Gonzalez has a busy day job as an administrator and Michael never has to apply to college again. Why are they still so interested in the process? So much so that they do this podcast and are holding a college application boot camp. In this episode, Michael and Gonzalez the important stories in their lives that keep them so invested in the admissions process. For Gonzalez, his story begins with his own admissions process, where lack of information about financial aid kept him from going to Harvard University. For Michael, college admissions is an important time to break out of a cycle of “gold star chasing” he sees in so many of his classmates at Columbia.
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Show Notes:
- Gonzalez’s story of not having a very good college counselor (2:56)
- What hurt Gonzalez the most while figuring college out was not knowing what questions to ask (3:16)
- Typewriters were actually used during Gonzalez’s time (3:41)
- Gonzalez changing the culture of his debate team as a new teacher (9:41)
- How Michael’s process of working with students starts (13:41)
- What does Michael Gao want to do? With backstory (16:11)
- There aren’t enough people to be honest with kids (18:41)
- Gonzalez’s one ray of hope: Questbridge (21:37)
- Parent’s not knowing how middle school courses can impact high school courses (22:33)
- Why Gonzalez wanted to be a lawyer (25:29)
- Michael went to after-school/sunday school (27:09)
- Gonzalez’s granddaughter is probably better at speaking Chinese than Michael (32:57)
Thanks to Redaf for the Guitar Sound Effect licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Thanks to Vibe Mountain for the Intro and Outro Music licensed under CC BY 3.0.