Exclusive Insider Interview: USC admit from Zambia

SocratesPost: Krishna, tell me a little bit about yourself and your background to begin with.

Krishna at USC: My name is Krishna Bisani and I’m 17 years old. For most of my life, I’ve lived in a country called Zambia in a city called Lusaka. But I was born in India and I did live there for five years. And I did a program called the International Baccalaureate. I have no experience with AP and stuff like that.

SocratesPost: Okay, tell me what got you interested in doing the IB program?

Krishna at USC: Well, it wasn’t really anything that got me interested. It was really was more like the best option available out of the things offered here. It was either that or the British A levels. And I liked IB better because it offered more subjects for me to choose from. For A levels, there’s usually between three and four subjects. And with IB, I can do six and they have a variety of subjects to choose from: the arts, computer science, a lot of things that broaden your horizons.

SocratesPost: Looking back at your high school experience, what IB classes did you take?

Krishna at USC: So I took mathematics at the higher level, physics at the high level and business management at the high level and for my standard level courses, I took chemistry, French, and English.

SocratesPost: How did your experience in your IB courses help you develop interest in your college major, mechanical engineering?

Krishna at USC: I feel like more than the subjects themselves, the teachers that I had were really great. And they motivated me to pursue engineering and the major, which is a major I applied for because my math teacher is a really, really great teacher. She’s taught everything that I needed really well. And our physics professor has a 30 years of experience with physics and 20 years as a teacher. He really got me interested in looking mechanics and quantum physics. So I just naturally progressed into engineering, but, you know, things may change if I can find something that is more interesting. I’m open to change.

SocratesPost: How would you describe your high school? In terms of academics, the student population, the culture, all that if someone had no idea what your high school is like, what would you describe? What would you use to describe it?

Krishna at USC: The first two words that come to my mind are welcoming and diverse. Our school has students from 63 countries. We have staff from everywhere. There’s about 650 students overall, and it’s not really a high school; it has primary, nursery all the way to high school. In my class, there are 25 of us. That’s pretty small compared to American standards, but it allows us to get to know everyone get to know our teachers really well and make some good friends.

And at the end of the day, I think it’s the place where we can thrive if we want to because the teachers are very supportive of us. They’ve been doing this for the past 70 years or so. Our school has some good heritage.

SocratesPost: I was curious because your school has students from 63 different countries and staff also from everywhere. How is your school integrated with the local community?

Krishna at USC: The majority of the population of the school are Zambian students. It’s spot on in the middle of the city. They don’t really advertise. The way that is integrated into the Lusaka community is probably through the service that the school does. Community service is compulsory the moment you enter middle school through high school: helping out the community in different ways from fundraising, to actually going and teaching, to just having students come over to our school and teaching them here.

We make sure that we’re not isolating ourselves from the community, just not being detached and making sure to show that we care. I feel like we truly do.

SocratesPost: Overall, what’s your high school’s attitude toward college?

Krishna at USC: There’s no real general consensus or anything like that, but everyone in my class is indeed going to university. We’re pretty small class of 25. And if you didn’t want to go to college, then no one would stop you from doing it. At the end of the day, there’s no emphasis on you have to go to a really good university that it’s really sort of best to use your own decision wherever you want to go. If you want to aim for the top, you can, but if you just want to go to college where you think you’ll be happy, they’re perfectly fine with that. And they’re probably going to be even more supportive of us. Because at the end of the day, they just want us to be happy.

SocratesPost: Do you feel like there’s any sort of unsaid pressure for students to perform in a certain way at your school?

Krishna at USC: I don’t think there’s pressure. There’s expectations for sure. Like, our class was one of the best in recent years. So they expect us to meet the standards that they have their eyes. But in terms of pressure, I don’t think there’s any pressure. The teachers are just very kind in general; they will they will help us to succeed. And if we don’t, they’re very supportive of that as well. I mean, obviously, they’re not going to be happy. But at the end of the day, I can’t really say that there was pressure at all. If there’s any pressure sort of self inflicted.

SocratesPost: It seems like a supportive community. There’s a sense of closeness because of how small the classes are. Great to know that. So when did you start thinking about colleges?

Krishna at USC: I’ll say probably freshman year.

SocratesPost: Okay. And when you were thinking about colleges, what were your thoughts focused on?

SocratesPost: Was that when you spent the summer at Columbia University in New York?

SocratesPost: OK, so you went to Cambridge, and then the year after was when you went to Columbia. So you actually started thinking about college pretty early, because you wanted to try out different campuses, as a high schooler. What resources did you use to do that research?

SocratesPost: Why was it that you preferred American universities?

SocratesPost: When you finally decided to study in America, how did you narrow down your list of colleges?

SocratesPost: Which 19?

SocratesPost: Was it that you decided on these 19 and then you started the application? Or was it maybe you started the application on several of them and as you went along, you added more and more to your list?

SocratesPost: Which app was the most difficult for you?

SocratesPost: Why do you say that?

SocratesPost: Interesting. Okay. Are you comfortable sharing what your essay was about?

Krishna at USC: No problem. I’m going to read the prompt out. “In 2015, the City of Melbourne, Australia created a tree mail service in which all the trees in the city received an email address so that the residents can report any tree related issues. As an unexpected result, people began to email their favorite trees, sweet and occasionally humorous. Imagine this being expanded to any objects (tree or otherwise) in the world, and share the letter you’d send to your favorite.”

I wrote my letter to a…

SocratesPost: I love it. So I think that’s very intriguing. And it has some cultural commentary and sociological commentary. And it was interesting, because you said that looking back, it wasn’t the smartest decision. What made you think that after submitting, it wasn’t the smartest decision?

SocratesPost: Okay, I guess it’s tough to ever know these things, because they can’t possibly give feedback to every single applicant. So speaking of essays, how did you start your essay writing process? And what types of resources that you use?

SocratesPost: Okay, that makes sense. And what is your essay writing process? Is it like some people will draw out an outline, some people will just start writing a draft and see what happens. Some people will revise as they’re writing a draft. How do you write?

SocratesPost: How long do you think it took for you from beginning to end to write all your essays?

SocratesPost: Some people find the essays are the hardest part of college apps. What do you think is the hardest part for you?

SocratesPost: Why’s that?

SocratesPost: Oh, okay. So it sounds like where you go to school, standardized testing is not a typical way to evaluate students. Because IB program uses logic and reasoning to evaluate as opposed to picking A, B, C, or D for the right answer.

SocratesPost: All right. So tell me about that process. You said that you had to take the SAT 4 times. Did you take a diagnostic test?

Krishna at USC: Yeah, I did a practice test on…

SocratesPost: What do you think contributed to you improving so much with each test?

SocratesPost: If a student who’s about to take the SAT asked you, “hey, Krishna, what is the number one thing I should be paying attention to?” What would you tell them?

SocratesPost: Okay, I remember that at one point, you told me your scores went up to a 1460, which is phenomenal.What did you start with?

Krishna at USC: 1270, something like that.

SocratesPost: Is there anything else that any other advice or knowledge that you want to impart to your students?

SocratesPost: Okay, that’s great. When you were studying for the test, or at least getting familiar with the test, what was the most helpful resource to you?

SocratesPost: Got it. What part of the college application process surprised you the most?

SocratesPost: How did the fact that so many other applicants were applying to these colleges affect you?

SocratesPost: Yes, I see. During your process, before you submitted applications, did you make any connections with admissions counselors or people who worked in the admissions office?

SocratesPost: Got it. When you talk about these forums, which forum did you use a lot?

SocratesPost: Okay, so what did you do during that waiting time after you submitted apps and before you heard back?