INTRODUCTION

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the very first episode of Oakridge Unplugged, where we bring you real conversations with people who've been there, done that, and have stories to prove it.

I'm your host, Bhavika, and today we're kicking off things with a super insightful conversation. Today's guest is someone a lot of you already know, and if you don't, you're about to be inspired.

We've got Kashvi Srinivasan with us. She's headed to Duke University to study biomedical engineering. Now, getting into a top college is never easy, especially one like Duke, but Kashvi made it happen, not just through academics, but with research, extracurriculars, and a whole lot of smart planning. And today she's here to spill the tea and we're asking everything you've been too scared to ask yourself

Plus, we've got some very specific questions that students submitted anonymously on our Instagram poll so stick around. It gets honest.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Kashvi. We know you're super busy post graduation. Before we begin, is there anything that you'd like to say? I'm extremely glad to be here and share my insights with all of you, so thank you so much for the opportunity. Alright. So we've got a bunch of questions lined up, some from us, some sent in by others students, and I hope you're happy to answer them. Yeah. Okay.

QUESTION 1 - What would you tell a 10th grader who wants to prepare but doesn’t know how?

Bhavika - So let's rewind to 10th grade. A lot of students in grade 10 right now feel kind of lost. They're hearing terms like college research, profile building, and summer programs, but it all feels overwhelming. So many students asked, is grade 10 too early to start planning or what can I actually do right now that will help me later? so looking back, Kashvi, what's something you're glad you started early and what would you tell a 10th grader who wants to prepare but doesn't know how?

Kashvi - So I don't think it's ever too early to start thinking about it. It's always good to have a head start on things. But I think, firstly, one of the most important factors that you need to be thinking about in 10th grade is your academics, because grades are pretty much the first thing that collegeeges will look at, and could be what gets you in or keeps you out of a specific college. So that should be your main focus and other than that, even though it may seem like you have to do specific things like research or summer program or things like that, it's not necessary for you to be worrying about that in 10th grade. It's really important that you figure out what you actually enjoy and try to build on that in your later grades.

Bhavika - Wow, you've managed to simplify something that often feels really overwhelming for 10th graders, I'm sure. That's really helpful.

QUESTION 2 - What did you personally do with your summers and how did that shape your journey or application?

Bhavika - Moving on, another question that was most common was this age-old question about whether during summer breaks, you should chill or you should work on something. So we got a bunch of DMs from people saying that they felt pressure to do something productive every summer, but weren't sure what that should look like. There is this fear that if you don't have an internship or a summer course, your college app will suffer so we wanted to ask you, what did you personally do with your summers and how did that shape your journey or application?

Kashvi - So it's definitely aborted to have a balance between productivity and just enjoying yourself because school, you don't have school at the moment and it is important to take those few months to relax and engage yourself in things that you personally enjoy. At the same time, you do need to have some productivity. And when it comes to things like summer programs, those might not be the most valuable ways to spend your time, especially because a lot of summer programs are things that a lot of students may do or just aren't something that you're specifically interested in. It's important that if you are doing a summer program, you really think about it and it is something that you would actually enjoy and it needs to be something that you would do even if you didn't think you have to do it for a college applications. This is important because when you force yourself to do something just for college applications, you might not end up enjoying it and it's just not worth it to put in all that time, money and effort to do something that you don't even know will get you into a top college. So it's important that you really think about the type of activity that you want to do in the summer. It's completely okay if you want to work on something that's personal to you. Like maybe you want to expand one of your hobbies. That's perfectly okay. You don't have to do an internship, you don't have to do a course. It can be anything that you genuinely enjoy.

Bhavika - Okay, that's really insightful. There's so much pressure to prove productivity, but your approach brings a healthier, more intentional way of viewing personal growth during breaks.

QUESTION 3 - Was your major always clear to you or was it a process of discovery?

Bhavika - Another question that we got was that choosing a major can be stressful, right? Especially when you're expected to commit to a field at 16. So some people know it right away, but for others, it takes a bit of time. You picked biomedical engineering, which is super specific and unique, I would say. So, tell us, how did you land on that? Was it something that was always clear to you or was it a process of discovery?

Kashvi - I wouldn’t say that it was always clear to me, but I always knew that I wanted to do something in the STEM field just because that is what I enjoyed doing in school. I enjoyed math and science more than subjects like English and History. So I was already sort of leaning towards STEM and engineering. And over time, I kind of realized that the subjects that I really enjoyed were biology, math and physics. And because of that, biomedical engineering seemed like a great combination of those things, so I could also combine some of my other skills like creativity and leadership that I wanted to explore in my future career, which has what made me choose biomedical engineering . I would also like to add that it's not unnecessary for you to decide exactly what you want to major in when you're in 10 or 11th grade. A lot of colleges, especially in the US will allow you to choose your major, even like one to two years into college, so you don't have to know right away. There are definitely some colleges where you need to know your major or colleges where you need to know your field, so that could be like arts, sciences, engineering, or broad areas like that that you might need to be sure of when you're applying to college, but it's not necessary to pick a super specific or niche area when you're still in high school just because you're interest will change a lot and once you choose something and you end up doing a lot of activities in that field or you end up just selecting that major in college and continuing with it throughout, it's really hard to change your mind once you stick to something. So because of that it's easier to just let your major come to use naturally. Think about the subjects you already enjoy. Maybe narrow down and down your options to a few that you really like. And based on that over time, as we explore different fields, you might gain more clarity about which major is right for you.