When I was in high school, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. This was partly because I was in debate and wanted to advocate for people, but it was also a process of elimination. At the time, my future job options seemed to fit into pretty narrowly defined categories, and law seemed most appealing. I didn’t discover that people go to grad school to study things like post-violence literature or Twitter language until I got to Yale.
Since applying to college, I have observed so many different ways to do life after college that I wish I had known about sooner. There are so many internships/fellowships/opportunities out there, but sometimes it’s hard to find them or even know where to look. I have benefited from the insights of people who are one step (or many steps) ahead of me in schooling and careers, and I want to pay it forward. I started this blog to help make the college experience more transparent people who aren’t familiar with how elite schools work.
Recently, I’ve been reminded of what amazing people I go to school with. When we’re all together, it’s easy to slip into impostor syndrome and think that what you do isn’t special. But we’re all at least one step ahead of the people who will apply/come after us. That’s worth talking about!
Inspired by this tweet about being forthcoming about the ways you’ve succeeded in the past, I’m launching a new blog series under the same name which will feature people who are doing/have done interesting things.
Forthcoming
In order to make this series a success, I’ll need your help! If you’re a high school student/first year who has specific questions, get in touch to suggest topics for interviews/blog posts. And if you’d like to be interviewed, please fill out the form below!
While a disproportionate number of the interviewees will be from Yale, this isn’t a Yale-exclusive series. I’d love to speak with people from a variety of backgrounds. Here are some things I’m particularly interested in (but feel free to suggest something else!):
- Applying to college
- Alternate paths in higher education (transferring from a different university, gap years, etc.)
- Adjusting to college (study strategies, resources on campus)
- Fellowship/scholarships application advice
- Internships (application advice/experiences)
- Student orgs that aim to make higher education more transparent
Update: running list of Forthcoming Interviews
Interview with a Linguistics Researcher (Shayley Martin)
Interview with a Writer at Penn (Angela Ji)
Interview with a Mechanical Engineer at Yale (Kristen Henry)
Interview with a Percussionist Who Made Drum Corps (Steven Simmermon)
Interview with Sophia Puang, Freshman at Swarthmore (Likely English Major)
Interview with Ashley Talton, Sophomore at Yale (Majors in psychology on the neuroscience track)
Interview with Chianna Cohen a CS and East Asian Studies major at Barnard College
Forthcoming: Interview with Daniza Tazabekova an FGLI student at Middlebury College
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