Allie discusses the transition from being the top of her class in high school to being surrounded by equally accomplished people at Johns Hopkins University. 

Part 1 is here.

Transcription

Kamila
Hey college kids. Welcome back to my podcast who cares about college. This is part two of my interview with Allie. So make sure to check out part one if you have not already done so. Also make sure to check out my blog, a college kid.com on there I write various articles, including college tours I’ve been on. Lastly, make sure to subscribe so you know when new episodes come out, but other than that, enjoy the episode

Okay, so I think I’m done with all the high school questions here. Let’s move on to college. So you obviously don’t live in, you don’t even live in Maryland, let alone Baltimore. So how did you adjust to first like moving? And then second, how did you adjust to not having anyone like it’s a private school. It’s not a state school where you may have some friends, private school, super prestigious. Everyone is like super smart. You don’t have parents with you. So how did you adjust to the move and to just not having many people around you that you knew.

Allie
So the move itself wasn’t bad Hopkins, other than you Chicago, I think was the furthest school that I had on my list. But Baltimore really doesn’t feel that far from Massachusetts, there’s, you know, a lot of flights back and forth, it only really take an hour. So the movement, the move itself wasn’t bad. And I adjusted pretty well when it came to living in a city living in Baltimore, because while the campus is very much in the city, it also feels a lot like a campus. So it wasn’t, too, you know, scary or overwhelming feeling like all of a sudden, I was just thrown into this huge city all by myself, there was definitely a bit of a buffer that the Hopkins campus gave me. I’m sorry, remind me the second question you asked. Oh, the adjustment?

Kamila
Yeah, without having basically any friends. No parents are there. You’re just by yourself in the school.

Allie
Um, it was hard, it was very hard. Um, I feel like people always say your first semester of college is really tough. And I think everyone always kind of assumes they’ll be the exception. At least for me, I heard that from all of my older friends who had gone to college, but I thought you know what, I’ll be okay. Like, and obviously, I’m fine. Now. And it wasn’t so bad to the point where I ever considered transferring or anything, but it was a really hard adjustment period. And that’s just the reality of it. And I think when I came to accept that the adjustment is hard for everyone. That helps me feel a little bit less alone in the struggles I was having. But I went from a position of being very comfortable. In high school, I had an extremely stable friend group I knew where I stood with my classes with extracurriculars. So I went from being kind of very secure in every aspect of my life to being thrown into, as you said, this new world where I had no friends didn’t really have a place on campus yet didn’t have any experience with college classes. And it was tough. I made some friends, you know, right off the bat. But it’s hard, I think, to get to a level of familiarity with friends right away, especially when you’re comparing them to the friendships you’ve had in high school where you’ve known these people, you know, some of the best friends I had in high school I’d known at that point for for 10 to 12 years. So it was going from this this level of familiarity to Yes, I have these friends, but I’ve only known them for two weeks. So how well do I do I really know these people. So it was the hardest adjustment in terms of friendship, the friend group I’m in now in college, I didn’t really end up finding until the very tail end of first semester going into second semester. So socially, it was a tough adjustment. extracurriculars, I definitely did not find my place. Right away, I joined an acapella group, and I joined the tour guide society. And while both of those were a lot of fun, I didn’t really find the same strong community that I had in theater in high school. And then academically, the adjustment was really hard to the first midterm exam I ever took in college was calc three and I got a 50 on it. And I thought, you know, that my life was over, which sounds incredibly dramatic, but you know, the adjustment of going from feeling, you know, very, very secure and your grades very much like you always know what you’re doing in these classes to getting a really terrible grade on a test. It was very jarring for me, but, you know, obviously I’m doing it Really great. Now in all these aspects that I struggled with initially, and I think it’s, it was really important for me to kind of go through that period of being a little unstable, a little uncomfortable, because I think it pushed me to take risks that I wouldn’t have taken otherwise, I think if I had gone into college right away and found a friend group and found a club that I was happy with, and thrived in all my classes, I would not be where I’m at today. And I think that, that wouldn’t have been a good thing. So it pushed me to try out different clubs that I hadn’t thought about, I ended up joining a sorority, which I never thought I would do. I joined the outdoors club. I added another major that I was more passionate about. And then I pushed myself socially to, to find friends and be a little bit more outgoing, which was hard for me, but very important. So you know, all that being said, yes, the transition to college can be super, super tough. But everything you learned during that transition, just helps you grow so much as a person, I’m really grateful that I had that transition period that I did, because I think it taught me a lot.

Kamila
So you touched on a lot of subjects. And I want to get a little bit deeper into each of those subjects. So number one is friends. And one thing I have literally heard consistently for every single person I’ve talked to is the hated their first year dorm mate or first semester dorm mate like, no, no, they hated them. Some one of the people interview, he goes to UMBC, he moved out three weeks into the school year, because of his roommate, so Yeah, can you tell me a little bit about your roommate and the relationship that you had with them? How did that impact how you saw your social life would be in the future? Like, did you not like them? And you’re like, oh, college is just gonna be like this. I’m never gonna make friends, or did you love them off the bat? So can you explain that situation right there.

Allie
So I got so so lucky. My freshman year roommate. We’re still friends to this day, we still talk. And while we didn’t live together sophomore year, this year, she’s definitely someone I would consider a very good friend. And she was a really, really great roommate to have freshman year, I think, because I think she was a great roommate, because we weren’t best friends. We were friends. And when we were in the room, we were best friends. We would tell each other everything. We knew everything going on in each other’s lives. But outside of the room, we didn’t have a relationship where we would hang out all the time. You know, we didn’t, we weren’t going to the dining hall getting every meal together. We weren’t in classes together. We weren’t in extracurriculars together. And I think it was really good that we had not really formally set that expectation. But I think there was kind of just an unspoken agreement between the both of us that, yes, we want to be close. Yes, we want to be friends. But we don’t necessarily want to be best friends outside of the room. And that I create a really good dynamic, we lived really well together, she was super considerate, even if we were like, you know, one day per side of the room was really messy, but my side of the room wasn’t, you know, she would make sure that, you know, her mess was on her side of the room. And then vice versa. One day, I didn’t clean up my side. So you know, we lived well together. But I think the most important part of our relationship was that while we were close, we weren’t too close, because I’ve some friends who, you know, they were roommates, they were best friends right off the bat. And they end up spending out every single hour together. And at that point, when you have these two strong personalities spending so much time together, it is really hard for that relationship to persist without, you know, there being some sort of tension or someone blowing up at at the other person. So I was very lucky with my my freshman year roommate. I know that not not many people are but I was grateful for that.

Kamila
And so I guess you did create something that worked for the both of you and just ended up working for working in favor of yourself. So if you guys made this agreement not to spend not to just be each other’s like best friend and not socialize with anyone else. How did you make friends? Outside of like, room out of your dorm mate? And maybe you guys spend a few meals together? But how did you end up creating that strong friend group that you had by the end of first semester going into second semester?

Allie
Right? That’s a great question. So, um, one of the first friends I ever met, I met in my orientation group and actually he is literally in the room next to me right now because we live together. But um, so that was very lucky. One of my best friends in college I met on like the first day of school, we were in the same orientation group. He mentioned that he had done theater in high school and I thought, okay, there’s something we have in common. Let’s talk about that. And so we sat together on a bus ride and talked about theater, and from there, you know, we became very close friends. And then he introduced me to some friends that he had made just from people that he knew living next to him in the dorm. And we lived, we lived in the same dorm. So that also helped a lot. So right away, I was introduced to his group of friends. But then the main group of friends that I sort of found in, like, found toward the end of my first semester freshman year was actually people that lived on my hallway that they had, like, kind of been a friend group right from the beginning. And I had always kind of witnessed them as a friend group, sort of from the outside, I was like, oh, you know, they all seem like really cool, really nice people. I don’t know them well, but they were people that I would always run into in the hall bathroom, like brushing my teeth, if I was coming home from a late night at the library, and they would all be sitting in the hall. So they were familiar faces. And then it was kind of a gradual process of I just started to see them more and more. And then at one point, you know, I got added to their group chat. And another point, we were all going out together on a weekend. So it was kind of a gradual thing, where I didn’t think I realized they were becoming my friend group until all of a sudden they were but I’d say living with them was the most important part of why we became a friend group just because we ended up seeing each other so much that we just became became close friends.

Kamila
And another thing I’m curious about is in these prestigious elite schools you have, you’re going to have those like rocket scientists who have like I don’t know, published a scientific paper at the age of 18 or something. So there’s definitely those that kind of like, expectation that and there’s because let’s say you’re like top of your class in high school, suddenly, you may drop to just like right at average, in a really prestigious elite school. So did that affect you and how you kind of approached making friends? And then did it kind of transition into your classes? Like, oh, my god, everybody, suddenly, everyone here is so smart. Like, I’m not at the top of my class, maybe you were, but like, I’m not at the top of my class anymore. Now I’m like, everybody around me is the same as me. They had the same GPA, same stats and such.

Allie
That is such a good question. Such an important question. Because it was something that I well, I don’t think I was like mentally prepared to deal with when I got to college, but I really should have been. It’s called imposter syndrome was what my friend and I use that word like every single week, where you, you know, I’m in the school, but a lot of times, I’m like, What the heck am I doing here with all these crazy smart, crazy driven crazy, hardworking, crazy people? Like, why am i How did I get here? What am I doing here? I don’t think it really influenced my friendships at all. Because, you know, at that point, we were kind of all in the same, just like lower level gen ed classes. And while we, we all definitely work together, if I met people who are smarter than me, and, you know, pretty much everyone was, it was something that I felt like, I could use to my advantage that I could learn from them. Um, but in classes, it was, it was a hard adjustment to make realizing that, you know, it wasn’t like classes and things that I learned in high school, that came pretty easily to me, that wasn’t going to happen in college, necessarily. And so I really had to get used to the idea that you know, getting a B, or a C plus, in a really hard class is a achievement to be really proud of. And even if you’re not doing as well as other kids in your class, as long as you’re doing the best for you, personally, that is far and away what is most important, that was a really hard conclusion for me to come to. And I think it took a couple of years of not doing great in these hard classes before I finally came to that conclusion. But it’s really just about like being realistic with yourself with your expectations and kind of understanding what you’re capable of, but still being like proud of what you can achieve with that.

Kamila
And on the topic of classes, how well do you think the AP classes, the honors classes that you took in high school prepared you for college? Like, was it a completely different world in your like, or did you at least have some idea of what college would be like?

Allie
Um, well, my high school was, it was pretty rigorous. Workload wise. I always had kind of a ton of hours of, of homework of homework assignments and, you know, lots of tests every week. And so I think in terms of workload and time management, I was really well prepared for college. But one thing I don’t think AP classes or my high school really prepared me for was how you, I kind of had to change my way of thinking when I got to college. So the example I always give is, BC calculus, everything to me felt very methodical. I, you know, knew these equations that we were using, I knew these formulas, and I was plugging numbers into them. But I didn’t really understand why. And in college, it is all about the why it’s not about, you know, plugging these numbers in and seeing what happens, it’s, let’s plug these numbers into this formula. And let’s do a three day long analysis of why this happens, and why we can show that this happens. And so I guess that’s, that’s very particular in the math department as a math major, but that way of thinking was not something that I was used to. So I would say, that was definitely the biggest thing that high school did not prepare me for was really having to change kind of the way that I learned and the way that I thought about these different topics in my education was very different. In college, my high school,

Kamila
again, on the topic of classes, classes in college are made perhaps a little bit longer, but they definitely don’t occur every single day at like the exact same time. So how did you adjust to that going into college? Was it weird that you had control over your schedule?

Allie
Very weird. And I did feel a little bit lost going into freshman fall making my schedule right away, because there’s so many options, not just for what classes you take, but when you take them. Um, it was nice, because you get advisors right off the bat for, you know, general University Advising, but also for your major. And so I had a pretty good sense of what classes I needed to take, in terms of formatting your schedule for like, what hours you’re taking classes, I think that’s just something that you have to learn about yourself as you go throughout college, like I learned pretty quickly that I am terrible with afternoon classes. And so I try to take as many classes as I can, in the morning, even if I have to take like early 9am. That’s a lot better for me than a class that goes from three to 430. So that’s just for me personally. But I think that’s something that every college student kind of learned throughout their journey of making their class schedule of what is best for you as a learner and what is maybe not so good.

Kamila
And how long did it take for you to understand how you work best and what’s best for you?

Allie
I would say it took me exactly one semester, well, okay, well, maybe not. Freshman fall, I had all my classes pretty much in the morning, every way anyway. And that worked. Well, and then freshman spring, it just so happened that one of my hardest classes was from four to 515. Not every day, but like Monday, Tuesday, or Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And I ended up doing really poorly in that class, not just because it was difficult, but because I had so much trouble focusing. And so that definitely that semester taught me what is best for my schedule and what is unavoidable and what is not best, I should say? Yeah, and sometimes it is it is unavoidable. If you only have one class, that’s a little Class is only offered at a certain time. It can be hard, but at that point, you know, just get yourself a nice coffee and and try to try to do your best with those afternoon classes.

Kamila
And another thing I’m curious about when, I guess just in general, since the initial like pressure to get close to us teacher like in high school uniform recommendation letter, you need their recommendation, since that pressure is not there. Did you find like getting close to your professors was better? Did you find yourself going to office hours and like developing a relationship with them just as you did in high school? Or was that more of a, oh, I won’t really do that blah, blah, blah, or you discovered later maybe it’s better to help me be in a job with a job in the future. So did you approach it the same way? Did you initially know that you could it’s really good to get close to your professors.

Allie
I definitely not approach it the same way as I did in high school because at least when you’re in these big lecture classes, these big Gen Ed’s it can be really hard to get close to a professor, even if you’re going to office hours every week. Like Guess what? There’s 100 Other kids also going to office hours every week. And I’m not saying it’s impossible to get close to a professor. It definitely is very possible when you put in the right amount of effort, but it was not as easy for me to form these relationships with professors that I had found myself forming with teachers in high school. I will say now that I’m older, I’m a junior, as I mentioned, and I’m getting into these upper level, more focused classes that are a lot smaller. So instead of taking And calc three with like 200 students in a lecture hall I’m taking, you know, mathematical game theory with, like 30 students. So when the classes are smaller, obviously, it’s a lot easier to get closer to your professors, I would say, don’t stress too much, if you don’t feel like you’re getting close to your professors in these big glasses, because it’s, it’s not always easy to do. And if you can form those relationships, that’s great, but it’s definitely a lot easier and maybe more important to form those relationships later on when you’re in like a little bit more specialized classes.

Kamila
And another thing I want to touch with, with professors is, in every school, I’m pretty sure most professors have a connection somewhere. But the more elite the school is, the higher the network of connections are and the more like, bigger corporations they know or bigger, like news networks or whatever your majors they’ll know more. So you did you find in Johns Hopkins, like, oh my god, this professor knows this person like this really a fluid person? Or they they’re connected well with this corporation or something? So do you think that you have a really big advantage in using the connections that your professor could have? And did you have you ever tried kinda like approaching

Allie
I think one of the places where professors at least here most connected was in terms of research opportunities. So Hopkins is really big on research, whether it’s like students going down to Johns Hopkins Hospital and working there, or like the research team I’m on now is a lot more coding focused on working with data from the hospital and I won’t get get too into that right now. Because, you know, that’s, that’s a whole nother tangent that isn’t really worth going on. But definitely research is something that is super important. Here, when it comes to getting internships and getting jobs and the professor’s are all super duper well connected within the different departments have different research projects going on. So if you know a professor and they have a certain research project you’re interested in, you can go to the professor, send them an email and say that you’re interested in the project. And it’s pretty typical that either they will be able to give you a spot and their research team or if they aren’t able to offer that spot, they can put you in touch with like 10 other professors that are working on similar projects. And so yeah, I would say professors are very well connected. For me, personally, I haven’t ended up using those connections for career related things. But in terms of research, and like on campus involvement, those connections have been like really crucial.

Kamila
And I know you’re not on the pre med track, but obviously Johns Hopkins the top in medical school. So maybe you have friends or such who are on the pre med track or are in like pursuing a PhD. But do you find like, for the medical people, at least, do you find that like, they have easy connections? Like they’re getting so many internships here? Or like they’re getting so many job opportunities here? So do you find the people who are on the pre med track or are pursuing a PhD? They have really like a solid foundation for their career?

Allie
Definitely. And, yeah, as you said, I’m not I’m not pre med, but I would say at least, like 60% of my friends are on the pre med track. And the resources that Hopkins has for that are really, really cool. My friend who I I mentioned previously, my friend that I met in my orientation group that I live with a couple weeks ago, he got to go down to the hospital and literally watch a brain surgery happen through some connection in one of his in one of his research teams, or one of his classes. I’m not totally sure. But that’s kind of indicative of these connections that Hopkins has with the hospital. It’s really cool. pre med is definitely not for me, I can watch Grey’s Anatomy all day long, but I don’t want anything to do with with a hospital when it comes to working there. But for my friends that are pre med, it’s really cool to see them have these opportunities, not just with like research on the campus, but also having the the connections that hospital it’s pretty big. Okay, it’s

Kamila
interesting. So let’s move on to another kind of aspect that we were talking about, initially, initially. So how did you get involved in college and exactly what did you get involved in? How did you find? How did you find what you were interested in? And then how did you eventually come upon another major, which was computer science for you, right?

Allie
Yes, that’s correct. So I always really liked math. In high school. I really liked the logic of it. I think I mostly liked the fact that with math, there’s always kind of a right or a wrong answer. I really hated that. I didn’t hate the English curriculum in my high school. But I hated the fact that I could turn in the same essay to three different teachers and get an A, A, B, and A C, from all those teachers, I really didn’t like, how subjective that could be. And while I, I really liked the creativity of a class, like English or class, like, even Spanish, I think I almost took like comfort in the objectiveness and the logic of math. So I knew that I wanted to go into math. vaguely, my parents had always been pushing me to do something with computer science, I think every summer they will you should go to coding camp. And I was like, No way. Absolutely not. That is not something I will ever be interested in, or ever pursue. I don’t know why I was so against it, I didn’t really have a reason to be against it. Maybe other than just just spite for my for my parents. But um, as part of the Applied Math major at Hopkins, you have to take an introductory Java class. And so I took that my freshman fall. And I think I was literally in that class for like, three or four weeks, and I called my parents is like, well, I am adding computer science major. And it was kind of a big, I told you so moment for them. Very exciting. But I think the reason I liked computer science so much was that it let me add my passion for like data and logic and numbers to the creativity that can be kind of hard to find in math. I really like the problem solving aspect for me, like every single, like homework problem we got in this coding class is like a fun puzzle for me to solve. And I think the main reason I knew that computer science was a trap that I wanted to go on was, I would come home at night to my freshman dorm from like, a party or from like late night at the library, whatever, and it would be exhausted. And I would get into bed. And instead of watching Netflix, I would pull up my coding homework, because all he wanted to do was just like, solve these coding problems and finish these coding challenges. And I kind of talked myself to just saying, and I realized that it was just because it was I found something that I was just so excited to do and so passionate about. And so I ended up adding the major, my freshman spring. And so yeah, since then I’ve been a double major, they’re

Kamila
interesting. So with a double major, do you find that you’re much more stressed than other people who have a major and a minor or just a major?

Allie
That’s a good question. So actually, at Hopkins, it is really, really rare to find someone that only has one major, most people are majoring in two things, or they’re majoring in one thing, and they’re also pre med, or they’re majoring in one thing and minoring into things. Because everyone, most people here like to kind of dabble in a lot of different areas, which is a really fun environment to be in. So I actually don’t have a lot of friends that are a single major that I can compare myself to I think my one friend who is who is a single major, it’s like far and away the hardest major at Hopkins. And so she always has like crazy, crazy amounts of work. But for my two majors personally, it’s not too difficult because there is a ton of overlap between apply math and computer science. A lot of the prerequisites are the same. And so it was not too hard to fulfill all the requirements and then still have room to like, take up your classes as an interested in.

Kamila
You find your major and then can you tell us a little bit about the clubs that you pursued? Or perhaps organizations that you joined? And then if because you are a junior now you’re not like graduating any or graduating in two years, but you still have some time. So are you thinking about having any internships or maybe study abroad? Because I’m sure Johns Hopkins has some sort of program for that. Yeah, so

Allie
Okay, so I guess I’ll just the extracurriculars thing first, um, extracurriculars. I came in to college, not really knowing what I want to do with extracurriculars, I think I knew I didn’t want to do anything with theater just because I had been so involved in that in high school. And I think it’s really easy when you join a club like theater, that’s so high commitment, it’s really easy to just be like, totally 100% committed to that and then not be involved in anything else. And I knew that that was not what I wanted to do when I got to college. So I sort of stayed away from theater. I joined an acapella group. I joined like the admissions Club, which I mentioned before, but like neither of those really felt like kind of like my home at Hopkins. And so then, at that point, it kind of just started trying other things. I ended up joining a sorority my freshman spring, which I never ever thought I would do what that being a really good experience, it’s given me some leadership opportunities, and I’ve met some of my very best friends through it. So it’s been a really good, like unexpected experience, I would say. Um, and then I actually ended up joining the outdoors club, my sophomore year as a backpacking and sailing leader. And that has just been such a great experience has introduced me to this, like whole new community of people that I haven’t that like, I never would have met outside of that. And so let’s say with extracurriculars, I kind of just, like, kept joining these clubs until I felt like I had a balance of, of course, things that I was passionate about, but also kind of communities I could call home on campus. So that was sort of my my journey of extracurriculars. Um, in terms of internships, I am on the internship hunt now for next summer. It is not very fun. But you know, it’s a part of life. I did do an internship. Last summer, I did a software development internship with Fidelity Investments. And it was a really great experience. Unfortunately, it was virtual, which was not ideal, but I learned so much, I met a ton of really, really great people. And I think the classes that I’ve taken in college prepared me for it really well. Our computer science curriculum is really like team based and really project based and so you get a lot of experience with what it’s like working on, like software teams in the real world. Um, so yeah, I still don’t really know what I’m doing next summer I, I’m sure I will end up doing another internship. I’m just not exactly sure where yet. Um, and then study abroad. So sad. I was all planned to study abroad. This next semester, my junior spring, I was supposed to go to University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Oh, no, my God, I had been like dreaming about going since freshman year, they have a really cool computer science program, lots of really cool classes. And it’s, I mean, the campus is just absolutely stunning. And Scotland is such a cool country. But unfortunately, Hopkins, as of a couple of weeks ago, canceled all of their abroad program. So that is not in the cards for me at the moment, which is pretty sad. But I’m hoping I’ll still be able to go abroad in some capacity, whether it’s over the summer, or maybe like a trip over winter break, or at least maybe a trip after college. So you know, it’s so tragic. Everyone’s unfortunately, dealing with things like that right now. And obviously, in the grand scheme of everything happening in the world, it’s not that big of a deal, but it is, you know, it’s sad.

Kamila
Yeah. Okay, so let’s move back quickly to the sorority that you thought you’d never join. So how did you come upon that really quickly? And what positions do you though leadership leadership positions do you currently hold in your sorority?

Allie
Yes. So I definitely really had this idea in my head of what sororities were like, before I got to college have kind of just these, like, mean, catty girls, that, you know, we’re only focused on the sorority and maybe, you know, now looking back on it, it’s like, a very, like misogynistic view of what sorority girls are like. But, you know, I had, I had a very negative opinion of sororities, but I also think it wasn’t something that I would really get a lot out of. But then I came to Hopkins, we don’t have sorority recruitment until the spring. And so in the fall, I ended up meeting a lot of the girls that are in sororities, I just met them through like classes, different clubs on campus, or just like a different meeting greet events. My roommate freshman year actually, like, dragged me to a couple of these meet and greet events, which, looking back on it now. I’m so glad she did. But at the time, I was like, oh my god, like what am I doing at these events, I’m never gonna end up joining a sorority. But the people I met at those events were kind of the antithesis of what I had in my mind is the idea of a typical sorority girl. Everyone was like, Super Down to Earth, super smart, super driven, and when they talked about kind of the communities they have found within their sorority that was superduper appealing to me because I like I said, I hadn’t really found that strong community at Hopkins yet. So I kind of told myself that I would go through the recruitment process and just see if I find anything that felt right. And then at the end of the day, I ended up, you know, obviously joining the sorority and now and yeah, it’s been a really good experience and definitely something that I never really thought Do but I’ve met so many amazing people. And like I said, some of my best friends I’ve met through it. So very grateful for that, um, the leadership opportunities. So from an I’m closing in on like the end of my position now, but I have been the Vice President of Finance for my sorority, so that position started last fall, it’s almost done. Now I’m about to transition it onto the next person. Um, it shouldn’t have been that hard of a position. But when everything went crazy with COVID, it became a lot more high stress than I was expecting. But it definitely taught me a lot about flexibility. I had to make like the whole budget for my sorority and organize dues, I had to redo everything, like 10 or 15 times because everything kept changing with virtual school. So you know, I won’t get in into it too much. It was kind of crazy. But looking back on it now, definitely a really good experience taught me a lot about, you know, leadership, flexibility, all that.

Kamila
And another extracurricular you mentioned was outdoors Club, which I don’t understand. So can you elaborate on that a little bit? And you did say you kind of found a community in there. And you really, it was something that you genuinely enjoy doing. So can you explain and elaborate on that? Yeah, absolutely.

Allie
So, our outdoors club, I think it’s called like outing club at other schools. But basically, we lead these trips, and we have all these different specialties. There’s kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, caving, fly fishing, and then backpacking, hiking, sailing, there’s definitely some that I’m forgetting. But we lead all these different trips off campus. So into Maryland into like the Inner Harbor, which is where we do a lot of sailing in our harbor of Baltimore. We offer these trips to the student body. And so if you’re in the outdoors club, you are a leader on these trips. And it’s kind of a process of, you know, working your way up the ranks of you start out as kind of a trainee, and then by the time you graduate, you’re like, a solo leader, and you’re leading all these trips by yourself. So add, that’s been a really, really great experience. And I didn’t end up joining it until sophomore year, and it was kind of something that I didn’t really expect myself to do. But looking back on it. Now, I’m so glad that I did, I got really close with all the other kids in the club, because we all have to take this like wilderness first responder class together that’s like this really intense wilderness medicine course. And it was amazing. One of my favorite things I’ve ever done, but also helped me to really bond with these kids in the club. You know, unfortunately, now with COVID, it’s, we’re not really leading any of these outdoor trips or whole semester is virtual, but I’m very excited. Maybe if not next semester than the semester after to, you know, get back out there, these trips again, because that’s definitely been a highlight of my college experience as being in this club.

Kamila
COVID has ruined everything for you, hasn’t it? Hmm,

Allie
that sounds so dramatic. It definitely hasn’t. But it has, you know, it’s forced me to make some changes that I maybe didn’t expect, I would have to make my in my college experience.

Kamila
So we’re coming to I guess we could call it the end here. But I want to ask you a couple questions before we wrap up. So with Johns Hopkins and just any elite school in general, there is a high percentage, high percentage of people who come from very rich families. So do you find the presence of kids who come from very high income backgrounds? Do you find it very prominent there? Or do you? Or is it kind of more like, chill? Nobody really cares about it? Or is there like a really, like isolated group of people who are just like super rich and have all that money?

Allie
That’s a good question. I think you don’t get as much of that at Hopkins as you would at maybe like an Ivy League school. Um, however, there is a really high presence of kids who went to like these really elite private schools. I went to public school and I think I think I don’t want to say that’s like rare because obviously, there are a ton of kids who went to public school here, but in my experience, a lot of the kids that I have met at Hopkins and a lot of the kids my friend group, um, went to private school, which was very interesting, and it’s not something that I really view is like a big deal, but it was definitely a difference in background that was something that I wasn’t necessarily expecting.

Kamila
Okay, so it talks about the elitism, a kind of elite culture there at Hopkins and do people make it I’m just curious because it differs per college and just based on the people there but do people make it really apparent that they’re from such a fluent families that I don’t know. Like you hear They’re last name. And they’re like, Oh, I’ve heard a building by that name before something like, do people make it obvious? Or do they kind of try to hide it a little bit? So where do you find those people fall? Like, how do they, I guess interact with other students?

Allie
Yeah, it definitely varies. I think at least in my experience, it’s really rare to, you know, meet someone and immediately get this impression of them of just have them be bragging all over the place of how wealthy they are, what family they come from, I know those people, like do exist on this campus, but I haven’t, you know, interacted with them all that much. I think for the most part, everyone is really just in this mindset of, you know, we’re all at the school together. This is a community so like, no matter where you come from, it doesn’t really matter. We’re all just gonna, you know, get along, try to get through this together all in one piece, you know, regardless of our family’s of our background. So, for the most part, that hasn’t been really an effect on my, my college experience at all, which I’ve appreciated.

Kamila
That’s good. So, one last thing I want to do before we finish up here is, I asked this of everybody, I want you to give like two pieces of pieces of advice, one for the current high school students, they can be any year current high school students, what would you tell them now, just give them advice in general to either enjoy high school, make the most of high school, prepare, prepare for college, whichever you think is most important. And then right now, for students who are either going into college or are already in college and are kind of confused and lost and don’t know what they’re doing, what would be the one thing you could say to high schoolers. And one thing you could say to current college students?

Allie
So for current high schoolers, I would say and I hope this doesn’t contradict too much what I believe I said a little bit earlier about being committed to your extracurriculars. I think there’s a fine line where obviously, yes, you want to be committed, and yes, you want to be involved, but you can’t box yourself in. And I think that was one thing I really regretted coming out of high school was I kind of realized for the end of senior year, I met these really awesome people in my classes or just through like general senior year happenings that because I had been so involved in the theater and the performing arts community, I had kind of really not opened myself up to making these friendships and making these connections outside of that community, which, when I got to the end of high school, I really regretted because I ended up meeting these people. And they’re people that I’m still friends with to this day. But there are people that I could have been friends with, you know, from the get go freshman year had I not just been so 100% laser focused on the extracurriculars that I was involved in. So yes, commitment is important. But I think the big piece of advice I would give to high school students is keep your opportunities open, don’t box yourself too much into the same can be said for academics, don’t box yourself too much into one area of academics you really like or one extracurricular you like a time because chances are, there’s a lot of really amazing opportunities or people waiting for you outside of that. So just keep yourself open to as many opportunities as possible.

And yeah, I don’t know, maybe just like, step a little bit outside of of your comfort zone with that, because that was definitely something I wish I had done more in high school. And if I can give any advice to myself in high school, that’s, that’s probably what what I would have said, um, for college kids, so many things. I mean, I think I touched on earlier that first semester of college is really hard. And that’s okay. And that’s normal. And that if you’re in your first semester of college, and you’re feeling like, nothing is going right for you, like so many kids go through that I went through that it’s so common, and it’s just a part of the college experience. And hopefully, it’s something that you will ultimately look back on as what made you stronger. And you know, you’ll get to the place you need to be no matter how long it takes, you will get there socially, academically, like just have that faith in yourself. So I would say that that’s one piece of advice. And then something else I just want to throw in is, I think, the best piece of advice I’ve ever received. I mean, it’s kind of life advice, but I think it can really be applicable towards college is it’s never too late to change your mind on things. And that can be applied to your major. I thought I was just going to be an applied math major. And then I realized, you know what, maybe this isn’t exactly what I want to do. Maybe I kind of want to do something else. And then for extracurriculars, if you are involved In a club that you’re not passionate about that you’re not getting anything out of, don’t stay there join a different club. And the same thing can be definitely definitely said for friend groups, which is really hard. But if you are in a friend group that is toxic that isn’t making you a better person that you don’t you know, that you aren’t excited to be a part of Then branch out make other friends, which is definitely way, way, way easier said than done. But I just think the the main idea of all that is, you never have to feel like you are stuck in something that you can’t get out of, you ever have to feel like you’re so committed to something that you can’t escape it. And this is maybe even taking it to the extreme. But if you’re in college, and you don’t feel like college is the right path for you then explore other paths. And that’s okay, you know, you never have to be so set on a path, that it’s too late to go down a different path. I think the best example of this was one of my teachers that I got a recommendation letter from the year after I had him as a teacher, he quit teaching and went to law school because he just decided he didn’t want to be a teacher anymore. He wanted to be a lawyer, and then he wanted to go into government. And I think he is, you know, he’s someone obviously I said before I look up to and I respect a lot, but I think he is such a good example of no matter where you are in life, whether you’re in high school, or whether you’re in college, or whether you’re in your 30s, you can change your life path. And so I think when I like came to that conclusion, myself in college, it was very big for me, because I think it took a lot of the stress away from, you know, the stress that we generally feel in everyday activities, I think it kind of took a lot of the pressure off there. But it also reminded me to just sort of keep my mind open, keep my eyes open for different opportunities and paths to go down. Because you know, you never know it could come along, it could be a different opportunity, waiting for you. It could be the right one. So sorry, that was a lot. I really thought that

Kamila
was that was really good. That’s really interesting. Thank you so much. And one question popped into my mind. I meant for this to be like the end, but one question popped into my mind. So you are in the stem like field and you’re going to pursue STEM unless you change your mind in the future. So I heard this somewhere. So depending on what your major is, or just relative area of study, your GPA matters or doesn’t matter. And for STEM people, do you find that your GPA is an important component when in college like does it impact? Perhaps job opportunities, internship opportunities? Do you find that stem people have more pressure to keep their GPA up than someone who pursue something in the humanities?

Allie
I think it depends a lot on what you want to do after college. I don’t think it matters as much as high school unless you are looking to go to med school or go to really competitive grad school programs, then I think GPA definitely is something that’s important. For me personally, I as of right now, don’t think I want to go to graduate school. And I think much more important than my GPA is like the skills I’ve learned in college so just trying to practice my skills in like different programming languages as a computer scientist. I know that’s pretty specialized, but I would say GPA definitely for some people it matters but for me personally, I’ve not found like the pressure to keep a crazy high GPA anywhere near as intense as like the pressure that I think a lot of high school students face with you know, that number that GPA.

Kamila
Okay, okay, very interesting. So thank you so much for coming and staying a lot when I thank you so much for like, you know, staying around and being interviews is really good. Thank you so much.

Allie
Well, thank you so much for having me and I you know, I know I said this in my emails you but I this is such a good podcast. I really wish I’d been able to have something like this when I was going through the college application process. So sorry if I rambled on some of these questions, but

Kamila
no, it’s fine. I love when people room. It was really fun

Allie
talking about college experience everything and thank you so much for for having me on and for doing this. Of course. Thank you so much.

Kamila
And yeah, bye bye. And that concludes my entire interview with Allie make sure to subscribe so you know when new episodes are released. Also check out my blog, a college kid.com on there I write about various college topics. And other than that, I hope to see you in the next one.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai