High School Students, US Colleges, College Admissions, College Applications"> Podcast | College-and-Beyond-Rebecca-Youngers-of-Dowling-Catholic-High-School--Iowa-e1k085k

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Episode Notes | Transcript | AskTheGuest

#Topic]  Hi Fives (5 Highlights)   Click for 2.5-Minute Listen

Rebecca Youngers is a recent graduate of Dowling Catholic High School, Des Moines Iowa.

In this Podcast, Rebecca talks about her passion for writing & journalism, her broad range of interests in high school, how she went about her college search process, and her advice to college aspirants.

Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:

  1. Who is Becca?
  2. Senior Year Priorities
  3. College Search Process
  4. Guidance with the College Process
  5. Advice to Applicants

Episode Notes

Episode Title: About College and Beyond: Rebecca Youngers of Dowling Catholic High School, Iowa.

Rebecca talks about her passion for writing & journalism, her broad range of interests in high school, how she went about her college search process, and her advice to college aspirants.

In particular, we discuss the following with her:

  • Who is Rebecca Youngers?
  • High School Interests
  • The Future, Priorities
  • College Process
  • Advice for High Schoolers

Topics discussed in this episode:

  • Introducing Rebecca Youngers, Dowling Catholic High School [0:37]
  • Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [1:32]
  • Who is Rebecca Youngers? [4:01]
  • Extracurriculars in High School [5:33]
  • Passion for Journalism [7:20]
  • Senior Year Priorities [9:59]
  • About the Future [12:01]
  • College Search Process [13:18]
  • The Challenges [15:38]
  • The Surprises [17:48]
  • Guidance through the College Process [19:33]
  • Making the College Decision [21:26]
  • Advice to Applicants [24:40]
  • Closing Thoughts [26:47]

Our Guest: Rebecca Youngers is a recent graduate of Dowling Catholic High School, Des Moines Iowa. She will be a Freshman at UT Austin in Fall 2022.

Memorable Quote: “For high school, I would say don't get yourself worked up over all these AP classes that you're taking or your classmates may be taking or people around the country maybe taking. They're not you, you are your own person, you have your own story to tell.” Rebecca Youngers’ Advice to High Schoolers.

Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.

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Episode Transcript

Transcript of the episode’s audio.

<Start Snippet> Becca Y  0:14  

Don't get so worked up, over getting involved in everything. Prioritize stuff that matters to you prioritize stuff that you think you might have a future in. I did newspaper and yearbook and I spent so much time doing those and I think that reflects and a lot of my decisions that happened with college.

Venkat  0:37  [Introducing Becca Youngers, Dowling Catholic High School]

That is Rebecca Youngers, a recent graduate of Dowling Catholic High School, Des Moines Iowa.

Hello, I am your host, Venkat Raman.

With this Episode, we continue a select set of conversations with 11th & 12th Graders about how they see their future and their college plans.

We are joined by Rebecca Youngers, who will be a Freshman at UT Austin this fall.

Venkat Raman  [1:04]

In this Podcast, Rebecca talks about her passion for writing & journalism, her broad range of interests in high school, how she went about her college search process, and her advice to college aspirants.

Before we jump into the podcast, here are the Hi-Fives,  Five Highlights from the podcast:

Becca Y  1:32  [Highlights - Hi Fives]

[Who is Becca?]

I was primarily involved with publications, I did newspaper all four years of high school and I did yearbook, two years of high school, my junior and senior years. And I was I had leadership roles in those as well. So that really got me excited about journalism.

[Senior Year Priorities]

Well, I definitely knew that I wanted to attend college. I know that's something that you go through, like what do you want to do for your post secondary plans. I knew that I definitely wanted to go to college. And I wanted to kind of expand my horizons and I wanted to look at schools that were out of state maybe hard to get into schools. I really wanted to challenge myself my senior year.

[College Search Process]

Kind of broadly thought about college, my junior year, especially but not so much. I didn't want to be like a huge stressor for me like, Oh my God, I need to get into this school in this school because it's okay. Like it's, it's okay, if things don't work out the way you think they're going to. So I made kind of a broad list of schools, main things that I looked for, I really wanted to be in a city or an urban area, just because especially with journalism, there's a lot of connections you can have there.

 

[Guidance with the College Process]

I think there's a lot of things that your college counselors can do that you don't realize, kind of like things like mock interviews, like they can do that for you. Or she honestly helped me look at other schools, like broaden my horizons, all kinds of things like that.

[Advice to Applicants]

I would say, obviously, prioritize your time. I know it's hard when people tell you that every single time like everyone tells you to prioritize your time. But they really do mean it like make sure you're looking at when the applications are due if you're going to do early decision, early action, or just regular session.

Venkat Raman  3:21

These were the Hi5s, brought to you by “College Matters. Alma Matters.”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Venkat Raman  3:32

Now. I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast with Rebecca.

So without further ado, here's the podcast with Rebecca Youngers!

--------------

Venkat Raman  3:42  

So if you're ready, we can jump right in.

Becca Y  3:45  

Yes, I'm ready to go.

Venkat Raman  3:47  

Cool. So let's start by telling us a little bit about yourself. You know, the kinds of things that generally that you've been doing, who are you and specifically?

Becca Y  4:01  [Who is Rebecca Youngers?]

All right, well, my name is Becky Youngers, I am from Des Moines, Iowa. I go to what I did attend, I guess I've graduated now. But I attended a private school in West Des Moines, Iowa. And there I was primarily involved with publications. I did newspaper all four years of high school and I did yearbook, two years of high school, my junior and senior years. And I was I had leadership roles in those as well. So that really got me excited about journalism. That's how I kind of find out that I wanted to do journalism in college. And along with journalism, and publications, all that stuff. I also did sports I was I did cross country tennis and softball for four years. So pretty heavily involved in that. And then you know, all those other extracurriculars in there to NHS all that good stuff as well.

Venkat Raman  4:59  

Wow. had a pretty busy four years.

Becca Y  5:03  

Oh, yeah. still busy now because in Iowa where I live, we do high school softball in the summer. So I actually got games last night and I just got home from practice this morning. So

Venkat Raman  5:19  

You broadly touched on your interests. So tell us a little bit about you mentioned sports. What kind of extracurriculars outside of sports were you involved in?

Becca Y  5:33  [Extracurriculars in High School]

I did. I tried to get involved in a lot of things. I tried to make it a goal to get involved in one more thing each year of high school.

Um, so starting freshman year, one of the things I decided to go out and do was student council, and I did that I was the class vice president for my class.

And I continued doing that my sophomore year, junior year, I went over to student body Student Council, but then my senior year, I came back to just do class office just for my class specifically, and did a lot of stuff for that.

I touched on NHS, I got into that my junior year, and then also my senior year, um, I was involved in various clubs, like reading club, we had Harry Potter club in high school. So I got involved in that, because my, my journalism teacher actually was the moderator for that. So it just seemed pretty natural just to come and do that.

Um, what else seems like I've done all this stuff on all my college applications. And now that that's all over, I can't even think of all of it.

Um, but I also did, there's this thing at my school, it's called Student philanthropy Council, where we worked with our like Advancement team, and worked with people directly with the school did all that stuff, and you had to go through an application process for that. So I did that for my junior and senior year, because they started it my junior year end of junior year, and that your my whole senior year as well. Um, but I would say most of my time regarding extracurriculars was taken up by my sports and also yearbook and newspaper. Because especially yearbook because you know, you have to work on it the whole year, you're covering stuff all the time. So yeah.

Venkat Raman  7:13  

Talk a little bit about what you might consider your key talents and passion.

Becca Y  7:20  [Passion for Journalism]

Definitely journalism and publications in general. At my school, you take like an intro to journalism class. And that can count as English credit towards your graduation, like your required credits. So my sister told me to take that my freshman year and I was like, Oh, well, I'll do that. Sure. Like, I'm decent at writing, whatever, I'll take it. And I took that really enjoyed it really enjoyed writing stories and covering stuff. So it was actually funny because we had this period, like a study hall period. And it was in the middle of the day. And during like the first study hall period of second semester, after I'd finished the journalism course, I was frantically emailing my counselor, I was like, Can I please switch into newspaper because obviously, when you're a freshman registering for classes, you can't sign up for it, please, like it fits perfectly into my schedule. And she made that happen. And then I've been doing it ever since. And I would say within that I've grown to have pretty good leadership qualities as I was the editor in chief for three years for newspaper and then one year for yearbook last year, it's a really good experience, because you work on like kind of recruiting people to take the class, you know, and you're leading people that you might not have like the same kind of works like types of learning skills. It's a lot of types of people in one group that you have to, you know, learn to work with, learn to collaborate with. So it's definitely a challenge, but I've found it to be extremely rewarding. And ever since, like, I started newspaper, and then I joined, yearbook eventually, it just felt like I've always like, fit there like. And I like it journalism, especially because it's very different. And it's always changing. Because yeah, journalism is not just oh, you're writing a, you're writing a report, you're writing an editorial, something like that. You can go be taking pictures, you can be doing something like a podcast like we're doing. You can do a lot of stuff with it. And it's always changing, like you think about how newspapers, paper newspapers were super common. And now those are pretty much outdated. It's changing a lot. And that's what I really liked about it.

Venkat Raman  9:31  

You know, obviously, at this point, you're done with high school. And, you know, over the last year or so, how did you how did you think about your future? I mean, what, what was important to you what, what kind of stuff did you prioritize as something that you wanted to do or continue doing or over the next few years as you ventured into college and other and higher education?

Becca Y  9:59  [Senior Year Priorities]

Well, I definitely knew that I wanted to attend college. I know that's something that you go through, like, what do you want to do for your post secondary plans, I knew that I definitely wanted to go to college. And I wanted to kind of expand my horizons. And I wanted to look at schools that were out of state, maybe hard to get into schools. I really wanted to challenge myself my senior year. So to like, kind of prepare for college applications, I took more AP classes, I mean, I've been taking a few. And loading up your AP schedule is something that's like super common at my school. But I took for my senior year, which, and I took ones that I thought I could excel in, and I ended up doing pretty good in them. So I definitely picked ones that I knew that I liked. And obviously more towards the side of like, I don't want to say easier AP classes, but it were there are ones that I would enjoy more than like, say, like AP, like computer science, like that would not be for me. So I did not take that. Yeah, but I took things like, like that AP classes. I also really worked hard on the yearbook. And somebody that actually did with journalism, I didn't submit this to any colleges that I applied to. But this is definitely one that's going to help me in the future, I entered into this contest for like journalist of the year for my state, and you make it you make a huge website. And it's basically like a huge online portfolio. And I didn't win anything, and that's okay. But I think it's really good, because it's like a huge portfolio that I can use in college and in my future that I can keep adding to. So that's something that I did specifically for journalism.

Venkat Raman  11:39  

No, that's great. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, trying out things is really important. I mean, you know, outcomes will happen. But oh, yes, for sure. They should absolutely. Give it a shot.

Venkat Raman  11:54  

Now, how do you feel about your future? How do you how do you feel going into the next phase of life here?

Becca Y  12:01  [About the Future]

Yeah, I feel good. I'm going to be attending college in the fall. So I feel pretty good about that. I don't know exactly. I mean, I feel like it's really hard to pinpoint a career exactly what I want to do, but definitely something with journalism. I'm also really interested in Spanish and foreign language. I think those two go really hand in hand, though, especially with journalism, you know, if you want to cover stuff, and you want to reach a larger amount of people knowing this is really beneficial. So those are two things that I really want to prioritize in college as well as getting involved similar, like I did similarly to how I did in high school. But I feel really confident I feel really happy with the choices that I made in the past year. I'm looking back like a year ago to where I am, where I was versus where I am now. I feel like I've grown a lot. And the college admissions process definitely helped me with that. I think going through that was what was very stressful. And at times, I was like, This is terrible. I think it definitely was had a positive impact on me.

Venkat Raman  13:06  

How did you think about college? How did you pick Colleges? How did you, How did you go through that process? Share, share some highlights or insights from there?

Becca Y  13:18  [College Search Process]

Yeah, so it was the end of my junior year I was in my English class. And at my school, no matter what English are taking your junior year, they do a unit on writing college essays, which I think is really nice. Because sometimes when you're going through that, as a senior, you're like, so close to the deadline. You're like, Oh, my God, I had no idea how to approach this. So it was really nice to have that we worked on like the common app, the typical prompts that they have. And I honestly like I wrote my essays for that. The Common App prompts and I use those essays in my application. Like I barely even changed anything. And I had really good success with that. So we started with that.

And then I started researching colleges. I mean, I kind of broadly thought about college, my junior year especially but not so much. I didn't want to be like a huge stressor for me like, Oh my God, I need to get into this school, in this school because it's okay. Like it's, it's okay, if things don't work out the way you think they're going to.

So I made kind of a broad list of schools, main things that I looked for, I really wanted to be in a city or an urban area, just because especially with journalism, there's a lot of connections you can have there. Like most likely, if you're in a big city, there's going to be a new station there or maybe even a magazine, something that you can do something that has good internship opportunities. Yeah. And also, if it wasn't a big city, I wanted to make sure that they had a pretty good journalism program or like linguistics or Spanish or something like that. So that's pretty much what I looked for in my search.

I also looked a little bit at location. I didn't really want to go to school on the west coast just because I haven't really traveled there a ton. I don't really know much about the areas and I'm just not super familiar with it and Yeah, so I applied to schools, some of the Midwest, I guess, like maybe two, three in the south, that wasn't somewhere that I really wanted to be either. And then also the Northeast and the East Coast. So yeah.

Venkat Raman  15:18  

What was some of the challenges as you were looking at college? I mean, what were the kinds of things that you felt you didn't have enough information about? Or was difficult in some way? I mean, what were some of the obstacles or challenges along the way?

Becca Y  15:38  [The Challenges]

Um, I would say one of the challenges that I had was, this is honestly what went into making my decision as well like my final decision, but looking up colleges, financial aid, and whether they do like need based aid, or if they do merit scholarships, things like that. That was difficult.

For me, I think a lot of people just go into the process being like, Oh, I'm gonna apply to this school just because like, I want to get it and like, it'll be fun, like not knowing, actually like, oh, my gosh, this cost a ton of money, and they give no aid, or they gave no aid. To me, that was the hardest part.

Um, I went on a couple college visits, I was able to get on some, it was really hard, because usually you start that, like your junior year, but I was unable to do that, because of COVID. And obviously, I play softball in summer. So the summer is pretty much ruled out as a time that I kind of vacation until the very end of summer. So I was able to go on some visits. And that helped me kind of narrow down where I really wanted to apply. And if you have the opportunity, if you have the resources and availability to go on visits, it's a great thing to do, I think because you really can see if you actually feel like you belong there or not. And it can save you some money and some time, for sure.

Other challenges, time management for sure. For me, as most seniors that are applying to, I guess, prestigious colleges, or just a bunch of colleges, in general, it's a huge time commitment. And if you're they're taking a bunch of AP classes, advanced or classes, anything like that, plus you're doing extracurriculars, sports, all that at the same time, it can be very, very hard to find time, prioritize your applications, and you're like, oh, I'll just do them on the weekend. And then you're doing stuff on the weekend, it's really hard time management was probably like, the biggest part of my college application process that I wish I would have prioritized more.

Venkat Raman  17:38  

Anything anything surprise you? I mean with, with the process with the application, something that you hadn't considered going in.

Becca Y  17:48  [The Surprises]

Um, the funny thing is the school that I'm going to UT Austin, the University of Texas at Austin, I had no idea how long their application was going to be. And then it was on like, a different kind of platform that makes sense similar to that just for Texas schools. I did not know that because it wasn't on my original list of what I was going to apply to, you know, like I said, things aren't always going to work out the way you think they are.

So it wasn't on my original list. I kind of added it last minute and applied and just said whatever. Didn't really know about the whole auto admit thing, any of that and also in general, um, surprising to me is how much success I had with the process. I applied to 14 schools and I was accepted into 11 of them, or two, and then waitlisted at one so you know, you see a lot of people especially on social media, like I'm on Tik Tok.

I see so many people having such a tough time with the process. It was just as honestly nice because I had so much success with it and it could be due to you know, I'm from Iowa and I'm pretty involved, heavily involved in what I'm majoring in so that definitely helped me I think for sure. But yeah, I think just success with the process for me for sure. Because I would just see all these people around me getting reject after reject or waitlist and I was like dang I'm pretty lucky like wow, this is really been pretty successful for me if you think about it, so yeah.

Venkat Raman  19:20  

Now what, what kind of help did you get from the counselors? The school and did you do any extra? Did you take any external counseling or was it all school for the college counseling?

Becca Y  19:33  [Guidance through the College Process]

Um, I pretty much went through the process by myself, I would say, but um, my college counselor at my school I know you've talked with her Mrs. Koppes. I appreciate her so much. She really helped me.

It was honestly just nice to have her as an outlet to talk to being honest. She helped me like feel confident she I had to do an interview I applied to Georgetown and you obviously have to do an interview there. It's required. So she did kind of a mock mock interview with me for that and help really boost my confidence with that. And I had a great interview when it actually came down to the interview. So I think that really helped me honestly felt over prepared for that.

So I think there's a lot of things that your college counselors can do that you don't realize, kind of like things like mock interviews, like they can do that for you. Or she honestly helped me look at other schools, like broaden my horizons, all kinds of things like that.

Also, I had an English teacher, my English teacher, he was my English teacher, junior and senior year. Yeah, he helped read over a bunch of my essays helped me, help give me a bunch of advice, he actually looked over my essays for UT Austin, literally the day the application was due. So big shout out to him for that.

And he really helped me feel very confident in my essays as well. Even if I was like, struggling, he always could give me ideas. So things like that. But I didn't really have any outside resources, like people to read my essays that I was like paying them to do that or something like that. It was just kind of within my school, I thought I had pretty good resources in there.

Venkat Raman  21:12  

So let's move forward. So you know, you applied to 14 you got into 11 places, 11 colleges. How did you make your decision? How do you go about picking UT Austin finally?

Becca Y  21:26  [Making the College Decision]

um, I would say the main thing that it came down to was money, financial aid and being able to pay for college, I got into I would guess you could say, so my dream schools, I did get into Georgetown, I got into like, Boston University, Northeastern. And those are schools that I really, really loved. The financial aid and money was simply just not there.

And it's hard when you're like, 18, and you're like, oh, I want to go to this amazing school and like, it's all gonna work out. And you're like, well, who's gonna pay for that? You know, it's like, I'm very, very lucky. My parents have really worked their way up. And I've been able to, they're going to be able to support me financially through college, which I'm so grateful for.

And, yeah, that was the main reason and I, really, UT Austin has a great journalism program. They have great opportunities. Down there in Austin, you can write for the Daily Texan, lot of internship opportunities, study abroad opportunities, which is stuff that I really, really loved. Also, it's in an urban area. And I kind of frantically visited there in the middle of April, right before, you know, decision that's coming up. And I really, really fell in love with the city, it was unlike any place that I've ever been before.

The one thing I will say that I was maybe concerned about with UT Austin is the amount of people just from Texas there, because I didn't know originally that their state law, whatever, you know, some state schools do this to UT Austin, I believe they can only have like 10% of students be from out of state or international.

So honestly, speaking, like UT Austin was probably like, the hardest school to get into that I did get into So, but it's not like it's super prestigious, or elitist, which is also what I really, really liked about it. Because that somewhere like Georgetown, I feel like maybe I would not have fit in as well.

Um, and yeah, and also, UT Austin is a public school, and I go to a private school right now. And I kind of want a different experience, as opposed to continuing to go to private school. That's just something that I want to experience, you know, going to a public university, all of that. And it's a very traditional college experience, UT Austin, they have, you know, the sports, all that stuff. And I didn't know if I originally wanted that. But I'm very glad with my decision. I feel like, it's somewhere that I can have a lot of fun while still being you know, it was a lot. It's still competitive academically, it's still going to push me in that way. But I'm still going to be able, I feel like I'm still going to be able to have a balance between, you know, fun lifestyle versus like academics and stuff like that.

Venkat Raman  24:19  

I kind of wanted you to take a few minutes and just provide some advice for the rising seniors how they ought to approach the process based on your learnings, what are the top few things that you would like them to think about? Based on your experience?

Becca Y  24:40  [Advice to Applicants]

Yes, I would say obviously prioritize your time. I know it's hard when people tell you that every single time like everyone who tells you to prioritize your time, but they really do mean it like make sure you're looking at when the applications are due if you're going to do early decision, early action, or just regular decision, I ended up applying regular decision to most of my schools. So if that scares you, if you think oh my gosh, I'm not going to get in if I only apply regular decision, don't think that like, you're okay, it's going to be okay.

And if you don't get in, it's simply not meant to be. I got rejected from schools that I thought, oh, I need to go here to be successful. No, you don't, you can pave your own way to success wherever you go. Also, take risks apply to schools that you think might be out of your reach, because you truly never know, yes, the process is getting harder and harder and applicate. And like, acceptance rates are getting smaller, but you really never know until you do it. So I would say go for it.

Like, I honestly thought I would not get into Georgetown, I thought that was a huge reach for me, but I was like, whatever we're doing it, we're gonna go through the whole application, though it's long and tedious, you're gonna do it. And it worked out for me. So I know I'm not every person and most of the time, like, it's not going to work out the way you want it to work out. If I had to work out the way that I wanted to work out originally, like starting in the fall, I'd be going to draw on. But that's simply not what happened.

And sometimes schools will sneak up on you, UT Austin definitely snuck up on me. And I'm so so happy with the decision that I made, I feel very confident that I'm going to have a great time there. Yeah.

Venkat Raman  26:31  

Back away, we're going to start winding down here, any closing thoughts? You know, reflecting on maybe high school, maybe some memories, or just the college process, whatever you'd like to share.

Becca Y  26:47  [Closing Thoughts]

For high school, I would say don't get yourself worked up over all these AP classes that you're taking, or your your classmates maybe taking or people around the country, maybe taking, they're not you. You are your own person, you have your own story to tell. And you can tell that through the college admissions process.

And don't get so worked up, over getting involved in everything. Prioritize stuff that matters to you prioritize stuff that you think you might have a future in. I did newspaper and yearbook and I spent so much time doing those. And I think that reflects and a lot of my decisions that happened with college, and a lot of the results that I got, because they can tell how involved you are when they see. It's hard to tell just looking at a piece of paper, but you can try your best to tell your story.

Also, when you're going through those supplementals, when you're writing all your essays to send to colleges, don't overthink it too much. They're not looking for a Pulitzer Prize worthy essay, they're worried they're looking for you to tell a little bit of your story and be like, just tell a little piece of you. It doesn't have to be amazing. They are not expecting everything to be perfect in those. Yeah.

And make sure to have fun your senior year. Don't blow it off. Don't just blow it off to do college admissions stuff. And also don't stress yourself out too much. No college application, no single school is worth having like a mental breakdown over it's not worth stressing over. It's already a stressful time in general. So don't worry about it too much. It's all going to work out. I did not believe that at first, definitely when I was going. But it will work out in the way that needs to for sure.

Venkat Raman  28:39  

Fantastic. So Becca, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your experience. You're going to do great at UT Austin and wish you all the luck and I hope journalism is the path. And if you find something else, explore and go for it. So with that, I'll say thank you and take care be safe. We'll talk again.

Becca Y  29:03  

Yes, thank you.

Venkat Raman  29:05  

Yep. Bye bye. Bye

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Venkat  29:12

Hi again!

Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Rebecca Youngers.

In this podcast, Rebecca’s love for writing and journalism comes through.

Her college search was methodical. She was clear about what she was looking for in her college. Despite that, UT Austin was not on her original list of schools.

Rebecca’s ultimate decision making process should help you as you make your own college decisions.

I wish Rebecca all the best at UT Austin and Beyond.

I hope this podcast gave you a good idea of the process involved as a 12 grader preps for his/her college journey.

For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].

Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.

Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].

To stay connected with us, Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify or visit anchor.fm forward slash almamatters [anchor.fm/almamatters] to check us out.

Till we meet again, take care and be safe.

Thank you!

Summary Keywords

Journalism, Writing, Podcast for High Schoolers, US Colleges, Undergraduate, College Podcast, High School Students, US Colleges, College Admissions, College Applications


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