Guest Speaker - Katie Malachuk
Katie Malachuk, Whitman class of 1991, is author of “You’re Accepted: Lose the Stress. Discover Yourself. Get into the College That’s Right for You.” Published by Kaplan Publishing in 2009.
While at Whitman, Malachuk was played on the field hockey and swim teams, and also was part of the Chamber singers and the concert choir. She attended Northwestern and Harvard (where she graduated magna cum laude), and also got an MBA from Stanford. She has served on the national staff of Teach for America and as an admissions consultant for business school applicants. In addition, she has worked on a pro bono basis to help high school students apply to college. She is also a yoga instructor in New York City.
The topic of the evening was the college application process. Here is a brief summary of the main points that she made during her speech:
---We spend most of our lives looking for external acceptance, from parents, friends, employers, etc… It’s more satisfying to seek self-acceptance and therefore a good idea to try to make the college application journey a journey of self-acceptance.
---When students focus on discovering who they really are they make better choices on where to apply, what to write their essays about, and how to fill out their applications. The result is a stronger application.
---Malachuk applied to several top schools but desperately wanted to attend Duke and fixated on getting in there. She got rejected and felt like a massive failure. She attended Northwestern but was miserable and sad there so left after the fall of her sophomore year, interned at the National Organization for Women and waited tables at Rio Grande. She decided to transfer and submitted very different applications – much more honest and true to whom she really was. She got into Harvard and liked it a lot.
---The book has six main themes and is aimed at students:
1) Make the college application journey a process of self-discovery. Forget about obsession the outcome and instead respond to the challenge of paying attention to our own thoughts and goals.
2) Be yourself in the application process and when looking at colleges. Think about what you love to do for hours. Follow your bliss. Parents should remind you of hobbies and passions that you had as a younger child. Schools want students who know themselves.
3) Write the essays so that they reveal who you are. Try to show your sense of humor or what makes you sad – don’t be afraid to show emotion in your writing.
4) Consider not having your family read your essays (Malachuk admitted that this is a controversial recommendation). The point is that parents should not be allowed to force kids to play it safe in the essay or to edit out kids’ honesty or to paint the kid as someone he’s not.
5) Be in the here and now during the process. Do breathing exercises if that helps you focus (she borrowed this and some other ideas from her yoga teaching).
6) Choose faith over fear. Be open-minded and have faith that you are here to do big and beautiful things.
Here are the main points that were brought up during the question and answer period that followed that speech:
---There is a role for parents in the process but they need to give kids space to explore. Parents can help kids figure out what their passions are.
---There is no need to visit every college that a kid applies to. There’s a lot to be learned by going to local schools and evaluating size and campus that way.
---The essay matters and should be proofread so that it doesn’t contain errors.
---Some kids need permission to open up in the essay. Fear of writing is huge. Parents can “prime the pump” by encouraging kids to keep writing and writing.
---Extracurricular activities do matter because schools want to know that kids will be involved on campus.
---Taking a GAP year can be a great idea. Everyone Malachuk knows who has done it has felt like it was a great decision. After she took a year off and lived at home she really appreciated being in college when she went back.
---In interviews kids should be themselves, not act like robots.
---Dealing with rejection can be hard but if a kid is rejected they should realize it’s not a judgement on what kind of person they are.
---Apply early only if you are sure you definitely want to go to that school.