A lot of people—especially younger students who’ve just arrived—ask me when they should start preparing for college applications. Honestly, I don’t think there should be one clearly defined starting point. Looking back now, college applications feel more like the result of doing a lot of exploratory things in FP and DP1: joining Zhixing, taking part in project week, or even smaller, lighter things, like chatting with friends or going out together, or even just going to class as usual. Somewhere in that process, you either find your passion, or maybe you don’t land on one crystal-clear goal but do come away with a rough sense of what you care about. Then, when you start preparing application materials in the summer before DP2 or in the first half of DP2, it becomes a process of looking back and connecting the dots. It’s very spontaneous, and it doesn’t need to be overly deliberate.
Some people will definitely say this is a romanticized way of looking at things, not very realistic. But even if you think about it from a more practical, even utilitarian angle, I think the answer is still the same. Take CS as an example. If someone doesn’t even know what the basic areas in CS are—AI, systems, CS theory, and so on—or what each area actually does, then how could they possibly write an essay that moves an admissions officer, or find a school that really fits them? I’m not saying that in high school you need a deep understanding of every subfield in the major you want to study. I’m just saying that if you’re genuinely interested in certain directions, then you’ll be thinking about them while eating, while sleeping—you won’t be able to stop yourself. That’s probably what passion is. But you also don’t need to get anxious about this, and I’m definitely not saying you need to have all these areas figured out in DP1, or even in FP. Over the past few years, I’ve increasingly felt that you should never wait until the timing is “right” before starting something—by which I mean, don’t wait until everything is perfectly in place. As the saying goes, sharpening your axe doesn’t keep you from chopping wood. A lot of the time, you join a Zhixing program first, or start a project first, and only afterward realize where your passion actually lies. That, too, is part of the exploratory work I was talking about earlier.
So what if you get to DP2 and still realize you’re not particularly interested in anything? Well, then probably nobody can save you. Alright, I’m joking. Honestly, I think at that point it’s enough to look at whether there’s a subject you feel some affinity toward—even if it’s not passion, even if it’s just a tiny bit of interest—or just which subject comes relatively naturally to you. That’s actually more than enough. And if someone says they feel equally indifferent to every subject? Then if you’re applying to U.S. colleges, congratulations, because most schools in the US have something called an undecided major, which lets you go in, do some broader exploration first, and then decide.
Then it’s time to start choosing schools. But before that, I want to give a grand introduction to the university counselling office at school. If I remember correctly, when I was there, the school had about five counsellors, and each student was assigned one in the second semester of DP1. A counsellor’s role is to help us successfully apply to the universities we want to attend—in other words, they’re the primary contact for everything related to the application process. I’ll use my own college counselor Alison as an example. I’ve always thought Alison was an incredibly, incredibly good counsellor. To be honest, back then I was still pretty socially anxious—the kind of person who got nervous even talking to strangers—so before I walked into Alison’s office for the first time, I was really on edge. After all, in my mind at the time, this was my “life-defining matter.” But the moment I pushed open the door and saw her, I felt instantly at ease. All of that nervousness and unease disappeared in a second. After that, we basically met every so often, and once DP2 officially started, the meetings became a bit more frequent. I think the most important thing between you and your counselor is building a kind of unspoken rapport. It’s not something you can force yourself to do—in fact, if you try to force it, you definitely won’t get there. You have to trust them completely and open yourself up to them, telling them all your thoughts, questions, and confusion, so they can understand you better and help you in a more targeted way. So overall, that’s also a spontaneous process. And here’s a little secret: out of the three required recommendations, the counselor recommendation is the most important one, full stop. Because your counselor will talk with you about a lot of philosophical things, and compared with the other two teacher recommendations, they understand best what kind of person you are, how you think about high-level questions, and what your maturity is like—and those are exactly the things U.S. colleges care about most.
Alright, now we’ve arrived at school selection. Originally, this Survival Guide was only supposed to “give you a leg up and see you a little further down the road,” so now that I’ve introduced the counselling office, its mission should really be over—especially when it comes to something as highly specialized as choosing schools. But I still want to talk, from the perspective of a UWC graduate who’s already in college, about a few things I wish I’d known back then. For more, see the next article, On Choosing Schools.
This Series
- On Choosing Schools
- Terminology
- Introduction to Majors [Placeholder]