Breaking the Stereotype

By Path Mentor M.Q., a graduate of Columbia University majored in Neuroscience (Originally Posted on October 16, 2019)

Do you ever feel like people stereotype you? Do people assume they know your personality and interests based off of how you look or your name?

As a Chinese American woman I experienced this all the time. When I was little, my parents pushed me to study math and the sciences. I happened to be good at and enjoyed the attention that I got from being good in the STEM fields. As I grew older though, I grew tired of how people who did not even know me assumed that I was good at STEM. I started to realize people were categorizing me, my interests and career goals before even getting to know me.

I have one vivid memory of this stereotyping occuring in my high school career counselor’s office. We had a mandatory meeting to talk about my course load for the next year. At my school, I had 4 mandatory courses in English, Social studies, science and homeroom. I had 3 spare classes to fill. At the time, I was a 9th grader and had applied to be on the literary magazine. I loved to read and thought it would be so fun to be a part of a group of people with those same interests. I got in and planned on joining the staff. However, when my guidance counselor pulled out a sample schedule for me, she had populated my elective courses with pre-AP chemistry, AP Psychology, and AP Biology. I was surprised because I had never told my guidance counselor I had any interest in these courses. I felt trapped in what she expected from me and had to step up to advocate for my own interests.

Three years later, I was the editor-in-chief of the literary magazine and was applying for colleges. I had pursued difficult AP science classes, yes, but had also stuck with my literary interests. Many of the admissions people I talked to while applying to colleges remarked on the unlikely combination of my application in science and literature. When people saw my application, they were pleasantly surprised that I was different from what they expected.

This is what I propose when preparing for college admissions. Think about what people see when they look at you. Use that to your advantage. Surprise them. College admissions officers read hundreds of essays about students with similar interests and backgrounds. Eventually, all those essays must run together. Do something unexpected that makes you memorable and then write about it.

Here at Path, we as mentors would be happy to help evaluate your current landscape and see where we can both make your life easier and your applications more impressive.