How William’s Unusual Junior Year Helped Him Fly Through His Dream School in Just 3 Years

“I had no clue what I was supposed to do!” 

This was William, a student I worked with several years ago, recently describing the chaos and confusion he’d faced as he tried to figure out the whole admissions process. 

Sound familiar? 

Well, it doesn’t have to be so confusing and hard. In fact, when you have the right guidance, the ripple effect beyond admissions can be truly extraordinary.

Take William’s case. Though he felt lost and confused at the start of junior year, through our work together, William got crystal clear about what he wanted to do and why (go on to teach pure mathematics at the university level).

And because of this crystal clear direction, he not only got into his top choice schools (Carnegie Mellon, Imperial College London) . . . 

but he ALSO finished his undergraduate degree in three years, his masters in one — and now he’s applying to his Ph.D program AND reusing some of the writing we did together four years ago.  

Would you like to know more about HOW he was able to do such a thing?

Take a peek into our recent conversation . . . (full video excerpt here)

E: William, hi! It’s so wonderful to connect with you again after all of this time. I’d love to know what you remember about the whole admission process.

W: Well, I remember that I had no clue what I was supposed to do. I was just following what my roommates were doing. I had no clue how to create a profile that actually represented me. So the first thing we did together was to spend a lot of time brainstorming how to express my passion for mathematics. This was the most important thing we did together: to take the time to actually consider, “Do I really love math?” I thought I did. But during that time, I confirmed that I really do indeed love it and want to proceed into academica. I think this is really important because unlike many other majors studying pure mathematics requires you to have enough passion and patience to do so. So our conversations helped me understand why I love math, how I could represent that passion in my life, and why I needed to make it my career. Which became an amazing guide for my major, as well.

E: Yes, for sure. And a big piece of what we did was create a project together, something that gave expression to your interest in math. 

W: Yes, indeed. I wasn’t a confident person, especially talking to classmates and teachers. But we talked about how we could improve my school’s math team. I ended up becoming the math team captain because we developed a lot of plans on how to improve the math team’s experience. I did things like create more organized trainings and teachings. And I actually gave some lectures myself, like taking the role of the coach a little bit. I also helped the team become more rigorous in selecting team members to go to competitions and in preparing for exams more carefully. And though our team was strong before, our work together definitely helped the math team to become much stronger. 

E: Yes, and what we did together, since you didn’t have a lot of time to create anything brand new, was to work within the area where you were already spending the majority of your time. Out of those conversations, you brought a higher level of creativity and leadership to your team, and of course that made a huge difference for your admissions process, your essays, and of course your team. 

W: I probably wasn’t a very good leader then, but when it comes to something I’m interested in and am already confident in, it becomes much easier for me to do all of these things.

E: That’s a great point. A lot of students I work with don’t think of themselves as leaders. They think to themselves, “I’m not a leader. I’m not a head of any clubs, or “I’m not extroverted.” And this is what I tell my students: it’s not about the title or the position or how outgoing you are. It’s about taking something you love and are interested in and building that, looking around and asking, “What’s the need around me? How can I take what I care about and create something with that?” And that’s leadership right there.

W: Well, what stands out to me about our work together is that I reused a lot of the writing together in my master’s application, and now I’m using it again in my Ph.d. application.

E: Wow! That is so cool!

W: Yeah, you know the ideas still remain true to me.

E: Yes, I still remember the opening of your essay on philosophy. You sitting in that classroom after school was out reading quietly. Your friends rushing around you, wanting you to do something else, and you wanting to remain in this place of deep contemplation. That was a beautiful essay. And that was a surprise piece of your application. You know, you already had this interest in mathematics and we’d already written a beautiful piece about that and your impact on your community. 

But that piece about your interest in philosophy and also your growth on the field as a soccer player ended up being the surprising element. So many students think that their stories aren’t relevant to the colleges. So what we discovered is that when you add in the pieces that aren’t obvious or don’t seem directly related to your interests, they add so much about who you are and what you have to bring to the colleges. 

W: Definitely! I’m so happy that we got a chance to do that work together because it’s still impacting me and my journey today. 

Can you see how far-reaching the work my students and I do together? This is exactly why it’s become my life’s work — because it’s so thrilling to see students discovering their passion and purpose.

If you’d like to watch the rest of my conversation with William where he talks about his college experience and the importance of choosing the right major/program, you can watch it here!