Mehrshad was accepted to multiple universities, but decided to go to UMBC instead of taking hundreds of thousands in loans.

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 mer shot. So could you please introduce yourself?

Mershad
Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Mershad Devin. I am a third year student majoring in Biology and Physics on a pre med track at UMBC. And I’m also caught, I have the privilege of serving as a elected president of our student government association, as well for UMBC.

Kamila
So we’ll get into your kind of extracurriculars at UMBC a little bit later, but let’s start with when you first started in high school in middle school, when you first started preparing for college, so who was it that initiated the process? Was it you? Or was it pressure from your parents or you saw your friends you know, starting preparing, and you said like, oh, maybe I should start as well. So when did that all happen? It

Mershad
was a mixture of it was a mixture of all of it right? So every everyone in my life in high school and middle school kind of had an influence in you know, the path that I was going to take in college. I’m a big part of it was my parents, they wanted me to go to medical school and I wanted to go to medical school as well. But um, you know, they kind of pushed me to go to medical school a lot. And a lot of my friends also wanted to go to medical school. So that path was you know, paved for me from the start. And, you know, in high school and in middle school, I didn’t I didn’t do much. I didn’t do that well in middle school, but on my freshman and my seen sophomore year in high school, I kind of slacked as well. But my junior year and my, my senior year, I started you know, really, really buckling in and taking a lot of APs and, you know, studying for sh T’s and AC t’s just so I can get into a good school. And, you know, a lot of my friends didn’t even want to go to UMBC um, you know, they mainly wanted to go to Yundi or on, you know, one of the other big schools like Thompson’s big USM schools like Towson, Salsbury um, yeah, so I was like, one of the only one of me and two of my other friends were the only people that I knew from my high school that went to UMBC. But, um, we’ve been loving it ever since.

Kamila
So, did you always have in mind that you would go to a school in Maryland? Or did you ever think or maybe your parents asked you like, Oh, would you ever consider going out of state to some sort of school?

Mershad
Yeah, so I actually did apply to, um, you know, a few schools, absolutely. Maryland, of course, I want to stay local, just so you can stay close to family in case something happened, you know, but, um, I Yeah, and also did not, I did not want to also pay for the out of state tuition as well, that was a big problem. A lot of schools that I applied to that was, you know, out of state, the tuition was a lot. And, you know, it was just not something I could afford. Um, so I decided to stay local,

Kamila
was your like family in that position where you’re not rich enough to pay the tuition, but not poor enough to receive significant financial aid out of state, like middle class basically.

Mershad
So, um, I would say, a little bit lower than middle class maybe, um, you know, I do receive some financial aid, I do receive a, you know, a generous amount of financial aid. But I’m I’m also taking out loans myself, besides, uh, the work that I do in school that I helped to, you know, pay for school? Um, yeah, but my family contribution to my education is zero to none. You know, I’m either I’m either getting grant scholarships, or, you know, taking out some loans or paying for school myself.

Kamila
I see. Okay. Okay. And did your parents kind of make that clear to you that it would just be more prudent for you to go to UMBC. And since you are on the pre med, just, it’s wiser to go to UMBC and then branch out somewhere else?

Mershad
Yeah, so my parents were actually you know, all they wanted the best for me, they actually wanted me to go like to it you want one of the best schools like John Hopkins or Cornell, or, you know, one of those Ivy League’s, but, um, you know, I, I personally chose UMBC. Just because, you know, it was a smaller school. It was more homey to me, if I if that makes sense. You know, at orientation. I just, I just loved everyone. So I was like, Yeah, I really want to go here. But um, you know, they, they told me that, you know, don’t worry about money, like, Go wherever you want to, like, as long as you know, you’ll get a good education, you’ll be able to pay it off later on in your life, but I just didn’t want to take that on. Right. I didn’t want to like come out of undergrad with like, $20,000.

Kamila
That is a problem nowadays. Okay, so we can start we can, you know, talk about the financial aid process a little bit later on. But let’s go back to when you started preparing for high school. So can you tell me a little bit about your high school transcript and so you said you kind of blocked off freshmen and sophomore year so what did you do in your junior and senior year to make it up?

Mershad
Sure. So my sophomore and freshman year I did not take a lot of APs. I was taking maybe an honors class or two. Um, I had a few B’s I, you know, I wasn’t I wasn’t thinking about my future for college all that much. Come junior year, um, you know, I saw that everyone was hustling and getting ready for the SH T’s and AC T’s. And you know, I’m taking a lot of AP classes just so you can transfer to college with a hefty amount of credits. And you know, I decided to do the same. So I took 70 PS my junior year, I’m going from zero to Yeah, the the previous years, I was taking one I was taking AP NSL. And I remember that transition being really, really hard. But it was also really, really fruitful for me, you know, just I pushed my limits. And my, you know, I increased my potential as a student and honestly was fruitful. And that was the first year I’ve ever gone straight A’s and all my classes. Which is interesting, right? That is very interesting. I know, I know. Um, yeah, that was a year when I decided to, you know, just be active in my school community. I you know, in high school, my junior year, I started doing a lot of extracurriculars as well, um, I started a few clubs on my own. I was also part of, you know, the varsity coed volleyball team. And, um, I was also doing theater on the side. So I was just, I was handling all these different things, just like you get into a good school. And honestly, that translated into my senior year to like, I started taking the same amount of APs. I think, if I remember correctly, I took 66, APS, my senior year. And, um, you know, continued with all the extracurriculars that I had.

Kamila
So, okay, that’s just blowing my mind. Like the average students freshman sophomore year. And then you go into junior year with a bunch of APs. And like, I don’t know which school you went to, but like, the school I go to in Maryland is very competitive and like a, like a really serious thing. So how was it for you just managing your time from going from zero to seven and getting straight A’s in those and then having a bunch of extracurriculars on the side? So how did you manage that? Did you sleep?

Mershad
So I did, I did get some sleep. So I was busy, from seven to seven. That that was my daily life, you know, I every day, right? Because I had practice Saturdays and Sundays. So my weekends weren’t even like, you know, my weekends. But honestly, I loved it. For me personally, you know, the years before I did, I didn’t have like, a sense of purpose, you know, I just went to school, I came back, and I played Minecraft, till 12am. And, you know, I did some homework, and then I went to sleep, and then the day repeated again. So it was just really boring. And, you know, bland, my freshman sophomore year, that’s why I decided to change things up just because, you know, I, I’m personally a person that, you know, grows the most and face of pressure, and, you know, in face of challenging myself and pushing my limits, so I decided to do that. And honestly, it was really fruitful. And I could take on more the next the following year. So I was basically preparing myself for college, because I was hearing how heavy you know, the workload for college courses are going to be, and I knew that AP AP courses were, you know, the closest to the to what an ideal college experience is going to be like, so that’s why I decided to, you know, prepare myself for AP. And I’m going to keep going, keep going. No, go ahead. Okay. Now, in terms of time management, you know, you know, it was hard at first, but you get you get used to it, right, just because you know, since you’re in high school, you have, you have that time, and you have that slot to experiment and learn. And you know, I did that. And it was it was it was fruitful.

Kamila
Good. That’s good. So did you end up taking AP tests for all of those classes? Or at least some of them?

Mershad
Yes, I did take AP tests for most of my classes. Yes.

Kamila
And so what was the average score that you got?

Mershad
So um, I got the lowest like, I was threes. Um, I don’t know what the average score was. But I do know that I went to I went into UMBC with a hefty amount of credits.

Kamila
That’s good. Yeah. Because you ended up taking like, 13 In the end, right.

Mershad
I think I had a total of 15. By the time I graduated. Yeah. Oh,

Kamila
yeah. Including freshmen. Yeah. Okay. Good. So with those credits, did you have what intention? Did you have with them? Did you intend to graduate early, maybe and save on tuition? Or did you just want to get rid of some classes, like the common classes everyone needs to take and then just go deeper into your field of study? So what was your intention with taking all those APS besides, you know, having a good transcript?

Mershad
So, um, it was a lot of it was a lot of reasons, right. So first of all, money is something, you know, a credit that I can take in high school for free, is $1,000. And I’m saving college, you know, so that was, that was something that I wanted to do. Um, but also, you know, I didn’t want to graduate early, just because the school that you know, UMBC is giving me a four year scholarship, and it’s a hefty scholarship. So I want to, you know, you want to I want to use that as much as possible. We maybe get like a minute or two. So I wanted to decrease my workload in my undergraduate career. And, you know, that was the easiest way to do it. And I’m I did, I did, I did come out with about, like 46 credits, which put me ahead a year, but that way i spanned out, you know, the rest of my major credits within within like the four years that I have. So instead of taking those 17 credit semesters, I took like 14 credit, and you know, I was doing comfortable. Yeah, I was doing a lot of extracurriculars on site as well.

Kamila
Okay, that’s good. Okay, let’s move on to another part of your transcript, which would be your GPA. So I’m pretty sure you had an unweighted and weighted. So can you tell us what those two were? If you remember them? And on what scale? Because scale is important, and it differs for each school?

Mershad
Sure. I think for my if I’m not mistaken for my high school for my for my unweighted was on 3.71 out of out of four and four my way to was 4.2 out of five,

Kamila
or two out of five, and was that about average, above average or below average for the schools you’re applying?

Mershad
I think it was, okay, so I applied to a myriad of different schools. I applied to some ivy League’s I applied to some, you know, schools out of state and places, some schools and state, they all had different requirements. But, um, for UMBC, I know it was about average, or maybe a little bit above average.

Kamila
Okay, okay. Okay. And then for the IVs, you need to have like a four point. So it’s

Mershad
literally so many for those schools.

Kamila
It’s completely different story. Okay, so let’s move on to the extracurriculars which you started also loading into your schedule junior senior year, so and you said you started some clubs, too. So can you take me through the major extracurriculars that you ended up putting on your college application?

Mershad
Sure. So for my college application, you know, my theater was my theater experience was a big one, just because I did you know, three years of theater, different productions, different things, leading roles, supplemental roles, and it taught me a lot. And you know, I just, I put that on one of my essays, and I use that a lot in my college application. I was also president of a charity organization, which was, you know, it was called paws it worked with them, close shelters, animal shelters, and are in our community and raised money for it. I was also president of our Asian student association, which, you know, was a cultural organization in high school. And it was like one of the biggest, it was one of the biggest, you know, organizations in my high school just because we provide a free food and a general body meetings, and everyone wants to come to that. I also managed and I managed the girls volleyball team, um, I went to Northwest High School in montgomery county. So our volleyball team, our goal for our team were like four times state champions, and they needed a lot of managers, I did that as well. And aside from that, my junior year was when I did a semester, I think, a semester and a half of coed varsity, but I had to, you know, relax, just because I have so much going on with, you know, SHGs college applications stick a piece out, I was taking my other extracurriculars. I was like, I can’t do this anymore. So I you know, I just let that go. But I still had a lot left on my plate that I shouldn’t I could have focused on. You said

Kamila
theater was like, really special Q so I’m guessing you did theater because you obviously like theater, but what exactly did you learn from there? Like, what? Did you learn any skills? Because in every extracurricular, you learned something? Yes, you know, whether it’s a job or you’re running an organization, which we’ll talk about, too, so what did you learn from there.

Mershad
So, um, for from theater, I learned a lot of social skills, and a lot of, you know, um, communication, communication is key, right, just because you’re communicating with a director with a dance directors, with other actors. Um, and I also learned how to be organized and you know, just organized within a group. Like, for example, if you had dance numbers, you know, that takes a lot of organization and, you know, coordinating with other pute your other peers. So, um, you know, and besides that, it was just a lot of like, communication skills, on experience, like, my field has nothing to do with theater. So in terms of experience regarding theater, like I don’t, I can’t apply any of that to my, you know, daily day studies, but um, it taught me a lot of communication skills.

Kamila
Okay, and what about the the organization that you ran? So how, first of all, how did you get to that position? Because you started your junior year?

Mershad
Um, yes, so two of them, I started my junior year, um, and it’s stayed throughout to, you know, my senior. So, um, how did I, your question was, how did I start?

Kamila
Yeah, how did you start and then like, how did you climb yourself up to that position? Because a lot of people who get to the top or people who started like freshman year or something, or sophomore year, and then by senior year, they’re like, at the top or vice president or something?

Mershad
Sure. So it was a similar thing. It was a similar concept in my high school with the big organizations like for example, the honor societies, right. You start as a freshman year you take like a you know, Secretary role and then you rise up to you know, President, Vice President or whatever, all for my clubs. I know that they were were both created in the same year that, you know, that I, I ran for, like, I helped create the clubs that, you know, Iran. Like, for example, on the Asian agency association was created in tandem with one of my best friends that you know, almost also passionate about that. I was like, okay, yeah, we can do it. We can do it, we can run it and it’ll be fun. And same with paws. It was like one of my other friends that we decided to, you know, create the club ourselves.

Kamila
Oh, I see. Okay. Okay. That’s good. That must have looked amazing on your college application. Okay, and you mentioned one thing when you’re talking, which I completely forgot about, which is LSAT. So you said you took the LSAT. So can you tell me the preparations you had in taking the LSAT? And then what did your final score your super score end up being?

Mershad
Sure. So I actually didn’t like take any LSAT prep classes. I didn’t even study much for it. Just just just, you know, education I received at northwest high school. You know, that’s, that’s what I used for it. On my high score. Not not, what is it not super score? My high school not super score was 1420 I think and a super score that was like, 1450 or something? Um, so not the best, but you know, definitely above average. But um,

Mershad
yeah, study. That’s, that’s, that’s pretty good. Yeah.

Mershad
No, you know, this was like, my math. My math skills are really, really good. You know, I got like an 800 and a math, but my English was really, really hard just because I was, you know, foreign students. I didn’t know much English in high school. So it was just like, you know?

Kamila
Yeah. So you were a foreign student? Did you like, immigrate here? Yes. So

Mershad
I guess so I moved here on my seventh grade, I moved here seventh grade, yet, middle, halfway through seventh grade, all from Iran. Um, it was it was it was really, really interesting. Because the cultures are so different. I didn’t know the language. So assimilation and you know, just like assimilating into the culture was really, really interesting and

Kamila
fun. Oh, that’s interesting. So did you make that a bigger part of your application? Like, did you kind of highlight that in your application, because a lot of students when they’re like they immigrated, or perhaps they had parents who immigrated and they need to, like, help their parents out in the new in America, they, they write about that? Or they like, try to highlight it. So did you do the same? Or did you try to avoid it?

Mershad
I was, I was actually not a first generation, you know, US college student, my dad actually went to school here and in grad school afterwards, and then moved back to Iran and started a family. And then we came back here, when I was about 12, I actually chose not to focus on, you know, on my immigration status, and, you know, the, the, you know, my experience coming into us, just because I personally felt that my other achievements, like my academic and my extracurricular achievements, were more highlight worthy than that. But um, you know, that’s definitely something that’s really important to, you know, tell your colleges once you’re applying just because it does, it does, you know, leverage you against a big amount of students.

Kamila
I see. Okay, that’s, yeah, that’s good. Because a lot of people do write about it. So it’s kind of like, should I not write about it? Because it kind of general and stuff. Yeah. Okay, so let’s move on to your essays. And then I have, and then we’re gonna move on to the colleges that you considered and applied to and stuff. Sure. So did you apply common application for most of the schools?

Mershad
Yeah, so actually, I only did common application I did not do coalition now.

Kamila
What was the idea behind your common app essay? And how did you kind of approach it?

Mershad
So my common app essay was actually about um, it wasn’t the best essay honestly but it was about you know, I’m one of our lead actresses and um, you know, and theatre and I just tied her work into my own work and you know, I just like started with you know, describing the way she acts describe how you know, the audience see her and then you know, describe how I aspire to be someone like that you know, someone who is you know, super ambitious super, you know, this this girl was amazing, but like everyone liked her everyone liked her. And you know, I just she was so well rounded and she actually ended up going to Colorado Colorado School. And you know, that’s a person that I want it to be like I aspire to be ambitious and you know, successful like her so I wrote my college essay around that and um, yeah, it was like a page and a half it wasn’t the best essay actually did not spend all that much time on my common app which I regret heavy heavy heavily. I you know, my essays were not the best but um, I’m what I’m assuming, you know, coming to school was my extracurriculars and my AP scores and stuff.

Kamila
Okay, and then what about the different supplementals that each college? No, they require you to like a why would you want to come to this school? Why do you want come to this school? Or how do you think you’re gonna contribute to our school? So how did you handle those and did you take those more serious Then the common app essay,

Mershad
again, um, no, just because I was also like, you know, facing some personal problems during the time that I was, you know, some familial issues that during the time where I was applying to college, and aside from that I was taking, you know, a lot of on for high school, so I didn’t have much time to focus on my common application. I know, for my essays, I didn’t put them much, you know, effort into it, they, they still ended up being good, just because I had each essay reviewed by you know, one of my English, my English teachers, or, you know, my AP Lang, my AP Lit teacher, um, they silver, very well rounded. But the idea behind them are that when that strong, we were in that, you know, you know, that, that that good, and that’s something I regret, right? If I went back right now, I would, I would definitely like spend more time on my application, and try to get to those big school appeal to those big schools.

Kamila
And then, okay, so we’ve gone through the different components of your application. So what I want to do now is can you take me through how you created a college list, like the colleges that you wanted to apply to both in state and out of state? And then one thing I want you to answer is something I’ve been like I’ve been introduced to and I’ve been thinking about, so when you have a student who has a lot of APS, has good grades has strong extracurriculars, you would expect that they would apply to maybe like hire harder to get into schools. And then so I’ve been introduced the introduced to the idea that schools that are less selective, you know, safety schools, or maybe like, moderately selective schools may reject a student because they know that they’re not their first choice at all. So like, I’ve, I’ve been kind of worried about that. I’m like, what, I don’t want to get reject lmdc, because they don’t think I’m going to go there. So take me through the process of creating a college list. And then did you have that kind of worry? Or did you ever think about that?

Mershad
Sure. I actually, that was very interesting to me, because I feel like, you know, a college would fight to have that very, very well rounded students, even if they you know, even if they think that they’re going to another school. So that was, that was actually the first time I heard that it’s really interesting to me. But um, for me, personally, I, you know, the way I went about selecting my schools was that recommendations first of all, like, I look at what my friends were applying to, and, you know, what, what programs that they had. So I can tell you a list of the schools that I applied to actually I applied to, um, if you really, really hard to get into schools, and a few safety schools, and then a few in between, um, you know, I applied to Cornell, which was, you know, Ivy League actually visited a campus beautiful, beautiful campus. Um, I applied to John Hopkins as well, um, Vanderbilt, Ohio State University, George Washington, George Washington University, and UMBC, and UMBC was my safety. Um, I got into GW Vanderbilt, and Ohio State and UMBC. But I chose to go to UBC to save more money just because GW was like, 80,000 a year Vanderbilt books even more. And then Ohio State was like, 50,000 a year, so I was like, not just gonna go UMBC, which is like, 20,000 year for me.

Mershad
Well, you got into Vanderbilt early.

Mershad
Yes. It was interesting. I was like, Is this a mistake? Like, why am I why did it happen?

Kamila
And you said that your parents were like, Oh, don’t worry, you know, just go to the school that you want. So when you did get into GW, which is a, I think it’s more selective than UMBC? I think it’s around like 40 percentage. Yes. Now, and Vanderbilt is obviously like, very hard to get into. So did your parents ever say like, oh, you know, you got into these schools, there are good schools, you should like go? Or Did did you have that kind of battle? Or were they like, okay, just choose the school that you want to.

Mershad
So my parents actually, like, my parents are pretty, like, they initially were really involved in my, in my school career, like coma Middle School, and, you know, um, maybe earlier in high school, but on after that, they kind of like, you know, separated themselves from, you know, my school, um, they still have some influence on a daily basis, just because, you know, they want me to stay on track and do well. But um, they were like, they told me not to worry about money. They were like, you know, just go to a school that you think is best for you go to a school that you think is best for you. But they didn’t say that, you know, they wanted me to say a local to Maryland just because, you know, they wanted to be around me, just because they had their jobs. I didn’t want to lose that. But um, yeah, they were supportive of whatever school that I went to, I actually went to orientation to UMBC with my mom, and she was like, this is a beautiful campus, like, you know, if you want to go here, I’m all for it. And I was like, Yeah, sure. You know, it’s close. I like to school, so might as well.

Kamila
So, did you apply? So you apply to like the top schools? Did you just apply to see if you would get in or kind of maybe consider, because I know a lot of people are like, let me just apply to Harvard. Let’s see if I’ll get into Harvard, you know, and,

Mershad
basically, you know, the thought process that I had the only top Will I really really want to go to go to was Cornell and dust because you know the the campus is amazing it’s so beautiful they have a waterfall on campus I’ve seen it or not, but it’s amazing. Um, yeah, that was like one of the main schools that I wanted to one of the main Ivy League’s I wanted to go to top schools, but um, I didn’t have much, you know, preference just because I knew whichever school I would go to, I would, you know, make my own path and be successful in whatever way I can. So, um, I was just basically, you know, hoping to go to a school that was very well structured. And, um, you know, UMBC is one of those schools that was very, very well structured and organized and superstructure. So I was like, Yeah, this is where I want to be.

Kamila
UNBC is still a very good school, like, I thought I, I’m thinking like, here, it is, like, my safety school or whatever. And I think a safety school is about 70. For me, it’s like about 70% 6570. But then when I looked, it was like, 50 some percent. And I was like, Oh, this is no joke. I need to actually like, try UMBC is good. So and Maryland schools are just good in general. Yeah. And one last thing, so you never considered applying to UMD because I think like every Maryland student, just like, hey, let’s just apply, you know,

Mershad
no, I actually never considered applying to UMD just because I you know, majority of my school wanted to go to UMD and I just wanted to get away from my high school. I did not I did not want to repeat high school and going into UMD was going to be high school 2.0 For me, so I just kind of straight away from that. I was like, No, I don’t want this. And I actually didn’t want to go to like I you know, at first I didn’t want to go to UBC just because you know the thought the conception behind it just because it’s a commuter school. It doesn’t have you know, a love life. A live social life. Sorry. But um, you know, it’s, it’s certainly not true. But um, yeah, but people say that just because it’s a smaller school and you know, you’ll need a big bigger school. So people automatically assume that but um, you know,

Kamila
people tend to say that about smaller schools that are not like prestigious private schools. So yeah. That wraps up part one of my interview with Mashad. Make sure to subscribe so you know when part two will come out, but other than that, I hope see you then