Show Notes
Hey all, today’s episode is a special one. We had one of our rockstar essay coaches, Shira Harris, sit down with two of her former Matchlighter students, Milena Veliz and Sayem Kamal, to discuss their experiences navigating the college application process as First Generation Low Income Students. At the time of the recording, Milena was an incoming sophomore at Macaulay Honors College at John Jay and Sayem was an incoming freshman at Columbia University. They both received full scholarships at their respective schools.
In the episode, we’ll listen to Shira, Milena, and Sayem discuss (among other things):
Milena and Sayem’s backgrounds and how they found out about the Matchlighters program
The process of working with Shira and some of the most helpful resources they used to write their essays
Leveraging scholarships to pay for college
Difficulties Milena and Sayem encountered in the application process and why having a mentor was so helpful
What Milena and Sayem wrote in their personal statements
Tips, hacks, and guidance for students going through the process right now
If you’ve never heard of Matchlighters, it’s our 1-on-1 coaching support program where we pair students from low-income households with volunteer counselors. We’re in our 8th year of the program with over 2,000+ Scholars supported from 45 states and 5 continents — with our scholars attending more than 150 colleges and universities.
Shira Harris, whom you’ll meet in a moment, is an alternative educator, mediator, former civil rights attorney and queer activist who received a BA from UC Berkeley, law degree from New York University, and an international masters on migration and mediation in the Mediterranean region.
We hope you enjoy the conversation.
Play-by-Play
2:20 – Milena & Sayem share their backgrounds
5:13 – How they found Matchlighters and what their sessions were like
9:41 – What resources did they find helpful in the college essay writing process?
12:36 – How did Milena & Sayem start to build their college lists?
15:35 – What was difficult or unexpected about this process?
19:45 – What tips do Sayem & Milena have for students going through this process right now?
23:20 – How did they overcome concerns about college affordability as low-income students?
26:35 -What scholarship resources did Milena & Sayem find in their search?
29:29 – How are Milena & Sayem connecting with their college campuses?
33:03 – What parts of the application process have stuck with Milena & Sayem?
36:55 – What advice would Sayem & Milena give to their former selves?
38:45 – Resources for First-Gen, Low-Income students
41:11 – Wrap-up / closing thoughts
Resources
Corsava Card Sort (what you want in a college)
Reddit – r/applying to college
Reddit – r/questbridge
UStrive (mentorship program for FGLI students)
Show transcript
Ethan Sawyer 0:08
Hi friends and welcome to a very special episode of the College Essay Guy podcast. So we had one of our rock star sa coaches, Sheera Harris, sit down with two of our former match lighter students, Melina valise and Syam Kamal, to talk about their experiences navigating the college application process as first generation, low income students. Now at the time of this recording, Malina was an incoming sophomore at Macaulay Honors College at John Jay and Siam was an incoming freshman at Columbia. They both got full scholarships at their respective schools. So in this episode, we'll listen to Shira Molina and Siam discuss, among other things, Malina and siam's backgrounds and how they found out about the match letters program, what the process was like working with Shira, and what were some of the most helpful resources they used to write their essays, how to leverage scholarships to pay for college, some of the difficulties that Melina and Siam encountered in the application process and why having a mentor was so helpful. You'll hear what they wrote in their actual personal statements, and learn some tips, hacks and guidance if you're a student going through the process right now, if you've never heard of our match letters program, it's our one to one coaching support program where we pair students from low income households with volunteer counselors. Now we're in our eighth year of the program, with over 2000 scholars supported from 45 different states and five continents, and our scholars are currently attending more than 150 colleges and universities. Shira Harris, whom you'll meet in just a minute, is an alternative educator, mediator, former civil rights attorney and queer activist who received a BA from UC Berkeley, a law degree from NYU and an international Masters on migration and mediation in the Mediterranean region. Hope you enjoyed this episode.
Shira Harris 1:59
I'm gonna brag on you guys, so you don't have to say it. Both these guys got full scholarships to the schools that they are going to. So really, really amazing work that you did. Can we just back up to a little minute, and can you just both tell us a little bit about your background, where you're from, and what kind of what your high schools were like, and what expectations about college were, yeah.
Milena Veliz 2:22
So I was born and raised in Ecuador till the age of nine, and afterwards, I moved to New York to live with my grandmother and my father, while my mother stayed back in Ecuador my little brother and then, like, I've lived in Queens all these years, and my high school is mainly a trade school because I went to Aviation High School, and I would say the expectations were mainly for people to go into aviation related careers like engineering or like mechanics and stuff like that. So it wasn't as much of like academics focused as it like other high schools, but it was definitely something that you know, like a lot of 19 year olds were not expected to do, which is pretty cool. Yeah,
Shira Harris 3:09
can you actually explain what you wound up doing with your the degree, the degree and certifications that you received with Aviation High School, and then how and when you decided to go to college?
Milena Veliz 3:20
Yeah, so Aviation High School has a fifth year program, which is what they used to obtain second licenses for students. I was able to do that, and while I was doing that, I also applied to college. So it's almost like I graduated high school, and then it's almost like a gap year, but that gap year was doing the aviation licensing program, and then afterwards, the next year, I went on to college in terms of career goals. With licenses, you can work in different airline industries, like delta American. I'm currently working with Panasonic Avionics while I'm in school at Macaulay. So I was able to do both, because I live in the city and I commute to college, and thanks to the scholarship, I didn't have to worry about a penny.
Shira Harris 4:08
Good for you, well, and Sam, what about you? Your background, your school. I'm
Sayem Kamal 4:14
a Bangladeshi background, so I was born in Queens, near the Jackson criteria. When I was five, I moved to Long Island, and now I'm transit transitioning to my first year of college in the city my high school in Long Island, it was completely different from what I had experienced in Queens. The biggest difference for me was diversity, and although a lot of students were different from me, I also was able to find a lot of similarities within my community and in terms of hobbies and interests, the culture at my school. It was a public school, but it was highly competitive. I think that there was the belief that if you didn't get into a great school, that you would be seen as less and in that case, it was a lot of pressure and stress, but at the same time, I had a lot of resources. Is available to me, whether it's through the match letters program, but also through my counselors at school. Nice.
Shira Harris 5:06
How did you find out about the match letters program and how were you feeling at that point in the process?
Sayem Kamal 5:12
I found it out through a Reddit community r slash quest bridge. So it's like the quest bridge Reddit community, someone posted a discord where first generation low income students could come together, post resources, discuss scholarships and stuff like that. And I saw a post about the match letters program and free college advising for low income students. It was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the process and learn about what I wanted in the college, so I applied, and here I am today. How about you? Milena,
Unknown Speaker 5:47
so
Milena Veliz 5:48
this was during a pandemic, and it was September of my senior year, and I was completely stressed about writing an essay for college. I know I had said, like started a little bit of it during the summer, but I guess I was I had like that writer's block where I didn't know what college admissions would expect of me, and these are the pandemic my counselor would constantly like bombard us with different opportunities in Google Classroom. So as I was looking through them, I saw like, mad sliders that just stood out to me, because I was mainly worried about my essay, and I I saw that it helped first generation students, and it was more than, you know, just helping you with your essay. It was someone that would kind of like help you through those uncertainties of applying to college. So just got me really excited. And that's basically how I found out
Shira Harris 6:39
nice. So thinking back to the early days when you first started participating in the program, what did you actually do at the beginning of your work with your coach, with me and Milena, you could start
Milena Veliz 6:53
so I started to reflect and journal a lot. I had to meditate in terms of, you know who I was, what I wanted to contribute to my college campus, and I specifically remember that we had to pick three words to describe us. It's called, like, the three values exercise. And I picked like 20 words. And it's really remember that it was really hard to really, you know, turn it down to only three words. And, you know, I guess that was, like, my aha moment, or like the inside that kind of got me going to, you know, who I wanted to portray my essay based on
Shira Harris 7:30
who I was. How about you? Sam, when
Sayem Kamal 7:33
I first saw the the worksheet to fill out my values, I was put in a position where I'd never been put before. Because I think throughout my life, I was concerned about other factors in the college application process, and I didn't really think about what my values were, what I wanted, what I saw in myself. I always thought about what I wanted in a college and the first few sessions where you were mostly questions that I hadn't considered before about myself, about my values, my interests, my hobbies, my I think there was one worksheet about my most valuable items, or items that mean a lot to me. So yeah, exactly. And those really helped me start thinking about what I wanted an essay. And actually the a lot of those objects were the skeleton that I built my essay, my personal essay, about so it was super important for me. And then after that, I started going into more of the broader elements that I also hadn't considered before, about what type of college I want, like considering size student to faculty ratio. And although I was initially expecting help with essays, this experience is much more than that. It was more about what I wanted for myself and my community and future. So it wasn't just, you know, learning how to learning the strategies to apply more schools, but also learning about myself. That's something
Shira Harris 8:51
I really appreciate about this program, and why I have stayed with it is because you're at this crucial moment, right? You're transitioning basically from your youth into your adulthood, and it makes sense to have a period of reflection. You know, who am I and what have I done and now, who do I want to be, and where do I want to go? And, you know, we don't have so many opportunities for that in our culture these days. And I just think it's really powerful to get that one on one time, to to pause and think about those things. And I do think it makes for much clearer and stronger applications. I agree. So then, after the like, initial sessions of like brainstorming and and get to know you, then what was the process of like, actually writing the essays? Like, what kind of resources from CEG did you wind up using? Was there a point where things just started to click. And you were like, Okay, I understand how this works. I know what to do.
Milena Veliz 9:45
So I, I know I met a lot with you, Shira, you know, in the continuous basis, kind of making sure that I was using my CEG resources, that I was, you know, writing and proofreading and, you know, we had the drive going. On for the CG resources. And that was helpful, because, like, we would need, or like, there would be times where we wouldn't need, but you'd be editing, or like, I'd be editing. And it was something like, it just kept everyone updated. And I guess, like, when coming back to the three values, exercise, like, I was, like, spatially organizing examples of, you know, like my top three values. And, you know, examples in like, events in my life that kind of, like, showcase those three values. And that really helped me to, you know, pick the topic of, you know, I'm a young Latina female in a trade school, and how bad kind of, like, was a breakthrough for me, because I experienced a lot of hardships in a trade school as a young Pino, and that really helped me with my essay.
Sayem Kamal 10:44
Nice, yeah, for me, I would say it was a lot. It was a huge time crunch for me, especially for students attempting to apply to both quest bridge and potentially common through the common app if they didn't get accepted through quest bridge. So a lot of it was preparing for my quest bridge requirements, while also preparing for the worst case scenario by doing my common app supplemental essays, and just written my personal essay for common app as well. And that worked out perfectly, because, I mean, after I didn't, unfortunately, did not get in through quest bridge, I was able to hit the ground running the next day with full positivity and the health of Shira and start my common app supplementals. So it was really important that I kept myself organized. As Milena said, using the Google Drive was super important for me to organize my goals for my quest bridge requirements, as well as my common app requirements. And the biggest help for me was looking at successful example essays that Shira provided me through the match letters website and looking at successful essays and the annotations given helped me see what I wanted to write about or like what I wanted to see in my own essay. But at the same time, I wanted my own sense of creativity and personal experience added into it. Yeah,
Shira Harris 11:57
you were super organized and strategic about questbridge and Common App you kind of had your plan B, B and a half, C, D, yeah. For folks who don't know, quest bridge is an amazing program for low income students that provides full ride scholarship for those students who are accepted and they are really interested in your unique personal story, and particularly challenges that you might have faced that are different than other students have. So it's an incredible resource, and we will definitely link to it in the in the notes. Let's talk about list building and figuring out which schools you wanted to apply to. How did you do that, and did you have like pressure from parents or family, community or school around like which schools you were supposed to apply to or supposed to go to?
Sayem Kamal 12:45
Yeah, I would say that there was a pretty big pressure in both my family and my community to go to what they thought was a quote, unquote, prestigious school. And this kind of skewed my reality of college applications and what I wanted in a school and what I did before joining the match letters program was considering just like the name of a school, or like the prestige of his programs. But you know, after considering several factors and discussing with you, I was able to consider other, many other factors that I wanted. I remember we filled out a questionnaire on a website about, yeah, it was like 100 or 130 question questionnaire about what I wanted, what what my it didn't just ask about what I wanted in a school. It also asked about my personality, what I saw in myself. And that helped me kind of ascertain what I wanted in a school. And that was super important for me to diversify my college list and kind of ease the tension and the friction that I had with my family and my community about going to a prestigious, acclaimed, prestigious school. How
Milena Veliz 13:53
about you? Melana, I would say I was very stressed building a college list because you have your expectations, and then you also have your family's expectations, as a first chance college student, and you know, my family's expectations where, you know to go to, as am said, like an Ivy League or prestigious school. But most importantly, I feel like it's very common, especially for, you know, parents who are immigrants and don't really know the geography, or, like, who are very worried about sending their kid off to college very far away. So for my parents, it was, you know, for me to go Ivy, but stay close to home. And it definitely affected geographically, where I was gonna fly to school, because I didn't want to, you know, give them that worry. And then there's also this need, like, should I apply to like, 30 different colleges in case I don't, you know, I don't get my options. And, you know, just I started running out of options. And, you know, especially in sense of the financial aspect, I was like, I should apply to like 20 colleges just to make sure. And I think Shira, you're such a sense of relief when you know you helped me focus to like. 10 schools. And, you know, break them down into, you know, what were my safety schools, I reached schools, my match schools. And then how would I, you know, kind of fit in with the type of person I am into this environment, and you know, what my career goals and interests were, and how I would see myself in those schools, in terms of that. So that was very helpful for me,
Shira Harris 15:19
yeah, and it feels like you are just at exactly the right place that programs make made for you.
Milena Veliz 15:24
Yes, for sure.
Shira Harris 15:28
What was difficult about the process or just different than you were expecting?
Milena Veliz 15:34
I would say it was very stressful, and it would it's like, it's very like of an anxious process, especially when you have to wait for results from other schools, and then you're on top of that, applying to meet other deadlines from other schools, and then you're in your senior year. So it can get like it can be a very, very stressful space in your life, because then you're also trying to figure out who you want to be and your future career goals, and it's like a whole decision you have to make. One important thing, though, is try to keep triggers to yourself, because I know that, you know, imposter syndrome is very popular among a lot of seniors who are applying to college where they don't think they're good enough for certain schools, or, you know, they're under solo process, and they don't think that their college essay is gonna, you know, make the line or make the mark and stuff like that. So I would say that in terms of the college, as a guy, you know, just having that mentor there was very reassuring in such uncertain times, especially applying to college during the pandemic. So, you know, I was once in there, in those shoes, and I would say that having that mentor that was also, you know, once they're applying to college, very stressed out. Who understood the fear of applying to college for the first time is very helpful. How about you? Siam,
Sayem Kamal 16:50
for me, there was a lot of pressure from hearing about my friends or other peers accomplishments, and that kind of heightens my own stress about my own accomplishments. It made me feel that I had to compare to other people rather than what I accomplished myself. And this kind of often makes a lot of students feel like college applications are more measure of competition than individual success. So I think it's super important to see what you've accomplished and appreciate your own what you've done for your community, what you've done for yourself, your story, your values, and really hone in on those in your essays, your activities and your expression of who you are. To your admissions officer, another stress for me was writing essay, a lot of essays in a short amount of time, but getting the much needed assistance from Shira was amazing for reducing my stress. And I think Milena mentioned this before. My original list had like 2030 schools, but I soon came to realize that more is not necessarily better. I think if you obviously have a list of safety schools, target schools as well as reach schools, that's important, but at the same time you want to have a concise list so you can write better essays with more vivid language and really spend your time in on schools that you really want to go to, then that's why it was really important earlier to consider what I wanted in a school, because my original list contained schools that you would recognize by name, or, as I said before prestige, but later I my list was filled with schools that I really, really, actually, genuinely wanted to go to that had a community that would cater to me and my my career goals, and something different from what I expected was my college interview for Columbia. I expected it to be more of a professional setting for me, it was a much more casual setting. It was someone from my school who used to go to my high school, so we were able to connect a lot, and it was more of an opportunity for me to learn about the college than anything else. I was able to ask him questions, and he was also able to kind of mix my interests with potentially the opportunities that Columbia offered. So I was really able to see whether I really wanted to go to the school, and it made me further wanted to want to go to Columbia.
Shira Harris 19:09
Well, that's great. It sounds like you were at ease, and it was like a resource for you, rather than them checking you out. Exactly.
Sayem Kamal 19:16
Yeah, that's for any student. The Interview may be a huge point of stress for everyone, but it's more of an experience for you to see if this is what you want in a college and to see how you'd sit in that community. It's predictor of, I would say, your place in that community.
Shira Harris 19:33
Beautifully said. All right, thinking about people who are coming through this process right now. What kind of tips do you have for them hacks that you picked up? Any guidance for writing essays?
Sayem Kamal 19:44
I would recommend a few things. Number one, of course, be yourself. And I would say that admissions officers can tell if you're not being true to yourself. I think it's super important to understand what your values are, your experiences and. And sometimes you may like due to just memory, the how memory works, you might see your memories on a surface level, but it's important to dig deeper into why, why something happens, how it impacted you, how it shaped your career goals, how it shaped your life. So I think the biggest part of a college writing, a college essay, is thinking more than writing. And what's the thought there? Once you have your value set, I think writing the essay will come eventually, and once you get to that point, you can write in language that is expressive and vivid, and thinking about the experience is really important, because when the more you think about it, the better you'll be able to explain experience. Another thing that I did that really helped me was learning from others mistakes and successes. But at the same time, you don't want to copy their formats Exactly. I think I mentioned this before. Everyone is their own person, and that needs to come across in your essay. So this means your identity and experiences. And lastly, for Ys essays, I would say, don't just make it all about the school, talk about you as well, and how you would fit into the existing system at that school. So I would say that would take a lot of research into the school, into the clubs and activities, and potentially linking it to yourself and how your past experiences or your future aspirations can fit into that framework. So I think that's super important,
Shira Harris 21:22
super helpful. Thank you. What else I
Milena Veliz 21:26
completely resonate with Sam on this train to to yourself on the essay. I think it's a very important aspect of, you know, kind of the schools could get a sense of who you are, aside from being an A plus student. So I would see a lot of, you know, meditating goes on to it a lot of reflecting on who you are and we want to be in the future, what your values are as a person and how they fit into your career goals. There will be times where it's going to be hard and you might want to, you know, like Sam said, like, use big words or sound like very sophisticated but if not not who you are as a writer, I I would recommend not doing that or not going that path. And if you feel like you are going that path, like I would have my parents read my essay sometimes, or like, even though they didn't speak English, like I would actually translate the essay, and like they would tell me if that was something that sounded like who I was. So I guess like people would really know you try to have them read the essay and see, you know you come across as the person who they know you are. And also, one, one very nice hack is, you know, it could get very stressful to guide a lot of supplemental essays when you're applying to different colleges. So I would say, like, if you have, like, a strong personal essay, there are certain, like, parts of the essay that could actually be used for supplemental essays. So I would definitely like try to recycle those, because they're still telling your story one
Shira Harris 22:49
way or another. Yeah. And Sam, actually, you mentioned a little bit earlier that you were able to, like, write a few key essays and then use those for several schools. Yeah. So you didn't have to write a million essays. You just wrote some really strong essays that you could kind of mix and match and make fit exactly. We call that super essays. So of course, both of you, it was not only applying to college and writing all the essays and doing all the work and managing to be in your senior year, but it was also getting funding. Right? What would you say was, like your percent of time that was dedicated to affordability, work versus application? Work like scholarships, financial aid, forms, etc.
Sayem Kamal 23:31
So for me, unfortunately, I started applying to scholarships a little bit later. Since I only started applying to them near this end of senior year, I did apply to a few scholarships throughout high school, but I would say that I spent about 20% of my time on during college applications, working on affordability, whether it was FAFSA or scholarships. Of this work, and even though it was only 20% it was one of the biggest concerns for me, especially since I was applying Ed. It was concerning for me to think about the level of aid I would receive, and this also made me raise a lot of questions about whether I even wanted to apply Ed. But I think for anyone I would recommend definitely putting in a good amount of effort into scholarships, because getting into college is obviously one battle, but you also want to make sure that you can sustain a college, yeah, college education, so that may mean scholarships or doing research into how to receive FAFSA loans. So I think that's super important. And one of the mistakes I made that I should have honed in on a little bit more during my experience,
Milena Veliz 24:41
I would say I was very worried about aid, because I knew would be a very big financial burden on my parents if I was able to get all the and I could. So I would say I'd spend about 60% of my time worrying about it. I applied to Fauci very like early on, I was very confused at first. Because the pandemic was going on. And my counselor, I think, only did like one Zoom meeting, and then it was more of like drop in sessions if you had any questions. So I would constantly drop in to ask her how to fill something out. Then I did like tap. I also applied to like specific scholarships to like the specific colleges I was going to. And then, of course, I found Macaulay, who's such a great opportunity. I applied to it. So I I definitely start a lot of my time worrying about it, especially as, like a first generation college students. One thing I would say is it's definitely something to worry about if, like, you're really low income, and you know it's going to be burdening parents. But I will say the amount of stress I gave into, it was little insane. And, you know, thinking back now, I think if I would have just kind of, like, stressed it out a little bit less, it would have probably been a really less stressful process. And, you know, the whole college process was, so I will say, Don't focus too much on it, because, you know, even if you're low income, there are a lot of programs that really want to help, like, low income families. I know they have, like the bridge has, like a full scholarship for low income students. I know they have the I think Cornell had, like a GOP program. So I think there are a lot of options out there that for you are available if you applied to certain colleges as a low income student and following
Shira Harris 26:27
on that, will you just explain, for people who don't know about the Macaulay program, how does that work?
Milena Veliz 26:31
Yeah, so Macaulay basically is like the scholarship fund for like CUNY colleges. So basically they interview around, like, 1000s of kids every year, and out of those 1000s of students, they take around 500 and they're all spread out into different like all of the, I believe it's eight CUNY colleges, and then their whole process is you have to, like, write an essay. It's more like a personal statement, where you're telling your story, and they're looking for very social justice driven students, because that's their their Lana, basically, they go by the common good and, you know, teaching students to be well rounded individuals, so that when they graduate college, you know, they just don't go and focus on, like, the science field, But, you know, contributing to their communities as well. So they're trying to form, you know, individuals who are going to give back to their community besides their career goals. And so I think the first process is doing a personal statement, getting a recommendation from two people who, you know, are professors, or who were extracurricular coaches with you and stuff like that. And then after that, you go into like a second phase, where they start, like an interviewing process. I interviewed with the director at my schools program, because they have different directors at different schools. So I interviewed at the John Jay director. And you know, it was, it was like a click, honestly, for me, as soon as I interviewed, because they were going over, like, there's like, academic structure and how, like, they structured our classes every, like, four years. And it was a lot of, you know, thinking about the common good. How can we form the best, well rounded individuals? And I know we do like seminars where it's like broken down into four years, and it starts with learning about the arts, learning about the sciences, learning about the people in New York. And it's definitely been a very, very rewarding and very exciting journey. I know last semester, we actually had to pick a new name for New York, or a part of New York, and it was a nice project where I went into Brooklyn and I tried to rename it, and I interviewed the people of Brooklyn. So you definitely get to do a lot of things that you never thought you would be doing, which is, I think, very rewarding of being in college, so cool.
Shira Harris 28:57
And so if you are accepted into Macaulay honors, you get a full scholarship right to one of the campuses within City University of New
Milena Veliz 29:06
York, that is correct, you do get a full scholarship. And on top of that, you also get a computer with them, which is basically free. And then you also have a personal advisor that basically is there to help you sign up for classes early and basically, kind of talk over your career goals and what internships you could possibly apply for and stuff like that, right?
Shira Harris 29:31
And so, Molina, you've been there for a full year now. How is it? Is it? What you thought? Are you loving it? How's it going? I
Milena Veliz 29:40
am loving it for sure. I, like I mentioned before, we took two classes over the span of the fall and spring semester, and the first one was the arts in NYC, and the second one was the people of NYC. And the first one and the second one both were equally exciting in the sense that, you know, I never. Imagine myself trying to, like, photograph NYC people and try to make like, hard Canvas out of it. I never picture myself interviewing people in Brooklyn and, you know, renaming it a whole different borough. So it was definitely, like a very, very rewarding experience to kind of like look at it and look at New York and specific from like, a different cultural perspective, I will say that I was very scared going to college, especially like, since I didn't have anyone who, like, already went, who could, you know, kind of like, this is where you're supposed to do. This is where you're supposed to go. So having, like, a college advisor kind of meet with you weekly, or, you know, email you every two times a week, with different opportunities and career goals and stuff like that. That was very helpful. We also have, like, an honors lounge where you get to meet other, like honors students. So it's a very close knit community, because everyone there is just, like, very, very submersed into, you know, the value of youth values and human rights and equality and the common good. So it's really good to be somewhere where other individuals value those values.
Shira Harris 31:10
Beautiful and Siam, you're headed to Columbia real soon. Here are you already like connecting with people on campus or getting involved in any way.
Sayem Kamal 31:21
Yeah, so I think it was in April, we had to have a pre pre orientation where a bunch of students came in. We had some lectures about the core curriculum that Columbia had a club fair, and most importantly, like, like, immersive experiences to get to know other people. So it was really cool to meet a lot of future classmates and friends. And the biggest thing I noticed was that I was able to connect with people from all walks of life, international, from New York across the country, and also varying ideas and backgrounds and interests. So it was really exciting, and it made me even more excited to attend and live in the city. I have an upcoming orientation at the end of this month, in August, August 27 and really excited, because I think we're a part of the outdoor program where we're potentially going to, like, go kayaking or hiking or something. So it's like, one of my biggest hobbies. So doing that while meeting new people and meeting new friends may also be interested in that type of stuff is really cool. So, yeah, living in the city has always been a dream of mine, which is why Columbia and other city schools were at my, you know, the top of my list, because I can get a lot of resources for my own career and also reconnect with like the city that I was originally born in. I Malena. I can assume that you also had that experience, that you were able to really reconnect with the city and but also explore other parts. And as you said, like you were able to explore Brooklyn and get to know the people there. So I mean, what I would like to do something like that too, getting to explore the other boroughs and immerse myself in it.
Shira Harris 32:56
Thinking back on your applications, was there a part of it that, like, really has stayed with you? You know, something that you wrote that just really felt true, or that you were especially proud of any particular like essay or story that you were able to share that just felt like, Yes, I am putting forward who I am. I
Sayem Kamal 33:15
think for me, one of my essays for my one of my supplemental essays for Columbia, it mentioned, tell me about your background and who you are. I know that that's a huge upcoming supplemental essay for a lot of schools, especially with the recent occurrences. So I applied before the widespread usage of that supplemental essay, but mostly I wrote about my school community, living in Long Island, which was completely different from Queens and trying to find my own community in that within, like my own sub community within the larger Long Island community. And I kind of wrote really about my own struggles, but also my own successes, finding my Muslim discussion group in my school, even though there were only eight or nine Muslim people in my school, and not only finding that group, but also making impacts with that group, such as spreading information about Ramadan or eid and really informing our school about what it means to be Muslim, but also, more importantly, learning about other cultures and religions, like we had meetings with the Jewish student Union, we had meetings the diversity club, and we even had a diversity day where every cultural group and religious group came together and gave presentation. So I kind of wrote about that, how, even in such what many would have claimed to be a homogeneous, like community, with only like, you know, with not much diversity, how in reality, there's always, there's always differences between people and how we can appreciate that. Yeah.
Shira Harris 34:43
And I remember in that that essay and some similar ones, you also really wrote about how you kind of were a liaison between communities, and that you had leadership and bringing communities together and facilitating some of these conversations. Yeah. Elena, anything come to mind? Something that you. Loved about what you wrote, or I
Milena Veliz 35:01
definitely enjoyed writing about how I was able to empower the females in my school, especially my shop class, which is where we did a lot of aviation related work. I know that you know, being a especially Latina female, it's pretty hard in an aviation male dominated world. It still is, if you can know it's 2023, people might not, you know, realize that it's still, there's still, like, only one female in the workplace full of like 30 males. And I would say that I really enjoyed, you know, just reflecting back on that experience, because it kind of like it was more of like, I would say, getting to know me. And I was able to see, like, wow. Like, okay, this is who I am. Like I am, you know, the type of person that wants to empower young females, that wants to give them voice, especially whether it's not female or, you know, male, someone who just doesn't have a voice, and who I want to be able to give it to, and I think that I was able to, you know, be strong about that in my essay, which kind of helped me to know, to find my way through McCauley, and especially, you know, find the right place where I know I I'm comfortable and I'm happy with and so I just really enjoyed that part of me just reflecting about it. Yeah,
Shira Harris 36:19
I loved that part of the essay where you kind of described the dynamics in that class and how effectively the females were silenced, and that ultimately you just, like, took a stand like you weren't going to have that, and you were going to make sure that everybody was able to do it, like you were able to do it, and you took your time to basically tutor them and, like, bring everybody up to the same level and change the notion about who can do what at the school
Milena Veliz 36:42
still happening in deviation industry.
Shira Harris 36:48
Well, now that you guys are both through the process looking back, is there any advice you would give your former self?
Sayem Kamal 36:55
I would say that the biggest advice I could give to anyone is read this book that I read by Frank Bruni, or this short story kind of anecdote by Frank Bruni called, where you go is that? Where is that? Who you'll be? It is definitely something I wish I read a while before I applied, because I mustered up so much stress with me thinking that the name of my college will get me to my career goals. And one quote that I really, really liked from that book is, I think it was, it's not Yale or jail. So, like, he was saying, like, you know, it's not polarized like that. It's wherever you go, if you put in the effort to really 16, that is where you'll go. But it's not merely the name of your college, it's how you choose to interact with your college community and the resources that will get you where you want to be. So I highly recommend anyone applying to colleges to read it as it completely transformed my perspective on college applications, and I wish I had read
Shira Harris 37:55
it before. Thank you for that.
Milena Veliz 37:58
Yeah, for me, definitely rusted. I would say, stay true to yourself. For sure, a college acceptance is not a reflection of who you are, or you know, how successful you'll be, neither is a rejection from a college that you didn't get into. You know, like many times, very people that will want to like bring you down or compare you with other colleges and stuff like that. I will say, if you know who you are, and you know what your goals in life are, and you're very strong and your values you you'll be good to go. You be a good person that will fit into your college community and you reach your goals eventually.
Shira Harris 38:38
Nice thinking about folks who are going through the process now, are there any other resources that were really helpful to you inside or outside of CEG? But I'm thinking mostly outside of CEG, that you would recommend to people, particularly first gen students, low income students, any resources that you took advantage of, or groups or networks that we haven't mentioned and we can link to them,
Sayem Kamal 39:01
I would say Reddit, I think, was one of the biggest resources for me, because getting the experience from counselors and adults is amazing, but getting also the experience of students who are currently applying and being able to relate with them was super important. So Reddit is a good form for that. I think all you need to get their threads on Reddit. I like r slash applying to college and r slash questbridge. But literally, if you have any question about any college, you just type it in Google, and then after, you just put the word Reddit, and it'll do every answer that you want. So I think that's super important, using Reddit using resources, and that's also, as I mentioned before, how I found that discord and how I later found the match letters program and online with the you know, now that we're in the age of the internet, you can find anyone that you want. You can find a you can find a community that you can really relate to. And for me, that was the fcli community on Discord, so it was really important for me to look through my options. Nice,
Shira Harris 39:57
super helpful. Yeah.
Milena Veliz 39:59
For me, I would say the College Board has, like, this website where you look up the colleges and, like, I know, like, I'm not sure if they're still doing s, a T, but back then, they were doing sat like you were putting your SAT score, and it'll tell you if, like, it was a safety school, or each school, or, you know, a match. And so I think that was very helpful, because it's not, you know, exact, and it shouldn't be a reflection of like, Oh, I'm not gonna get any I'm not gonna apply. But it kind of gives you like, a view of, you know, what schools you potentially want to apply to if you're first starting to look for schools, like, I would say, definitely try to perfect that list later on. But you know, if you're just starting to look for them, the College Board was really helpful for me. And then there was another program, I think it's called strive, which is like for first generation college students. And they also kind of give you mentor that is like online, and they're constantly answering your questions about, you know different like college applications or any college doubts you have. And they'll definitely also read your resume. We want them to grade one
Shira Harris 41:02
beautiful. Well, do you guys have any questions for us, or anything that you want to share with potential match later, students or college counselors or anybody that might be interested in this program that we haven't touched on? Yeah,
Sayem Kamal 41:16
I was wondering. I mean, there's so many opportunities, there's so many resources while applying to college, or, you know, writing essays and such, but I feel like there's a shortage of resources for what to do after being accepted into college. So does match letters have any resources to prepare for college once already accepted, like How to Afford College, or like buying food and such, or even how to integrate yourself into the community and academics. Great
Shira Harris 41:43
point, great question. Yeah, we do have a to and through guide that's basically a collection of testimonials and advice from former match letters about what it was like for them in the first year. So we can link to that for sure. And we do match first year students with former match letters who are at their campuses can be a great way to start to integrate and on your financial piece question, which, of course, is so important. We are right now working on a resource. Hopefully it'll be out soon, and that will be to each individual campuses to get those crucial tips.
Sayem Kamal 42:18
Awesome. Thank you. I'll definitely check that out. Well, I want
Shira Harris 42:21
to thank you both so much. It's been amazing to see you and reconnect with you, and what you've shared, I think, is so useful and revelatory about the process and will really help other folks who are coming
Sayem Kamal 42:31
through. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you so much.
Shira Harris 42:35
Best of luck this year.
Ethan Sawyer 42:40
Thanks friends for listening as ever. You'll find the resources in the show notes, including a link to sign up for the match letters program. If you're a student from a low income household looking for free sa or application help, or maybe you're a counselor interested in volunteering. If so, we'd love to hear from you. You'll find that link at college essay guide.com/match letters, and you'll find the show notes at college. Essay guy.com/podcast Hey, are you on our newsletter yet? Because if not, that's the best way to learn about our upcoming webinars, our resources. You can join by going to our home page at college sa guy.com That's it. Stay curious. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Show transcript
Ethan Sawyer 0:08 Hi friends and welcome to a very special episode of the College Essay Guy podcast. So we had one of our rock star sa coaches, Sheera Harris, sit down with two of our former match lighter students, Melina valise and Syam Kamal, to talk about their experiences navigating the college application process as first generation, low income students. Now at the time of this recording, Malina was an incoming sophomore at Macaulay Honors College at John Jay and Siam was an incoming freshman at Columbia. They both got full scholarships at their respective schools. So in this episode, we'll listen to Shira Molina and Siam discuss, among other things, Malina and siam's backgrounds and how they found out about the match letters program, what the process was like working with Shira, and what were some of the most helpful resources they used to write their essays, how to leverage scholarships to pay for college, some of the difficulties that Melina and Siam encountered in the application process and why having a mentor was so helpful. You'll hear what they wrote in their actual personal statements, and learn some tips, hacks and guidance if you're a student going through the process right now, if you've never heard of our match letters program, it's our one to one coaching support program where we pair students from low income households with volunteer counselors. Now we're in our eighth year of the program, with over 2000 scholars supported from 45 different states and five continents, and our scholars are currently attending more than 150 colleges and universities. Shira Harris, whom you'll meet in just a minute, is an alternative educator, mediator, former civil rights attorney and queer activist who received a BA from UC Berkeley, a law degree from NYU and an international Masters on migration and mediation in the Mediterranean region. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Shira Harris 1:59 I'm gonna brag on you guys, so you don't have to say it. Both these guys got full scholarships to the schools that they are going to. So really, really amazing work that you did. Can we just back up to a little minute, and can you just both tell us a little bit about your background, where you're from, and what kind of what your high schools were like, and what expectations about college were, yeah. Milena Veliz 2:22 So I was born and raised in Ecuador till the age of nine, and afterwards, I moved to New York to live with my grandmother and my father, while my mother stayed back in Ecuador my little brother and then, like, I've lived in Queens all these years, and my high school is mainly a trade school because I went to Aviation High School, and I would say the expectations were mainly for people to go into aviation related careers like engineering or like mechanics and stuff like that. So it wasn't as much of like academics focused as it like other high schools, but it was definitely something that you know, like a lot of 19 year olds were not expected to do, which is pretty cool. Yeah, Shira Harris 3:09 can you actually explain what you wound up doing with your the degree, the degree and certifications that you received with Aviation High School, and then how and when you decided to go to college? Milena Veliz 3:20 Yeah, so Aviation High School has a fifth year program, which is what they used to obtain second licenses for students. I was able to do that, and while I was doing that, I also applied to college. So it's almost like I graduated high school, and then it's almost like a gap year, but that gap year was doing the aviation licensing program, and then afterwards, the next year, I went on to college in terms of career goals. With licenses, you can work in different airline industries, like delta American. I'm currently working with Panasonic Avionics while I'm in school at Macaulay. So I was able to do both, because I live in the city and I commute to college, and thanks to the scholarship, I didn't have to worry about a penny. Shira Harris 4:08 Good for you, well, and Sam, what about you? Your background, your school. I'm Sayem Kamal 4:14 a Bangladeshi background, so I was born in Queens, near the Jackson criteria. When I was five, I moved to Long Island, and now I'm transit transitioning to my first year of college in the city my high school in Long Island, it was completely different from what I had experienced in Queens. The biggest difference for me was diversity, and although a lot of students were different from me, I also was able to find a lot of similarities within my community and in terms of hobbies and interests, the culture at my school. It was a public school, but it was highly competitive. I think that there was the belief that if you didn't get into a great school, that you would be seen as less and in that case, it was a lot of pressure and stress, but at the same time, I had a lot of resources. Is available to me, whether it's through the match letters program, but also through my counselors at school. Nice. Shira Harris 5:06 How did you find out about the match letters program and how were you feeling at that point in the process? Sayem Kamal 5:12 I found it out through a Reddit community r slash quest bridge. So it's like the quest bridge Reddit community, someone posted a discord where first generation low income students could come together, post resources, discuss scholarships and stuff like that. And I saw a post about the match letters program and free college advising for low income students. It was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the process and learn about what I wanted in the college, so I applied, and here I am today. How about you? Milena, Unknown Speaker 5:47 so Milena Veliz 5:48 this was during a pandemic, and it was September of my senior year, and I was completely stressed about writing an essay for college. I know I had said, like started a little bit of it during the summer, but I guess I was I had like that writer's block where I didn't know what college admissions would expect of me, and these are the pandemic my counselor would constantly like bombard us with different opportunities in Google Classroom. So as I was looking through them, I saw like, mad sliders that just stood out to me, because I was mainly worried about my essay, and I I saw that it helped first generation students, and it was more than, you know, just helping you with your essay. It was someone that would kind of like help you through those uncertainties of applying to college. So just got me really excited. And that's basically how I found out Shira Harris 6:39 nice. So thinking back to the early days when you first started participating in the program, what did you actually do at the beginning of your work with your coach, with me and Milena, you could start Milena Veliz 6:53 so I started to reflect and journal a lot. I had to meditate in terms of, you know who I was, what I wanted to contribute to my college campus, and I specifically remember that we had to pick three words to describe us. It's called, like, the three values exercise. And I picked like 20 words. And it's really remember that it was really hard to really, you know, turn it down to only three words. And, you know, I guess that was, like, my aha moment, or like the inside that kind of got me going to, you know, who I wanted to portray my essay based on Shira Harris 7:30 who I was. How about you? Sam, when Sayem Kamal 7:33 I first saw the the worksheet to fill out my values, I was put in a position where I'd never been put before. Because I think throughout my life, I was concerned about other factors in the college application process, and I didn't really think about what my values were, what I wanted, what I saw in myself. I always thought about what I wanted in a college and the first few sessions where you were mostly questions that I hadn't considered before about myself, about my values, my interests, my hobbies, my I think there was one worksheet about my most valuable items, or items that mean a lot to me. So yeah, exactly. And those really helped me start thinking about what I wanted an essay. And actually the a lot of those objects were the skeleton that I built my essay, my personal essay, about so it was super important for me. And then after that, I started going into more of the broader elements that I also hadn't considered before, about what type of college I want, like considering size student to faculty ratio. And although I was initially expecting help with essays, this experience is much more than that. It was more about what I wanted for myself and my community and future. So it wasn't just, you know, learning how to learning the strategies to apply more schools, but also learning about myself. That's something Shira Harris 8:51 I really appreciate about this program, and why I have stayed with it is because you're at this crucial moment, right? You're transitioning basically from your youth into your adulthood, and it makes sense to have a period of reflection. You know, who am I and what have I done and now, who do I want to be, and where do I want to go? And, you know, we don't have so many opportunities for that in our culture these days. And I just think it's really powerful to get that one on one time, to to pause and think about those things. And I do think it makes for much clearer and stronger applications. I agree. So then, after the like, initial sessions of like brainstorming and and get to know you, then what was the process of like, actually writing the essays? Like, what kind of resources from CEG did you wind up using? Was there a point where things just started to click. And you were like, Okay, I understand how this works. I know what to do. Milena Veliz 9:45 So I, I know I met a lot with you, Shira, you know, in the continuous basis, kind of making sure that I was using my CEG resources, that I was, you know, writing and proofreading and, you know, we had the drive going. On for the CG resources. And that was helpful, because, like, we would need, or like, there would be times where we wouldn't need, but you'd be editing, or like, I'd be editing. And it was something like, it just kept everyone updated. And I guess, like, when coming back to the three values, exercise, like, I was, like, spatially organizing examples of, you know, like my top three values. And, you know, examples in like, events in my life that kind of, like, showcase those three values. And that really helped me to, you know, pick the topic of, you know, I'm a young Latina female in a trade school, and how bad kind of, like, was a breakthrough for me, because I experienced a lot of hardships in a trade school as a young Pino, and that really helped me with my essay. Sayem Kamal 10:44 Nice, yeah, for me, I would say it was a lot. It was a huge time crunch for me, especially for students attempting to apply to both quest bridge and potentially common through the common app if they didn't get accepted through quest bridge. So a lot of it was preparing for my quest bridge requirements, while also preparing for the worst case scenario by doing my common app supplemental essays, and just written my personal essay for common app as well. And that worked out perfectly, because, I mean, after I didn't, unfortunately, did not get in through quest bridge, I was able to hit the ground running the next day with full positivity and the health of Shira and start my common app supplementals. So it was really important that I kept myself organized. As Milena said, using the Google Drive was super important for me to organize my goals for my quest bridge requirements, as well as my common app requirements. And the biggest help for me was looking at successful example essays that Shira provided me through the match letters website and looking at successful essays and the annotations given helped me see what I wanted to write about or like what I wanted to see in my own essay. But at the same time, I wanted my own sense of creativity and personal experience added into it. Yeah, Shira Harris 11:57 you were super organized and strategic about questbridge and Common App you kind of had your plan B, B and a half, C, D, yeah. For folks who don't know, quest bridge is an amazing program for low income students that provides full ride scholarship for those students who are accepted and they are really interested in your unique personal story, and particularly challenges that you might have faced that are different than other students have. So it's an incredible resource, and we will definitely link to it in the in the notes. Let's talk about list building and figuring out which schools you wanted to apply to. How did you do that, and did you have like pressure from parents or family, community or school around like which schools you were supposed to apply to or supposed to go to? Sayem Kamal 12:45 Yeah, I would say that there was a pretty big pressure in both my family and my community to go to what they thought was a quote, unquote, prestigious school. And this kind of skewed my reality of college applications and what I wanted in a school and what I did before joining the match letters program was considering just like the name of a school, or like the prestige of his programs. But you know, after considering several factors and discussing with you, I was able to consider other, many other factors that I wanted. I remember we filled out a questionnaire on a website about, yeah, it was like 100 or 130 question questionnaire about what I wanted, what what my it didn't just ask about what I wanted in a school. It also asked about my personality, what I saw in myself. And that helped me kind of ascertain what I wanted in a school. And that was super important for me to diversify my college list and kind of ease the tension and the friction that I had with my family and my community about going to a prestigious, acclaimed, prestigious school. How Milena Veliz 13:53 about you? Melana, I would say I was very stressed building a college list because you have your expectations, and then you also have your family's expectations, as a first chance college student, and you know, my family's expectations where, you know to go to, as am said, like an Ivy League or prestigious school. But most importantly, I feel like it's very common, especially for, you know, parents who are immigrants and don't really know the geography, or, like, who are very worried about sending their kid off to college very far away. So for my parents, it was, you know, for me to go Ivy, but stay close to home. And it definitely affected geographically, where I was gonna fly to school, because I didn't want to, you know, give them that worry. And then there's also this need, like, should I apply to like, 30 different colleges in case I don't, you know, I don't get my options. And, you know, just I started running out of options. And, you know, especially in sense of the financial aspect, I was like, I should apply to like 20 colleges just to make sure. And I think Shira, you're such a sense of relief when you know you helped me focus to like. 10 schools. And, you know, break them down into, you know, what were my safety schools, I reached schools, my match schools. And then how would I, you know, kind of fit in with the type of person I am into this environment, and you know, what my career goals and interests were, and how I would see myself in those schools, in terms of that. So that was very helpful for me, Shira Harris 15:19 yeah, and it feels like you are just at exactly the right place that programs make made for you. Milena Veliz 15:24 Yes, for sure. Shira Harris 15:28 What was difficult about the process or just different than you were expecting? Milena Veliz 15:34 I would say it was very stressful, and it would it's like, it's very like of an anxious process, especially when you have to wait for results from other schools, and then you're on top of that, applying to meet other deadlines from other schools, and then you're in your senior year. So it can get like it can be a very, very stressful space in your life, because then you're also trying to figure out who you want to be and your future career goals, and it's like a whole decision you have to make. One important thing, though, is try to keep triggers to yourself, because I know that, you know, imposter syndrome is very popular among a lot of seniors who are applying to college where they don't think they're good enough for certain schools, or, you know, they're under solo process, and they don't think that their college essay is gonna, you know, make the line or make the mark and stuff like that. So I would say that in terms of the college, as a guy, you know, just having that mentor there was very reassuring in such uncertain times, especially applying to college during the pandemic. So, you know, I was once in there, in those shoes, and I would say that having that mentor that was also, you know, once they're applying to college, very stressed out. Who understood the fear of applying to college for the first time is very helpful. How about you? Siam, Sayem Kamal 16:50 for me, there was a lot of pressure from hearing about my friends or other peers accomplishments, and that kind of heightens my own stress about my own accomplishments. It made me feel that I had to compare to other people rather than what I accomplished myself. And this kind of often makes a lot of students feel like college applications are more measure of competition than individual success. So I think it's super important to see what you've accomplished and appreciate your own what you've done for your community, what you've done for yourself, your story, your values, and really hone in on those in your essays, your activities and your expression of who you are. To your admissions officer, another stress for me was writing essay, a lot of essays in a short amount of time, but getting the much needed assistance from Shira was amazing for reducing my stress. And I think Milena mentioned this before. My original list had like 2030 schools, but I soon came to realize that more is not necessarily better. I think if you obviously have a list of safety schools, target schools as well as reach schools, that's important, but at the same time you want to have a concise list so you can write better essays with more vivid language and really spend your time in on schools that you really want to go to, then that's why it was really important earlier to consider what I wanted in a school, because my original list contained schools that you would recognize by name, or, as I said before prestige, but later I my list was filled with schools that I really, really, actually, genuinely wanted to go to that had a community that would cater to me and my my career goals, and something different from what I expected was my college interview for Columbia. I expected it to be more of a professional setting for me, it was a much more casual setting. It was someone from my school who used to go to my high school, so we were able to connect a lot, and it was more of an opportunity for me to learn about the college than anything else. I was able to ask him questions, and he was also able to kind of mix my interests with potentially the opportunities that Columbia offered. So I was really able to see whether I really wanted to go to the school, and it made me further wanted to want to go to Columbia. Shira Harris 19:09 Well, that's great. It sounds like you were at ease, and it was like a resource for you, rather than them checking you out. Exactly. Sayem Kamal 19:16 Yeah, that's for any student. The Interview may be a huge point of stress for everyone, but it's more of an experience for you to see if this is what you want in a college and to see how you'd sit in that community. It's predictor of, I would say, your place in that community. Shira Harris 19:33 Beautifully said. All right, thinking about people who are coming through this process right now. What kind of tips do you have for them hacks that you picked up? Any guidance for writing essays? Sayem Kamal 19:44 I would recommend a few things. Number one, of course, be yourself. And I would say that admissions officers can tell if you're not being true to yourself. I think it's super important to understand what your values are, your experiences and. And sometimes you may like due to just memory, the how memory works, you might see your memories on a surface level, but it's important to dig deeper into why, why something happens, how it impacted you, how it shaped your career goals, how it shaped your life. So I think the biggest part of a college writing, a college essay, is thinking more than writing. And what's the thought there? Once you have your value set, I think writing the essay will come eventually, and once you get to that point, you can write in language that is expressive and vivid, and thinking about the experience is really important, because when the more you think about it, the better you'll be able to explain experience. Another thing that I did that really helped me was learning from others mistakes and successes. But at the same time, you don't want to copy their formats Exactly. I think I mentioned this before. Everyone is their own person, and that needs to come across in your essay. So this means your identity and experiences. And lastly, for Ys essays, I would say, don't just make it all about the school, talk about you as well, and how you would fit into the existing system at that school. So I would say that would take a lot of research into the school, into the clubs and activities, and potentially linking it to yourself and how your past experiences or your future aspirations can fit into that framework. So I think that's super important, Shira Harris 21:22 super helpful. Thank you. What else I Milena Veliz 21:26 completely resonate with Sam on this train to to yourself on the essay. I think it's a very important aspect of, you know, kind of the schools could get a sense of who you are, aside from being an A plus student. So I would see a lot of, you know, meditating goes on to it a lot of reflecting on who you are and we want to be in the future, what your values are as a person and how they fit into your career goals. There will be times where it's going to be hard and you might want to, you know, like Sam said, like, use big words or sound like very sophisticated but if not not who you are as a writer, I I would recommend not doing that or not going that path. And if you feel like you are going that path, like I would have my parents read my essay sometimes, or like, even though they didn't speak English, like I would actually translate the essay, and like they would tell me if that was something that sounded like who I was. So I guess like people would really know you try to have them read the essay and see, you know you come across as the person who they know you are. And also, one, one very nice hack is, you know, it could get very stressful to guide a lot of supplemental essays when you're applying to different colleges. So I would say, like, if you have, like, a strong personal essay, there are certain, like, parts of the essay that could actually be used for supplemental essays. So I would definitely like try to recycle those, because they're still telling your story one Shira Harris 22:49 way or another. Yeah. And Sam, actually, you mentioned a little bit earlier that you were able to, like, write a few key essays and then use those for several schools. Yeah. So you didn't have to write a million essays. You just wrote some really strong essays that you could kind of mix and match and make fit exactly. We call that super essays. So of course, both of you, it was not only applying to college and writing all the essays and doing all the work and managing to be in your senior year, but it was also getting funding. Right? What would you say was, like your percent of time that was dedicated to affordability, work versus application? Work like scholarships, financial aid, forms, etc. Sayem Kamal 23:31 So for me, unfortunately, I started applying to scholarships a little bit later. Since I only started applying to them near this end of senior year, I did apply to a few scholarships throughout high school, but I would say that I spent about 20% of my time on during college applications, working on affordability, whether it was FAFSA or scholarships. Of this work, and even though it was only 20% it was one of the biggest concerns for me, especially since I was applying Ed. It was concerning for me to think about the level of aid I would receive, and this also made me raise a lot of questions about whether I even wanted to apply Ed. But I think for anyone I would recommend definitely putting in a good amount of effort into scholarships, because getting into college is obviously one battle, but you also want to make sure that you can sustain a college, yeah, college education, so that may mean scholarships or doing research into how to receive FAFSA loans. So I think that's super important. And one of the mistakes I made that I should have honed in on a little bit more during my experience, Milena Veliz 24:41 I would say I was very worried about aid, because I knew would be a very big financial burden on my parents if I was able to get all the and I could. So I would say I'd spend about 60% of my time worrying about it. I applied to Fauci very like early on, I was very confused at first. Because the pandemic was going on. And my counselor, I think, only did like one Zoom meeting, and then it was more of like drop in sessions if you had any questions. So I would constantly drop in to ask her how to fill something out. Then I did like tap. I also applied to like specific scholarships to like the specific colleges I was going to. And then, of course, I found Macaulay, who's such a great opportunity. I applied to it. So I I definitely start a lot of my time worrying about it, especially as, like a first generation college students. One thing I would say is it's definitely something to worry about if, like, you're really low income, and you know it's going to be burdening parents. But I will say the amount of stress I gave into, it was little insane. And, you know, thinking back now, I think if I would have just kind of, like, stressed it out a little bit less, it would have probably been a really less stressful process. And, you know, the whole college process was, so I will say, Don't focus too much on it, because, you know, even if you're low income, there are a lot of programs that really want to help, like, low income families. I know they have, like the bridge has, like a full scholarship for low income students. I know they have the I think Cornell had, like a GOP program. So I think there are a lot of options out there that for you are available if you applied to certain colleges as a low income student and following Shira Harris 26:27 on that, will you just explain, for people who don't know about the Macaulay program, how does that work? Milena Veliz 26:31 Yeah, so Macaulay basically is like the scholarship fund for like CUNY colleges. So basically they interview around, like, 1000s of kids every year, and out of those 1000s of students, they take around 500 and they're all spread out into different like all of the, I believe it's eight CUNY colleges, and then their whole process is you have to, like, write an essay. It's more like a personal statement, where you're telling your story, and they're looking for very social justice driven students, because that's their their Lana, basically, they go by the common good and, you know, teaching students to be well rounded individuals, so that when they graduate college, you know, they just don't go and focus on, like, the science field, But, you know, contributing to their communities as well. So they're trying to form, you know, individuals who are going to give back to their community besides their career goals. And so I think the first process is doing a personal statement, getting a recommendation from two people who, you know, are professors, or who were extracurricular coaches with you and stuff like that. And then after that, you go into like a second phase, where they start, like an interviewing process. I interviewed with the director at my schools program, because they have different directors at different schools. So I interviewed at the John Jay director. And you know, it was, it was like a click, honestly, for me, as soon as I interviewed, because they were going over, like, there's like, academic structure and how, like, they structured our classes every, like, four years. And it was a lot of, you know, thinking about the common good. How can we form the best, well rounded individuals? And I know we do like seminars where it's like broken down into four years, and it starts with learning about the arts, learning about the sciences, learning about the people in New York. And it's definitely been a very, very rewarding and very exciting journey. I know last semester, we actually had to pick a new name for New York, or a part of New York, and it was a nice project where I went into Brooklyn and I tried to rename it, and I interviewed the people of Brooklyn. So you definitely get to do a lot of things that you never thought you would be doing, which is, I think, very rewarding of being in college, so cool. Shira Harris 28:57 And so if you are accepted into Macaulay honors, you get a full scholarship right to one of the campuses within City University of New Milena Veliz 29:06 York, that is correct, you do get a full scholarship. And on top of that, you also get a computer with them, which is basically free. And then you also have a personal advisor that basically is there to help you sign up for classes early and basically, kind of talk over your career goals and what internships you could possibly apply for and stuff like that, right? Shira Harris 29:31 And so, Molina, you've been there for a full year now. How is it? Is it? What you thought? Are you loving it? How's it going? I Milena Veliz 29:40 am loving it for sure. I, like I mentioned before, we took two classes over the span of the fall and spring semester, and the first one was the arts in NYC, and the second one was the people of NYC. And the first one and the second one both were equally exciting in the sense that, you know, I never. Imagine myself trying to, like, photograph NYC people and try to make like, hard Canvas out of it. I never picture myself interviewing people in Brooklyn and, you know, renaming it a whole different borough. So it was definitely, like a very, very rewarding experience to kind of like look at it and look at New York and specific from like, a different cultural perspective, I will say that I was very scared going to college, especially like, since I didn't have anyone who, like, already went, who could, you know, kind of like, this is where you're supposed to do. This is where you're supposed to go. So having, like, a college advisor kind of meet with you weekly, or, you know, email you every two times a week, with different opportunities and career goals and stuff like that. That was very helpful. We also have, like, an honors lounge where you get to meet other, like honors students. So it's a very close knit community, because everyone there is just, like, very, very submersed into, you know, the value of youth values and human rights and equality and the common good. So it's really good to be somewhere where other individuals value those values. Shira Harris 31:10 Beautiful and Siam, you're headed to Columbia real soon. Here are you already like connecting with people on campus or getting involved in any way. Sayem Kamal 31:21 Yeah, so I think it was in April, we had to have a pre pre orientation where a bunch of students came in. We had some lectures about the core curriculum that Columbia had a club fair, and most importantly, like, like, immersive experiences to get to know other people. So it was really cool to meet a lot of future classmates and friends. And the biggest thing I noticed was that I was able to connect with people from all walks of life, international, from New York across the country, and also varying ideas and backgrounds and interests. So it was really exciting, and it made me even more excited to attend and live in the city. I have an upcoming orientation at the end of this month, in August, August 27 and really excited, because I think we're a part of the outdoor program where we're potentially going to, like, go kayaking or hiking or something. So it's like, one of my biggest hobbies. So doing that while meeting new people and meeting new friends may also be interested in that type of stuff is really cool. So, yeah, living in the city has always been a dream of mine, which is why Columbia and other city schools were at my, you know, the top of my list, because I can get a lot of resources for my own career and also reconnect with like the city that I was originally born in. I Malena. I can assume that you also had that experience, that you were able to really reconnect with the city and but also explore other parts. And as you said, like you were able to explore Brooklyn and get to know the people there. So I mean, what I would like to do something like that too, getting to explore the other boroughs and immerse myself in it. Shira Harris 32:56 Thinking back on your applications, was there a part of it that, like, really has stayed with you? You know, something that you wrote that just really felt true, or that you were especially proud of any particular like essay or story that you were able to share that just felt like, Yes, I am putting forward who I am. I Sayem Kamal 33:15 think for me, one of my essays for my one of my supplemental essays for Columbia, it mentioned, tell me about your background and who you are. I know that that's a huge upcoming supplemental essay for a lot of schools, especially with the recent occurrences. So I applied before the widespread usage of that supplemental essay, but mostly I wrote about my school community, living in Long Island, which was completely different from Queens and trying to find my own community in that within, like my own sub community within the larger Long Island community. And I kind of wrote really about my own struggles, but also my own successes, finding my Muslim discussion group in my school, even though there were only eight or nine Muslim people in my school, and not only finding that group, but also making impacts with that group, such as spreading information about Ramadan or eid and really informing our school about what it means to be Muslim, but also, more importantly, learning about other cultures and religions, like we had meetings with the Jewish student Union, we had meetings the diversity club, and we even had a diversity day where every cultural group and religious group came together and gave presentation. So I kind of wrote about that, how, even in such what many would have claimed to be a homogeneous, like community, with only like, you know, with not much diversity, how in reality, there's always, there's always differences between people and how we can appreciate that. Yeah. Shira Harris 34:43 And I remember in that that essay and some similar ones, you also really wrote about how you kind of were a liaison between communities, and that you had leadership and bringing communities together and facilitating some of these conversations. Yeah. Elena, anything come to mind? Something that you. Loved about what you wrote, or I Milena Veliz 35:01 definitely enjoyed writing about how I was able to empower the females in my school, especially my shop class, which is where we did a lot of aviation related work. I know that you know, being a especially Latina female, it's pretty hard in an aviation male dominated world. It still is, if you can know it's 2023, people might not, you know, realize that it's still, there's still, like, only one female in the workplace full of like 30 males. And I would say that I really enjoyed, you know, just reflecting back on that experience, because it kind of like it was more of like, I would say, getting to know me. And I was able to see, like, wow. Like, okay, this is who I am. Like I am, you know, the type of person that wants to empower young females, that wants to give them voice, especially whether it's not female or, you know, male, someone who just doesn't have a voice, and who I want to be able to give it to, and I think that I was able to, you know, be strong about that in my essay, which kind of helped me to know, to find my way through McCauley, and especially, you know, find the right place where I know I I'm comfortable and I'm happy with and so I just really enjoyed that part of me just reflecting about it. Yeah, Shira Harris 36:19 I loved that part of the essay where you kind of described the dynamics in that class and how effectively the females were silenced, and that ultimately you just, like, took a stand like you weren't going to have that, and you were going to make sure that everybody was able to do it, like you were able to do it, and you took your time to basically tutor them and, like, bring everybody up to the same level and change the notion about who can do what at the school Milena Veliz 36:42 still happening in deviation industry. Shira Harris 36:48 Well, now that you guys are both through the process looking back, is there any advice you would give your former self? Sayem Kamal 36:55 I would say that the biggest advice I could give to anyone is read this book that I read by Frank Bruni, or this short story kind of anecdote by Frank Bruni called, where you go is that? Where is that? Who you'll be? It is definitely something I wish I read a while before I applied, because I mustered up so much stress with me thinking that the name of my college will get me to my career goals. And one quote that I really, really liked from that book is, I think it was, it's not Yale or jail. So, like, he was saying, like, you know, it's not polarized like that. It's wherever you go, if you put in the effort to really 16, that is where you'll go. But it's not merely the name of your college, it's how you choose to interact with your college community and the resources that will get you where you want to be. So I highly recommend anyone applying to colleges to read it as it completely transformed my perspective on college applications, and I wish I had read Shira Harris 37:55 it before. Thank you for that. Milena Veliz 37:58 Yeah, for me, definitely rusted. I would say, stay true to yourself. For sure, a college acceptance is not a reflection of who you are, or you know, how successful you'll be, neither is a rejection from a college that you didn't get into. You know, like many times, very people that will want to like bring you down or compare you with other colleges and stuff like that. I will say, if you know who you are, and you know what your goals in life are, and you're very strong and your values you you'll be good to go. You be a good person that will fit into your college community and you reach your goals eventually. Shira Harris 38:38 Nice thinking about folks who are going through the process now, are there any other resources that were really helpful to you inside or outside of CEG? But I'm thinking mostly outside of CEG, that you would recommend to people, particularly first gen students, low income students, any resources that you took advantage of, or groups or networks that we haven't mentioned and we can link to them, Sayem Kamal 39:01 I would say Reddit, I think, was one of the biggest resources for me, because getting the experience from counselors and adults is amazing, but getting also the experience of students who are currently applying and being able to relate with them was super important. So Reddit is a good form for that. I think all you need to get their threads on Reddit. I like r slash applying to college and r slash questbridge. But literally, if you have any question about any college, you just type it in Google, and then after, you just put the word Reddit, and it'll do every answer that you want. So I think that's super important, using Reddit using resources, and that's also, as I mentioned before, how I found that discord and how I later found the match letters program and online with the you know, now that we're in the age of the internet, you can find anyone that you want. You can find a you can find a community that you can really relate to. And for me, that was the fcli community on Discord, so it was really important for me to look through my options. Nice, Shira Harris 39:57 super helpful. Yeah. Milena Veliz 39:59 For me, I would say the College Board has, like, this website where you look up the colleges and, like, I know, like, I'm not sure if they're still doing s, a T, but back then, they were doing sat like you were putting your SAT score, and it'll tell you if, like, it was a safety school, or each school, or, you know, a match. And so I think that was very helpful, because it's not, you know, exact, and it shouldn't be a reflection of like, Oh, I'm not gonna get any I'm not gonna apply. But it kind of gives you like, a view of, you know, what schools you potentially want to apply to if you're first starting to look for schools, like, I would say, definitely try to perfect that list later on. But you know, if you're just starting to look for them, the College Board was really helpful for me. And then there was another program, I think it's called strive, which is like for first generation college students. And they also kind of give you mentor that is like online, and they're constantly answering your questions about, you know different like college applications or any college doubts you have. And they'll definitely also read your resume. We want them to grade one Shira Harris 41:02 beautiful. Well, do you guys have any questions for us, or anything that you want to share with potential match later, students or college counselors or anybody that might be interested in this program that we haven't touched on? Yeah, Sayem Kamal 41:16 I was wondering. I mean, there's so many opportunities, there's so many resources while applying to college, or, you know, writing essays and such, but I feel like there's a shortage of resources for what to do after being accepted into college. So does match letters have any resources to prepare for college once already accepted, like How to Afford College, or like buying food and such, or even how to integrate yourself into the community and academics. Great Shira Harris 41:43 point, great question. Yeah, we do have a to and through guide that's basically a collection of testimonials and advice from former match letters about what it was like for them in the first year. So we can link to that for sure. And we do match first year students with former match letters who are at their campuses can be a great way to start to integrate and on your financial piece question, which, of course, is so important. We are right now working on a resource. Hopefully it'll be out soon, and that will be to each individual campuses to get those crucial tips. Sayem Kamal 42:18 Awesome. Thank you. I'll definitely check that out. Well, I want Shira Harris 42:21 to thank you both so much. It's been amazing to see you and reconnect with you, and what you've shared, I think, is so useful and revelatory about the process and will really help other folks who are coming Sayem Kamal 42:31 through. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you so much. Shira Harris 42:35 Best of luck this year. Ethan Sawyer 42:40 Thanks friends for listening as ever. You'll find the resources in the show notes, including a link to sign up for the match letters program. If you're a student from a low income household looking for free sa or application help, or maybe you're a counselor interested in volunteering. If so, we'd love to hear from you. You'll find that link at college essay guide.com/match letters, and you'll find the show notes at college. Essay guy.com/podcast Hey, are you on our newsletter yet? Because if not, that's the best way to learn about our upcoming webinars, our resources. You can join by going to our home page at college sa guy.com That's it. Stay curious. You. Transcribed by https://otter.ai
