Allie takes us through the planning and thought behind every component of her college application during high school in order to land a spot in one of the most prestigious in America.
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 Allie. So Alec, could you please please introduce yourself?
Allie
Sure. So hey, guys, my name is Allie. I am originally from Acton, Massachusetts. But right now I’m a junior at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. I’m studying computer science and applied math and statistics.
Kamila
Interesting. So we’ll get into all that a little bit later. So let’s start from the very beginning. Who started the college process for you? Was it you that basically handled the whole thing? Or was it your parents pushing you, friends or teachers?
Allie
I think probably a little bit of both. It was interesting. So in my family, both my parents went to college, and there was never really a question growing up of Do you want to go to college? It was always Where do you want to go to college? Um, I actually didn’t even have anyone asked me, Why do you want to go to college until I talked to one of the teachers that was writing one of my recommendation letters, but I can talk about that a little later. But definitely, I had always sort of had that external pressure from my parents always growing up. But definitely, by the time I got to high school, I was very much set on the idea of going to college pursuing my education after high school. So yeah, definitely, definitely a little bit of both from myself and from my parents.
Kamila
And when did your parents start? Do at least discussing college with you? Was it maybe end of middle school, beginning of middle school, maybe even elementary school? So when did they start approaching the topic? Like, oh, think about your extracurriculars, think about this. And this and this.
Allie
Um, this is kind of crazy. But I think the first time I ever really thought about college concretely was in sixth grade, there was a math test that you had to take that would determine whether you got into regular math or accelerated math in seventh grade. And the math curriculum in my school system has this very weird track where if you don’t get into accelerated math, in seventh grade, it’s really, really hard for you to get on track to get into AP math, AP Calculus senior year. And so I remember taking this math test in sixth grade having this conversation with my parents of them being like, you know, you want to get into the highest level math classes in high school. So doing well on this test is really important. And I think that it wasn’t as if that really just started the trend of talking about college. I think that was kind of a little blip in the college, talking about conversation. And then, you know, not much for a couple years, I think the college process really started for me, towards the beginning of my freshman year of high school and really ramped up around my junior year.
Kamila
Yeah. And when you were going into high school, so we actually, let me ask this first. So did your parents expect a certain level of prestige in the college you went to? Because you do go to one of the top colleges in the United States?
Allie
That’s an interesting question. They never definitely never explicitly said anything about that. And I don’t really think there was an expectation, I know that they wanted me to go to a school where I felt that I would fit in and where I would succeed. So no, I don’t think they’re I don’t think there was that expectation, and neither of them went to Hopkins. So it wasn’t like there was sort of a family pressure to continue on this Hopkins legacy or anything.
Kamila
And so going into freshman year, the beginning of your freshman year, did you approach High School as you know, I’ll try out a few clubs. And I will see if I like them. And then if I liked them, I’ll continue with them. Or did you apply approach very analytically, like these are the classes I’m going to be taking in these years? I plan to join this many clubs. Do this maybe volunteer for this many hours? So was it planned out for you, at least by yourself? Or did you kind of just go in and then explore your options a bit more?
Allie
I think it was pretty planned out. And obviously, some things changed. There were certain classes that I had always kind of thought that I would probably end up taking that I ended up changing my mind once I actually got on the path towards that class. But for the most part, it was pretty planned out in terms of extracurriculars, I had been doing theater and performing arts all throughout elementary school and junior high. And so I knew that that was definitely something I would want to get involved in, in high school. In terms of classes, it wasn’t like I had some giant spreadsheet where I planned out all the classes that I want to take every year, but I think I knew, generally, kind of the path that I wanted to head down in terms of when I want to take APS when I want to take different honors classes. Um, you mentioned community service, as well. And that was definitely something that was always pretty much at the front of my mind throughout high school, because that’s something that’s pretty important on a college application. And so, every year, every summer, throughout high school, I definitely made a pretty concrete effort to get as many of those community service hours as I could to kind of meet the different thresholds to get different levels of community service with my high school.
Kamila
Okay, so with high school, it’s many components. Let’s start with the grades and the classes you took and all the like statistics stuff. So coming into high school, which what level were you because you did say you took those tests in sixth grade? And for seventh grade and later on? So can you tell us which classes at least the level you were on throughout high school? And in the end, how many AP or IB or honors did you take overall?
Allie
Definitely. So our high school was a little bit different in that you weren’t actually allowed to take AP classes until your junior year. So freshmen and sophomore year we had honors classes and then junior and senior year those kind of switched to be AP classes. I think I was kind of on a general trend of taking like three or four honors classes every year and then one or two kind of like regular or accelerated classes. And then like I said, when I got into my junior and senior year those became AP classes and so I came out of high school having taken 12345 I guess five APS I took AP US History, AP Spanish AP Statistics, AP Psychology and AP Calculus BC
Allie
BC you didn’t take a AB?
Allie
No, I took BC. Um, so our high school you it’s interesting. Our I know most high schools have it’s typical for everyone to take calculus, but at our high school, I think only about half the student body ends up taking calculus and you can either take AB or BC and so I ended up taking BC my senior year.
Kamila
Oh, that’s interesting. Because in my high school, it’s calculus A B, and then you go to BC, I think that’s how it is. Right? Most people do. Okay, so in the did you take the AP test for those AP classes? Yes,
Allie
I did for all five. And can you tell us the scores you got? Sure. So actually, okay. This is probably important to note, I took all five of these APS but the college I go to Hopkins only accepts certain APs. And so they didn’t accept US history, Spanish or psychology. So actually, the only two aps that ended up counting towards any college credit for me were AP Physics, and BC Calc, which was kind of unfortunate. But so anyway, just kind of a little side note there. But I ended up getting fives on all the APS except for AP psych, I got a four
Kamila
St. Okay, so you got a four on those. And one thing I because with prestigious schools, a lot of people, you know, they release videos on YouTube. And there are a lot of like, advisors and coaches that kind of, of course, there’s no formula for getting into college, but they say this is what they expect that you can kind of plan it out to say like, you will be a very competitive applicant at these schools. So with I don’t know if you had Johns Hopkins in mind or any other like top tier schools, but did you expect to like go to a top tier school and then have these APS transfer as credits? Or did you just because a lot of them don’t accept many credits? Or did you just take them to kind of fluff up your application?
Allie
I think it was a little bit of both. I think when I actually took them in high school, I didn’t really have college credit in mind at all. I sort of thought, okay, when I get to college, I’ll figure out credits when I’m there. But right now, I just wanted to take as many as advanced level classes as is feasible. For me and for my mental health, and so I think I was probably thinking more about how it would end up looking on an application. And also what I was what I was interested in. Like, I was excited to take AP Spanish AP Psychology. And even when I found out that I was going to Hopkins, and they wouldn’t accept those credits, I wasn’t, I didn’t have any regrets that I’d taken those classes, and that they wouldn’t end up counting because I learned a lot. They’re really cool classes.
Kamila
So by the end of high school, what was your cumulative cumulative GPA? Both the weighted and unweighted? And can you tell us the scales that your school goes by, because scales do differ depending on the school?
Allie
Sure. So unweighted GPA, I, honestly and I was digging through my my transcripts, and my past resumes, and I could not find it anywhere. I’ve no idea what my unweighted GPA was. Because our high school put a lot more emphasis on the weighted GPA, it was on a five point scale, how it worked is if you were in a regular level class, you could earn up to four, if you were in an accelerated class, you could earn up to a 4.5. And if you were in an honors or AP class, you could earn up to a five. And so that was the weighted scale and I ended up I finished high school with a 4.56 out of five on the weighted scale.
Kamila
And I don’t know if your class does this, maybe you did. Because I know a lot of schools are kind of getting rid of classrooms so as my school because they think it’s like unnecessary pressure for students. But if you did have it, where did it place you within your grade.
Allie
So we actually did not have class rank. I think that was one of the steps that our high school took to try to reduce some stress on the student body because we did have a very high stress environment in my high school. And I think that was one of the places where they definitely made a really good choice and getting rid of class rank, because I just know, for me, personally, if I had known why ranked in comparison to the other students I was working with, I don’t know, I think that might have created kind of a strange dynamic with with my classmates. So we didn’t have class rank, but I’m, I’m happy that we did it.
Kamila
And in terms of your GPA for, I guess, you could say Johns Hopkins, because I that’s probably one of if not the most prestigious school you apply to, did that put you above average? Right at the average or below average for GPA? Like your statistics in general?
Allie
Right. I think for my statistics, I was pretty much at or above the average. I don’t know exactly. But I was definitely that was in the in the range that I was aiming for when I was applying to schools like Hopkins.
Kamila
Okay, and now let’s move on to another kind of statistic report, which is si t your AC t. So which one did you take? I took the AC T. AC to interesting. So tell us the preparations that you had for the AC T and how did you approach the AC T? Did you see it as something really important? Or was it something you studied for the month before and took it.
Allie
So I prepared a lot for the ACC and I was really lucky, my parents were able to get me a like an AC T prep tutor who was really helpful. So I worked with her for the couple of months before I took the test. I think the most important thing that she helped me figure out was whether I should take the AC T or the LSAT, because I know that’s a decision that, you know, if you don’t want to take both a lot of high school students have to make that decision of which one is better for them to take. And I ended up deciding on the A CT just because for me personally, for my test taking style. Whenever I did practice ACP tests, they just seemed to go better for me. In terms of prep, like I said, I worked with the tutor. And then I really just did a ton of practice tests on my own. I had all the test prep books and so kind of just grinding out those practice tests for all all the months before the exam. And I did put a lot of pressure on myself to do well on the AC T. Just because I knew that I don’t know it was something that would definitely help my my application and I knew that if I could do well it could really kind of put me above the the bar a lot of the schools I was applying to.
Kamila
And that’s interesting because I’m I’m on track I’ve decided to take the LSAT that’s what my school offers and I’ve just decided to stick with stick with it. So and I’ve heard many people say that the AC T in general is harder than the LSAT. So what about the AC t u was just easier for you.
Allie
So that’s interesting. I found the AC t actually to be easier for me and you know, I took it gosh, I guess three years ago now so it’s definitely possible Things have changed a little bit. But for the AC T, I found the questions to be really straightforward and not tricky, not kind of trying to confuse you. You do have to go fast. That’s kind of the downside of AC T is even though the questions are straightforward, you have to go through them pretty quickly. The LSAT, I found you could take your time more on these questions, but I thought the questions themselves were just a little bit more confusing, maybe not as direct as the LSAT and so you kind of have to spend a little more time on each LSAT question individually. And so for me personally, I think the the AC T ended up being the better choice but definitely absolutely varies by who you are as a student who you are as a test taker.
Kamila
Interesting. And what is your I don’t know if ACD AC T or super score, but what is your final score end up being for the AC T?
Allie
Um, so I ended up with a 36 on ACC, which was kind of shocking. But yeah, I got a 36.
Kamila
That’s amazing. And I mean, guarantee we’re like above average for everything is a perfect score, but a throwaway phrase this so how much do you think the AC T the prep tutor that your parents got you? How much do you think that helped? In general? Do you think your score would have like, really been way lower if you hadn’t had that tutor and the prep books?
Allie
Interesting? Definitely. Yeah, definitely the tutor helped a lot. I think what helped the most was just doing as many practice tests as I could. And one place where the tutor helped me out a lot was like getting me access to a ton of different practice tests that I couldn’t always find in the books. I actually think kind of ironically, where my tutor helped me the most was on the essay portion, the writing portion of the ACC, which I think the year I applied to college was one of the last years that the writing portion was even really relevant. I think these days, most colleges don’t even ask for that. So she definitely helped me out a lot with the the essay portion, but I don’t know how much that actually contributed to my application in the end.
Kamila
Interesting. And okay, so we’ve done all the kind of statistics stuff, the standardized testing your high school transcripts. So let’s move on to the extracurriculars that you did in high school. So again, I want to go back to how you approached having these extracurriculars in high school because for these top schools, you need to be like extracurriculars really do matter, because most people will have a perfect GPA or like a really high standardized test score when they apply to these schools. So what distinguishes you is the stuff you do outside of school. So how did you approach picking your extracurriculars? And did you have in mind like, I’m going to start at this club or something or this organization, and I’m going to like climb to the top.
Allie
So I think, for me, I kind of entered high school with already I knew what I was passionate about in terms of extracurriculars. And that was really all very much in the performing arts arena. So I was super involved in the theatre community. In my high school, I did a ton of dance classes outside of high school. And then I was also involved in the choir and in acapella groups outside of high school. So just going into freshman year in terms of what extracurriculars I wanted to get involved in. It wasn’t that hard for me to make that decision. But then, as I went throughout high school, and college started to become a little bit more important. In my mind, I realized that it was important for me to take up leadership roles within these extracurriculars. And so I found ways to get to different officer leadership positions within these extracurriculars. So that was kind of cool, because then I was still very much involved in something that I loved and was excited about. But I also had a leadership position, which is great for life skills, but also great for college applications. So those are the extracurriculars I mentioned. And then outside of that, I was pretty involved in my church youth group. And that was where I ended up getting a lot of my community service hours. And I was also vice president of the National Honor Society in my high school.
Kamila
So let’s go back to the performing arts you did because that does seem like your passion you invested a lot of time into. So with theater, what role did you play in theater? And I guess what did you kind of learn from that? Did you learn any practical life skills or was it like just just I guess it was an extracurricular but it’s also hobby, something you enjoy as well. So can you tell us a little bit about the theater experience for you?
Allie
Absolutely. So the theatre community was really big at at my high school, we had a pretty robust program, we were really lucky that a lot of the school funding went into theater. And so we’re able to put on three different shows a year, with, you know, big casts big crew, big people working backstage. So that was a really fun program to be a part of. And it was a really big program. So you got to meet a lot of different people in the high school, lots of people from all different backgrounds in the high school, which was really interesting. I learned so much from theater, it was an it’s interesting, because it’s not something that I’m very involved in now at college, but I’m really grateful for everything sort of taught me in high school, it was where I met a lot of my best friends. It taught me so much about teamwork and leadership. I’m trying to say all this without sounding kind of corny, because it’s like, that’s what a lot of people, you know, those are the traits they mentioned when talking about their extracurriculars. But I think it’s a very unique experience. Pretty maybe pretty similar to being on a sports team, but just the, the whole phenomenon of working with this group of people. And you’re working towards this whole final goal of putting on a show together, it really builds a sense of community and a sense of trust in one another, I think you really see people at their absolute best and their absolute worst, but because of that you learn to work really well with a lot of different people. I think you learn patience, you learn the value of, of hard work and persistence, even when when things get difficult. So yeah, it was pretty, pretty influential in my high school years. And like I said, even though I’m not really involved in theatre in my college at all, it’s definitely something I’m very grateful for, and definitely shaped me very much into the person that I am today.
Kamila
That’s amazing. And another action. The another thing in the performing arts that you had was choir, so Was that something you knew you were going to join as well?
Allie
Um, yes, because I was also involved in choir in junior high school. Our choir program, very similarly to our theater program was pretty big. A lot of students were involved in it. And it was a pretty typical track where if you were involved in the theater program, you were also involved in the choir program, there was a ton of overlap between the kids that were involved in them. But the choir program was a lot less of a time commitment than theater program. It was actually a class that you would take in school, it wasn’t something that you were would do after school in the afternoons. So it was more just almost like a fun class. I could you with my friends, but I also ended up taking up some leadership positions. Within Choir I was I started off as assistant treasurer, my junior year, and then I became treasurer of the choir my senior year.
Kamila
I’m not familiar with choir treasurer. So can you explain a little bit about what you did as a treasurer?
Allie
Sure. So it wasn’t honestly too difficult of a role. Mostly I was just involved in helping organize fundraisers, we did a couple different fundraisers throughout the year to help get money for for concerts for uniforms, for the different choirs. And so I would just help organize those help to collect the money and different shifts for working the fundraiser. So it wasn’t too hard, but it was a good leadership position. That taught me a little bit about responsibility. And it was fun.
Kamila
Okay, and let’s move on to the other extracurriculars you had. So you said that another big thing was volunteering, and that was in the forefront of your mind going into high school. So Exactly. Why did you kind of see community service as like a really important thing for me, I’ve just, like, gotten my hours done. And I don’t have to think about them anymore. So why was it so important to you? Was it specific to the schools that you were thinking of applying to?
Allie
I think I knew going into college or sorry, I should say, going into high school thinking about college. Kind of the three main categories of things to thinking about are academics, extracurriculars, and community service. And so I knew going into freshman year, okay, I should try to get as many community service hours as possible. And I ended up finding that through my church youth group, we did mission trips during the summer, we did other community service events throughout the year, but in sort of joining that, in order to get these community service hours, I ended up finding a really great community of friends within my youth group, which was a lot of fun. So I think by the time I was a senior going into college, I didn’t need those extra curricular hours and or I should say community service hours anymore, but the the value of them was was very Great in terms of the time I got to spend with my friends, and also the people that you get to meet, doing community service is it’s really an invaluable experience, especially when you’re growing up in kind of a bubble of a suburban town that I feel like I did. So, definitely, yes, it’s important in college applications, but also super important in terms of just life lessons and growing your your worldview a little bit.
Kamila
And one last part that one last thing that you mentioned, was vice president of the National Honor Society. Yeah. So can you. I mean, first, tell us what you do in honor society, National Honor Society, because I’m debating whether I, you know, go into a national honor society, because I don’t know if a college wants that or not. And tell us how you climbed up to a vice president, because I think National Honor Society is huge. There are a lot of people involved in it.
Allie
So our National Honor Society, it was kind of an interesting system, there are a couple of bars that you had to meet in terms of GPA, in terms of leadership positions, and in terms of community service hours. And there might be one other thing that I’m missing, but there were a couple of different bars that you had to meet in those categories in order to join the National Honor Society. You join your junior year, and we definitely did some fundraisers, we held a big breakfast for Veterans Day, that was like our big fundraiser, we would hold some events for the teachers we would help out with with the graduation. And anytime there was sort of a big student body event, the National Honor Society would kind of always go in and help out in terms of organizing in terms of setting up the vice president role. It wasn’t really something I had to climb my way up to. We had when you joined the National Honor Society right away, there are elections for president and vice president and I knew that once again, I it was important to have leadership roles. And so I wanted to take a leadership role within national honor society. And so I texted I remember the night before elections, just every single person I knew in national honor society just did my own little mini form of campaigning, reaching out to people telling them what I want to do as vice president, the sort of the values I held. And, you know, it definitely wasn’t as big of a position as say, like student body president. That’s a much bigger role. But it was another leadership role that I could add to my resume, and it was a good experience in terms of organization and leadership skills.
Kamila
Okay, so I have a question about the extracurriculars you did with I mean, each extracurricular has its own like importance and stuff. But other extracurriculars look better, I guess, you could say on a college application than others. So of the extracurriculars that you participated in throughout high school and put on your college application, which one do you think was the most outstanding one? Or which one did you think was really going to like, kind of push you and distinguish you from other students?
Allie
I think, looking back on it, I think something that’s really important to a lot of colleges, obviously, they want well rounded students, but I think they also want to see a certain level of commitment in extracurriculars. So as as important as it is to be well rounded. If I had just jumped around to different extracurriculars and different clubs every year. You know, it’s hard to get that involved in extracurricular when you’re kind of just joining it for a semester, and then hopping off and doing something else. So all that being said, I think what ended up being the most important extracurricular for me was probably theater, just because it was very clear for my application that I was very heavily involved in, I ended up taking some leadership roles in there my sophomore year, and then again, my my senior year, so yeah, I think just because of the level of commitment that I had to theater, I think that probably was a good indication to colleges that I like to get very involved in whatever communities and organizations I’m involved in, which I think is important to have an application.
Kamila
See, and let’s talk about the colleges that you decided to apply for and then we can talk about your actual most likely common application that you filled out and sent to those schools. So number one, how did you create a college list or the colleges that you wanted to apply to?
Allie
So we started the college process pretty early. I think I went on my first big round of tours at the beginning of my junior year of high school and then more throughout the end of junior year and into the summer going into my senior year. Um, for me, it was almost more of a process of elimination, which sounds a little weird, but I kind of had this list in my head of colleges that I thought were interesting. And then as I toured schools, I was mentally crossing off, you know, Nope, don’t like that one. Don’t like that one as much as I thought I did, maybe like that one, but I’m not crazy about it as much as I am about this other school. So touring colleges ended up being really huge in terms of my decision of making the college list. And then it also the colleges I actually ended up applying to, I only ended up applying to three schools because I applied to Hopkins early decision. And so I found out that I gotten into Hopkins before the January 1 deadline for my other applications. And so I had an application that I had sent in, and then I had some applications that were ready to go in case I didn’t get into Hopkins, but those I actually didn’t end up applying in the end, but I very much had them on my list those other schools.
Kamila
Interesting, and what are the other two schools you apply to besides Hopkins?
Allie
So other than Hopkins, I applied to Fordham and University of Chicago
Kamila
to Chicago. Okay, so you apply to three schools and I, I kind of freaked out because I was like three schools, but then it was early on. I was like, Okay, that makes sense, right? Yes, yes. And what about those three schools made you apply early? And specifically, I’m looking at Johns Hopkins, because that is the one you pick. So what about Johns Hopkins really appealed to you? And what did you like about it so much that you decided I’m going to apply early.
Allie
So I actually really didn’t think I was going to end up applying early anywhere. Obviously, it’s a really big decision. And I feel very lucky that I was able to make that decision to apply to Hopkins early. But going into the college process, I really thought I just wanted to have as many options open as I possibly could. But when I ended up going on tours, Hopkins was just far and away the school that stood out to me the most. I toured it April, my junior year, and after that, I really couldn’t stop talking about it all throughout the summer. I knew that I wanted to play early, but my parents made me go back. And whoa, okay, I shouldn’t do they made me but they really encouraged me to go back and do this fall overnight program at Hopkins in the fall, which is just, I spent one night on campus with other prospective students, just so I could really finalize in my mind that this is definitely a place they want to go. So that was sort of the process when it came to applying early decision. In terms of why I decided to apply early decision. Even before I toured Hopkins, it really definitely checked a lot of boxes for me by that point, I had toured a lot of other schools. And so I already knew what I liked what I didn’t like. And so I knew that even before I toured happens, I’d probably like it a lot. I liked that it was mid sized, it’s about 6500 undergrads. So in my mind, not too big, not too small. I really like that it was in a city Baltimore is such a cool city, I think very underrated in terms of US cities that I won’t get into that. I like them within a city but also had a really nice on campus environment with a lot of quads, a lot of greenery. The open curriculum was super, super important to me. And Hopkins really put an emphasis on that, because while I did generally know what I wanted to go into in college, it wasn’t, I wasn’t 100% Sure. And I knew that I wanted to be able to keep my options open if I ever decided to switch to a different major or take classes outside of my major. And so Hopkins had that, that open curriculum, flexibility. Um, and then when I actually toured the school, and I, you know, I say this, I actually give tours for Hopkins and I kind of get the spiel at the end of all my tours, and it sounds corny and corny, or every time I’d say it. Um, but it was almost just like a feeling I got walking around campus. I talked to a lot of students just on campus and the library in the dorms. And then when I went back in the fall for the Fall overnight, I was able to meet a lot of prospective students and a lot of current students at Hopkins and I just felt incredibly comfortable incredibly, like very much like I fit in with all these people here, which I think is a feeling that can be hard to find when you’re touring colleges, especially when it’s a place that you’re not very familiar with. But in the end, it was very much a combination of the fact that Hopkins just ticked all these boxes, and also just kind of a feeling I got like almost like it was
Kamila
you could see yourself as a student there. Yeah, like walking around. It
Allie
felt very familiar, even though I hadn’t been there before.
Kamila
And I I mean, I live in Maryland and I live pretty close to Baltimore. So yeah.
Allie
Oh, I didn’t know that. So, yeah, wait. So
Kamila
we have this college list. And I guess we’ll, I mean, I guess we can talk about the other colleges you were thinking of applying to as well, but they kind of just disappeared in the background once you got in early. So can you tell us the other colleges that you were thinking of applying to as well? And I guess the same thing, how did you kind of approach applying to those colleges? What made you think that you wanted to like go there was it safety’s targets? Or like your parents were like, oh, you know, you may might as well apply because it’s in Massachusetts, or something?
Allie
Right? I’m sure. So my list of other schools other than the three I already mentioned, I had my applications ready to go for University of Rochester, Brown University, Vassar College, Connecticut College and Lafayette. So that was my list. And it’s interesting, because while I definitely think I would have been so happy to go to any of those schools, looking back now with a major that I’m in now, which is a little bit more engineering focused, if I ended up going to, you know, a liberal arts school like Vassar, it wouldn’t have given me as many options in terms of what I’m actually pursuing now. So as I said, I obviously would have been thrilled to be able to go to any of those schools. But if they, anyone would have definitely put me on a very different path from where I’m at now, in terms of my career path in terms of my major.
Kamila
And one more question, before we get into the Common Application portion. We’re finances, something that worried you or your parents going in? Or were you relatively secure there? Or, perhaps did you have like scholarships or significant financial aid? So where did you stand in terms of financial aid?
Allie
So money for schools, it was definitely something that we were thinking about. But I was very lucky in the fact that my parents and I had a very open dialogue about money for college, right from the beginning. And we knew that if there was a school that I really had my heart set on, we would make sure that money wouldn’t be an issue. So that was definitely very privileged position that I came from that I feel very, very lucky to have been in. It wasn’t as if we weren’t thinking about money at all, obviously, colleges. Crazy wicked expensive, but I was very lucky, but it wasn’t in the end, a deciding factor.
Kamila
Okay, good. Now, let’s move on to your common application. So, you know, you’re applying early and tell me about, like, what’s the difference? I guess you wouldn’t know, because you haven’t applied to any regular schools. But what what do you think is the kind of difference between applying early and applying regular like, Are there any major differences in the application, like the actual substance of the application?
Allie
I don’t think in terms of the substance of the application, I don’t think there are many differences, except for obviously, the fact that if you’re applying early, you have to get in earlier, I would say for people going through the college application process now or who are about to go through it. If any of your schools have the option to apply early, do it. And if it’s not binding, because first of all, it’s just so nice to get it out of the way. But also a lot of schools have slightly better acceptance rates in terms of early so Hopkins is actually one of those cases. Their acceptance rate for early decision is, like worlds higher than it is for regular decision like I truly Well, you know, I can’t make these assumptions. But it would have been a lot harder for me to get into Hopkins had I applied regular, but definitely would recommend applying to as many schools early as you can just getting those applications out of the way. But I don’t think there’s much of a difference in the application itself. Between applying early and applying regular,
Kamila
Okay, with that being said, with the assumption that it’s not too much different. What did you write your main essay about? And then how did you approach the little essays that each school requires? Like why Johns Hopkins? How are you going to contribute to our school and such? So first, the main essay and then how did you tackle those little essays as well?
Allie
Right, so for the main essay, I really struggled my college essay for a long time I think at a point I had eight different essays going because I would start an essay and then decide I hated it. But then two days later, I’d be like, No, I actually really liked that sad I’m gonna go back to it so I was very much all over met all over the place with my with my college essay, but I ended up reading it, about how, when I was a kid, I really really loved to read, I think my opening sentence was how my I would always get in trouble at the dinner table because I would be reading a book under the table, my parents would get mad at me. And whenever I ever had something that was going through sort of a struggle that I was working through, either with, with friends or with family or other things, I would sort of channel these fictional characters for my favorite books and escape into these fictional worlds, I kind of based my whole personality off of different personality traits, whether it was, you know, from Junie, B. Jones, or Percy Jackson, or Hermione Granger, just like all these characters that I loved. I, instead of making myself have a real personality, I sort of just stole these traits from these fictional characters. And then as I grew up, I realized that I had to become my own person, I couldn’t just be a shell of these fictional world and these fictional characters, but how I still took the traits with me and how I learned a lot from these characters as a child, but how it was sort of time for me to let them go leave the behind. So it was a fun essay to write. And I think it was a good essay for me to write as an applicant, because there was a lot of focus in my application on math. And on like, math statistics, I was applying to most of these schools as a math major, or an applied math major. And so writing my essay about how important books and reading word to me showed me as more of a well rounded applicant that I wasn’t just 100% focused on STEM fields that that literature and writing were also pretty important. So that was my main essay. Um,
Kamila
and I want to cut in here for just a quick sec. So that’s a, that’s a really good idea sounds like really creative. And since you knew that, I don’t know exactly how prestigious Fordham is. I’m sure it’s not like a safety or something. But like, obviously, between the three that you applied you, Chicago and Johns Hopkins are like, way up there. So when you were writing your common app essay, like can you explain a little bit of the struggle, because you need to make these essays perfect for your application, they need to be like, You need to be at the top of everything. So can you take us a little bit through the struggle? And like how long did it take? And kind of the process of writing it? Did you have like everybody, you know, like proofread it and stuff. So how did?
Allie
Yeah, it was a whole process. Um, I think the original mistake I made, that I think a lot of people make when writing their college essay is that I thought I had to have had some big traumatic, life defining event that I could write about. And I think all throughout high school, I was kind of waiting for this big event to happen to me. And then nothing really did. And I was like, man, what am I gonna write my college essay about? I don’t have a traumatic life event. Obviously, very grateful that I don’t have a traumatic life event at this point in time. But that was kind of my original realm of possibility was this is, you know, this is what I think a college essay has to be written about, which was not true at all. So then I think I sort of shifted to reading about my extracurriculars. What I learned from theater. I think some of my essays, I wrote about places where I had traveled with my my family. And these were all different essays that I would write and then decided I hated and stop halfway through a couple of these, I definitely did finish because I’m in our high school, everyone in their junior year has to write a college essay as part of their English class. And I don’t even remember what version of this essay ended up turning in for that. But, you know, I had some version of this essay that I had finished long before I actually ended up turning it in. I think what sort of guided me towards this final draft of the essay was every essay that I had written, where I just focused on my extracurriculars, I realized that the stories I was telling there, were already kind of told in other parts of my application. So maybe there’s an essay where I wrote about math and my my love for math and for statistics, but then I realized, you know, applying to all these places as a math major, they know I like math, they can see I took BC Calc, they can see this is something that’s important to me. So what’s something that I can show? In my essay that is about me as a person that’s about my character, my personality that doesn’t immediately come across in other parts of my application. And from there, I was sort of led to You know, talking about this love for bucks as a kid and more of a, a personality driven essay, which I think was a little bit of a different approach than what people think they should take starting from the beginning. But that was kind of my, my journey in terms of the Common App essay.
Kamila
And I can imagine it was a lot of stress, especially for tops. Okay, so let’s move on to the supplemental essays. Can you talk us through a little bit about that in? Did you also struggle greatly with them? Because the word count is less you have less time? Less words, like, say something about yourself?
Allie
Yeah, the workout was tough. I think for supplemental essays, if it was school focused, I had taken really, really intense notes on all of my college tours. So any info session that I sat in on any campus tour that I had gone, I took these crazy notes about really specific things about the college that I could throw into my supplemental essay, later. So that’s definitely a piece of advice I would give is if you get an essay that’s like, you know, why Hopkins? Or why Florida, Miami, Chicago, whatever, throw in specific details about the school about the campus, maybe things that you can’t just find right away on their website, things that you have to dig around for a little bit, because then they’ll know that it’s not just, you know, it’s not like you could write this essay, but the school you Chicago could be replaced with any other school and you know, it’s really their school that you care about. Um, so that’s kind of like the school focused essay. Um, other essays like I think you Chicago had some really kind of fun, funky prompts. Yeah,
Kamila
they do. It’s something about, do you think a hotdog is considered a sandwich? I was looking there stuff like that on there? Yeah.
Allie
Yes. And I don’t remember for the life of me which one I ended up choosing for that application. But some schools will have supplemental essays like that. And those ones I just tried to have fun with them. They’re not looking for like some serious, world shattering answer, they just want to, you know, that’s one of those other cases, like your common app essay, where they want to see who you are as a person, they want to see some personality. So those are fun to write. And then the essay, supplemental essay ended up writing for Hopkins was about collaboration and teamwork. And I believe I wrote about a theater show that I had been in, where there was really big focus on teamwork and working towards the end goal. That honestly wasn’t one of my favorite essays to write I thought it was it was pretty standard. Obviously, I worked very hard on it, because it was for my, my top school. But yeah, it wasn’t wasn’t anything too special, that supplemental essay.
Kamila
Oh, we forgot one thing, recommendation letters. Can you give us a would you say a rundown of how you approach this recommendation, recommendation letters, where they also plan like, Oh, I’m gonna with my AP staff teacher, I’m going to get really close with them, and then ask them for a recommendation letter. So is that what you did?
Allie
Yeah, you actually described the exact scenario of what I did for one of my letters. But it was really easy. I really loved my AP stat teacher. Definitely one of my favorite teachers have had to this day. And so it was really easy to form a good relationship with him. His class was actually the one that made me want to go into statistics. And so that was definitely a big deciding factor in why I asked him for a recommendation letter. And obviously, you know, since I was going into stats, it’s good to have someone who knows you as a stats student to write one your letters. So that was my first letter. My second letter I got from my guidance counselor, I think that’s pretty typical. At my high school, every guidance counselor writes a letter from there in you know, vouching for the student. And I was pretty close to my guidance counselor, really, really wonderful person. So that was, that wasn’t something I was was worried about in terms of that letter. And then my last letter I got from my AP US History teacher, who was just someone I really respected a lot. As a teacher, similar to my stats teacher to this day, one of my favorite teachers have ever had, I knew he would be a really good writer and put a lot of care into each letter that he wrote. And he had a process where he actually met with every single student that he was writing a letter for. He would have these long meetings with them where he would talk about college and what their goals were. I think I mentioned this earlier, but he was actually the first person to ask me, Why do you want to go to yeah, um, yeah, it was kind of crazy when he asked me that because I had not been asked that question before, which seems kind of strange. But yes, that was that was my, my third letter? Um, yeah,
Kamila
overall. So we’ve looked over basically every part of your, I guess every possible part of your college application. And looking at it now as a college student, and, you know, you’re thinking back on the process, which part of your application not for you personally, but in general, which part of your application whether it’s the grades, the extracurriculars, the recommendation letters, the essays, which one do you think is just overall the most important one? Like, which one? Do you think that you need to do? Well, in this, you need to have this or like, yeah, like, you should focus a lot of your energy on this to make sure this part of your application is like, really up to it?
Allie
That’s a tough question. I think, at a lot of schools, a lot of schools, there’s kind of a bar you have to get out to in terms of academics, extracurriculars, and community service hours, even just quantity wise, they want to see that you have a certain GPA, they want to see that you were involved a good amount, they want to see that you were involved in your community. So I think, I knew that my academics really had to be there to get me to that point, I knew that my extracurricular extracurriculars had to be there to get to that point, unfortunately, a lot of schools, once you’re at that point, it’s almost it’s a toss up, there are so many students that are kind of at that level, academically, and in terms of involvement, and they’re all applying to these top colleges. And so it can be really, really hard to find something that sets you apart from all of these, these other students, because at that point, you’re all in similar areas of AC T, Sh, t scores are all in similar areas of GPA. So I like to think, and obviously, I don’t know for sure, but I like to think that it might have been my common app essay, that kind of set me apart because it was an essay that I was very proud of, and I thought might have been a little bit unique and sort of showed a different side of me that you might not see in, in other applicants, at least in terms of what their their essays or their applications reflected. So if I had to guess that’s what I would say. But you know, you’re never really you never really know what these admissions offices it can be really hard to tell sometimes.
Kamila
That is true. So I you got into Johns Hopkins. Oh, first, tell me how did you react when you got into Johns Hopkins? Like you just opened it up? It was screened or something?
Allie
Um, so I cried. So much, I cried so much happy tears. Of course, there’s actually a video I took of myself of opening my acceptance letter, but I have barely shown it to anyone because I make the most embarrassing noise. When I opened the letter, I made this little like, shrieking noise that to this day, I haven’t really been able to get past every time I happen to stumble across that video. But, you know, obviously, it was, it was an amazing moment. My parents were there definitely one of my peak moments of like life at this point. But yeah, that that video is gonna stay hidden for a while, unfortunately.
Kamila
Okay, so you’re in Hopkins, you’re super excited. And I guess, senior year. This is, I keep asking a lot of stuff we need to get to college. But I just want to ask a couple more quick questions. So you applied early, you got into Johns Hopkins, and you’re super excited, you’re gonna go there. How different was it for you throughout the rest of senior year compared to your friends who were still stressing about the process? Who wouldn’t get a decision until when do the decisions come out? Like March or something?
Allie
I felt so lucky. I got my decision. December 15. I had some friends that, you know, they heard back from schools in April, but then they had through the turmoil of making a decision before May 1. So I felt so grateful definitely in comparison to all my friends, which is pretty rare for me and I school but in comparison to all my friends, I was very relaxed and stress free. throughout the winter and spring. I wouldn’t say I slacked off for academics because I was still in AP classes. And while at that point, I knew like I was in AP Spanish and AP Psych. I knew those AP grades would matter, because Hopkins wasn’t going to take them but I still wanted to do relatively well. So I still I think the class that I focused the most on at that point was BC calculus just because that was what would ended up what would end up getting me college credit and I obviously knew I didn’t want to slack off to the point where I could give Hopkins any reason to want to resend my acceptance. Obviously that’s that’s pretty extreme but I was definitely able to relax a little bit in comparison to how I had been for the rest of high school which was pretty high, strong and intense.
Kamila
And that concludes part one of my interview with owlie make sure to subscribe so you know when Part Two comes out, also check out my blog, a college kid calm on there I write various articles such as college tours I’ve been on and a wide variety of college topics such as APS, extracurriculars and such. So make sure to check that out as well. But other than that, I hope to see you in the next one.