

Kamila
so were you and you’re the top of your class 10% 20%.

Catherine
I was the 13%, which is like so close to 10. I think my number was like 52 or 53, or something like that. So I think my, my grade itself had about 500, maybe less, but about 500 kids, and then the program itself had about 100 kids.

Kamila
Okay, so let’s move on to some extracurriculars. So what kind of extracurriculars did you do? Both inside high school and outside of high school?

Catherine
Um, outside of high school, I played soccer up until my sophomore year, because I just I didn’t see myself doing it in college. So I didn’t really see the point in playing if I wasn’t really enjoying it. So yeah, I did soccer for a little bit. Um, I would do I did Girl Scouts. Also, I got my Gold Award.

Kamila
Like a significant thing in girls skin. Yeah.

Catherine
It’s like the I want to call it the equivalent to like the Eagle Scout award, but I don’t think we have to do as much as they would. A boy scout Eagle award, but it’s like the Girl Scout equivalent of the eagle award.

Kamila
Good. You must have been very proud. Yeah.

Catherine
So I got that the Girl Scouts i. So that was outside of school in school, I would do. I did varsity soccer for freshmen and sophomore year, then I didn’t do it anymore. I was I did your book and then was yearbook editor. My senior year I did National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society. I, I did a few clubs here and there. But I honestly wasn’t a big enough participant to be able to call myself part of that. So I yeah, I didn’t really do anything else besides those. Okay, so

Kamila
I have one little question about honor societies and specifically National Honor Society, National Honor Society. What exactly do you do in that club?

Catherine
Yeah, so I know you have to apply to get into it. I applied got in. And all we did was just community service. There were I don’t know if this is a universal way of how the club is set up. But the way it was done in my high school was that there were different sections that you can be a part of. So one was volunteering with this organization, one was volunteering with this organization, one was helping to run this, and you would just pick one, and then you would do that for the year. And then sometimes it was an event that would be done at the end of the year. Sometimes it was like a periodic thing that you’d have to participate in. But it was essentially just like a volunteer based club.

Kamila
Interesting. So when you put it when you put National Honor Society on your application, do you specifically put like, oh, I worked for this charity, or I helped this shelter? Or do you just put National Honor Society?

Catherine
I just put National Honor Society.

Kamila
Okay. And what kind of charity and like events did you do?

Catherine
So from what I did is I actually worked within my school and I would babysit the teachers children on days when we wouldn’t have school, but the teacher still had to come in, or I would help with anything revolving like teachers, making sure their kids are good. Just that kind of thing.

Kamila
Damn, I didn’t know you could babysit teachers. Kids.

Catherine
Yeah, we had a lot program set up because I know a lot of times kids don’t have school but the teachers still have to go in for work and be like a teacher work day. So we would, we would watch their kids on those days.

Kamila
I see. So in how much of your time was was like in a week how much of your time was dedicated to National Honor Society? Is it like a big responsibility?

Catherine
For my school, it wasn’t that big of a responsibility, especially the section that I did. Just because you know, those teacher workdays only occur every once in a while. So I bet for other groups, that could be a little bit more, but for me, it was maybe like a monthly thing.

Kamila
Okay, so it didn’t take like too much. You didn’t have to, like, go somewhere every weekend and like, participate for hours. Right? So Oh, and one more thing, my friend told me that National Honor Society, you know, I don’t know if this is true or not, National Honor Society is, is not something that you need on your application. But he says that like a lot of colleges expect you like especially the more elite you get, they kind of expect you to be a national honor society. So do you think that’s true? Do you think it like helped you at all on your application?

Catherine
Um, I don’t know if you would necessarily need it on your application, especially if you’re doing so many other things, you know, you can be a well rounded student, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be a part of every single little club. But I think if you have the opportunity to apply to National Honor Society, go ahead and do it just because it is a universally renowned organization. It’s like community service based, which also looks good on an application. And I’m not saying just like, do it to make look good an application. But if you have the opportunity, you should because you have to have a certain GPA average to get in. Um, you know, there’s like qualifications. So if you meet those qualifications, it doesn’t hurt.

Kamila
I see. Okay. And then you also said that you do national Spanish honor society. So did you get like a bilingual certificate?

Catherine
Actually, I did. I since I took IB, Spanish, Virginia Beach City Public Schools ended up giving me a bi literacy seal, much like certificate kind of thing. So I have that under my belt.

Kamila
So how’s your Spanish nowadays?

Catherine
Um, it’s all right. I don’t have the opportunity to use it too often. And do a lingo just it’s not my, my favorite. So I don’t use it that often. Yeah.

Kamila
So let’s move on to your recommendation letters. So who did you get them from? And I’m pretty sure you got your recommendation letter from your guidance counselor, as well. So what kind of teachers did you pick? And how did you know who to ask for?

Catherine
Um, I had my lovely English teacher and my lovely psychology teacher do it. I really liked them. And we were I would say, we were, you know, like, friends, teacher and kind of things. Um, they were super sweet. And, you know, I honestly think teachers expect, especially at that time, that they’re just going to get like a flood of letters that kids are going to want them to, to do. I know a lot of times, some of the teachers in my school, they would like cap it and be like, I’m only going to do like 10 rec letters or something like that. But I was really lucky. I also started my process a little bit early, so I got the opportunity to ask them just ever so slightly early. And yeah, I didn’t read up the rec letters or anything. I don’t know if some people do. But I yeah, I was really fond of those teachers. And I’m just really glad that I had the opportunity to have them. Write me rec letters. Okay.

Kamila
And then what about your guidance counselor? Did you get one from her too? Or him or her?

Katherine
Yeah, I think I’m pretty sure the guidance counselor’s have to write one. And I kind of knew my guidance counselor, not well, but I knew him well enough for him to recognize that I was a good student. I’m pretty organized. So I believe he wrote me a good one as well.

Kamila
Okay, good. So if you’re comfortable with sharing, could you tell us about? Well, let’s start with your essay process. So when did you start writing your essays?

Katherine
I would, how can I’m kind of like an organizational, like I put a lot of emphasis on organization. So as soon as I figured out what colleges I wanted to apply to. And as soon as I had my common app set up when I was able, when eligible, I would, I made a Google Drive folder. And I would copy and paste the prompts into separate docs, and then write them and I think I would start that day that I did it or whatever. And then I would keep coming back to them revising them, I spent, not too much time on them, but I spent like a good amount of time working on those essays just because I wanted them to be my best.

Kamila
Okay, so if you don’t mind sharing, at least like your common app essay, what was it generally about?

Catherine
I? Honestly, I don’t really remember exactly what I chose just because I think I ended up writing so many essays because each college requires or not, I guess they don’t require but a lot of colleges do. require a lot of essays. So I think I ended up writing like three for one college. And that in itself was just a lot I, I don’t know if my common app essay was even, like asked for by all the colleges, because a lot of them will separately ask for

Kamila
those. So not all of them were common up somewhere, like different types of Asians.

Catherine
I think every school I applied to was common app, but they would all ask a different essay question. So they’d have like the common app essay, but then they’d be like, here are some supplement essays that you have to do as well. So I think I ended up writing. I don’t know how many a bunch of essays just because they’d be like, Common App essay, settlement settlement.

Kamila
So what colleges did you apply to like, like, give me all of it? And then we’ll talk about which ones you got accepted, wait listed and then rejected from?

Catherine
Yeah, I did that same system of like, you know, a reach school, like middle school that you could get into hopefully, and then safeties?

Kamila
Oh, three, three system. Yeah,

Catherine
except I didn’t do three. I just did, like I did to one, two. I only applied to five colleges. I applied to Vanderbilt on the whim I did not think I was going to get in. I applied to NYU GW, George Mason, and VCU. Virginia Commonwealth.

Kamila
Okay. So did you have a chance to tour any of these colleges?

Catherine
I had the opportunity to tour NYU when I had visited New York, I think, a while ago, and then I toured almost every Virginia School. Just because me and my friend, we just did a road trip with our parents and just tried to hit every single school. I did not get to tech, though. It was too far.

Kamila
Okay, did you go to GW because that is the school that you attend now. So do you did you get to toward GW?

Catherine
I did. Okay. Yeah, I did that one by myself. Okay,

Kamila
so did that college stand out to you the most,

Catherine
I would say the two colleges that stood out to me the most for NYU and GW just because I knew I wanted to live in a city. And those are the two that I applied to that were like, actually integrated into the city. Where the buildings, you know, they’re, they’re not like skyscrapers like NYU, but the buildings are just integrated into that city life. You know, you have metro lines you have, you know, people singing on subway corners for money, just like all that. Yeah.

Kamila
When I when I visited GW it was I was surprised to how close it was to the actual like, DC district.

Catherine
Yeah, you’re right. I see the White House right next to all the monuments. Super close to Georgetown. It’s a really good location.

Kamila
Yeah, it’s good for like politics and like international studies and stuff. Definitely. Okay. So did you apply early action early decision to any schools? Or did you apply all regular decision?

Catherine
I applied all regular. Okay,

Kamila
and what did you you know, what did you get accepted into waitlisted and rejected from?

Catherine
Yeah, so I did not get into Vanderbilt. That’s kind of a given. I couldn’t have gotten into that Anyways, um, and while you I was rejected, and then GW I got in, I got into Mason, and I got into VCU. Okay, so

Kamila
when you were accepted into those schools, did you immediately know that you were going to go to GW GW is actually my

Catherine
last acceptance letter. So, um, I don’t know why it took so long. But I knew from VCU and basin that I had gotten in, like, I think, a week or even two weeks earlier than GW. So I was just like, okay, cool. I was rejected from two schools. I got into those two. So like, looks like so far. I’m gonna have to choose between, like those two state schools, and then I got into GW and I was just like, Wow, thank you.

Kamila
So did you have the financial means to attend GW without like, massive debt? Or did GW offer like at least generous financial aid that you were able to attend the school?

Catherine
Yeah, I’m really lucky. I got a scholarship and then some financial aid to on top of that, which made it like I think my freshman year I made it the same amount to attend if as if I was going to go to a state school, so how could I not? And then my sophomore year, I also got a good amount of aid and a good amount of money from that scholarship to where I was able to, like continue attending, so

Kamila
Okay, so let’s do one more thing before we move on to you know, the actual GW you’ve experienced. Which thing in college whether that’s an AP and IB and extracurricular you did, or like any rigorous courses that you took, what do you think prepared you the most for college?

Katherine
Honestly, I think all of my IB classes prepared me for college, because it was just constantly working like every class you would have. Homework, every class, you would have to learn how to buy balance that time of work social life. And also like being at school, obviously. And just learning how to handle such a large course load really helped prepare me at least for attending GW. I know some people disagree with that opinion of mine. But college ended up being a lot easier for me than it was for high school, which honestly, I’m grateful for it because now, I’m not breezing through college, but it’s definitely a really pleasing experience, because I’m not constantly doing a lot of work because I learned how to manage it already.

Kamila
I see. That’s good. Yeah, when I was talking to April, which was like, you know, uh, you know, April, my first interview, so she was saying how, when her high school changed the class size, like the class time from like, 15 minutes to an hour and 15. She said, that really helped her cuz she adjusted to the longer college like lectures and discussion session. So did you find it hard to adjust to the longer times? Did you like find it hard to pay attention for a longer period of time? Or were you fine with that?

Catherine
No, honestly, I, I, being in a public school, you know, that’s like an eight hour day. So it’s like, that’s that classes, college, I don’t really have back to back classes, my schedule, I’ve been really lucky. I’ve always had a break. So it’d be like an hour and 15 minute class, break another hour, 15 minute class. And I think that is just so much better. For my attention span, I can eat between classes. I just prefer the college experience of classes, so much more than high school.

Kamila
And you said you’re an organized person. So did you find it really like relieving? Or were you really happy when you discovered that you can make your own schedule and like plan between classes choose when you get to do this, rather than high school telling you Oh, you have this class period, one period to period three,

Catherine
I’m not gonna lie. At first, I was really overwhelmed by the process, because you know, you’re just thrown into the process, and you have just a million classes to choose from. And that’s a lot. But once you learn how to get it, then you can really create your own schedule and make it work. So I have not had class on a Friday at all, that’s a relief. Yeah, it’s just when you can really figure out how to take the classes required to graduate in a perfect schedule that fits. It’s such a relief.

Kamila
Okay, and what I actually lied this not my, that was not my last question about high school. So you were saying how being an IB program in AP program you were able to, it helped you kind of balance out your life. And you mentioned how you balanced out your social life as well. So how were you able to, you know, have a, I’m assuming pretty decent social life, maintain really good grades, do your extracurriculars while also making time for other things? So how did you manage to keep up your grades, but also, you know, have time for yourself and your friends?

Katherine
What I would do I this is just a me thing. I don’t know if this is universally what people would do. But I would go to school, try to just you know, have some social life at school. And then I would stay after school a little bit, whether it was an extracurricular or just like hanging out with friends. And then after that, I would go home, and then I would just like do homework for the rest of the night, just to make sure I had that done. Or I would do homework at school. If I had, like a study block or a free block to do something. And then on the weekends, I would do my best to take advantage of that free time.

Kamila
I see. Okay, so you were pretty balanced in high school. It wasn’t like terribly academically pressured that you didn’t do anything else for the four years.

Catherine
Right. I wouldn’t say it was too bad. There definitely were moments where I was so school oriented, that it would take up a lot of my life. But by the end of this my senior year when I had just totally figured out how to balance everything. It was fine. That

Kamila
concludes part one of my interview with Katherine, make sure to subscribe so you’ll be notified when Part Two comes out. But other than that, I’ll see you guys then.