Sophomore year I realized that Stanford pay for everything if I got accepted.
just due to social class and how much income was available. I first thought
about applying to a quote/unquote selective university partially to test
myself and to see if I could get in. I didn't apply to Duke because it was a
selective school, it just had the best programs in what I wanted to do and I
wanted that benefit when I left college. Even when I was applying at Stanford
I saw it as like just this huge long shot. I almost didn't apply but one of my
friends said why not you never know, so I'm very glad she said that. But I really
you know just applied almost on a whim.
What were the perceptions I had? I didn't really have any. After I got
accepted though, there were a lot of like oh it's gonna be a lot of different
social dynamics, it's gonna be a lot of culture shock, it's gonna be a lot of
money that maybe you're not used to. What always made me really worried about
applying to a school like Duke was were my SAT scores or ACT scores high enough?
I'm not a very good test taker. I would have really liked to know, have known,
that scores are just one component. I really didn't have that many perceptions
about like elite or selective schools because I didn't think they were
places that I could get into and so maybe I guess that was my perception was
just that they weren't for me. These schools that have acceptance rates like
four to five to six percent, nobody is guaranteed a spot here and so you
might as well go for it. I knew they're hard to get into but I always just kind
of had the mindset that if you work hard and you feel like that's what you want
to do and you put everything into it then you can do whatever you want.
I think a lot of students don't apply just because they think it won't be affordable or because
they think they won't get in and I wish I'd known that like it absolutely is
affordable and you absolutely can get in. Ferris is a great school, Spokane
Public Schools is a great district, and so it definitely can happen for you. I wish
I had known to consider other things besides what programs do they offer. I
got really lucky with that I liked how things turned out at Duke. I really like
the campus and the social aspect of it and all, but I really just keep getting
surprises. I'm like oh I didn't know we had that, or I didn't know we don't do
that here, and so that was one thing I wish I had considered. One thing that at
least the academies do specifically is they have a summer camp that you can do
the summer of your sophomore year. And so I went to that and I got so much
information just about the application process from that. I wish I would have
known before that how extensive the application process actually is for the
academies at least, because it's like three or four applications in one.
In the end, when you're applying to these colleges, there are so many other
students who are like you who are hardworking and dedicated and have good
grades and whatever, and what sets you apart is really who you are and what you
write on that application about what you're passionate about and what you've
been dedicating your time to while in high school.
I think back in like October I put in my planner when all the deadlines
were for schools, all the deadlines were for financial aid and for scholarships
and then like also like big test dates that I had, or debate tournaments or band
competitions, all the stuff that I do, so that way like I could look at a calendar
like a month away and say like okay well I'm gonna have two things this week
so like I really need to make sure I budget my time effectively. And that's a
skill that really translates well to college because it's gonna be a million
more things to do. During lunch I would work on my college applications and
before school I'd work on my college applications. So, what that left for me was
not a lot of time to kind of socialize for about two months.
To-do lists are like my thing, so I'd make to-do lists all the time, and then I'd
just get home, look at my to-do list, and then just work down and make sure I got
everything done before I went to bed. But I think organization is just key
with that kind of stuff for me. I did college stuff early. I didn't want to
leave it to the last minute when I was getting caught up with stuff for
semesters and quarter grades and things like that.
So I did as much as I could early. Take time to not talk about college. Like,
that's the question that everyone's gonna be asking you, especially in your
senior year, is where are you gonna go to school, where are you applying? Make sure
that you have time to not think about it and so it doesn't become all-consuming.
It's actually impossible to procrastinate applying to colleges
because if you get to winter break of your senior year and you're just
starting to look at college applications, more likely than not they might need a
letter of recommendation and if you're on winter vacation and you're not near
your teachers or whoever, it can be very challenging to get the application in by
like the January 1st deadline.
I wanted a really good academically rigorous school
that would challenge me, but I also wanted to still be close to the
communities and the family that I was really close to in Spokane. And I think
that is that's that's okay. It is is okay to want to go far from home, but it's
also okay to have home be a factor in your decision.
I got really homesick first semester and I mean I came home for
spring break, but I also think it's something that's
getting easier every day. I definitely, while it's nice to be home,
I probably could have done with not coming home. And it's also I think
something everyone experiences regardless of how far away they are.
You will get homesick freshman year but just push through that first semester and
you'll make your friends, you'll find your new family,
even though you're far away from home. And it makes traveling home all the more
special because you're just so excited to see your family. I didn't have any
issue going away from home, in fact I wanted to. I think that there's strong
value in leaving home. The way the academies work is you get thrown into things
really fast and you don't really have time to think, so I feel like it would
have probably been harder if I went to a civilian college but just being thrown
right into the stress, I feel like, I was able to manage it pretty well.
For the academies, it's basically a full ride scholarship and you pay that back with
service afterwards. You have to do a minimum of five years. And so that
definitely played into like part of why I wanted to do it. Like I wanted to serve
anyway so might as well get something like for it if I can. Financial aid
definitely was a huge part of my decision. I would just advise that
don't let a big tuition number deter you from applying to a school, because you
never know what kind of financial aid that school will provide you. I don't
know if I would say was my number one factor, it might have been the number one
factor for my parents. It was up there, though. I definitely was considering it
and the nice thing about at least a lot of selective schools like Duke is that
they have such big endowments that if you really need the financial aid they'll give it to you.
And so if you apply to Georgetown, Harvard, Yale and you get in they will give you all the money would be
like even accounting for rent, food, travel, etc. And they will get you here
because they want you here. So please apply to these schools, even if you think
you can't afford it because they will make it affordable, they will make it more
affordable than your state school. It was a huge factor of mine. That was
the largest factor, how do I pay for college?
You know, what am I gonna do if I get accepted but I can't pay, you know?
I can't go. So, that was the whole reason I applied to Stanford, that was the whole
reason I worked so hard during high school, because I saw the investment of
four years of work. It's gonna be worth eighty thousand dollars every year