“I didn’t think about college past the point of getting in… I didn’t think about what I was going to do once I got into college. It was like, oh, let me just get to the top of this hill.”
Kimberly Hoang
For many high school students, college might seem like the only important thing in the world. One common thought runs constantly through their head: “I just have to get into a good college.” This alone gets students motivated enough to push through exams, sports practices, and club meetings.
Kimberly Hoang was no exception. Throughout most of high school, she kept a 4.0 GPA, ran cross country in the fall and played lacrosse in the spring, and was involved in various clubs. During the summer, she’d do minor research and volunteer countless hours to eventually earn the President’s Volunteer Service Award.
Kim graduated high school in 2022 at the top 10% of her class, eventually joining the few to get accepted into a top 25 school. Now an undergrad freshman majoring in neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University, she can say that she’s “reached the top of the hill.”
Yet, college wasn’t exactly how Kim imagined it to be. She became swayed from the pre-med track and, to put it dramatically, had no idea what to do with her life. In an interview with the Peachtree Ridge graduate, I explored the reasons why.
As a high schooler, the most important thing to Kim was college. Through the ages of 14 and 18, Kim lived in the future, rather than in the present. When I asked Kim to describe her high school experience in three words, she said it was strategic, experimental, and routine.
Strategic because she had her entire high school plan laid out from 9th grade, from the classes she’d take to max out the number of AP courses taken to the ten extracurriculars she’d list on her Common App. Experimental because she started two sports she had never done before. Routine because she woke up at the same time everyday and the school bell kept her on track.
So, how could a girl so prepared for college struggle when she finally got there?
Why did she find herself lost and struggling to find a real purpose at the place that was supposed to foster her hopes and dreams?
The biggest factor in Kim’s current predicament is how she navigated high school. She prioritized the number of things she could list on her college application over the experiences she could have gained. Being spread thin across many different extracurriculars prevented her from building depth in the things she did.
Now at Carnegie, she’s has to convince herself that her future is in the healthcare field. Kim is not late, by any means, as many people change their major farther into college.
However, she could have saved herself both the trouble of being an overachiever in high school and the uncertainty about her career goals had she done things a little bit differently.
When I asked Kim what advice she’d give her high school self, she said this:
- In freshman year of high school, try lots of different extracurriculars.
- Drop any club that you don’t genuinely enjoy participating in.
- Utilize your summers by volunteering at a hospital or doing research in a lab.
- Hone your interests and find your “spike(s),” otherwise known as your passion(s).
- Complete an independent project to build knowledge in the field you want to pursue.
In other words, do (only) what you love, and do it well.
Not only will this help you craft a cohesive college application, but more importantly, it will ensure you have a meaningful and fulfilling high school experience.