In my previous life, Sean Kim was a student of mine who successfully navigated through the COVID application year and is now a first-year student at Amherst College. After finishing his first semester, he was nice enough to share some insight regarding the application process and college experience. Enjoy and consider his advice carefully.

How was the transition to college in general? Is there anything you would advise current seniors to do or think about before they start next fall?

I’m blessed to say that my first semester of college has been a good one – a hectic and busy one, yes – but overall, a good semester. I found a lot of great friends, loved my courses, and didn’t feel too homesick. Nonetheless, moving across the entire country and being thrown into an orientation with a bunch of strangers, was really scary and isolating. For the first couple weeks, it was a scripted conversation with everyone – “where’re you from? What are you majoring in? What dorm do you live in?” – and honestly, I was really overwhelmed by learning everyone’s names and pretty frustrated in the superficial conversations that seemed to make up the entirety of all my encounters with people…It can’t be said enough that it’s ok to feel stressed, homesick, or even helpless during this transition, but know that everyone around you is probably feeling the same. Ultimately, this is the most important thing I have to say: everyone’s struggling. Being away from home, meeting so many people, eating dining hall food, and having a college workload, is immensely taxing, and even if someone seems like they have it all figured out, I doubt they do. If you’re a current senior, the best thing you can do is find solidarity. Reach out to other people, be vulnerable with what you’re feeling, don’t assume that you’re alone in this transition. You are not alone. 

Are you still studying what you thought you would? Have any new academic or extracurricular interests emerged? 

I am still studying what I thought I would! I actually chose Amherst College (AC) for this major, which is Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought (LJST). I’m choosing between Economics or Environmental Science for my double major, but I still have time. What I really like about Amherst is that it has an open curriculum, so that taking a variety of different courses from different departments and double majoring is very easy. The open curriculum is as magical as the colleges advertise. This semester, I took Law with Shakespeare, Environmental Science, Thinking Body/Dancing Mind, and Latin, and by having classes that touched on different departments, I found that I wasn’t overwhelmed by one topic or by too much reading from having a humanities heavy schedule. I never would have thought that I would learn Latin, but I just decided to take it, and I really liked it! Next semester, I’m choosing to take French (even though we don’t have a language requirement, thanks to the open curriculum [wink wink]). It’s really common to take different courses from totally unrelated departments, and within the Five College consortium, you can take different classes like beading or music lessons. 

Quick tangent - Very few colleges offer an open curriculum. If that is appealing to you, Brown University is particularly famous for their open curriculum, and Wesleyan, NYU Gallatin, and Hamilton College are also worth looking into.

In hindsight, is there anything you wish you had considered more as you researched colleges and/or was there something you put too much weight on?

I wish that I would have applied to a more varied group of colleges because I applied mostly to NESCAC colleges, and I feel like, in my decision, it would have been nice to have a more varied group of colleges to choose from. I wish I could have chosen between smaller colleges versus larger universities, but a majority of my acceptances were in the NESCAC colleges. Though I do not regret Amherst at all, I feel like it would have been nice to have had a choice with a larger school or a school that wasn’t a small New England college. What I’m trying to say is that it might be nice to have a more varied college list. Yes, I knew that I wanted to go to a smaller college, but I think that I would have also liked a medium sized school too. Also, when researching colleges, I would try to get a better understanding of the “vibe” of the school: is it competitive or collaborative, what do people think of the school, is it a big party school, is there a lot of support? Maybe go through their course selections and see if there are any courses that interest you: a major reason why I chose Amhert was because I went into the LJST course catalog and fell in love with everything. College is not simply about the name of the school or the academics, but it is also about actually enjoying the school and the time spent outside of class.

On a somewhat related note, is there anything you wish admission counselors or college websites were more transparent about?

“Academic rigor” – a phrase that is thrown around by many colleges. What does it really mean? When I compare my experience with my peers in other colleges, our experiences are fundamentally different, yet each college advertises an “academically rigorous liberal arts education.” I wish that admission counselors and college websites would specify what “academic rigor” means: what does grading look like, what is the average GPA of the student body, what is expected from a student? To put it bluntly, I wish I knew how hard a school would be. Though it wouldn’t have made much of a difference, I wish I knew what I was going into. I wouldn’t shy away from a challenge, but the difficulty of a school should not be known through word of mouth.

High school students may not be that familiar with what a liberal arts education is, or maybe just in theory. Now that you've had some experience, can you explain the liberal arts experience in more relatable terms?

The liberal arts experience is being in your Law with Shakespeare class, and your professor cracking a joke about Love’s Labor’s Lost during your unit of The Merchant of Venice and your whole class (of twenty-five kids) laughing. Maybe it’s just the fact that I even took Law with Shakespeare, being the liberal arts experience – I don’t even like Shakespeare! The experience is chatting with your astro-physics friend about her Christianity and Capitalism readings, or attending a dance lecture for your first-year seminar. No matter who you are, what you major in, or what you want to do with your life, you have the ability to take any course you would like, and throughout that experience, you’re really able to connect with your professors and peers. My largest class was twenty-five students, and my smallest was eleven. I got to know all my professors personally, and we’ve gotten to talk about gender theory, writing instruments, and even death metal. The professors really do make an effort to get to know you, and in a semester of being at a liberal arts college, I feel like I’ve been welcomed in completely. 

Best advice to current high school seniors? Current high school juniors?

You might not want to hear this, but trust the process. I heard that all the time, and every time someone said that to me I didn’t want to listen. This is a very touchy time, and with rejections, deferrals, or waitlists, it’s really hard to “trust the process” because it feels unfair. And it’s ok to feel frustrated or angry at the process, and it’s true that college admissions don’t spend hours reading through all your achievements, but they really do a good job in seeing if you fit into their college. Yes, it feels unfair that four years of hard work is reduced to a short profile that would be read through in a few minutes, but from the experiences of myself and all my friends, I know that everyone ends up where they’re meant to be. No one is miserable with where they ended up, and any college experience is really determined by you – not by the name of the school or through the comparisons you make with others. College admissions is a very toxic time, and in the moment, it might feel like everyone is breathing down your neck, trying to read the admissions letter on your screen, but know that in half a year, no one will care. It’s a crazy time, but know that your worth is so much greater than the ranking of your school. It’s all an illusion of elitism. Trust the process. Trust yourself.

High school juniors, try to set your sights broadly. Don’t overfixate or fantasize about one school, because, let me tell you, when you get to college, it’s not as magical as it seems on a tour or through Instagram. Be excited about different schools and different programs, and don’t think too much about college right now, because you’ll be thinking about it a lot next year. You don’t want to be burnt out from the college process too early.

And finally, any advice to parents?

It is really important that parents are aware of their influence on the whole college process. Your comments, your support, or your criticism, has a great impact on how a college applicant may feel. If they are rejected by a college, be supportive, not critical. If they are accepted, celebrate and don’t wait for something better. It’s a very stressful time, and there is no benefit from being critical or disappointed. Bluntly, this is not your process, nor is it your life. There is no other way to say that. All you can do is be supportive, offer help (but never force it), and try to listen to your kid and college counselor. Be in conversation.