Ashely shares her high school experience, and how she was nominated as a Posse Scholar, which covered her tuition to attend the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
Transcription
Kamila
Hey college kids. This is just a reminder to subscribe if you have not already done so and check out my blog college reality check.com. Other than that, I hope you enjoy my interview with Ashley from the University of Wisconsin Madison.
Hey, college kids, welcome back to my podcast who cares about college? In today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing Ashley. So if you could introduce yourself. Hi, everyone.
Ashley
My name is Ashley Chung. And I come from Washington DC. And right now I am studying at University of Wisconsin Madison, where I’m majoring I’m double majoring in conservation biology in community and environmental sociology, and I will be a sophomore this year.
Kamila
Oh, so you haven’t even been on the campus, have you?
Ashley
Not really during COVID. Um, my freshman year I was on campus and in the dorms. So it was definitely an experience being at school during COVID. Um, and I didn’t have really any in person classes until second semester where I had one in person class. And that was kind of rough. I would almost like fall asleep almost every single class just because like I wasn’t used to it. And I don’t know something about that room. But, um, yeah, so freshman year for me, was definitely not the regular experience people go through in their college first two semesters of college. Um,
Kamila
I don’t want to go I don’t want to go into too much detail, because we have to get through college app, but I’ll definitely, because you just said you were a sophomore. I was like, Okay, so you’ve really been on the campus. Okay, so let’s start from the very, very beginning. What were your at least expectations going into high school? Did you like, were you thinking of college immediately, were you planning anything out going into high school like, I’m going to take these courses, I’m going to do these extracurriculars and such. So
Ashley
I actually grew up in Canada, on the west coast. And it’s a little bit different. There, I think people are more prone to staying local, and colleges also less expensive. So going into it, I didn’t have super solid plans. For what I wanted to do, I kind of just like, took the regular classes that my school suggested. Um, but then, it was weird. Because after my 10th grade year in Canada, I left and moved here to America in DC. And here, it was completely different. Like, the way the college system works is so much more intense and like competitive, I think. And so I was sort of thrown into it, because like junior year, is when you kind of, well, at my school, I went to a school that was like pretty rigorous about college prep. So they kind of were like getting us into like LSAT prep, and like thinking about what colleges and like thinking about what courses and like APS to do. And so they were very, like, they were really like, strict about having us think about what we want to do for college. And so junior year is sort of like, when I had to start thinking about everything, and it was kind of overwhelming. But yeah, I guess going into it at the beginning, I really had no idea what I wanted to do or where it’s gonna go, I was like, I’ll probably just go to like the local like, like, the local university, in my city, UBC, and just like, go there and like stay at home. But I wasn’t really sure. And then I came to America. And it was just like, all of these options. And all of these different tests. Standardized testing is one thing that like,
Kamila
was just you don’t have those in Canada. Not really,
Ashley
like we had, I think my year they got rid of the provincial exam. And so that sort of would be the equivalent to the LSAT or AC T. But for Canadian schools, if you’re in Canada, you don’t need to submit any test results from that kind of thing. So it’s complete.
Kamila
That is much more laid back than the American school system. Okay, so before we get into like the classes and such that you took one thing, can you tell us quickly your demographics, you know, like gender, race, socio economic status?
Ashley
Yeah. So I am Chinee my family is Chinese, my parents, my grandparents immigrated to Canada and America. So, my parents and me and my brother grew up In Canada, um, and then move to America. So yeah, and I’m also, I also go by she her pronouns. I’m, I’m 19 years old. And I don’t know what else is there. Take sling.
Kamila
Are you like, would you say like your middle class?
Ashley
Oh, yeah. So I would say yeah, I would say that I’m like, middle class. Yeah. Yeah. are like in real estate, and that kind of thing. So
Kamila
yeah, definitely just a quick so we know like you as an applicant, I guess we could say how like the admissions officer would see. Okay, so let’s get into school stuff. One thing I’ve always noticed like was people who move during high school that and I’ve had people who move from like different states in America, so they’re quite similar with the familiar with the system. But for you in Canada, moving from Canada to America, how was like the academics different? Was there a program you were enrolled in, in Canada, that you came to America and found out you couldn’t do? How did how did they kind of like mess up your academic, I guess, journey we could say in high school.
Ashley
So in high school, I attended three different high schools, which is kind of a lot. I did. My first so in Canada, high school actually starts in eighth grade. So it’s five years long. And I did two years at like, my local, regular high school. And then I and then my 10th grade, I moved to a different school to do a special program called trek, which was an outdoor education program. And so that was interesting because it they really like they, it was like school was a joke. We didn’t like really learn anything except, like outdoor skills. It like our French class was like online and very, like self directed. So like, you can imagine. We had math like two times a week, like it was very, not academic.
Kamila
Was this in Canada, that you were doing this with? Yes.
Ashley
In Canada. And, um, instead, we would like go on, it was cool. We did like four trips that were probably like two or three, two to six days long. So we spent a lot of time like outside just like surviving. Like, I had to build an an ice I had to build. We hiked okay, we snowshoed up the side of a mountain and then built snow shelters that were like eight feet tall and slept in them for two nights and had to like cook outside. And like sleeping sleeping bags in this like snow shelter, when it was like below freezing and snowing.
Kamila
Is this a normal Canadian experience?
Ashley
No, trust me are much more normal Canadian High School experiences and what I went through, um, but that 10th grade year was very much like outdoor focused and not school focused at all. Um, and so going into school in America was very different. Especially because I moved to Washington, DC, where the school system is really like, messed up. It’s interesting, because they have the most like, expensive private schools where like, you know, Obama’s kids went, but then same time, there’s really underfunded really neglected public schools that were like, it’s mostly families of color that like have to send their kids there, and they just have no other choice. And so there’s a system called Public Charter, which is like a little bit better, but also not great. And then there’s one high school in DC that is application based and not based on where you live, which is where my parents wanted me to go. And that’s called School Without Walls. Um, it’s, I think it’s like a one of the best like Blue Ribbon schools or something in the nation.
Kamila
And so I went to Blue Ribbon School is Oh, okay.
Ashley
I think a Blue Ribbon School is basically they just have it’s basically just ranking like the best schools public schools in the nation, I think. I don’t know what the criteria is for it, but it’s like a pretty um, well recognized.
Kamila
Like status.
Ashley
Yeah, pretty well recognized status. Like I think schools out walls is one of the top ones that on the list, so like, they bragged about that a lot of my school, um, but basically what it was is an application based magnet school for humanity. So like, I had to do this big application process to get in I had to do an interview, I had to do a test. I had to do more tests. And then I got in, um, which was crazy because like that kind of, like my parents basically said like Oh, if you don’t get into the school, we have to like move to a different neighborhood where the school is like better, and you can just go to that. So that like, was very stressful because basically where we would live was being determined by if I got into this school or not. And I did end up getting in a, and it’s a small school 600 kids, they’re very on top of it about like academics, like everyone is super involved in lots of sports and like clubs and led things. Um,
Kamila
can you describe the system they have for like, academics is an AP system, do they have an IB system or some other curriculum?
Ashley
Yeah, so it’s an AP school, and everyone is forced to take AP World and AP Lang. And then you have to take at least two. I think you have to take at least two in junior year and then senior year. Um, and I think, yeah, so they had, yeah, that’s the system that we used. And then we would have, we did like, LSAT in school, and like lots of LSAT prep, and stuff like that, like we had isn’t normal for schools to have an LSAT prep course like that,
Kamila
honestly, I go to I don’t go to like a top school or what you’re describing a Blue Ribbon School, but I do go to a top public school and they have an LSAT prep course. For like the average school. I haven’t. I don’t know. My school is also rigorous in academics. I don’t know if it’s the norm or not. But we do have an LSAT prep course.
Ashley
Yeah, so we have LSAT prep course that people took. And our cart counselors were very, very involved in our college application processes. And like, we had I think we had a list like we had to list out. I don’t know everyone and it’s also interesting because it’s also the culture at my school was to be very like on top of your college applications.
Kamila
Is it the kind of school that sends many kids to top schools? Is that like the expectation?
Ashley
Yeah, pretty much um, people at my school like gone into schools like tufts Brandeis like brown all that like Cornell like people in Yeah, people it was there’s a lot of imposter syndrome because we are from my school. Um yeah,
Kamila
I guess right now we can go into like the classes that you actually did take and like just the use of you were kind of forced to take some APS so can you tell us how many APS you ended up taking by the time college apps came including senior year? And that if you did take the AP test, what did you kind of average on those
Ashley
trip? Um, so I took so going into junior year, I only took two and they were pretty easy. I mean, not okay. AP Lang is like I would say like mid for APS. And then I also took AP environmental No, AP, okay. I took AP Lang and then AP AP Human Geography, which was like super easy. And then I think I got a four it was I it was I got a four and a five. I don’t remember which was which, and, and senior year I took AP environmental science and AP Lit. And I also got a four and a five, but I don’t remember which. And that was probably like, I did probably the minimum of what kids at my school should do. Like I took the easiest route. Everyone else probably did. Three or four or five, and they took like actual aps that were hard. Um, so I think for my, my, like, in comparison to the kids at my school, I was pretty much like coasting. And then yeah. And that was like, considered like, the minimum I guess, I don’t know you got
Kamila
into college anyways, it’s fine. It’s fine. Those days are behind you. Okay, so now let’s go on before we go into LSAT, a CT prep, quickly, do you remember what your unweighted and weighted GPA were? So you submitted to colleges.
Ashley
I don’t know what my unweighted was, but my weighted GPA was like a four point. It was like a my unweighted GPA. Okay? I don’t know my unweighted. My weight is weighted 4.2. Like over four
Kamila
or over four is weighted, I believe on weighted, so one out of 4.0.
Ashley
Okay, so I don’t know what my unweighted one was. I think it was 3.9. And then my weighted was 4.27 or something like that.
Kamila
So you were pretty good student getting mainly straight A’s. Yeah, yeah. All right. Okay. Now we go into a CT a CT prep. So which one did you take? And when did you start your preparations for it?
Ashley
So I did not take the A CT, I took the LSAT. I did the PSAT in junior year, and then took it once spring of junior year. And then I took it again. Um, fall of senior year, and I’m pretty sure I only took it twice because I was just like, You know what I’m done with this. I think standardized testing is a scam, and I don’t care about it. So I’m just gonna do it twice and get what I get. And I did do a little bit of prep work for both. Not that much. So like, I didn’t take a course. I just had like my Princeton Review book. And that was it. And I would do problems like sporadically and then I ended up getting I saw my first PSAT. I think I got like a 1260 or something. And then by the end, the last SAP I took was a 1360. I think so like, yeah, um,
Kamila
she was 1362. The last one was 1360 to superscore. Fifth, I’m asking you to remember a lot of this happened.
Ashley
I think it was the I feel that I don’t know this. I think it’s good. Do you want me to like, see if I can find it.
Kamila
That would be ideal if you could give us exact numbers.
Ashley
Okay, I’m going to try and log into my College Board account. It’s been a while, okay. So let me Okay, I will re explain this all to you. So, I took my PSAT in 11th. Like junior year, I got a 1260. My English score was 710. My math score was 515. And then I did LSAT at school, spring of junior year, and that was a 1340. My English was 720. And my math was 620. And then, my last LSAT I took was fall of senior year, and that was a 1360. My English score was a 700. My math score was a 660.
Kamila
Okay, okay, so you were like, a close to 1400 with your super score in the end? Yeah, I guess so. Okay, okay, that works that works out. I guess you can go I do the fun stuff, which is extracurriculars. Before we get into like the actual college app. So again, I want to know, moving from because you only spent really two years of high school in America, and extracurriculars. I mean, it’s what we’ve been told for a long time, you need to develop them over time, you need to do them for like, a few years. So moving from Canada to America, where any of your like extracurriculars messed up where you forced to stop and then start something completely different junior year?
Ashley
Yeah, pretty much like in, in Kanellis, what
Kamila
you did in Canada, and then later what you did in America. So in
Ashley
Canada, I feel like, I kind of just did what I wanted to, like, I just did stuff for fun. Like I did softball in 10th grade, and that was like, pretty much the only thing I did just because my program took up a lot of time. Um, and I also liked did piano. Okay, so I played piano, eighth and ninth grade. And I did like music festivals and like theory, and like exams and stuff like that. So that was pretty intense. And then 10th grade, I did softball. So like, I was really lucky with my extracurriculars, I would say, and then junior year when I got there, like everyone was so involved, and I felt like I had to do more especially to like, get into college. Like that was basically the main reason anyone did any extracurriculars was like look good on your college resume. And so I ended up joining the so in junior year, I ended up joining the green team, which is like the environmental club. And then through that, there was this one, like random email that I got sent about this nonprofit. And they were basically starting up these, it’s called teens dream. And they were starting up these hubs, virtual hubs for kids, it’s for for kids all around like the world basically, because they were virtual. Um, and they were starting up a responsible consumption and production hub, which was basically about like plastics. And so I joined the plastics hub. And it since it was a very new, like, nonprofit, like, group launch thing I was able to get in in the early stages and kind of like, get a leadership position pretty quickly. And I ended up being like the teen ambassador of that hub. And so I did that with like two or three other teams and we had an adult mentor and we would meet every week for like an hour. And just like worked on different campaigns. And that was a really cool, unique experience. And I think it was very valuable, because that’s not like a very conventional high school extracurricular to have. And I think that that nonprofit work was what like made my college application stand out. Um, and so what I did with that is like work on campaigns. So we tried to get like a reusable takeout to go system, put into the new Amazon headquarters in Virginia, because that was like in the area that I lived. And so sour after several years, actually, so Junior, after a year of being in that we did a pitch to Amazon, and like, did a presentation to them in this like board room, you had to like wear fancy clothes. And it was very intimidating. And at first they said, No. And then after that, some like leadership stuff, got switcher, and I became the ambassador for the Zero Hunger hub. But I was still involved with the plastics hub with teens dream. And the plastics have ended up getting a $25,000 grant to start the reusable TO GO Box program. And so by the time I was in college, like last year, they had gotten an intern. And they were kind of getting the beginning of that campaign, like actually coming to reality. So being a part of that, at the very beginning was really cool. And I think like, that was what made my college application like special, I guess.
Kamila
Oh, one thing. So for a for us, I guess you could say $25,000 Seems like a lot. But when you’re like starting something as starting a new idea, $25,000 doesn’t seem is not like a lot, it goes out quickly. So is that the case for you guys? Or was 25,000? A lot? A lot?
Ashley
I’m not I think it was like not really enough. But it was a pretty good amount of money. And like, just about your high school is getting that done is pretty like, like, you’re proud of that, you know?
Kamila
Yeah, it was it was big. And when you were in you, your majors are kind of really related to environmentalism. Did you know that you wanted to go into that field?
Ashley
Not at first, but then as I did it more I, I sort of was like, Yeah, this is what I want to do. And also, I think I was playing to my strengths, because I was being strategic about it. Because like, obviously, maybe I could have wanted to choose something else. But like, because I already had that opportunity. In my resume. I was like, might as well go with this and sort of market myself as like, that sounds bad. But yeah, I basically marketed myself as a college app says you got to market yourself as someone who exactly and it’s so much about, like, knowing what your strengths are. And just like knowing how to like, make yourself look attractive to universities. And you have to be really fake about it. You said
Kamila
you were on a green team at your school. So what did you do there?
Ashley
Not much, honestly, I just went to like meetings in the mornings. And like, we would do like fun activities. And then like host like a clothing swap. And like, sometimes go we did I think we visited like a farm. Honestly, we really didn’t do that much.
Kamila
I was very minimal for college app purposes.
Ashley
Yeah, exactly. Kind of just like mix it up. And then oh, sorry. You just make stuff up. And then you. You just make things up. And like really, you know, Polish and scrub until it looks great. But that was okay. Sorry. I just realized I did not go into senior year. So that was like the two okay, junior year, I did the green team, and then the nonprofit team stream with the plastic tub. And I also did Ultimate Frisbee in the spring. And then the following year, senior year, I did all of those things. But I added SGA. So Student Government Association, and National Honor Society. And in SGA, because there was not that many like leadership positions in there already. I sorted like stepped up and helped coordinate like school dances and like plan themes and make posters and things like that. So I did that. I’m trying to think oh, and I also did yearbook photography, both years. And the second year, I was the head yearbook photographer. So that was also a big thing of like, you know, being a leader
Kamila
for college app purposes, because you’re like what you told me like all the details, you don’t have that space to write on your college application. You really have to like cut down to like, I guess you could say the most significant parts. So for for example, the nonprofit that you were in for green team and for like your other extracurriculars. What did you write for your college app? Like what did you What did the colleges see when they read your application?
Ashley
Um, the things that I emphasize most were the nonprofit work that I did and the yearbook Photography. And the reason I chose those was because yearbook photography, okay, first of all, both of them I was in leadership positions and like when you’re in leadership that stands out a lot. And then also I chose to do the nonprofit because that like I said before, that was like a more unique extra curricular to have on my resume. And then for yearbook photography, that was sort of to show like, well roundedness, I guess, um, and like, showing that I wasn’t just like, good at one thing, but like, did multiple. Um, but yeah. And then I guess the SGA thing was also like bigger too, because there were specific actions that I could like, write down that I did.
Kamila
Alright, alright. So I think we can go now to the actual college app, the essays, the recommendation letters. So let’s start with the essays. So did you apply common app to most schools?
Ashley
Yes, I did apply common app. Um, so
Kamila
what schools did you choose? What schools did you end up applying to in the end?
Ashley
Um I don’t even remember okay. I think I I actually have a list here. Let me pull it up. I had a spreadsheet. So I applied to University of Wisconsin Madison, University of British Columbia, which was like in Vancouver, UCSD, University of Rochester, Fordham University, CU Boulder, and Temple University. And that was a mix of I’m trying to think so. Honestly, I like didn’t really have reached schools, which was probably not like a great idea. But I would say my like target schools were UW University Wisconsin Madison, where I’m at. I’m University of British Columbia, UCSD and Rochester, and then my safeties were Fordham CU Boulder in temple. Um, and so with that I applied most half of them through common app, three through the website and one through coalition. I don’t know really what that one was.
Kamila
What’s the difference between common app and coalition? It’s basically similar, right? They have one big essay and then you submit supplemental to colleges.
Ashley
Yeah, that’s right. Um, yeah. And so a little thing about the UW. So I actually applied to UW Madison through my scholarship program, which is called the Posse Foundation. Um, have you heard of it?
Kamila
No. Can you explain to us what it is how you got into
Ashley
E pase, pase pase. That is the whole reason I’m in Wisconsin. Um, and basically, the story goes, one day I was at my church that I go to every Sunday in DC, and this guy, his son, who is like 30, did this program called posse, which is a full tuition, not full ride, full tuition scholarship program. And he basically offered to like nominate me for it. Um, so I got nominated for the posse scholarship in August of my senior year. Um, and basically what Posse is, is okay. Posse markets itself as a academic and leadership based scholarship. And what they do is, they’re based in major cities, all around the country. So you know, DC, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and they hold rounds of interviews for high school seniors, three rounds. And they match students from these cities to go to different colleges around the US on full tuition scholarships. And so DC for example, partners with Bucknell, Lafayette Suwannee, University of the South, Rochester, UW Madison, and Lewis and Clark, I believe is a new one. And so depending on the city, there are different colleges for every city. And from each city, they have a posse, like a group of 10 people go to every school, and so as a high school Senior I went through three very intense, probably emotionally scarring, interviews,
Kamila
tell us about the interviews, what did they ask you?
Ashley
And it was different every round. So the first round was a huge group interview, there was like 200 people in this giant room. And we basically did like team building activities and like, had discussions about things. It wasn’t really interview questions. And they were just like observers there. And they also kind of just told us about what policy is. And then once you did that, they tell you if you get in the second round, which is one on one with like a posse staff member, and they basically asked, they asked me to rank which school like in order of the five, five or six schools, which one I wanted to go to, and why in like, 100 words, or something. And then they also asked about, like one or two extracurriculars that were like, like, special to me or like that I wanted to talk more about, they also asked me like, oh, what’s like a special skill you have? Or what’s the time you like, solve the problem, like those kinds of things that was probably like a 20 minute interview. And then once I got past that, they actually told me what school they wanted me to go to. So I didn’t get to choose. I put Wisconsin as my second choice. I put Rochester first. And they match me with Wisconsin. And they basically said, you are going to apply early decision to University of Wisconsin Madison. But you don’t know if you’re getting in, because you still have to do the third round interview. And so
Kamila
your question, does the interview get you into the school? Yes.
Ashley
So you do. First round interview, second round interview, you get matched with the school third round interview, is, you know, you’re a finalist for the specific school. So by the third round interview, I was a finalist for University of Wisconsin Madison. And when I walked into the room, there were 30 finalists in that room for University of Wisconsin Madison. And we all kind of did more like team building activities. We did like a skit. And there was like some small group rotational activities. And there was also like these big shot people from the university like they’re to choose us. And so once we got through that, they pick 10 of us out of the 30 to go to UW Madison for full tuition scholarship. And so after that is when I knew and that was in December, so
Kamila
you didn’t have to write like a 650 word essay, write all the supplementals. It was just the interview process.
Ashley
No, sorry, I forgot about that part. So during the interview process, after the second round interview, when they tell you your finals for school, you apply if you apply to the school directly through common app, or whatever website they tell you to. And then in addition to that, there’s the interview, the third round interview.
Kamila
So the interview has like a huge weight on whether you get into the school, the interview
Ashley
is what determines if you get to the school or not like your application at that point is basically just like a formality almost, like obviously, they still look at it and read it. But what decides is the interview. And so posses interesting because you can, it’s most common to get nominated by a alumni from posse or your school counselor, you can ask your school counselor to nominate you. Or you can also self nominate, which I haven’t really heard of anyone doing that, but you can do that. So like anyone who wants policy can apply to it. Um,
Kamila
what are the requirements? Is there like certain criteria you need to meet to be eligible for policy?
Ashley
I don’t believe there are but what they say is that they want kids who are they say like, we want to accept people who are overlooked by the traditional college application system or something like that?
Kamila
Um, these are very broad terms.
Ashley
Yes. So here, let me see if I can pull up the website and like tell you the exact language leaves. But my thing with Posse is that basically, what it is, is a minority scholarship program and they don’t really say that and like, there, it’s not actually that because they have like, people who are white passing and people who are white in the program, but a lot of it is just the purpose. Okay. And me saying this is like very like, I feel like they don’t really want us to, like say this, or like, they don’t want they’re, like I could get in trouble for saying this is basically what I’m saying. But like, I don’t know, their whole. Like, the reason I got poss like if okay, if I was the exact same applicant to posse, but I was white, I would not have gotten this scholarship. Like they specifically chose Use people of color for each posse, like okay in my posse. Okay, I’m trying to think of like, this is so complicated and like, a lot
Kamila
because it’s targeted towards minorities. It is it
Ashley
is targeted towards minorities like they don’t. Okay. Posse does not explicitly say they target minorities but they do. And in my posse, there is like two people who are white passing but have some other race, like in their heritage that is not white. And everyone else is either black or Latino or something or Asian, you know, and every posse sort of, it’s almost like they have a quota for every posse of how many people of color of every race they want. Like, my posse, for example, has, I think, like five black people to white passing, but like Latino, Pacific Islander people, one Asian person, and like, two Latino people or something, I don’t know, sorry, my numbers are really off. But like, every policy is sort of balanced in that way. Like, there’s no policy, that’s all white kids or all black kids, or, you know, like, it’s very diverse, and they specifically have that.
Kamila
No, we can’t I understand your audience understands as well.
Ashley
Right? Um, but they don’t really say they really should. Like, they don’t talk about race really at all in their application process,
Kamila
but it’s evident that they target towards minority races. Exactly.
Ashley
Okay. Okay. But I think it’s sort of messed up, but it’s a full tuition scholarship. So what are you gonna do?
Kamila
So you’re Are you good now, because of a full tuition scholarship? I can be graduating debt free?
Ashley
No, because I still took out federal loans to pay for my housing.
Kamila
Okay. Okay. But still, tuition covered is very
Ashley
nice. So I am very thankful for posse. And I am in no way trying to, like, say that policy is bad. I’m just saying they’re misleading sometimes.
Kamila
All right. All right. And you said that you apply to you gave us like a bunch of other schools that you apply to, but you apply to Madison, on early decision. So how did you apply to the other schools?
Ashley
Posse, I had applied to all of those schools are most of those schools. Before I had known that I was a finalist for posse. So they made me withdraw my applications from all the other schools. So
Kamila
you don’t even know whether you got into those schools or not? I don’t at all. Okay, that’s very interesting process and never hurt, but you are in Wisconsin Madison. Now, let’s get on to your college experience. So can you tell us about University of Wisconsin as a school, like, what is its population? Where is it located? Is it located in like a rural, suburban or like a city area? And what is like University of Wisconsin known for? Do they have any special programs or some sort of field that they’re really strong in?
Ashley
Yeah. So University of Wisconsin, Madison is a public state school. It is, which means it’s very large. So I think it’s about 35,000 people. And it’s located in Madison, Wisconsin, they capital, Wisconsin, which is the it’s pretty much a college town, but it’s also the state capitol. So it’s kind of weird, but it’s pretty small and the surrounding areas very rural. And Madison is considered like the liberal town, the most liberal place you can get in Wisconsin. So that’s also an interesting fact. Um, what else did you want me to say?
Kamila
Is there much to do around campus? Like when you’re not in class? Are there places you can go places to eat things to do?
Ashley
Yeah, so University of Wisconsin Madison is located on Lake Mendota. So people like to swim there when it’s warm, or just like walk by the lake, go to the Union get like food, there’s lots of food places to visit. There’s also the state capitol, which is kind of just like a beautiful place to like sit on the grass. And that also provides a lot of good, I guess, like legal opportunities for students interested in that. Also, UW Madison is known probably for its engineering program, which is I think, one of the best in like the public schools. It’s also a big 10 school. I don’t really know what that means. But yeah, you Oh, you don’t mean Madison is also known really, really well for its football team. People are huge.
Kamila
Alright, so engineering and football is like what Wisconsin is known for?
Ashley
Yeah, I would say so. And it’s very, very white.
Kamila
Like so much. percentage wise
Ashley
Okay, UW Madison is oh. Oh, interesting. Okay, so it’s actually 65%, white 7% Asian 5% Hispanic or Latino 3% two or more races. 2% Black or African American and point 2% American Indian or Alaska Native and point, zero 7% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Um,
Kamila
but does this feel like it’s predominantly white to you? I mean, it is
Ashley
even, that they it’s only 65%, that feels a lot more than it is, like, there’s a lot of people like it’s a state school. So basically, everyone who goes here is from Wisconsin, and many people from Wisconsin are white. And a lot of them come, not all of them, but a lot of them come from families with money. And I would say that, like the general student population is pretty, like, pretty easy going and like, party, UW Madison, I think is known as the number one party school in the nation. So kidding me really, you can imagine what that’s like, people go hard here, because it’s rural Wisconsin. Like, there’s literally nothing else to do. But for people that drink so you know,
Kamila
can you tell us about like the, I guess you kind of went into it. But can you tell us about the school culture? Is it? You know, very rigorous are people constantly like, I’m gonna say, at each other’s throats, but is it really competitive, competitive academically? Are the students much more like chill and laid back?
Ashley
Okay, so I would say everyone in Wisconsin, UW Madison is known to be like, the best school. And so I would say everyone who goes to my school is smart, but I wouldn’t say everyone is the most educated. I feel like people can be sort of ignorant and like, not super. They don’t really, I feel like a lot of people at my school, like, don’t necessarily care about like, big issues, and like, they’re not going to be I feel like I’m just being so mean. Okay, I need to like, think about how I want to phrase this. Sorry,
Kamila
take your time.
Ashley
I think people at my school, the culture is very much here to have fun. It’s very work hard play hard, I would say. So people like do their work, they stay on top of what they need to stay on top of. There’s a lot of research at my school, actually, which is really cool. Like, if you’re interested in something, they’ll have research for it, because it’s such a big school. Um, but there’s definitely a culture, it. Party culture at my school is definitely very, very big. Like, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who doesn’t party.
Kamila
Okay, have you party?
Ashley
A little bit? Yeah, it’s sort of, I think a lot of people go into college expecting not to do anything. And then they go to college, and they have a lot of fun.
Kamila
Interesting, interesting there. And one thing that I want to ask people now who are in college now is how your school handled, I guess, was a communication with COVID, which I guess reveals a lot about the true colors of a school. So how did the University of Wisconsin Madison handle just everything related to COVID? How were they in communicating with students? How were they in giving students who were you know, maybe they were lacking like food or housing, how were they helping those students during COVID?
Ashley
My school was a hot mess during COVID. So originally, they started on a bi weekly testing schedule. So me and my roommate would take turns every week going to get tested, and then a few weeks and they switch to weekly. And that went on for a while. And then I think in September, I believe. I do not remember the timeline. Okay. Basically, first semester, got there, August few weeks, it was fine. testing schedule change to weekly, and then people started getting really sick. And every it was, since my school is a party school, you know, people didn’t care about COVID And would just go out and party and not wear masks and see a bunch of people. And so we ended up having to quarantine we basically had a lockdown for the second half of first semester and they ended up sending us home in November. Okay. I’m sorry, this is like, I have a terrible memory. So yeah, basically, halfway through the semester, we were in lockdown. We were really supposed to leave our rooms unless we were supposed to get food or like go to class. And so that was really lonely and sad. And a lot of people probably there everyone knew someone who got COVID There was a probably a point where like 10% of the student population had it and they didn’t Don’t do a good job of providing good quarantine space like there were quarantined dorms. And they ended up running out of space in the quarantine dorms and having to overflow people to hotels. I had one friend who’s in a hotel and she said she was in there for three weeks by herself, not seeing a soul. They wouldn’t let her have medicine. She could hear people next to her crying and screaming for like days. I’m so very traumatizing experience. And I don’t know how people survive that. But then other people had really fun quarantine experiences and would like. Okay, that’s a lie, not fun. But they would have roommates in quarantine, that weren’t out there in the dorms, and they would all just like hang out and be sick together. And some people were being put out of quarantine before they were even better.
Kamila
And this was all the school’s decision like to put people together in hotels.
Ashley
Yep. So they had people getting out before they were better and still had symptoms. They had people who were staying in quarantine, even though they weren’t sick, it was a whole mess. And they did not have enough space for everyone. And people complained people wrote to the university complaining, but they didn’t really nothing really happened. And you know, by the end of second semester, like everyone just went home. And some people were sick, so they couldn’t go home, they had to quarantine or they were forced to like leave and quarantine at home. It was a mess. And so second semester, they kind of fixed it. And they basically had this app where it was called saver badgers. And it was connected to your testings information. So we were tested every three days, every 72 hours. And if you didn’t test, if you didn’t stay on that schedule, your badge would turn yellow. And you couldn’t get into any buildings because they had people sitting at the entrances of every building, checking your badger badge. And so it was either green, yellow, or red. Green meant you were fine. Yellow meant you hadn’t tested red meant you had to you were no red meant you tested positive, so you should be in quarantine. And so they made that really strict. And by that sounds like a good system. It was better, it was a lot better. And less people got sick, people still got sick, they’re still people in quarantine dorms, but it was much better than second semester or first semester. But they must have spent like millions of dollars on testing because every single student was getting tested two or three times a week without fail. And if you didn’t if you missed a test, obviously you couldn’t get into buildings, but they would also like email you and be like, Why did you miss this test? And they would like have a meeting with you about it. It would be like consequences.
Kamila
So they definitely upped their game second semester.
Ashley
And that’s what they had to do. Because like people at my school were just really irresponsible and like didn’t care about COVID And just party.
Kamila
Is this what you mean by ignorance? Yeah. But are they doing a better job now that you’re back as a sophomore?
Ashley
Well, I’ve only been back as of yesterday. So we’ll see how it is. But I think our vaccinations are pretty high up. I would let’s see. And my school right now isn’t requiring vaccinations just encouraging it. Oh, there’s a lot of people vaccinated. Okay. As of today, there are almost 70,000 Student end employees with at least one of those given. So
Kamila
that’s quite a bit. Didn’t you say the student population was about 35,000?
Ashley
Yeah. So I, but that’s also including staff and employees? I don’t know I would, okay, my estimation is probably like 80 or 90%. vaccinated.
Kamila
Alright, that’s pretty good. It’s pretty good. Already, let’s talk about a few more things because you’re still like kind of new into college and your one actual year of college was COVID. So it doesn’t really count as like a real college experience. So let’s just talk about a few more things here. So number one is dorms. Tell us about the dorm situation in University of Wisconsin.
Ashley
Sure. So UW Madison has a lot of I think they have like 13 or something different dorms. And there’s basically they’re basically split into two neighborhoods. Lakeshore which is quieter. I’m near the lake and then I’m like, why am I blanking on what that I live in this neighborhood? I
Kamila
know. I could tell by the noise.
Ashley
Sorry. Okay. So it’s split into Lake Shore which is quiet and se which is like downtown. And traditionally I would just explained Lakeshore as like, much more peaceful, much more quiet, more connected to nature, which is where I lived first semester. But SE is definitely way more social. And you can make a lot more friends and do a lot more things because it’s also close to State Street, which is where all the food and the shops are. Um, and also near like the frats and stuff, which people really like to go to for parties that started so awkward. Why did I say that? Okay, se is basically just near the shops and near the frats. And everything interesting Lakeshore is just near the nature and like the peaceful quiet stuff. So I would say the people who go to Lakeshore are quieter, more nerdy and introverted, and people in se are more social and less school focused,
Kamila
do you get to choose where you live.
Ashley
So for dorms after you get in you, either you can like request a specific roommate on the portal, or you can just go random, and you rank all of the dorms. So you kind of have to do a lot of research on what dorm you want to live in. And they’ll pick they’ll they’ll pick for you. So you just get assigned, I got assigned my first choice, but that was because I requested to be in a learning community. So every dorm has like sort of a little section that’s like one is like, maybe like the greenhouse one is like the Studio One is like the the multicultural Learning Center. One is the languages. School, you know. So if you request to being one of those, you’ll probably most likely get your dorm. And that also can help you like make friends who have similar interests to you. But I lived in Lake Shore, that was my first choice. It was called Liz waters, it was right by the lake, it had a dining hall underneath it. And I was in the women in STEM and engineering learning community. Um, and so through that there were they had some like enriched activities and like group seminar things. And that I was like, decently happy with my decision, the only thing I regretted was being so far from like, the social scene on campus. Like I basically went down to se every single day to like, see a friend or like go to go to like the big dining hall down there like this, like pick up something, you know, there was a lot of times ours and se so like, I personally probably would have gone with, like, I could have gone with a se storm. But I was happy like having my little view of the lake, which was pretty and quiet. Dorm. Um, but yeah, I do know, some people got like their last choice like my friend, who I’m living with now she got her last choice. And but even with that, like she didn’t regret it, even though she didn’t want to go there she went, and she really liked it.
Kamila
And how was it making friends during COVID
Ashley
It was really hard, I have to say like, if you don’t put your, I would say like, really put yourself out there in the first few weeks of college, because otherwise you kind of miss that, like, initial timer, everyone’s figuring out who their friends are. And then everyone sort of like made a group already. And it’s sort of hard to like, find your group of people, especially during COVID. Because most people, everyone I know basically made friends to their dorm. Um, and then like, obviously, you can, like make friends through classes, but virtually that’s not really that possible. So my, all my friends after the end of my freshman year were primarily from my dorm or for my scholarship program posse. Because, you know, it was really
Kamila
the only people you knew, right? All right, all right.
Ashley
It was hard, but it was doable. You just, you just have to really like take initiative and like put yourself out there and like be brave and like introduce yourself to people.
Kamila
Yeah, we’re coming to an end here. There’s one last thing I do with everybody. So that is advice. Number one, what advice would you give for high school students who are and this can be literally anything, you can just give general life advice, something specific to college apps. And you haven’t really gone through much of college and the part that you have gone through is not normal. But if you would like you could give some college advice to perhaps those coming into college now. So those two groups of people.
Ashley
So for high school students, I guess right now you’re kind of starting your applications up. I would say do everything early and do a lot of self reflection. Like I journal a lot. I write. Sometimes I will like write out my feelings or write like reflections or contemplate different things. And just like learning how to write is super, super important for yourself. jobs, and knowing also who you are as a person and how to play up your strengths, and know what is attractive about you to other to colleges and to other people. Knowing that and not just knowing that, but knowing how to communicate it effectively is super important. So get as much help as you can from other people because like, honestly, college, college admissions, people aren’t going to know, if you like, got your essay editor over 1000 times, they’re not going to know that, like you got help. So just get as much help as you can. Ask your friends, ask your teachers. Oh, and definitely suck up to your teachers, form those relationships with your teachers, be nice to them, treat them like people not just like things who give you assignments and grade you like that’s super important knowing how to interact with your teachers well, so that obviously, they feel like valued, but also so that you can get good college application letters of recommendation. So yeah, those are the main things I would just say like, know yourself, know how to communicate what’s good about yourself, and suck up to your teachers. Be friends, with your friends with your teachers not suck up to
Kamila
them. Alright, do you have any advice for college students, you don’t have to because you haven’t gone through much of college. But if there’s something you want to share,
Ashley
yes, incoming college freshmen, I would definitely say I already said this before, but really put yourself out there take initiative. I think that’s one thing I didn’t do in college in in, in high school, I didn’t always do the work to like, make opportunities for myself, I sort of just took them as they came and did what I was supposed to do. But in college, you really have to advocate for yourself, and be confident and know what you want to do and go and do it. So like you, you’re the one in control of your life at this point. And you have to go and make friends if you want friends. It’s always a decision that has to be made. It’s always you actively doing something, not just doing what you’re supposed to do. And like people like and that goes the same with like school too, not just friends. Like, you have to go to your professor if you need help, like they’re not going to baby you through everything and hold your hand and tell you when your homework assignment is due. Like you have to keep on top of all of that yourself. And so just learning how to be self sufficient is very important. And just not being afraid to try something new or ask for help,
Kamila
I would say Alright, that is very good advice. Thank you very much for coming, Ashley and I hope you have a good rest of your day.
Ashley
Thank you. Good luck cutting down all of my back and forth. Yeah, it was fun. I’m glad we got to dog. Yep. Bye bye. Okay, hi.
Kamila
That’s it for my interview with Ashley. I hope you enjoy it. Make sure to check out my blog college reality check com. Next week, I’ll be releasing an interview with a sophomore from Drexel University. So subscribe so you do not miss that. Other than that, I hope to see that