00:00Hey guys!
00:00It's Lucy.
00:02Today, we're talking about college and some of the things that I wish I knew before applying
00:07to and going off to college.
00:09For a lot of people, it's the first time that they're away from home and they're living
00:12on their own and they're figuring things out by themselves.
00:15And while that can be very scary, it can also be extremely rewarding and fun.
00:19And you need to make the most of your college experience.
00:21Quick disclaimer, while I absolutely loved college and would not have traded my college
00:25experience for anything in the world, I do understand that college is not for everybody.
00:30So if this vlog is not for you, that's totally cool.
00:33So I asked my Instagram to send me questions about things I wish I knew before college and
00:37I got a ton of them right in front of me.
00:40Okay?
00:40Let's do this.
00:41At Rebecca underscore Lumia asks, did you do anything to prep for college slash admissions?
00:47Why yes I did.
00:48I took the ACT.
00:49I took it a number of times and I continually got the exact same score.
00:53And thankfully I was happy with that score.
00:56So when I went in to take it the very last time, I had absolutely no stress because I
01:01already knew that I got the score that I was happy with and it was actually that very
01:05last time that I got the highest score I've ever gotten.
01:09At OMG Sabine actually asked, where did you go to college?
01:13Good question.
01:14Let me tell you.
01:16Huh.
01:17Well, I was trying to find a shirt that told you what school I went to, but apparently I
01:22don't carry any memorabilia.
01:23I went to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and I loved every minute of it.
01:29And I have to say Hopkins was not my first choice school.
01:31When I first visited the campus, I was not confident that it was right for me.
01:35And then it was only after I got my college decisions and I realized that Hopkins was the
01:39school I got into that was ranked the highest of all the schools that I went back to the
01:43campus, visited one more time and had a great time.
01:47At Coco29V asked, how did you choose which colleges to apply to and how many should you
01:53apply to?
01:53The best way to know what college is best for you is to actually get to the campus and
01:57see how it makes you feel.
01:59A lot of people experience a visceral gut feeling when they get onto a campus that either tells
02:03them this is a good place for me or I gotta run away.
02:07If you can't physically go visit the college campus, the next best thing you can do is watch
02:11a ton of videos about it.
02:12I applied to seven, I have friends that applied to only one, and I also have friends that applied
02:16to 15 or 20 schools.
02:18And there's not a right answer.
02:20At Abby Church asked, did you stay friends with your freshman year roommate?
02:24Good question because do you know who my freshman year roommate was?
02:27Allie!
02:27My sister.
02:28So I actually chose to live with my twin sister freshman year at college, which is controversial.
02:33I think a lot of times when people go to college with a twin, they want to live apart.
02:37In fact, a lot of people that have twin decide to go to separate colleges so that they
02:41can have their own lives and their own space.
02:43We actually chose to live together freshman year for a couple of reasons.
02:46Number one, we share everything and it seems kind of silly to have to go all the way across
02:50campus just to get my blow dryer.
02:52And number two, which is kind of the reason why we decided to go to school together, we
02:56find that when we are together and when we live together that we actually branch out more,
03:01whereas when we're separate and we don't live together or we're not in the same state,
03:05all we're doing is trying to get together.
03:07At Just Jojo Swim asks, did you decorate your dorm?
03:11I did decorate my dorm and actually, if you want to see a video of my college dorm, I put
03:16one on YouTube about six years ago from Johns Hopkins University's YouTube channel.
03:21I had a pink Christmas tree.
03:22I think it was pretty cute.
03:23Let me know what you think.
03:24At Lily Aguilia asked, what did you study?
03:27I went into Johns Hopkins as a pre-med neuroscience major and I was pretty certain that I was going
03:32to be a doctor, but my summer after freshman year, I had a whole mental shift and that was
03:37when I realized, you know what, I have two sides of me.
03:40There's the side of me that loved the medical aspect of things and wanted to study neuroscience,
03:44and then there was the performer, Lucy, who loved being in plays, was in an acapella group,
03:48and wanted to be in the entertainment industry.
03:50And then once I switched from neuroscience to creative writing, I had to kind of navigate
03:54my own career path from there.
03:56So that's why I started making videos for the university's admissions office, and I
04:00will get more into this in a future vlog.
04:02At underscore Maria Musso asks, were you in a sorority, and if so, which one and why did
04:07you choose it?
04:08I was in Phi Mu, which is one of Hopkins' four or potentially five now sororities.
04:13Rush at every school is completely different, and at some schools it probably does closely
04:18resemble what it looks like in the movies, but at Hopkins it is nothing like that.
04:22There's no hazing, no crazy horror stories.
04:25It was honestly just a great way to meet a huge group of older women who ended up helping
04:29me figure out what classes to take and what career path to go down.
04:33At gari underscore shah asked, how many organizations and extracurriculars did you get involved
04:38in?
04:38My first extracurricular activity was being a blogger for the Johns Hopkins admissions office.
04:43Next I joined the comedy acapella group on campus called the Mental Notes.
04:47Get it?
04:49Like a mental note, but musical.
04:51It was funny at the time.
04:52Then I joined my sorority, and then last but not least, I started creating video content
04:57for the university's admissions site.
04:58OMG Sabine actually asked, what was one thing you really needed for your freshman room?
05:03I needed a fan.
05:04At least at Hopkins, my freshman dorm did not have AC, and it was really hot in Baltimore
05:09during move-in and during move-out, so get yourself a fan.
05:13At the Vagabond Peach asked, did you study abroad during college and would you recommend that?
05:17Yes, I did.
05:18I studied in London for one semester, and I would highly recommend having an experience
05:22abroad if you can.
05:24I chose a program that brought me to London and didn't really focus on classes, but it
05:28focused on internship programs, and I got to intern at a British television show during
05:32my time there, and I had so much fun and learned so much, and I would go back in a
05:36heartbeat.
05:37At Elise underscore Navidad asked, how did you get over being homesick?
05:41I was really not homesick for most of college, to be honest.
05:44I had gone to summer camp for 8 summers prior to going to college, so I was used to being
05:48away from home.
05:49But I do have to say, my first day of college, I was in the dining hall, my parents had
05:53just
05:53dropped me off and left, and I remember standing in the dining hall under the fluorescent lighting,
05:58which I think is where most existential crises happen, under fluorescent lighting.
06:03And I was in the line, serving myself salad from the salad bar, and I was looking at the
06:08wet lettuce, and I was thinking, how sad is it that I'm here, when I could be at home
06:13with my parents and my dogs, having a delicious home-cooked meal with people I love, and instead,
06:18I'm serving myself chickpeas.
06:20I felt my eyes well up for a moment, and then I turned around, and I saw a table of
06:25girls,
06:25and my sister was there, and I realized everyone that was sitting at that table was going through
06:29the exact same thing.
06:31Final takeaways.
06:31What I really, really wish I knew before going to college is just everything is going
06:37to be okay.
06:38Throughout my senior year of college, when I was really stressed out about finding a job,
06:42I actually stressed myself out so much to the point where I was essentially an insomniac
06:47for an entire year.
06:48And I know that it was stress-related, because the moment I got a job at the end of senior
06:52year,
06:52I was able to sleep normally.
06:54The other thing I wish I knew is that it's not all that important to graduate with a job.
06:59A ton of people don't have a job by the time they graduate, or they need to get an internship
07:04before they can get a full-time job, and that is totally okay.
07:07A lot of people say that your college years are the best four years of your life, but
07:11don't put that much pressure on yourself.
07:12I think college is just another phase of your life that should be about growth and adventure
07:17and fun.
07:17So just get out there, meet new people, try new things, and enjoy every minute.
07:22I hope I answered your questions, and if I didn't, just comment below and ask me them,
07:25and I'll try to answer them now.
07:27And if you're reading the comments section, and if you can answer someone else's question,
07:31just jump right in there.
07:33Hey YouTube!
07:34Thanks for watching.
07:34Click here to watch another video, here to subscribe to R29, and here to subscribe to my personal
07:40YouTube channel.
07:41Bye!
07:41Bye!
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