University Bound: Highlighting Zoe C.

Each year, our graduating students are accepted to universities all around the world. The College Counseling Office works closely with each student to find universities that best fit his or her goals and interests to ensure that s/he continues to excel. With the University Bound series, we highlight some of their stories. This week's interview showcases Zoe C., a senior in the IB program, who will be attending Harvey Mudd College next year.

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Congratulations on your acceptance to Harvey Mudd! Can you share with us what made it your top choice? 

At the beginning of the college application process, I never thought I would be applying to  a liberal arts school—but I ended up applying Early Decision to one! Harvey Mudd is such a unique school which is why I fell in love with it. I wanted to move to a warmer climate, and really wanted to be in California for easy access to big tech companies, so Mudd being only an hour and a half away from Los Angeles was perfect. Mudd is also a part of the Claremont Colleges, so while the school itself only has ~950 students, being on a campus with 4 other colleges, totaling ~6000 students, allows you to have the large(ish) school experience as well. The low teacher-student ratio was also a big plus. TAs don’t exist at Mudd and each class is taught by a professor, which can’t be said at big schools.

Mudd also has a very heavy emphasis on combining humanities with STEM, which I appreciate because I find that most curriculums in STEM programs lack classes that improve soft skills, which can be the deciding factor for employers. It’s also extremely easy to get research opportunities, as there is mandatory research that allows students to work with top companies (NASA, Toyota, FedEx, etc.), which is perfect for building your resume. 

Visiting the school definitely solidified my choice to choose Early Decision. Their workshop held a literal plane that students were building during a year-long class, which would culminate in the professor flying it himself. Despite the brutalist architecture, the campus felt welcoming, especially compared to other schools I visited. The campus was designed to encourage communal intellectual inquiry, with whiteboards scattered outside for quick equations. The discounted Starbucks café was a nice perk, too!

While Mudd might not be very recognizable to the general public, it’s quite well known to the people who matter (employers!). The school has great graduate outcomes, with the highest median salary in the country, and the highest percentage of grads who go on to get a PhD.

Do you already know what you plan to study? What types of clubs and activities are you excited to participate in on campus? 

I’ve known that I wanted to pursue computer science since middle school. However, at Mudd you don’t declare a major until after you complete the core curriculum, which typically takes up your freshman year and the beginning of sophomore year. For clubs, I’m definitely planning on joining a Women in Engineering club, as well as keeping an open mind for activities. Maybe I’ll pick up a new hobby or two! 

How do you think your time at LFC has prepared you for success in college?

I think the LFC prepared me well, however I won’t know until I’m on campus! I believe the IB was good at emphasizing independent work with the Extended Essay, IAs, and numerous projects. I also think the small class sizes, especially in math and physics, allowed for additional teacher support and attention.

How did you approach your college admissions journey? Create a balanced list? Take advantage of global opportunities? Utilize the resources available to you at school and at home?

College applications, in my opinion, are a numbers game. Each application is glanced over quickly by admission committees, so you have to make sure that your essays and extracurriculars make the impactful impression colleges are after. This is why I’ve been trying to make sure my application profile was well-balanced and cohesive since sophomore year.

There are five types of extracurriculars that help make a well-rounded profile: a leadership role, a long-term commitment to some kind of community service, an athletic activity, a creative activity, and something related to your future career. I made sure to have at least one activity in each of these categories, and pursued extracurriculars like internships and projects to fill out the rest of my list.

For creating a college list, I have one major piece of advice: keep an open mind. Sophomore year I was slightly obsessed with prestige, and overran my list with reaches. However, a lot of prestigious colleges are a terrible fit for a lot of people – including me. My perfect school was somewhere that, yes, had rigorous academics, but didn’t have the extremely cutthroat environment a lot of these schools had. After so many hours of researching and talking to students online, I scrapped the list I had been making for years and opted for schools that I thought were a better fit for me rather than focusing on prestige. Remember, this is where you’ll be for the next four years, so it isn’t worth sacrificing your happiness for the pride you’ll get when mentioning your school to other people.

Do you have any advice for future LFC students going through the college application process?

I know that I’m lucky I started critiquing and building my profile so early, as well as knowing which career I wanted to pursue. However, once applications start, your activities are pretty much locked in, so all you can do is focus on your writing. Try to have some kind of draft of your personal statement done before the start of your senior year and try to get started on supplementals, too. For your activity list, try to maximize your word count with numbers, titles, and actions you’ve done. Readers should be able to have an idea of who you are as a person from just a quick glance.

Essays should be able to expand on your activity list. If you have an application with an overwhelming amount of community service hours, maybe you should write about an initiative you took during volunteering. Or, if you have a niche interest you spend a lot of time doing, it would be nice to take a further look into that in an essay.

However, there are some essays I’d think twice about doing. I’d try to go against the cliche essays that every committee has read a thousand times (think sports injuries, moving houses, facing burnout, etc.). I’ve also seen some students make the mistake of making an essay about someone or something else to the point that it isn’t an essay about you anymore, which is what the committee is actually interested in knowing. It should be about your perspective, your actions, your goals.