Meet our Mentors | Sam’s journey to UCLA

We interviewed one of our many incredible Mentors, Sam, who graduated from UCLA in 2020! Read on to see how Sam applied to college, enjoyed UCLA’s cool vibe (and its wealth of opportunities), and went to office hours with Jared Diamond!

Sam, 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 UCLA in 2020 and doubled-majored in political science and international development studies and minored in geospatial information systems.

Not sure I know what geospatial information systems means, but definitely sounds cool. 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 applied Restrictive Early Action to Stanford! I did not get in.

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

In additional to Stanford, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, USC, Tulane, Boston University, California Polytechnic Institute, and University of California Irvine

Did you apply to any specific university scholarship programs?

I applied to Tulane’s Deans’ Honor Scholarship & Paul Tulane Award

You can check that out here for anyone reading from home. It’s a full-ride scholarship, so covers all of tuition costs and is renewable for all four years.

Why did you choose UCLA?

I had the privilege of touring lots of places I got into. UCLA had a great vibe. People were wearing blue and gold, students seemed happy, and everyone I asked had an anecdote about why they loved UCLA. 

Also who am I kidding. The tuition is much lower for in-state students at UCs vs. out-of-state colleges or many private universities, and UCs rock. It’s definitely good to pay less for more.

So it’s a bit like, why wouldn’t you go to a proven school for an affordable price? I think that’s Cohort’s tagline, so just making a joke. Thank you for the laughs.

What was the best thing about UCLA? Please don’t say the people, that’s too cliché!

So, I’d say the people.

In all seriousness, it’s that there’s such a diversity of things people are interested in doing. It’s also a big enough school that you can find exactly what you want to do. There are over 2,000 clubs. 

I got everything out of it. I worked 3 summers at a summer camp, I went to office hours with Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, Steel author), studied abroad and learned Spanish, and was able to complete two majors and a minor.

Also a cool vibe. Put that down: cool vibe.

And how about your least favorite thing about UCLA?

I’m going to answer this the way people answer “what’s your biggest weakness” questions in job interviews. So I’m going to pretend this is a weakness but really I’m framing it as a strength.

I didn’t have a ton of access to professors and research opportunities by default. If I wanted relationships and research opportunities with professors, I had to seek them out. 

This could be stressful but in hindsight improved my networking skills.

What have you heard since graduating that you’ve realized is a unique/interesting thing about UCLA?

My old boss says she hires specifically from UCLA because all the kids are super smart and learned how to navigate a big system with lots of opportunities. As compared to smaller well-known schools, at UCLA you get to chart your own course and in the process become a more independent person.

Moving on to more general college reflections, what do you think you’ve learned about college since you graduated?

At least one purpose of college is to get you onto a career path you will care about in your 20s. So in my view, going to a college with internship opportunities nearby should be a top priority.

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?

Gap year before. I wish I’d gone to another country for a year. I didn’t really think that much about it, take it seriously as an option, or know many people who’d done it. But you really don’t get to take gap years in your 20s.

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

The people!

(Sam got a decent chuckle from the interviewer)

I’ve done college guidance before. I do this for people in my family, people who hit me up when I was a tour guide at UCLA, and for some of the high schoolers at summer camps I helped run. College is important. High schoolers don’t always have the right direction and resources to connect them with a place that’s going to help them thrive. It’s fun and meaningful to play a bit of that role.

You were a tour guide at UCLA? Say a bit more about that

They made us tell funny jokes. Pro tip for going on college tours: don’t just take the tour guide’s word for it. Just go up to students on campus and ask them a couple questions. Ask them what their favorite thing they do at the school is, if they feel they made the right choice picking the school they picked, and how good the dining hall food is and to please be very honest.

Oh wow, great point. The food at Harvard was frankly very mediocre. I had no idea. All I needed was to ask one simple questions. Ok, well thank you, Sam. We’ll definitely be thinking about the people. Thanks for your time