Episode 9 - Here is what YOU have to do to make your College Application more interesting! w/ Saarth Shah | Part 2

Hello, I'm Yashan Karbanda.

And I'm Ron Bhattu, and welcome back to the 9th episode of Weekly Dose of High School, where we'll be guiding you through the life of a high school student while speaking to knowledgeable people in the industry.

Today we are here again with Saarth Shah, an incoming sophomore at UC San Diego, where he'll be studying data science. In the previous episode, we heard Saarth talk about UC San Diego's admission criteria and the overall UC system. So if you haven't heard that episode, make sure to check out that one first. But in today's episode, we'll be hearing Saarth talk about his overall life outside of school and his passion and future endeavors for CS.

Without further ado, let's get into today's episode. So Saarth, do you have any tips for one to make their college app more interesting? For example, I was thinking about having an art supplement. What do you think?

I think, yeah, I mean, if you have something like an art supplement, that definitely makes it more interesting. I was trying to like put in my art supplement, but it didn't work out because most of my stuff was in graphic design and digital art, which a lot of schools did not want in their art supplements. They wanted more of like, you know, I think more like hard arts, like, you know, dance, music, stuff like that. Um, but I think art supplement is definitely a great idea of like making your app more interesting. One thing which I would definitely advise is like stand out for like what is expected from like your— expected from your demographic. Like for me, I was like a CS guy applying as an international Indian student with— as a male. So I was like, you know, in the worst possible bracket. for getting into CS. So I think I should have taken an approach which made me different than most other CS applicants, but I think, I think that is something which I missed out on. So to make an app more interesting, I think you have to come out as someone who is like completely different from what is usually expected from that specific, you know, a person who's applying for that specific major from that specific demographic. So I think that would definitely make you more interesting. Because I, I mean, I can, I can imagine these college admissions officers, they're just reading one application after the other. And let's say they're applying, like, all these people are like business majors from like a New York suburb, and they're all looking at these, um, applications, and everyone is actually the same. They all have same sort of work experience and stuff. It would get boring. But if you're like someone who's like complete outlier, either you're like super well accomplished or like you're super different, and your interests are very like a combination of multiple things or something, I mean, that would be really comparatively more interesting. I think, yeah, use your essays to like target your essays, like make it more— make you stand out from the crowd, I'd say.

Okay, I have a follow-up question to my previous question. So if you do— okay, so I'm planning to send 2 DR as my art supplement, so will that hurt my college application?

I, I don't think so. Um, that would definitely not hurt you. Um, I mean, so I was— so when I was applying, um, I— my top choice was Stanford, so I was, I was planning to send my art supplement to Stanford like one week after I submitted my application. And when I went through the requirements, I saw that they don't want like website design or graphic design into like their art portfolio, which is, which is kind of a bummer because I was That's exactly what I had, but I don't think that would hurt you. I was— it was just like, it was something that was going to like make me a little bit more like stand out. But then I think you'll have to see what each school wants in their art supplement. If they, if they're fine with like 2D art, then go for it, then 100% apply with it. But sometimes these, these guys don't evaluate a specific sort of like an art application, um, because you don't have someone like score it and like evaluate it. So look into like if the school actually wants, and they have like guidelines there on their website, so just have a look at like for every school if they want that specific sort of art set that you have. And if they do, definitely go for it. It's just gonna help you out. There's no way why you should not apply an art supplement. Thank you, Sarth.

So Sarth, um, you said it, it will probably help you out, it can't hurt you, but like recent— or not recently, but like a couple years back College Hawaii put out an article saying that if your art supplement is like average, it can actually hurt you. So like, what's your opinion on that?

That could be possible. Yeah, maybe. I mean, what happens is that if you— let's say if you have an art supplement and you— that was like the most important thing for your application, you know, you were like, that was like your hope for your application. then maybe it can hurt you. But if you have a lot of other things going on for you and the art supplement is just a part of the overall profile, and even if it is not the best art supplement they've ever seen, or kind of average, I don't think it will hurt you in that way. But yeah, if that's your only hook, then maybe, yeah, I mean, that will hurt you then for sure.

So like you mentioned hooks, like what other types of hooks, um, are common?

Um, I think hook is essentially anything that makes you stand out from like other people, like, you know, what have you done or what makes you different? Like, why is your experience different from anyone else, you know? Mm-hmm. Um, for me, I think my hook was, uh, I was a community entrepreneur. I was trying to build something using my tech skills to solve problems in the community. So I think, I think, you know, your hook can be, hey, I'm like, I have, I'm using this art form and I'm like, so good at this, that, that could be a hook for you, you know. So everyone has different hooks, something that makes them stand out from the rest of the people, um, in the applicant pool. So yeah, I mean, if that is like— if art is like your only hook, then, you know, something, something like you really— like you say that, like, I, I don't know. I mean, I don't know how to put that into words, but if you're like trying to like— like if you like— if you have a company You have a flagship product that everyone knows that company from. That's your hope, right? Like for Meta, uh, for Meta, like people know it from like, for like Facebook, right? Before like Instagram came into existence. So that's their hope. That's like the main selling point. So what is your selling point? If your selling point is just art and you're not even good at it, then you're— yeah, then you know it's gonna hurt you.

Yeah.

But if your main selling point is something like that makes— but yeah, like your main selling point is whatever makes you different from like anyone else and why the customer should pick you.

Mm-hmm. Got it. Okay. So, um, Saarth, now I'm gonna ask you like about like UC San Diego. So like it's getting more competitive every application year. They're like, they're getting too many applications and they have the same number of seats. Acceptance rates are going down. So like what tips would you give like to our audience like so they can maximize their chances of admission?

I definitely agree. It's getting more and more competitive. I remember seeing an article on our subreddit last year week where we came down. I think our acceptance rate last year was somewhere around 20-30%. Now we're down to like 22%, and I'm, I'm assuming next year will probably be like below 20%. So it's like getting harder and harder. Like, I think the pre-COVID world was very different where, you know, colleges— like, for me, when I look at it, like, uh, I see those, those were like the times where you can easily get into like a school. Now it's getting much and much harder. Like, every single year it's getting more and more selective. Um, so if you want to like maximize your chances of getting in, start early, you know. I think that's something which I kind of regret not doing because when I was in high school, um, up to like my junior year, I was planning to study in India, but then I was like, I decided, hey, I want to go to the US because I was looking at all these opportunities. Um, and I just wish I had started early because if I knew about how things work, um, I I had started doing my research early on, um, that would have definitely helped me out a lot more. So start early, um, try to maximize your grades, you know, whatever you can. Um, and try to build yourself some books, you know, so that you can like stand out from like, like all the other applicants from your area and your demographic. Right.

And this test blind policy and test optional is only making it like worse because now more people have like incentive to apply. Like before, when they saw the SAT cutoff, they're like, nah, I don't even have a chance. But now with test optional, they're like, Oh, let's shoot my shot.

So yes, I, I actually, I actually agree with you on that one. Um, I feel like test optional definitely made it harder for a lot of us. Um, if you have a great test score, it would change everything for you. For me personally, like, I had like a kind of like a, like, it was like a good score but not a very good score. I had like a 1490. which was below 1500, but, you know, it translates like a 34 on the ACT. So it was like kind of good, but like not super good specifically for the really selective CS schools and like really selective schools in general that I applied to. Um, but like, like a place like Berkeley or like UCLA, my CS— my, my SAT score would have been higher than average.

Yeah, right.

Yeah, so it would have given me a push, but it did not because I did not have that. So I probably would have gotten into Berkeley's Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science, you know, the College of Arts and Sciences one. But I couldn't because they did not look at my SAT score. And what happened was that I was— so I did not go to like an IB school in India. So a lot of people they accepted in my batch were from my school, and I was from like, um, an ISD school, which is like, which is like Indians, uh, Indian something, but it's like an Indian, uh, education system. And, um, It is like, you know, if you have a 44 or 45 on your IB or like a 43, you know, admissions officers know what that means. But like for us, like our grades, it's like it's just from, um, not even half of India uses that, even less than that, because there are different boards within India. So it was like super hard for like pure academics to make sense to an admissions officer. So if you had like an SAT to support it, let's say if I had like put in my 1490 and they could see, hey, I have a 1490, along with my, um, my high school grades. My SAT was kind of like— I was not super happy with it, but I think I had a decent score. Um, could have been better for me, but, but that would have helped me because, you know, a 1490 would have been like, hey, I mean, he's good at academics, you know?

Right.

So at least for like UCs, it would have been a— it would have given me a better shot. But yeah, I mean, with the lack of standardized testing, I think it definitely makes it a little bit harder to get into colleges. Uh, specifically because a lot of people around me are applying with, um, they, they are from like schools that have inflated GPAs and inflated grades.

Yeah.

Um, so they're not like the best academically, um, but they did not— so just because they did not submit their SAT scores, they had a much higher chance and they got in. While, um, you know, someone like us who had like great scores and also had a decent SAT would have like also benefited from it. Um, so I know people who got in with like, who had like 1200s on their SAT and got like Michigan, Berkeley, and all that places just because you had inflated GPAs. Yeah. So I mean, is that fair for us? Probably not. So I would say, yeah, it definitely makes things hard, very hard actually to like specifically stand out academically.

Okay. So sorry, you just mentioned the 1200. So obviously you were on the board then. So what would you generally say? So like on Reddit or all these forums, like I've been researching, if you have a 1450, right, you can submit it. If you're, as an Asian male, if you're applying to CS, if you don't submit it, top colleges would like assume you like failed miserably. But in reality you got like a 1500, 1510, that may be below a certain like percentile. Like so for Stanford or MIT, their 25th percentile is 1530. So would you recommend submitting a 1510 even though it's below their 25th percentile?

So I actually would now looking back at it. Like, I did not. So I submitted like my SAT at most places except like I think I did not submit to Stanford, Princeton, um, Yale, and Carnegie— no, Carnegie I did, um, and to like the UCs which were test blind at that time. Um, funny thing is like one of my close, really close friends, we have the same SAT scores, same grades, and I sent my SAT score to Georgia Tech and he did not. Um, and we had like— I had a 1490, he had a 1480, and he got into Georgia Tech and I didn't, even though Like, um, our profiles were very similar, so it was kind of, you know, weird why that happened because I was waitlisted and he got in. But I would still send my CT score because here's what happened when I applied to Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. I don't know if you guys know, but it's like probably the best CS school in the world, and their average CT score is like a 1580. Yeah, and I actually sent in my 1490. And, uh, I— while I didn't get in, I was actually put on the priority waitlist. So even though I was like 90 points below their average SAT score. So I don't think it— I think it does matter, but I don't think it is like the only thing that matters, you know. So if you have a good enough SAT score, go for it, like submit it. But if you feel like it's— it's— if it's below like, I think, the 25th or like 50th percentile, then I would be like, uh— But you also look at like Does the school really want you to send your SAT score? Like, you just send your SAT score because when I was filling my Carnegie Mellon application, I saw that these guys were like, I did not want to send my 1490 to a school that had like a 1580 average, right? Why would I? But when I was looking at this, they were like very clear that they want to see my SAT score if I've taken it. So it depends. Like, if a school like, you know, I know some schools like Caltech and CMU, they really want your SAT scores. If they do want it, then send it. whatever, because it would look bad if you don't have a score. But if school is like fine with it, they don't want you to send a— they're like fine with like being test optional, then, then go for it. I don't, I don't think like going test optional hurts if you have, if you have excelled in all the other parts of your application.

So one final follow-up on that, what cues or like hints were you able to tell that Carnegie Mellon wanted your SAT score?

Yeah, because see, when I was sending my application and like where I had this thing, I actually first ticked on I don't want to send my SAT score. And these guys are like asking me all sorts of different questions in the application. Why do you don't want— why do you not want to send your SAT score? You have to explain like in like 3 paragraphs. It was very evident that these guys want to see my SAT scores. I was like, I'm gonna send it, whatever. Um, yeah, that makes sense. But I know a lot of those, uh, I don't— I know I like a lot of those Ivies don't care. Uh, if you— I don't think it hurts you if you go test optional. It definitely helps you if you have a high SAT score, but I don't think it hurts you to go test optional to a lot of schools. So, you know, if you applied— let's say I don't think Stanford cares about SAT scores that much. I've heard like they're, I think, least— like you can get in with a 1490, 1480, 1470, very, uh, compared to like, you know, getting into Carnegie Mellon first year. So it's like you have to look at like what the average is and how much emphasis a school gives to that SAT score range. But you have to do that from like different sources, you know. I think one really great piece of like, um, like a place where I was able to know what school wants, like get a very clear idea of what like admission requirements are, is that there was law school that happened with Harvard once where you can get like their whole document where they can look at like how they grade like applicants, and I would really suggest looking into that. That's like— yeah, yeah, that's, that's like a great, uh, resource. Look at like past applicants, you know, what their scores were. Look at like the average. Look at what they want for a specific major if they admit by major. So look at all of that and then decide whether you should and you want to send your SAT score or not. But I would say anything above 1500, send it for sure. It does not matter. Yeah, okay, thank you.

Hey, sorry, I have another question for you. So as a college student, is it true that students are kicked out from the dorms after sophomore year and are expected to afford their own shelter?

Unfortunately, yes. I got kicked out after my freshman year because like—

Oh, it's after freshman year, not sophomore.

Yeah, it's after freshman year for me. Yeah. So it's like, it depends. So if you go to like a private school, I think a lot of those places have guaranteed 4-year housing. But let's say if you go to like one of the UCs, some people— some places have like 2 years of guaranteed housing, some places have 1 year of guaranteed housing. For me, at UCSD, I had like 1 year of guaranteed housing, and second year I was put on the waitlist. Um, I was fairly high on the waitlist. I think I was like 35 or something, 25 or something. Overall, um, so I was almost guaranteed to get in, get housing. I think second year also kind of works out, but then for me it was like I really wanted a single, or I wanted to be around— if I wanted to like have a roommate, I want to be around someone I really, you know, I know previously, because, you know, it's much, much easier. Like, I want to like spend my time with people, around people who relate with me or like share the same interests as me. So I was choosing Um, like, I wanted to choose my own roommate, so I decided, hey, if these guys put me on a waitlist anyways and I can't choose my own roommate— because what happens with waitlist is that you're given a spot, whatever is free, so you, you don't get to choose what you want. Like, you don't get to choose your own roommate. So I was like, hey, I don't want that. So, you know, whatever. But I know a lot of people did get housing, um, from the waitlist. But yeah, it was, it was kind of a hassle second year for like to get on-campus housing. So I think yes, it depends on what school you go to, but if you have like guaranteed housing for like 4 years, then yeah, you don't have to look for off-campus housing. Um, but, but if you don't have guaranteed housing, then you might have to, um, like move out of campus and get a place that you have to pay for your own money. I don't know if like— I don't know about anything about financial aid, honestly, or like how it works for US students. Um, but for me personally, I had to look for my own place and pay for my own money when I was going off campus. Thanks, Saarth.

So I have another question for you. So if a student who was planning to go down the med route mentioned that they like to do program for fun as a hobby, would that student be recognized by the college readers as quote-unquote versatile?

I would say yes, yeah, because you're doing something as for your own interest which you like, you know, which is not expected of you. But I would say for like, let's say if you're talking about Programming, right? Like in med school, it's it's a very common option because there's so much potential. You know, when it comes to the combination of CS and tech, you know, like CS and med. Like you know, I mean, I'm a data science major. We have a track for med school here. So, but it was if it was something totally different, like not something which actually if I was in such a case where if I was interested in programming and was also interested in going to med school. I would, I would try to target my application or try to like shape my application in such a way where like I was talking about the intersection of different interests that, hey, um, I don't just want to study CS but I want to study like biotechnology or something, you know, like something very specific because I think that would help you out a lot more. But yes, it would be considered versatile for sure, even if you don't want to go into that like professionally. Okay, uh, thank you.

So I mean Another question for you, sorry. So when I searched the web for acceptance rates for different majors in biology, I can never find the results. In contrast, finding acceptance rates for CS majors for different colleges is found really easily. So do I have to subscribe to a college to find these results? Like, do you have a method to locate these acceptance rates?

Depends. I don't think a lot of schools actually give major-specific acceptance rates. Um, I know for sure UCSB does not give out major-specific acceptance rates, but Berkeley does. So they have a— but I think they have a portal that you can look into. Um, I don't remember exactly, but a lot of those UCs you can see major-specific acceptance rates on that, uh, on that portal. But you might have to search for it. I don't remember, but I've seen that for like transfer applicants. So there are platforms like that where you can look at your, uh, major-specific acceptance rate. But I know for sure UCSB does not give out major-specific acceptance rates. Because again, you first get into the school and then you get into the major of your choice. So they don't— like, it's mostly the acceptance rate for the school and not like majors. But these classes are small. I know for sure, like, UCSD's data science and CS are like 150 persons each as incoming freshmen. So I would assume the acceptance rates are very low, but I don't know, uh, how low they are. Um, and I don't think there's any way you can actually know the major-specific acceptance. But for some schools, you can actually find out like their department-specific acceptance rates. I think you can find out like the acceptance rate for Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science and their engineering programs. Like, I think those acceptance rates are very different, but for a lot of these liberal arts or like schools that are very broad, you might not be able to find like major-specific acceptance rates. Thanks, Saarth.

Okay, so, uh, I'm not sure if you entirely know about this, but like how different do you think like the California school systems is versus the UC school system? especially for computer science, the CSUs and the UCs?

Um, well, I'm not sure how different it is, uh, because I mean, I do know a few people at CSUs but not too many. Um, for getting into like, let's say, getting a great internship or a job, honestly it does not matter what school you go to because you have to crack the coding interviews and stuff anyways. As long as you get past resume screening You— it totally depends on how great of a test taker, like those online assessment tests that you get for like programming jobs. Um, it totally boils down to that. So I would say for CS, as long as, you know, you are— you can get past the resume screening and you're a great enough programmer, it does not matter what school you go in. But research, yes. I mean, you would have for sure more research opportunities at UCs than you would have at CSUs because UCs have— I think they have billions of dollars of research budget, you know. So unless you want to go into like research CS, like, you know, deep learning, some of those, like you want to get into grad school or something, well then yes, UCs would be much better places to study CS. But if you just want like to go for and work for a tech company, I think it's very doable from even a CSU or even like a community college, honestly. I mean, I don't know how hard it was for community college, but I mean, as long as you get past resume screening, you should be okay.

Thank you. All right, Saarth, so I know you started like your own company, um, Social Code. So how's that been? Like, has it been busy or been challenging?

Um, it's ha— it has been probably the most life-changing experience I've ever had. It's, it's been so fun, like building something, because like, as I told you guys earlier in the, you know, the interview, I've been working in like the intersection of tech and communities, uh, previously. And, um, you know, when I came to— like, when I was in high school, I was, I was like, I've been programming since I was 10. Mm-hmm. So I always kind of like felt out of place when I went to different high schools, um, and like different places because, you know, I could not relate to people intellectually. But then I was able to find, as I was about to graduate, like my co-founder who and I relate like exactly the same. have the same interest, you know, we, we have the potential to work on any project we want. So, um, when we were like, we just started like thinking about what we can do to solve, uh, like we initially started with like this idea of building an app that could help each other share social media handles, but then as we were doing user interviews and doing some research on like, um, our potential users, we realized that that was not the problem. Like, you know, a lot of people have thousands of people connected to them on Instagram and LinkedIn, but how many people do they actually really know? Like how many people they can count on to like build something or like reach out if they need help? So we decided, hey, we wanted to work in the space of meaningful connections and we decided working on Social, which is, you know, networking application where you put in like answer a bunch of questions and we find you matches on campus with people who share like exactly the same interests. So let's say Um, if you're really interested in quantitative finance, which is something which I was kind of interested in, um, if I go to like a CS club, everyone around me is trying to get into software engineering roles. If I go to like a business club or like a finance club, everyone is trying to get into like investment banking or private equity. So something like quantitative finance is like— or algorithmic trading is somewhere in between both those different interests. So it's like, you know, we make it easier for you to find people who are interested in like an intersection of multiple different interests that you might have. and have the potential to collaborate with you. So basically help you find your own campus community, and not even just academic, but even for non-academic stuff. It's been, uh, it's been fun, right? I mean, we have gotten a lot of opportunities. Uh, I've been like, I— this, this summer I didn't— I chose not to, uh, go for an internship, like, even though I did apply, but I did not take things seriously because I knew I was going to be working full-time on my startup. Um, And it's been great so far. We're almost like, what, 7 days from launch, um, and we've almost got the app ready. Um, and you know, it's just, it's been a journey, honestly. It's been super fun and I've met a lot of really cool and interesting people through it. Um, so yeah.

Got it. So how many people are on the team working with you?

Um, we have around 15 people on the team, uh, from different places, you know, from— that's how I met people from CSUs. Um, my— we have a lot of interns that we got from Berkeley because we were accepted to UC Berkeley's SpireTech Accelerator, um, last— I think a couple months ago, 4 or 5 months ago. We've been accepted for like different fellowships like the Blackstone Launchpad Fellowship, and if we basically essentially like, um, connected with a lot of different incubator accelerator programs through which we got access to a lot of people. And yeah, you know, we have like 15 people on the team right now, like UX designers, UX researchers, data science people, software engineers, you know, business and marketing people. So it's a huge team.

Good. Very good. So, okay. After being like selected into college, do you think it's still necessary? I know a lot of people, they do create these nonprofit organizations to help out people. But do you think it's necessary to continue to working on them? Because like half of them I've seen, like, they just drop dead after college apps.

Depends. I think a lot of people who do a lot of these activities do it solely to get into colleges. So when that happens, people drop out their previous activities when they get into like— when they get the desired results, they like decide, hey, what's the point of me working on this nonprofit anymore? So they drop out of it. Um, personally, I don't know, man. Like, if you Yeah, I don't know. I'm not a big fan of doing things that you're not passionate about anyways. Like, I would not start like doing something which I'm not passionate about, or like I would not continue after getting into college. Um, so I don't know, I don't know if it's necessary for people to do that, but a lot of these activities, you know, I mean, people do that just for getting into college, and once they get in even if they do it, like they would do it half-heartedly. So I don't know if you, if you want to do something half-heartedly for people, you know?

Right.

So I don't think it's necessary, but I mean, I would not put up like a facade that I'm interested in something and then not do it. Um, once I get into colleges, like for me, I was like a community-based entrepreneur when I started my nonprofit. Uh, I was able to help people out, but then COVID died down and like, um, you know, um, people like, you know, things got much better because we got all got used to COVID. So there was no point of like nonprofit that we were building. We did plan on like remaking it after, like, even like last month you're planning to like recreate that whole website and like see if we can have some potential. But then, you know, I decided, hey, I want to like, I want to work in the same space, you know, communities and entrepreneurship and startup and technology. So like, that's when I started working on Social. So I'm essentially working on the same space but with a different idea. But yeah, I mean, if I had completely dropped out of like this this whole space, you know, like communities and entrepreneurship, just because I got into college. I don't know, man, I would not do that, honestly. It just sounds— it just sounds unfair. And like, why would you— yeah, why would you do something you're not interested in ultimately?

So do you think like admission officers can see through people who start nonprofits just to boost their college apps?

I think they can. I don't know, I, I, I hope they do. I hope they do see through it. Um, but I don't know if they do actually, because I mean, see, everyone, every other person has a nonprofit or the other has worked on something like that. That's why I emphasize more personal projects than nonprofits or like joining an internship, because a lot of people actually bullshit around with like internships and nonprofits, you know, just make up fake stuff, or like they work at a small company, or they make like their own small nonprofit. It does not— I— a lot of people try to push in a lot with these things, and I feel like admissions office can definitely read through it. I mean, because if every other person had nonprofit, I mean, if I was reading an application, I would be like, hey, yeah, I can see that this guy is also one of those, you know. Um, unless you've brought like very significant impact, if you've done something like fully out of ordinary. So that's why I feel like, yeah, nonprofit is probably not the best thing, like, honestly.

So like a lot of time people also inflate their numbers, so Yeah, people do that. I mean, like, how do they get caught?

I don't think anyone gets caught for inflating numbers, honestly, because nobody does background checks, honestly. Like, um, I think the only, like, background check, a random portion of the class. So you have to be, um, so not everyone gets checked, but some people do. But I would not take that risk, you know. Um, I mean, I would— I mean, I think it's fine to inflate numbers very small, like 5 or 10%, but if you do something like you should make it 3 times, well then yeah, I mean, that's, that's not something you should be doing, right? But I know a lot of people doing straight numbers. Um, I would personally not do that. I'm a little bit like, you know, hey, if it's like 45, I'll make it 50. Yeah, I mean, that would be okay. But like, you know, if you feel like you can get to that number by the time your admission acceptance comes around, right? Like Let's say if I was like, hey, I mean, if I were, let's say when I was creating my own, non— when I had my nonprofit, if I had like 6,500 viewers, I could potentially inflate that to 7,000 because I know like once, um, colleges, that's 6,500 would be 7,000 for sure. So if you feel confident, then yes, but I would still not advise for it. I mean, I don't think it's a great idea to inflate or like I like create a facade that you might not actually be in real life.

Got it. And then my second last question for you is, you and I used to work both at Educately. How did you like mention that in your college apps?

Um, can you repeat that question again? I'm really sorry.

Yeah, no, so like you and I used to work both in Educately a couple years ago. So how did you portray that in your college apps, in your essays and extracurriculars?

Um, I think I didn't. I actually put it towards the bottom of the list because it was not a project that we were able to complete. Um, you know, it was something which kind of died down, but I did have— I did put in work for it. Like, you know, I think I did make the website and the learning management system for it when we were doing it. So I put that, that, hey, I mean, it was a nonprofit that you were trying to create and we did— I created like an LMS for it and all of that stuff. So I did put all of that, but I think But because it was a project that I was not like able to finish or had like a significant impact with, or like numbers to tell the story, that's why I kind of put it towards the bottom of the list. So if you have like a project like this that did not like generate any impact, then, you know, put it towards the bottom because impact is like the most important thing. If you can like bring an impact, that's like, I think that's like, that's a great hook. Got it.

Okay. And then my final question for you is like a bit related to your personal life. So like when you're not studying or researching, What do you do to like essentially relieve some stress? Is it to go on vacations or like, I know you like playing golf or do you like just watch movies with your friends?

Um, I mean, yeah, I play golf a lot. Um, I think you're right on that one. I go to the gym a lot. Like I work out very actively. Uh, I've been really involved in like becoming physically, like maxing out my physical capabilities recently. That's been something which I've been really enjoying. And I do spend a lot of my time with my friends at college, you know. I'm like, either I'm trying to network and I go to all these events, like, because I'm trying to become an entrepreneur and that's what I'm like very passionate about. And I feel like, you know, 10 years down the line or like 15 years down the line, that's like the ultimate goal that I want to achieve. So I'm trying to actively network and try to meet people, you know, go to these events because I enjoy them. And then I can just talk to people. I don't have to study for it. I don't have to research for it. I just go and talk to people and just put myself out there. And I also make friends through this and also spend a lot of time with my friends. You know, we have like in college, like every 2 days, every 3 days, all of our friends, we sit down for dinner together and just, you know, talk about our life and just have fun and just laugh at random stuff. So yeah, I mean, that's, that's kind of what I do when I'm not studying.

So a couple of days or weeks ago, I saw that you're like on vacation in India. So like, have you come back now?

Yes, I am back. Uh, it was just like a short I think 2 or 3 day vacation that I had with my parents. I am planning to like— we're planning another vacation because I have like the 3 months summer vacation. I've been like mostly working on my, on like social, and like I'm also doing some research at Stanford right now, so I'm working on that as well. So it's basically been just a lot of studying, a lot of hard work, but I do play a lot of golf every single day. Like I go and golf every single day and I go to the gym every single day. And You know, because I had a 3-month vacation, you know, I needed to go out of the city. So we decided to go on a small short vacation. It was kind of fun, you know, just going to the— we went to like a jungle, um, and just, you know, with the hopes of looking at animals. That national park was closed, but it was fun. It was fun. It was like a kind of like a relaxing experience from like the life that I usually live. Got it.

Thank you.

Well, that's it for today for episode 9 of WikiDose of High School. Hope you guys enjoyed listening to Saarth speak about his passion for computer science and how he leveraged that into the college admission process.

Also, if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to our podcast, whether you're listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, SoundCloud, or even YouTube. We're on all those platforms and we upload weekly episodes, so make sure you subscribe so you never miss an upload. Until then, take it easy, guys.