Meet our Mentors | Sabrina’s journey to Washington University in St. Louis

We interviewed one of our many incredible Mentors, Sabrina, who graduated from WashU in 2021! Read on to see how Sabrina approached college applications and wound up enjoyed her four years at Wash U!

Sabrina, thanks for sitting down with us. Let’s start with the basics. Can you share where you went to college, when you graduated, and what you studied?

I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and graduated in 2021. I majored in International and Area Studies, with Minors in Anthropology and Arabic.

Area Studies got renamed to Global Studies after I left, but that’s how they indicated that you would focus on one specific area of the world.

I want to flash back to junior and senior year of high school and your application process. Did you apply anywhere early, whether that’s Early Action (EA), Restrictive Early Action (REA), Early Decision (ED), or something else?

I didn’t do Early Decision anywhere. I didn’t want to be limited to one place, and there wasn’t one place I was able to commit to in that way. This included financial considerations.

I applied Early Action to Georgia Tech, to their liberal arts school, which was new and small. Most people go there for Engineering and STEM. But I read about how they had a new liberal arts program, were putting lots of money into it, and were making partnerships locally in Atlanta.

I got in, and they wound up offering me a scholarship and a research stipend to do a whole research project during my time there. I do think applying early had a hand in them making the scholarship and stipend offer. It’s really not a guaranteed thing to get research stipends, even at many of the best schools. So that was a cool, unique thing.

And then over the course of the whole application process, early and regular, where else did you wind up applying?

My dream school at the time was Georgetown. I also applied to Columbia, SUNY Binghamton, Emory, American University, NYU, and of course Wash U. Wash U is funny because it was at the bottom of my list. It was an afterthought. No one at my high school, at least that I knew of, had gone there. The only reason I applied is because I had a close family friend who went there. I have an older sister who had visited St. Louis five years earlier. I knew very little about the Midwest or Missouri, although I did do a fifth grade project on Missouri! Fun coincidence.

Wash U didn’t have any supplementals, at least at the time. So I applied! It’s funny how that works looking back. I had this whole idea of who I wanted to be and how I’d fit into schools like Columbia, Georgetown, and NYU. Then I got rejected by Georgetown. That was a reality check. For a while, I was upset and angry. But then I started to actually think about Georgetown, and I realized all these ways that it probably wasn’t a “perfect fit” for me. I started to realize I could get a lot of things I thought I’d only get at Georgetown elsewhere.

Wash U actually offered to fly me to visit the campus. I wound up loving the campus on a totally normal weekend, became friends with the person who hosted me, and had a great weekend. If I hadn’t visited, I don’t know if I would’ve gone.

Did you apply to any specific university scholarship programs?

I remember being really upset getting rejected for a specific scholarship at NYU. It looks like they may not offer it anymore, but it was called the Frederick Douglass Scholarship. It offered partial and full tuition scholarships.

I also applied for the Annika Rodriguez Scholars Program at Wash U. Wash U is one of the few schools that has multiple full-tuition scholarship programs. There are three major ones. It’s extremely beneficial to get one of them, beyond the finances. You get a community of mentors from that scholarship program and a community of other people on that scholarship all through your four years. I could see it was an incredible community to be a part of. It can be difficult to feel like you have a place at private, predominantly white institution coming from an underprivileged background. These programs gave built in community.

So I’d strongly suggest applying. There’s an additional deadline with an additional couple essays. The deadlines usually come before the deadline of applying to the school, so you do just need to be aware of those programs and plan on applying early.

Why did you choose WashU?

I chose Wash U most importantly because of finances. Wash U covered full tuition. That wasn’t the first offer. But I negotiated with the financial aid office and they ultimately offered to cover full tuition. That’s what I needed to be able to attend. It’s important to know to negotiate these things. The first offer is not always the final offer. Oftentimes, a school has money, they just need to move it around to the right place. On the other end, NYU would not work with us, and so I wasn’t able to attend.

Beyond that, I loved the campus and the people. I found the people down-to-earth and kind. The culture was focused on academics and learning. I felt like people cared about learning and giving back to their community and social justice. And on top of that, it was a super fun school with so many organizations you could join. What enabled me to say yes, though, was the financial aid negotiations.

What was the best thing about WashU?

The people I met and the friends I made. I met my best friend at Wash U.

I also had an incredible study abroad semester in Jordan. The best experience of my life. Study abroad is quite common at Wash U, but it’s especially common in International Studies. It’s highly recommended to study a language that overlaps with the area you are studying. So I was studying the Middle East and Africa, and so I studied Arabic. My study abroad fit that.

And how about your least favorite thing about WashU?

This can happen on a lot of university campuses, and I’m sure it does. But one bad thing about Wash U is that it’s such a beautiful, pictueresque, idealistic campus, it can make you forget about the real world around you. It can make you forget there’s a real world literally right outside of campus. The university sits between low-income and high-income parts of the city of St. Louis. If you don’t leave campus, you can get a seriously unrepresentative view of St. Louis.

I didn’t realize the history of St. Louis, the history of segregation in St. Louis, and even the university’s own role in that segregation until I took a class about the history of the city. The university does good things for the city, but also it has negatively impacted communities in St. Louis. I’d say it’s important, no matter where you go, to venture off campus, meet some locals, and try to get to know the city for exactly what it is.

Any regrets about your college application process, decision-making process, or how you approached college? What’s that one thing you always tell high schoolers about college?

I regret not applying to schools in California. I’m from New York. My parents didn’t want me to go far away. California is the furthest you can go. To this day, I wonder if I’d applied to one of the schools in California that I really loved, if I would’ve gone there, and what it would’ve been like. My parents were worried about safety, getting on a flight to five hours to get to me. Parents always want the best for you, so I understood that.

But I wound up applying to a school half way across the country. It’s a three-hour flight. And everything turned out OK! I’d say do your best to follow your heart.

Finally, what made you decide to be a Cohort Mentor?

I have mentored people starting as early as high school. I’ve always loved being able to give back and pass down the wisdom I’ve received from other people who mentored me. I think the college application process, and the culture around college, can be very confusing. Everything about the college process when you are taught it is external. It is about numbers, external validation through those numbers, through reputation, through grades, whatever is on paper. It’s easy to forget yourself, and it’s easy to lose yourself in this process. I know I did. My entire junior year, I didn’t do anything but study, study, study, extracurriculars. I wasn’t doing any of that for myself that really made me happy. Except sports! I loved sports. But I definitely lost myself in this whole thing. I want to help whoever I can to figure out what is best for them, for their journey, to reflect. I wish I’d had somebody to help me tune out the noise and do that reflection.

Well said. Thank you Sabrina for you time.