In this episode of the "Parents, Is Your Teen College Ready?" podcast, host Shellee Howard interviews Chase Ott, a senior at Corona Del Mar High School who recently received an admission offer from USC. The conversation traces Chase’s evolution from an uncertain freshman unsure whether to pursue a trade or college, to a focused STEM applicant. Early on, Chase sought experience through volunteering and a part‑time customer‑service job, then explored AP computer science and calculus, discovering a passion for engineering. He deepened his interest with hands‑on passion projects, notably building computers, which taught him perseverance and technical skills. In sophomore year he joined College Ready, gaining a personalized college counselor, leadership opportunities (vice‑president of the STEM committee in Empower Affirmations), and tools like the College Ready Vault to organize his resume and activities. He secured a summer mechanical‑engineering internship via LinkedIn and school advisors, and received guidance from his College Ready consultant Erica and school consultant Mary Russell. Chase applied to a slate of engineering‑focused schools (UT Austin, Texas A&M, Purdue, USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, KAUST, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, Georgia Tech, and a long‑shot at Columbia), ultimately expressing the most pride in his USC acceptance, which was among his top‑three choices. Reflecting on his journey, he advises future students to start College Ready early, incorporate research projects alongside passion projects, and maintain consistency throughout high school. He envisions a career in mechanical or electrical engineering working on automotive, green‑energy, or electrical systems, and encourages peers to appreciate their four‑year high‑school accomplishments.
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Parents, is your teen college ready? Are you feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, or excited about your teen applying to college? Do you know what colleges are looking for? And if your kid gets in, do you know what you'll pay for it? College admission has never been so competitive or expensive. Shellee Howard will take you on a journey to help you and your teen get college ready. Now here's your host, Shellee.
Hello again, parents. This is Shellee Howard, the founder and CEO of College Ready, and today I cannot wait to share. I have one of our and a high school senior. I'm not gonna share too much because he has a lot to share today. So Chase, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
All right, so our audience understands who they're listening to. Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Chase. I'm a senior at Corona Del Mar High School that is looking and waiting for the rest of us citizens But I am ready to share my story on how I got into the schools I've gotten into so far.
So good. And wait till you hear, so amazing. So we love to have our students on the podcast because so many people feel like it's not possible. Nobody's getting into college. This is, it's, it's too hard, too difficult, but let's start. From the beginning, let's take you all the way back to when you were a freshman in high school. Can you tell our listeners, how were you feeling about— did you know that you wanted to go to college? Did you know what you wanted to major in? What were you feeling about the process?
For me specifically, in freshman year, I had a general scope of what I wanted to do. I didn't know if I wanted to do trade or if I wanted to do college. But I knew I needed to get my foot in the door with experience, and that's what I pushed for the most. As 14 to 15, I started off volunteering, and I did that to gain experience, but also gain some awards early in the door. And after my freshman year, I was able to continue volunteering, but I was able to grab a part-time job to gain more experience in customer service.
Oh, good. So what were you thinking your freshman year that you were potentially gonna go into a trade school or potentially gonna go into college?
I tried taking classes that I would want to, like some AP computer science classes or test out with AP calculus. Started thinking about what my strong suits are, what if I wanted to focus in this field, what are some career options I could do? And I found that I had a real fond for engineering. And so after my freshman year, I really shifted my focus towards taking classes and focusing my resume towards that.
So good. So did you just wake up one day, Chase, and be like, I think I'm gonna be an engineer now, or what did you do to help yourself get there?
I think by doing some passion projects on the side, it was of course not an overnight thing. It took, I think, multiple months of figuring out what are some passion projects I can do to to during the summer, or what my project that I've been fond of is building computers, for example, that has been very interesting and great fun to really get my hands with experience and to become that, that field, like of being a mechanical engineer and being— it steps your foot into the door, into a career that you'd want to do if you can start a passion project early.
So good. And what age did you start with College Ready?
I think I started my sophomore year.
Okay. Okay. So you were getting curious. You're thinking maybe engineering. You're thinking, how do I even know if I want to be an engineer, right? If you're, if you're unsure, you talk about a passion project. Can you go a little bit more into detail? Did you just fix anybody's computer? Did you take computers apart? There's a lot of students who feel stuck. I don't know how to start a passion project?
So when I first started, it was like I was stepping brand new into the field. In my first computer that I tried to attempt, it would took 8 hours and I wasn't able to fix it the first try. I had to get help from experts and from then I was very close to solving it, but I just needed to plug this into that and to screw this in the right way. And then it turned on. And from then on, I kept practicing, I kept doing it, and then I kept speeding up. And right now, instead of taking me 8 hours, it would take me now 2 hours to do a full build. So I would say that it's not gonna be easy your first couple of times doing it, but that's what makes a passion project so great is that you can do it for years on end and get much, much better at it. And it really helps you figure out what you wanna do with your career in general.
I love that. We're such big fans of the passion project. So think about your sophomore year, your, your ready, your, your college is getting closer, you sign up with College Ready and you have the support that you need. What was different being part of College Ready than it was being on your own?
On my own, I had really kind of a small focus. I didn't know what type of opportunities I had, and it would take a long time researching and finding out different volunteer or stuff that's engineering related, but When I joined CollegeReady, it was really great keeping my goals on track and keeping what schools are within my range and how can I achieve more leadership, how can I achieve more volunteering. And having a personalized college counselor really helped me strengthen in the fields that I didn't even know I was missing out on that colleges really love to see.
Can you give an example? Because that, I think, is so helpful.
So for mine, I was really lacking in leadership in the STEM area. I would have it a lot in community service, but if I really wanted to go into engineering, my counselor really told me I should focus on that. So I joined Empower Affirmations with College Ready and, uh, went for the vice president of the STEM committee. And for about a year I was contributing and really focusing on once a week, and it helped me put a ton of information in my college essays that I think it'd be pretty poignant in.
So good. Did you learn anything about becoming a better leader or were there, was it all easy or were there some challenges along the way?
There were definitely some challenges like leading a group of people that are of your age that all in the end want to go to the same college, but you're kind of guiding them as well. And it's a very first, it's a very new thing, but it's a great experience to break past your public speaking speaking anxiety, and I'd say that that leadership is one of the best things you can have on your resume.
So good. I love that. So now you're in your sophomore year and you're getting a little bit closer. At that point, did you decide engineering was it, or were you still kind of unsure?
I was unsure of if I wanted to do— I knew I wanted to do STEM, but I didn't know if I wanted to focus mainly on engineering or if I wanted to do a math major. But I knew that focusing on math-heavy subjects and science heavy would be my best bet to secure a spot into a top college.
All right. So now we're heading into the junior year. We're building it up and you're, you're getting clarity, right? So tell me about your junior year. What changed? What got easier? What got more difficult? What was that like?
What got more difficult was definitely the classes. The classes were probably the hardest that I've ever taken in my junior year. But prior to my junior year, I think I did only online cybersecurity class at my high school that really taught me about the software engineering behind the whole engineering field. And that's when I realized I was not really so much into software, but more into hands-on experiences. So my junior year was mainly focused on very, say, I focused more on my passion project and then I focused more on math-heavy classes. And my junior year is where I was focused into either mechanical or electrical engineering. So I really focused on setting not only my junior year up, but my senior year up for classes I wanted to take. And I was able to secure an internship over the summer that was in that mechanical engineering field.
So good. I love this. Families, as you're listening, here's step by step. He's leading us through. Wait till you hear the conclusion. It's amazing, but we're still building. How did you get that internship?
I got that internship by just, I would say LinkedIn is probably your best bet. And I'd say if you can go to your school's like college advisor and see if they have anything that would help because either classes help a lot to, for institute, many companies will host classes. I think the one I did was accompanied by Cyber Forward. They were promoting an internship, and if there are any advertisements for internships that your college advisor at your school would post about, I'd say really look into those. And if it's somewhere in the field that you'd want to go into as a career, I'd say look into it and maybe join it and see if you are wanting to go down that path or maybe go into a different path.
So good. And who was your college consultant?
My college consultant of, I think of my school was, it was Mary Russell, I think. And she was really nice to talk to and she was amazing setting me up with this internship because it would come from her behalf and it would really boost my chances of getting internships.
I love that. And who was your College Ready consultant?
My College Ready Consultant was, I think, Erica, and she was really helpful at setting up my resume in a way that, like, um, that exploded towards the internship reviews that would see my resume and they would think that, oh wow, this is tight. So I'd say having a resume from the start. And really having all of your experiences from freshman year, sophomore year, junior year to not make sure you forget anything is pretty crucial.
Sure. And so as you pull all of that together, how helpful was the College Ready Vault? Having everything in one place.
Everything was really ease of use, having to-go or to-do list and it being right in front of you and not, it would not go anywhere. It would help me organize and really achieve the things that were on my top of my priority, but not forget the things that I need to remember on later on that could be saved for last.
Sounds good. All right. Now we're in the senior year. So go ahead and share with our listeners, what were the schools that you applied to?
So I applied to top, mainly engineering-focused schools. The schools I applied to were, uh, UT Austin, Texas A&M, Purdue, USC, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. And I think KAUST, Poly, San Luis Obispo, and I think Georgia Tech. And I think as a long shot for Columbia as well.
So good. So can you share now with the listeners? I know you're not done. We're still in the application season. But what acceptance are you most proud of?
I'm most proud of my USC acceptance. My acceptance came at kind of a shock to most people, but it didn't come to a shock for me because of all the hard work I put in and all of the grinding I put into my essays. But I was really glad that I got into USC and that I'm hoping for very good news as well on the other applications.
Amazing. So was USC on your top 3? Where was that on your, your hopeful list?
On my hopeful list? That would— it was one of my top 3.
Excellent. And so now you're still waiting. We're— we haven't heard from everybody, but I do want to celebrate USC. It's quite an accomplishment, especially in engineering. And so I'm not sure if I told you, when my son got into USC, We had no idea anybody who had gone there, and we're from Southern California like you, and we went to the school, bought the sweatshirt, and I'm like, I don't know about this, but we'll learn the fight song because they seem like they've got great school spirit. How are you feeling? Like if that was the one, would you still be like it was worth all the hard work?
It would, it would be great worth of fighting for that level of accomplishment and achievement. Of course, there are definitely a lot of 100 more difficulties in my lens, but that school is for me, one of my really proud achievements. Uh, how I did all of these accomplishments that led me to that is amazing.
So I love this. This is my favorite time of year when you're getting your acceptances. It feels like we're winning another, another round. And so let's talk for a minute. If you were going to tell your freshman self, now that you're a senior, and you're just waiting on your applications to come back, what would you tell the freshman Chase now with your wisdom?
I would tell my freshman self to very, as long as, as well as with the passion project, to, if I could expand into a research project, really get into a research or really go down the field that you'd be really interested in. That's the one thing I think on my application that I missed out on the most, but I'm still glad nonetheless that I got the things I got done. But if I could do it all again, I would, but just add that one minor detail is that research project.
Of course, there's always gonna be something, right? It was, you didn't know when you were, when you were younger and now you're like, hey, this would've been helpful. What about starting with College Ready? Do you wish you would've started as a freshman or do you think it would've been better to wait till you were a senior?
I think as a freshman would most likely be, it would be better for like residency planning as a whole. If I started as a senior, I would've been in a worse place if I didn't start it at all. Getting, just getting that Leadership, getting the experience from College Ready really boosts up your applications, in my opinion, a lot, especially with the STEM field. Uh, Empower Education has a field for all, and if there isn't, then you're able to create one and become a leader maybe next week or in the 2 weeks after you start.
So good. So good. All right. So Chase, as we're waiting and hopeful, where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I see myself walking out of college and starting a career in mechanical engineering or electrical engineering and working on the next set of automobiles or new green energy like solar or working in the electrical field systems.
Outstanding. You went from unsure, right? Little freshman to now you're like, I've got a plan for the next part of my, my career. So any last words of encouragement or advice you would give to students?
I would just say to really keep the same consistency that you would want to keep in your career. And these 4 years, they seem long, but as a senior, I know you heard this a lot, but it goes by extremely fast. And of all the things that I know I could have done, I'm glad to do the things that I have done. And I'd say the same for you guys is to appreciate all of the accomplishments you've done throughout those 4 years.
I love it. Well, Chase, College Ready is definitely going to miss you, but as you know, you can stay on as a mentor. Empower Education, you can continue on through college, and we are here cheering you on for all the success. So please keep sharing your wins.
I will.
All right. Until next time, parents, remember to follow and like and reshare Parents, Is Your Teen College Ready? Because we are bringing you all of the information you need to help your family get into college and graduate without massive debt.
