Katee, a sophomore at Swarthmore College, tells us about the chaotic world of starting the recruiting process even before high school, and how her college application process differed than that of a regular applicant.

Part 2 is here

Transcription

Kamila
hey, college kids, welcome back to my podcast who cares about college? In this episode, I’ll be interviewing Katie. So Katie, could you please introduce yourself? Hi,

Katee
my name is Katie chemnitzer. I’m a sophomore at Swarthmore College located in Pennsylvania. I’m from right outside of Princeton, New Jersey, and I am a biology and Political Science double major, and I’m intended for pre med,

Kamila
very interesting double major. So let’s get to that later and start at the very beginning. So in your family, how was education viewed? Were you expected to have really good grades and get into a good college? Or Were your parents more like chill and relaxed on that?

Katee
So my parents always expected me to go to a very high academic institution. And ever since I was young, they supported my pursuits of becoming a doctor one day, and both my parents went to college and attended law school. So they’re very big on higher education.

Kamila
And so was it necessary for you to go to a like highly ranked school? Or did they just want you to go to a, I guess, a good school? Was it necessary to get into like a top 20, top 30 class? Um,

Katee
I think they really wanted me to push myself and try to attend one of the top 20 schools in the country. But I think that they would have been happy wherever I ended up.

Kamila
And also one other thing about your family, did you have any older siblings to look up to in the college process? Like how to navigate it? How to begin?

Katee
I’m actually an only child, so I did not.

Kamila
And did your school provide you like resources and knowledge on how to approach the college process?

Katee
Yes, my high school was incredibly helpful, and really made everything as smooth as possible.

Kamila
So going into high school, and actually one thing, so you said you wanted to be a doctor? Did that influence how you approached High School in the college process? Or did you find that out like later in high school that you wanted to be a doctor? Was it like, early set thing? Yes. So I always

Katee
thought that I wanted to be an orthodontist since the fourth grade, and were some or some sort of doctor were in the medical field. So I knew that very, very early on in my life. And it definitely helped me decide what APS to take in high school and what kind of program I was looking for in college.

Kamila
So now going into high school, I guess we can talk about your classes first, like APs and honors, by the end of high school, how many APS or perhaps your school that I B’s? How many APS or IPS did you have by the end of senior year,

Katee
by the end of senior year, I had six AP classes, and there were no IVs on my school.

Kamila
The end with those AP classes, you said they were kind of like more specific. So did you know that you wanted to make like a application crafted around medicine or just stem in general?

Katee
Yeah, so my they weren’t. My school didn’t offer as incredibly specific APS as some other private schools may have because I went to public school. But I knew I wanted to take AP Biology and AP government and politics. And now it’s directly applying to what I am currently double majoring in.

Kamila
And that’s interesting. So you go to a liberal liberal arts college, did you ever have in mind to go to a university? Or did you always have your mind set on a liberal liberal arts college?

Katee
So I definitely looked at universities and colleges or liberal arts colleges or universities with a liberal arts approach because I’ve always been interested in a wide variety of subjects. And I knew that I couldn’t go to a school where I just took all science classes, I really wanted to dive into the social sciences and the humanities as well. So I sort of stumbled upon a lot of liberal arts colleges that I really liked their message.

Kamila
Okay, so back to those classes on your APs. What was the average score that you received?

Katee
Um, the average would be four. I got two threes, two fours and two fives. And I think Swathmore is taking three of those scores out of the six of the tests that I took.

Kamila
And when you took those APS people take them for a variety of reasons. Number one, probably the most important is It looks impressive on a college application. But did you ever want like credits to transfer over so you can graduate a little bit earlier? Was that like any intention? Was that the kind of the intention with taking APs? Or was it purely just to make an impressive application?

Katee
I would say about 90%, impressive application and 10%. I’m really just having to not take as many introductory level courses when I got to college, and sort of expediting that process, like you said,

Kamila
okay, and it’s kind of related to that. And you’d have to go in detail, but was fine. Were finances ever, like a problem with your family? Or were you did you have more free rein in the colleges that you could attend?

Katee
Since I’m an only child, and my parents had saved up for a while, they just told me to look everywhere, and we’ll figure it out, and they didn’t want. I’m looking for financial aid to be a limiting factor in where I wanted to go.

Kamila
That’s great. That’s great. And so okay, we’ve done APS, let’s move on to GPA. So what was your GPA unweighted and weighted at the end of senior year? And can you provide the scale because every school does it differently?

Katee
Yes, I think so. My school doesn’t use scale, but I calculated it. So numbers wise, I had a 91.5 unweighted and 94.5. Weighted, which sort of, I believe goes to about a 4.1 weighted, and I think, a 3.95, unweighted,

Kamila
and those are like out of 100. Right? When they say 91. They say like 90%. Yeah, interesting. Okay, so let’s move on to standardized test scores now. So did you take the A CT or a CT,

Katee
I took both. And Swathmore makes you record every test that you’ve taken, regardless of whether or not you like this war, and they super score your scores for you.

Kamila
That’s interesting. So if you get like, let’s say, your first attempt on attempt on the LSAT, for example, is not high enough for the school, obviously, it doesn’t fall within their like range, their percentile, and they see that score does not count against you, even if you earned a higher super scored in the end.

Katee
No, they just, they just super score for you. And I think that it ultimately, in their eyes works in your favor, because they’re seeing that you put in the effort to progress, your understanding and your education, and just how it showed how much you cared and how much you want to try. And I thought that was nice, and they’re super scoring, I think was really good for me, because I would do really well on the math section on one test, and not as well in English. And then I would do better on the English and the next one and not as well, math. So my super score was significantly better than my individual tests.

Kamila
And what preparations did you take for standardized testing? And when did you start? How did you start?

Katee
So um, I did, I first took the LSAT just to see where I fell. And then I did an LSAT test prep with Princeton Review in the junior year of my spring and it was about a two or three month intensive and then you take you take the test again on your own and you just study with them for about two or three hours every weekend and then you do studying on your own during the week and it boosted my score by about 90 points on the LSAT.

Kamila
It’s incredible and curious like little question here. Why don’t you take both the LSAT and the AC t so I had

Katee
heard from a lot of STEM inclined people that the AC T was somehow better for them. And so I decided to give it a try and the AC T ended up being better for me than the LSAT

Kamila
Are you really because I feel like the AC T i From what I’ve heard it’s like harder it’s a harder test in general why was it easier for you?

Katee
I think that I really I don’t I don’t particularly know I happen to think that the English section on the AC T is easier because I think that although there are more questions and you have to go faster, they’re not as you don’t have to do as much analysis as you do especially in the reading section on the LSAT and I just I liked how the AC T was set up and it just meshed well with me everywhere I mean to each their own for standardized testing.

Kamila
And just Swathmore require I know they require all of them but do they require sa t and AC t if you took both

Katee
So I think you so you could either just read like report non or report all of them. And I think now with the current state of the world, I don’t think they require any any standardized testing, but don’t quote me on that. They had you on the common app, not necessarily officially sending them all the scores, you just had to report the scores you had. And I think they, they suggest that.

Kamila
Okay, and in the end, how many times did you take both tests? And then what did you get?

Katee
So the LSAT, I took twice and the ACTA took twice,

Kamila
but then twice, and what did you get on the SCT as your super score?

Katee
My super score. So the first time I got 1310, and then the second time, I got 1390. And then for the AC T, my super score out of the two times was 33.5.

Kamila
Okay, that’s pretty good. That that put you in like a good percentile for the scores you’re aiming for. Right? Yeah, yes. Okay. And you didn’t I know, this is a weird question. But a lot of people like I had one interview, he got like a 35 on the A CT. And he took it again, he got a 36. And he kind of regrets and he thought it was really stupid. But did you ever have that like, oh, you know, I should get a 35 I should get a 36? Or did you set like a benchmark for yourself and say, I’m fine after this, like, I’m not gonna bother to take it again.

Katee
Um, I didn’t have a benchmark. I mean, I had a benchmark range that I knew I wanted to at least fall into. And after I had taken the exam, the second time I saw on the AC T the first time I got to 30. And a second time I got to 31. But looking at the individual sections, my super scores at 33.5, which is, which is significantly higher than the two individual scores. So looking individually at my tests, I wasn’t as satisfied as I could have been. But with my super score, I decided it’s okay. I’m done for now. Moving on to common up.

Kamila
Okay. Okay. So we’ve gotten out like the stats, standardized tests out of the way. Oh, actually, one more thing, Subject Test. This is something I haven’t like, gotten really into, but like, I’m getting more interested in it now. So can you tell me what Subject Tests are? Exactly? And why colleges like to see them? If you know.

Katee
Yes. So um, I don’t particularly know why colleges are interested in seeing them. Maybe. I mean, I took I only took the language one to French. And I think, possibly a way to kind of standardize how, or to gauge how a student is with their language, because at some schools, I mean, an A is an A and other schools. A C is an A, for high school. So I think the Subject Tests are the colleges best way besides the AP exams, to really gauge how, how literate a student is in that particular specific field.

Kamila
So like to provide like a blank slate for everyone to start off with?

Katee
Yeah, I think so. But I think AP tests are so are sort of overtaking the Subject Tests.

Kamila
I see. Okay. And let’s move on to the more exciting stuff, which is extracurricular. So can you take me through the extracurriculars that you did in high school?

Katee
Yes. So um, I was president of this club, called Girl Up, which is the high school branch of a United Nations Foundation that focuses on women’s equality and education for women in countries that don’t particularly give them equal rights. And I was a social club, social chair for another club. And I was on to two committees in my high school that just worked with diversity and inclusion in the community. And I played basketball, lacrosse and tennis for my high school varsity teams.

Kamila
And, okay, quick question. I know we’re getting ahead, but were you taken into Swathmore as a athlete or as a student?

Katee
Student Athlete

Kamila
I was nothing Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Okay, so let’s go to the first clip you were talking about which is president of girl up. So can you start me there? Like, when did you I guess join girl up and then how did you eventually climb yourself up to President?

Katee
Yes, um, so I joined my sock. More year because my school so I founded it founder and president my sophomore year with a group of group of young ladies that I was friends with at my high school because we sat down one day. And we realized that there was no club at my school that really did stuff for women outside of our community. And we wanted to change that. And we wanted to find a larger organization that we could work with to really make a difference, make an impact and make a difference. And we stumbled upon grace, which is with the United Nations. And we found it a chapter through our high school. And, and we, we really liked it. And it really flourished. And we held elections all three years. And I was very fortunate to be elected all three years. And it was a great experience.

Kamila
Can you take us a little bit through the process of creating a club? And then for you specifically, since it is part of like a larger organization? Can you take us through the process of creating a club? What are the steps? And then how do you like connect with the big organizations to expand to your school.

Katee
So my school, you have to file a formal request to create a club, through the Treasury Department, and through the vice principal’s office, and you have to get it approved, and you have to set up a formal bank account through the school. And that was, that was where we would for our all of our fundraisers, we would input the money. And then we would be able to send checks or send any of the donations that we received to grow up United Nations. And it was very daunting process at first, because it’s, it’s a lot to create a club, and you really don’t understand how much time and effort it takes to make a club until you’re actually doing it. And it really, it taught me a lot about organization because I had to mobilize a group of people and also get people interested. And it was a it was a really rewarding experience. And it really taught me a lot.

Kamila
I mean, that’s like incredible. And can you tell us a little bit about what you did in grow up as like a club itself?

Katee
Yes. So um, we would engage in community fundraisers. And we would raise money, and hold events and awareness, raising events about basically the lack of equality going on in many other parts of the world, including the United States as well, for women and girls. And so our favorite thing that we would do, we have, we have a nice little town festival, and we love doing a bake sale, because we all got to bake individually, and then do our stand. And nothing really teaches you how to how to raise money and how to be in a club like standing in the cold trying to sell brownies to people. So so that was fun. I really enjoyed some of the fundraisers that we did, and just trying to get creative and come up with interesting things. And can

Kamila
you give a little tip for people who want to go out and create their own club or perhaps join a club and make their way up to President? Like, what advice would you give? Because you did say it was a daunting process. And it’s a huge time commitment. So what would you say to people who actually want to go out and make clubs themselves? Um, I would say

Katee
that having girl up already established a sort and established organization made it a lot more bearable, because we could go on the website and look at what other chapters and other high schools in our state in our country were doing. And we could sort of piggyback off of Ben or brainstorm from the list of ideas and list of community service efforts. So I would say find something that you’re interested and find similar clubs that can help you get a feel kind of a blueprint for what you want.

Kamila
Good there. And one more thing, was it kind of embarrassing or like, I guess you could say embarrassing creating a club just like going out and telling your friends Oh, hey, you know, me and my maid here. We want to start a club. Could you like join or support or tell your friends about it? Did you kind of find it embarrassing to do that?

Katee
Um, I would say no, I think I had a really great group of supporting friends who said, this is going to be great. I think it’s going to be be really fun. And I think I’m gonna learn a lot. And if if I don’t learn a lot, at least it looks good on college applications. So it really wasn’t hard to find a bunch of young women like myself who really wanted to learn and do something and also look on college applications.

Kamila
So in the end was being like the founder and president all three years of girl up like the main extracurricular for your college application was like the one that stood out the most.

Katee
I would say I would say probably that and how involved I was with sports in the community, and like how much time I dedicated to athletics.

Kamila
Actually, let’s talk about your athletics thing, because it is a huge part for you. So basketball, lacrosse and tennis. That’s, that’s quite a like, tag schedule where they like each one season, you just did them throughout the entire year.

Katee
Yes, tennis, fall, basketball, winter lacrosse spring. And I played for club teams for lacrosse and basketball outside of outside of school as well. So it pretty much dominated my weekends.

Kamila
I’m sure it did. And did you like get to state competitions? And I don’t know exactly how sports work. But did you get to like a national level and compete there?

Katee
Yes, well, no, we would attend States every year for lacrosse and basketball and tennis. But the time where I was playing schools, I mean, at schools, club teams across the country was in when I was playing club outside of school. When we play, we’d go to nationals in DC, and we would play all the teams around and just try to get exposure from college coaches to start the recruiting process.

Kamila
Oh, can you tell us a little bit about the recruiting process? How? How does it work? Do you need to be a certain level of an athlete like have maybe have won a state competition or something with your team? Is there some sort of requirement and what do these coaches look for? So I would

Katee
say that your high school team doesn’t particularly matter as much as your club team, because your high school team, especially if you go to public school, it’s just the people who live in your area, whereas your club team are all the people across the state that tried out and made this team and they’re looking for a select probably 10 or 12 group of girls that are tight knit and travel across the country for about four months, in the summer, and towards the end of school and just want to play college basketball. And the recruiting process is really, really intense. And I mean, I started looking at colleges and reaching out to coaches the summer before ninth grade. So I was I was I was looking at colleges and preparing my list of extracurriculars and and my list of classes and try and get good grades since since freshman year of high school, because it is such an intensive process recruiting it’s, it’s insane. It really is.

Kamila
Can you take us through a little bit about your like, own process? So you said when you started, which was I mean, that’s really early, like the summer before freshman year coming into high school? And then how did it go? Would you like go to games? And then coaches would like stand there and you would meet with them after the games? Like how would it work?

Katee
Yes. So um, so you would go to these tournaments, that would be weekends. And basically, there would just be chairs on either basket and college coaches would just sit for however long they wanted to sit and they’d float around. We’d be in convention centers with about 60 chords. So it was that you were seeing I mean 1000s of girls playing and they could look up your roster on any recruiting profile. You could you could go you could just look them up and my recruiting profile had my height, my high school, my high school coach, my club coach’s name, my GPA, sort of like a rough what I’m looking for and if they like you, you they email you if you’re interested in school, which is the best thing to do would be to email the coach and start communications with them. And you can go to a colleges Elite Camp over the summer where you stay over at the college for a night or two and you’re basically just playing basketball for 48 hours and on ramp have teams that they make make make up for you with a bunch of other girls interested in playing and the coaches and the team at that college or university are coaching you for 24 hours and just observing you play.

Kamila
Are you serious, just like playing and playing?

Katee
Yes. And you get to eat at the dining hall, you get to stay in the dorms, they they put you in the worst dorms. And that was that was my life for three years. And it was honestly the most exhausting process you can possibly be in. But it really took me on a journey through looking at colleges. Because I, I knew where I was going to go by this September of my senior year, whereas many people haven’t even decided where they’re applying it by then. So it’s, it’s really interesting to look back on. What what what my favorite college was my freshman year, my favorite college was my sophomore year, and then junior year, and it would change based on the month. And it, it made me start the process a lot earlier, but I really am thankful at how intense it was in making me look at schools and making me figure out what I really wanted.

Kamila
Okay, and by I’m just curious, by that time senior year came around and you had chosen your college, how many colleges had you? I guess, like, how many coaches have you had you talked to by then how many colleges did you go to and stay with and play for them?

Katee
Okay, so I would say I went to about 15 of the elite camps. And

Kamila
so you mean like top 20? Schools?

Katee
No, no about, like schools that I stayed over and did overnights and attended the camps where you could stay on college and just play basketball. For 48 hours, I went to about 15 of those. And I had exchanged emails with 30 coaches 3035. Just because you’re trying to you’re trying to get your name out there and you’re trying to get a feel for what you want and what they want out of you. And some some some of those schools were nothing more than just four emails back and forth. And just trying to find the right fit.

Kamila
And do schools. I’m curious with recruited athletes, of course, in the end, it’s the students choice where they go, but do schools, like ever compete with each other to get an athlete like, oh, we’ll offer you more financial aid, and then the school if you come to our school and play Do they ever do that compete for students?

Katee
Um, I would say especially yes, if they’re in the same conference, like if you have one Ivy League school after you, you have basically all the Ivy League schools after you for a particular sport, because within conferences, you have a very homogenous level of play. So, and they’re also very similar schools. So if you can get into one of those, you can kind of get into all of those. And I was because division one and division two schools can offer you scholarship money for sports, but Division Three, which Swathmore is they don’t give you any money for sports.

Kamila
Okay, and I want to talk more about being recruited athlete and how that affects the college application process a little bit later. But let’s get through the rest of your extracurriculars first. So you did say you were on a couple committee committees during high school. So can you elaborate more on that?

Katee
Yes. Um, so there was the diversity and inclusion committee. That was, I would say district wide because we had teachers, parents and students from I mean, teachers of elementary and middle and high school or high school students, and we had a few high schoolers and the superintendent was there. And we talked about issues in the community regarding diversity and inclusion and things that we could do to make everyone feel like they were valued in the community, because I live in a predominantly white town. And we had to address a lot of things about how we are not as welcoming to as many like people of color in our community and how we needed to implement strategies to get but greater, a greater percentage of people of color in our community and in our school system. Just to foster greater awareness and diversity and inclusion in the community, and it also stemmed past race, it was about being inclusive to the LGBTQ i plus community as well. And also to people with disability. So it was a really eye opening and rewarding group to be a part of, and I really, really valued that experience.

Kamila
And in the committee, would you guys exchange ideas? Or would you more look over? Like, I guess, legislation that was proposed? Or was like gonna be passed? Like, what exactly did you do in the committee? Because you did say there were teachers, there was a superintendent and then some parents and some high schoolers?

Katee
Yes, I would say that. Especially the students and the parents, because we’re not, obviously, we’re not writing legislation, we’re more so like looking over and brainstorming and also being kind of a Petri dish for ideas and gauging how the community will react to things that the district administration was implementing.

Kamila
And I have a question about because, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think every single student knows about like being on a committee for their district. So how did you come upon that position? How did you come upon the extracurricular?

Katee
So I was actually reached out to by my advisor, who I had a really close relationship with word advice, get close with your advisor. And she suggested that they reached out to me and I said that it was something that I would be interested in doing. So they they did go through advisors at school.

Kamila
Interesting there. And what about did you say there was another committee that you were part of?

Katee
Yes. So this one was the food service committee, which worked with dietary restrictions, dietary issues, and students talking to the food service company directly, once a month, with basically the menus, how it’s going for kids how expensive the meals are, and how we can come up with meal plans for lower income students in the district. And so students who had dietary restrictions,

Kamila
obviously, was the kind of the same as your diversity inclusion committee, like there would be parents, high schoolers and some teachers, they’re

Katee
like, Yeah, that one was happened to be all students, which was, which was nice, because I mean, we’re eating the food. So we’re giving our direct opinions.

Kamila
Okay, there. And then did you mention something with social studies related to social studies.

Katee
So I was actually the social chair for another club. So I manage the social media account, networking, but I’m flyers around school and stuff like that, and getting the word out about this other club that I was in, which is called the Global Connections club. And it is in direct partnership with a sister organization in Africa. And we helped raise money and help to create a clean water pump in this village. I unfortunately, did not get to visit this village over the summer, during my soft during my sophomore year, because due to traveling around trying to get recruited, I, I couldn’t go but one of my best friends went and she absolutely adored the experience and said it was incredible to see something that you helped make, like really helping people.

Kamila
And is this like particular to your high school? Or is it like girl up and it’s multiple high schools across America.

Katee
So this one is particular to my high school because one of the science professors is actually from the village. And, and he helped like to create the club and he had connections. So we actually got to have a banquet with the Kenyan ambassador. And I had to meet him. And it was it was really wow, it was really great. And we could have never achieved such things without him. The teacher leading the club,

Kamila
that’s amazing. And did you hold what position did you hold in the club or were you just a member of it?

Katee
So social social media advisor, social chair? Oh, okay.

Kamila
Okay. Okay. Okay, that makes sense. All right. That’s it. frontal, you met the ambassador,

Katee
it was it was really exciting when they had like a gala, in our, in our town, all the members of the club were working the event. And we had a bunch of small organizations also come. I forget the name, but we had worked on display. So they take. So they take the creations like bags, bracelets, things made by women from this village, and we would auction them off and sell them to help raise money for it. And it was it was really, really beautiful. So many works of art and so many handcrafted things. And it was just it was such a great experience.

Kamila
I mean, that is incredible. And I mean, I’m noticing a trend here like you seem relatively, I guess, invested in community service, like with the rd at community service in general. So was that kind of something you happened upon? Or did you kind of, I guess you’d call it strategically planned into like, Oh, I’m going to try to invest a lot into community service and volunteering. Um,

Katee
I would say that community service has always spoken to me because it is something that you can feel a lot of reward for. And it really, I mean, when you’re from a small town in Jersey, there’s nothing better than feeling like you can actually make an impact in the world. And you’re helping people outside of New Jersey outside of America. And I thought these two clubs were, honestly something that I would be interested in. And I’m really happy I did, because it ended up being a learning experience. And it was really great.

Kamila
I mean, it sounds incredible, like the things you’ve done. And I want to get a quick overview before we get into actual like, common app and application. So what did your day look like, as a high school or let’s say in junior year, because people say that is quote, unquote, the hardest year in high school. So what did your typical day look like?

Katee
Um, so, okay, so I would, wherever school seven arrived at 745, go to school until 245. I would have sports practice, through school from three to five,

Kamila
three to five, my God.

Katee
And then I would go home. And if it was in the fall, or in the spring, I would, on Tuesdays or Thursdays, I would have club practice. So that would be from seven to nine. So from five to seven would be I get home, I do homework, I eat dinner, I go to practice, from seven to nine. And I would come home and study and do homework. I want to say until 11. And, of course some nights I would I would stay up significantly past then. But I would say that I was probably in bed by 12.

Kamila
That is three to five my god that is I thought it was such a huge commitment. Are you if you’re part of a club? Do you need to be part of your high school as well? Is that like a no, you don’t need to

Katee
know. clubs or clubs are mainly to get recruited. So there’s plenty of high school athletes who don’t engage in club sports because they’re not actively looking to play in college.

Kamila
Okay, so we’ve gone through basically all of high school and our on the actual application process. So can you tell me how the application process differs for just a regular high school student versus a student athlete who’s trying to get recruited?

Katee
Okay, so in my personal experience, I had narrowed it down to the schools that I wanted to the summer before my senior year of high school, and the schools that I was getting recruited by Swarthmore being one of them. So my process with that is I sent my GPA and my unofficial transcript, and a list of extracurriculars and my standardized tests to the athletic department and they sent them to the admissions office and they did this thing called pre read, where they told the coaches if I was likely to get in or unlikely to get in because they want to make sure that the coaches aren’t having a lot of kids apply that really can’t get in because, I mean, it’s difficult to get into Swathmore and plenty of perspective athletes don’t get in. So they did the they did the pre read the summer for my senior year. And they gave my coach the Okay. And then starting in September, I submitted the Common Application for early deadline one.

Kamila
That’s interesting. So if you don’t get a favorable, favorable answer on the pre read, does that mean you’re not like not allowed to apply on common app like Ed?

Katee
No, it just means that no, it doesn’t, you’re you’re still allowed to apply, you’re still allowed to do whatever you like. The coach of the college will probably tell you that they’re not going to keep talking to you as much just because you don’t have as high of a chance of getting in. But they still tell you to apply to any school you want still apply EDI, if that’s something you’d want and then just let them know if you get in and then then they’ll continue talking to you.

Kamila
Okay, so you’ve sent use what other schools did you send off a pre read to other than Swathmore?

Katee
I sent a pre read to Swathmore college and Haverford College.

Kamila
And do you ever apply to a school like not as an athlete, you’re just applying? Because I don’t know you like the school? Even if you’re not like, particularly scout?

Katee
Yeah. So because I did early decision one at Swarthmore. I got my results back December 15. So if I didn’t get in, I was going to apply regular to other schools before January 1. But I didn’t apply anywhere else, because I was just waiting to see if I got into Swathmore. Because I I sort of committed in the sense where I said I was going to apply early decision to Swathmore and Swathmore only, and that if I got in I would play for the basketball and lacrosse teams. So I did that in September, but I didn’t officially announce it until I got in in December, just because you never know if you’re gonna get in or not.

Kamila
And with being a recruited athlete, I’m saying particular to your case, because everybody’s different. But did you look for colleges based on like, you know, who’s reaching out to me, like, Who do I have a closer relationship to? Or did you look at colleges with other criteria in mind, you know, campus size? What are the things people look for when they look for a college or university? Yeah, so

Katee
I always knew that I wanted to play two sports, or at least a sport in college. But at the end of the day, the biggest thing to me and the biggest thing to my parents was that I go to a school that I really like, regardless of if I play sports. So I really went through my recruiting process looking for schools. For me, personally, on the east coast, high academic, not too terribly far away from home, with clubs and extracurriculars and majors and classroom life that I resonated with, and basically, a student body that I felt represented the same ideals that I shared with them or had. So I chose Swathmore. Because it’s a fantastic school. It’s not too close from my house. I mean, not too far from my house. Incredibly stunning campus and just great programs, small class sizes, professors who really care about you and who just want to and just just full of students on campus who are there to expand their education and their knowledge.

Kamila
And I have another question about recruited athletes. So as a regular applicant, you are competing against the regular applicant pool, but as a recruited athlete, are you competing against a lot the same number of people or is like the pool different? Are the numbers different?

Katee
So I would say it’s a lot more. The athletes really do deserve to be there. And for other schools, maybe division one or division two were like they’re playing on such a huge scale and they’re playing so competitively that they maybe are just looking for school. where they can play sports. I think the athletes at Swarthmore truly do have to get in on their own. They’re not getting assistance from the athletic department or anyone in the admissions office just like sliding their admission sliding application under the table. I really think that they deserve to be there because we’re in the same pool with every other student. Like nothing on my application said that I was going to play sport

Kamila
there. Oh, okay. So you just applied as like any other applicant? Yeah. I see. Okay. And now a little bit into your actual application. So if you don’t mind sharing, what did you apply common application to? Swathmore? Yes. And what did you write for your personal statement? Like, what was the general topic? And again, like the process going through, how did you start? How many drafts did you get there? And how did you come upon an idea?

Katee
Um, okay, so the I wrote three drafts, I mean, three different essays. And the one I submitted a went through three drafts. My high school in the spring of junior year, they have the English teachers have you write a couple of college essays and they and they go through it to make sure it’s grammatically correct, make sure you’re saying things that are appropriate for an application. And I had my parents go over it and make sure it was okay. And my high school English teachers, even after junior year, but so my application essay that I ended up submitting, I wrote about having two moms, being a sperm donor baby, and having 23, half siblings from that, and my experience with hosting exchange students from other countries. And basically, the general premise of my essay was that how I learned that family wasn’t necessarily blood, it was about the people who you love, and who you choose to include in your life and how they make you happy and how those people are your real family. So that’s what I wrote about and I think the prompt was, share something about your life that would strengthen your application, I think it was it was whatever question that was that they prompted you to write about?

Kamila
And did you come upon a topic relatively easily? Or was it like, constantly contemplating like, oh, this, there’s this? Should I be kind of funny in my essay, or serious? Like, how did you kind of struggle with that? Or was it did it come easy to you? I

Katee
knew what I was going to write about right off the bat. Because it’s a pretty unique experience. And you want to write about something that makes you unique and individualistic. I’m taking that kind of approach to it. I’m taking lots of drafts to make to make it heartfelt at some points, but not too. Too heavy, you know, where they didn’t have like a reading hangover after reading it. Yeah, it was, it was hard. At first trying to cut the words down, make it make it less wordy, just really put myself on paper. And in less than, less than the words that they told us. I mean, the word count. Figuring out how there’s like no introduction paragraph is just sort of you get an introduction sentence, and then you sort of got a throw yourself and your whole life experience that you want to talk about, on a piece of paper, it was hard, and that’s why I think a lot of rough drafts and taking it taking it on in sort of, sort of like with a nice time frame around it. I mean, writing something one week and then rereading it the next week, you could hate it and I did that. And that’s why I wrote three different essays and that’s why I the one that I submitted went through like three or four rough drafts and cutting sentences having friends read them, having them say this just sounds weird. Like Kate got a cut it for having other people around you help brainstorm things that you can maybe put in was really the best way to go about it for me.

Kamila
And you also mentioned that in the spring of your junior year, your school required that you you know, at least present something like some sort of essay to go through the teachers in the counselors. So in general, was your score like really tough on college applications? Did they send a lot of people to really good amazing schools there? Because it seems like they really did help you.

Katee
Yeah, I went to a, I mean, really phenomenal public high school that was just on top of students wanted students to have all the foundations and also all the resources to have a fantastic college application. And for the people who chose not to go to college, a great foundation for like life ahead of them. They their classes were rigorous, and they really cared about making sure the students had all the opportunities to succeed. And they really took applying to college really seriously, and so many so many amazing resources. Like I, I can’t even imagine how I would have applied without so many of the things that my schools had had offered.

Kamila
Yeah, that’s incredible. So how did you feel when you got accepted into Swarthmore,

Katee
I was honestly overjoyed. The day that I found out I found out at 7pm. And I had a basketball game when I was supposed to draw and it was our opening game and I played so off so terribly because I was just so focused on oh my god, my application I just kept looking at the clock on the wall instead of focusing and we it was looking like we’re gonna finish the game and I was gonna be able to open it on time and then we went to overtime and I had to go into the the locker room after and I didn’t get to see the news until like 15 minutes after it was released on the portal but I opened it in the like in the gym and I was like I got in and and all my teammates just and all my family and all my friends that had come to the game just were just screaming for me and it was such a such a positive happy memory because basically everything that I worked for and went through with high school and getting recruited since ninth grade had calm and I had gotten into my dream school and it was it was just so incredible.

Kamila
That wraps up Katy part one, make sure to subscribe so you know when Part Two comes out in the meantime, feel free to check out all my other episodes with a bunch of other amazing college students. If you’re interested in more college related content, make sure to check out my blog, a college kid.com But other than that, I hope to see you in Katy Part Two