Interviewer: So what other colleges did you look at before applying to American?

Interviewee: (laughs) I hate talking about college. I looked at a lot of, you know, schools on the West Coast, looked at (indiscernible, PG Town maybe? ), Pallamet, those are both safeties, which apparently the word “safety” is not even a good word anymore, cuz it’s, I don’t know, derogatory. I looked at… I was deciding between American and UC Santa Barbara, which are very different schools. UC Santa Barbara has about 30,000 undergrads, it’s in the sun 24/7, it’s beautiful, it’s not in the city, it’s actually outside of Santa Barbara…

Interviewer: And you have a beach!

Interviewee: Yeah! There’s a beach right there, it’s beautiful. I have… A lot of my friends go to school in southern California… But I was looking at that and American, and I just wanted to be in the political area, and looked at other schools in Boston, Massachusetts, because I really like the East Coast.

Interviewer: So you’re from California originally?

Interviewee: Yes, from the bay area… So there’s a lot of pressure to stay in California just because outside tuition is so expensive and there’s all these options in California. The UC system… Public school I’m thinking is not doing as well as it could because prices keep going up for public school, and your paying for a class with, you know, 400 other students and you just don’t get that connection that you do at a smaller school with faculty and other students. I know one kid from home who goes to UCLA and he was complaining to one of my friends “I just feel like such a number,” you know “no one cares about me, I just, I walk and I don’t see anybody I know, my teachers don’t know who I am, I’m just another student.” You know?

Interviewer: So that kind of drove you to a small school atmosphere?

Interviewee: Yeah, yeah.

Interviewer: So I know a lot of people that, they’re from the East Coast but they ended up at West Coast schools, but they applied without visiting… Did you do that or did you visit all the schools before applying?

Interviewee: I visited all the schools. My parents were very, extremely adamant that I would have a very clear sense of which schools I was applying to…. I think it’s fine sometimes just to jump in without looking… I visited American like three times before coming.

Interviewer: From California?

Interviewee: Yeah

Interviewer: Wow

Interviewee: Isn’t that crazy? I think, cuz I did a few college tours remember (indiscernible) I mean in the end my parents said “You know, it costs money to get a hotel and get food, and air fare of course, but it costs more money to go to a school, pay 45, 50 grand for American, not liking it and going back to a state school?” That’s 50,000 dollars, that’s the difference between those two universities that…

Interviewer: So to them and to you it was an investment to look at…

Interviewee: Yeah

Interviewer: Ok

Interviewee: And besides, visiting schools in California was just an excuse to go on a road trip with my friends sometimes too, cuz I didn’t go with my parents to Santa Barbara for instance, I just drove down with two of my girlfriends, and that was a great time, and…

Interviewer: So was there ever pressure from your parents to stay on the West Coast?

Interviewee: Umm, there was passive aggressive pressure from my mom (mimicking mom) “I’m gonna miss you so much, blah blah blah.” Well yeah I’m your daughter of course you’re gonna miss me, but they’re pretty good about letting me and my sister be independent, and make our own decision. For instance I know a few students, friends at school, students is weird, their parents wouldn’t even let them apply outside California.

Interviewer: Yeah. Well that kind of a common situation. Well if you get instate tuition and you got, you know, the UC system, then why leave?

Interviewee: In that situation though I don’t think it was about money though, I think it was about control, and parents having control over their kid, which I think is a very… interesting… concept…

Interviewer: Definitely. So what is your first memory of coming to American? So you step foot on campus… Do you remember that moment or does it…?

Interviewee: Well I remember getting off the metro, and I get really really scared in these situations, number one, and I get really intimidated by…

Interviewer: Have you been on the metro before?

Interviewee: Uhh, yeah, but just to into DC. Cuz we did, I did public transit like in San Francisco and stuff. But I get really scared around older people too, so “oh my

god these scary college students,” and I was a sophomore in high school, so just to give it some context. So I’m like 15, 16, and just thinking “I cant get on this bus, they know im an imposter, they know I don’t belong here, like if I don’t have an ID or a sense of belonging, like I feel very out of place, like I don’t belong, and that I should maybe just go home.

Interviewer: Was it a tour?

Interviewee: I was there for an official tour…

Interviewer: So you get to the tour, how do you feel?

Interviewee: uhh…

Interviewer: Do you remember?

Interviewee: I don’t know, I probably felt annoyed because when they introduced large groups like that the presenters always ask some sort of broad question like “Raise your hand if you’re from the west coast” and I hate raising my hand in groups because I feel like it’s just this… you know… empty participatory idea about “oh we’re gonna make…

[5 minute alarm goes off]