College Matters. Alma Matters.

Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Even as an engineer, Iswari found herself explaining concepts to her peers. Teaching gave her a purpose. She became a certified Montessori educator and later Director of a Montessori school.  Iswari believes it was that all-girls school she went to that built her self-confidence. Today as President of St. Mary’s Academy, Iswari is helping her students...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter For High School, Jai went to United World Colleges ISAK in Japan. He got to meet students from different parts of the world, live and study with them. He was very interested in Philosophy. He started a Philosophy club and wanted to grow up to be Professor. In this episode, Jai shares his undergraduate experiences at Brown University, Interest in Phil...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Sydney grew up surrounded by different cultures, languages which shaped his interests. He worked summers in the High School and used that money to travel. Sydney joins our podcast to share his University of Pittsburgh Honors journey, the Honors College, Getting the Voyager Scholarship, Majoring in Political Science, and his Advice for High Schoolers....

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In school Mary played rugby and took part in speech and debate. She was always interested in healthcare, and participated in Youth Partnership for health. Overall, she was committed to doing service and justice, and was very much grounded in Jesuit values. Mary  joins our podcast to share her University of Pittsburgh Honors journey, Why Pitt?, Transf...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Acting and Public Speaking were Mary Sarah’s passions while growing up. She loved to sing, dance and act. Theater honed her acting skills, so when she started to think about college, she was interested in pursuing Acting Programs.  In this Podcast, Mary Sarah talks about her High School Journey, her interest in Acting and Theater, her college search...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In middle school Anton fell in love with Stem Cells. He knew he wanted to go to college and pursue this more. Unfortunately, he did not have the means to pay for college. On this podcast Anton shares his undergraduate journey from High School, to Community College of Philadelphia and now Cheyney University, High School Interests, Research & Inter...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Every year the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation awards a select set of High School Seniors the Coca Cola Scholarship. Chase is a 2024 Coke Scholar.  In this Podcast, Mark talks about his passion for filmmaking and student-run film festival SWIFF, Winning the Coca-Cola Scholarship, his college search process, and his advice to High Schoolers. #CokeSchola...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Every year the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation awards a select set of High School Seniors the Coca Cola Scholarship. Chase is a 2024 Coke Scholar.  In this Podcast, Suraj talks about his passion for STEM and Innovation, ISMER Research, Winning the Coca-Cola Scholarship, his college search process, and his advice to high schoolers. #CokeScholars Check O...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Every year the Coca Cola Scholars Foundation awards a select set of High School Seniors the Coca Cola Scholarship. Chase is a 2024 Coke Scholar.  In this Podcast, Chase talks about his initiatives on Educational Inequities Eco Brothers, Winning the Coca-Cola Scholarship, his college search process, and his advice to high schoolers. #CokeScholars Chec...

Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Phil started coaching kids at Colorado Academy sometime after college. He deferred his admission to Law School to do this. But Phil found himself enjoying coaching. He enjoyed working with kids. Today, 3 decades later, Phil is the Director of College Counseling at St. Mary’s Academy. Phil joins us on our podcast to talk about his background, St Mary’s...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In High School, Emily was a theater kid. She was into music. She was in a number of clubs ranging from National Honor Society to Science Olympiad. Her favorite subjects were STEM courses, but she was really confused about what major to pursue in college. But Emily was clear that she wanted to do UG Research, from Day One in college! Emily  joins our...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Shilpi has a varied set of interests. In High School, Shilpi pushed herself academically taking a heavy load of AP courses, did credit card research as part of AP Capstone. She started a cricket club in her Freshman year which grew to 50 people.  In this Podcast, Shilpi talks about her High School Journey, her interest Quilting, Choosing Math as a Ma...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter The 2023-24 College Application Season is almost in the books. It is a good time to step back and reflect for the benefit of the next set of high school seniors and parents. And who better to help us than the College Counselors who guided the current graduating seniors through the college process. I talked to over half-dozen High School College Couns...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter It is not often that I get to go back and have a follow up conversation with a guest. When I last spoke with Rishika, she had just won the Coke Scholarship,  just graduated from High School and was headed to Brown University. Rishika has just completed her sophomore year at Brown. In this episode, Rishika shares her undergraduate experiences at Brown...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Brian was a long distance runner in High School. He was the co-president of the Outdoor Adventure Club. In the classroom, he enjoyed STEM courses. He decided to attend CSU Long Beach which offered him the Presidential Scholarship and it was close to home. Brian joins our podcast to share his undergraduate college journey at the Honors Program CSU Lon...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In the 9th Grade while in High School in India, Nia decided that she wanted to pursue college abroad. She was interested in Biology, Math. She was part of Model UN. When it was time to apply for college, Nia approached Education USA for guidance. Nia joins us on our podcast to share her freshman experience at Creighton, Transition to Creighton, Resea...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Taylor has always loved Science. Particularly Biology & Math. In High School, she discovered Photography, which provided her with a creative outlet. Taylor discovered research through a summer program in high school, something that has shaped her education career so far. Taylor joins our podcast to share her undergraduate experience at Loyola Uni...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Prof. Weldon got his start in research early. As a sophomore in High School, he worked at the National Institutes of Health. He pursued Biology in college leading up to his doctorate. During his post-doctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute, Prof Weldon became very interested in Protein Engineering. Prof. Weldon joins us on our podcast to...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Tarana’s family love to travel and explore. Touring Sainte Chapelle in Paris, for example, made a lasting impression on young Tarana. In her High School in India, Tarana found herself drawn to the theater and arts. She especially enjoyed the creative aspects like script writing, set production design. When time came for guidance on US colleges, Taran...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This April, I had the privilege of doing a series of conversations with undergraduate researchers at NCUR 2024 in Long Beach, California. This is the last in a series of 3 episodes  based on those conversations. On this Episode we feature 4 Student Researchers on a variety of topics from College Athlete Brand Valuation, Impact US Military base presen...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This April, I had the privilege of doing a series of conversations with undergraduate researchers at NCUR 2024 in Long Beach, California. This is the Second in a series of 3 episodes  based on those conversations. On this Episode we feature 4 Student Researchers on a range of topics from Hospitals to School Boards. The students are Tobi Ojo of Virgin...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter This April, I had the privilege of doing a series of conversations with undergraduate researchers at NCUR 2024 in Long Beach, California. This is the First in a series of 3 episodes  based on those conversations. On this Episode we feature 3 Student Researchers. Their research is broadly related to Inequities in society.  Our Guests: The students are...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter In High School. Maura was known for 2 things: Environment Sustainability and an obsession with Japan. She was the president of the Ecology club. She was creative. Good at Science. Math, not so much. So, she felt she wouldn’t be successful as a technical environmental professional. Maura joins our podcast to share her undergraduate college journey at...

Subscribe to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter Christina was involved in a lot of activities in High School. She was at Science Fairs. She was on the Tennis team, quiz bowl. She did choir, theater, acapella, and leadership roles. But Science was her main thing. Christina joins our podcast to share her undergraduate experience at Haverford College, Interest in Research, Winning the Goldwater Schol...

Sign Up to Receive Venkat’s Weekly Newsletter US Colleges cost quite a bit, to put it mildly. For International Students, cost is quite often the primary factor. Given Aparna’s experience guiding Int’l students, we turned to her for a Primer and tips on Financial Aid for International students. On our podcast, Aparna gives us an overview of Financial Aid for Int’l Students, College Cost, Merit Sch...