Rose Kim
UC Davis
Communications
“I am a sophomore at UC Davis. I am a Communications major intending to minor in English and Drama.”

1. Why did you pick the school that you currently attend?
It was the furthest from home.

2. How is the food?
UC Davis dorm food is pretty decent. Like anything you might have on a regular basis, it will get old. It is not the food though, it is our nature. The food here specifically is nicely varied: I’ve been able to anything from vegan, vegetarian, Asian, Italian, Thai, Indian, to steak nights and other theme nights of food. I must add: the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies at late night are very, very dangerous.

3. It seems like I don’t have any extracurricular activities outside of school. I’m just in school clubs and volunteer at events offered by the clubs. Is there any way to find something meaningful to do outside of school? What did you guys do? Also, I didn’t get any awards and don’t know where to go to at least have an opportunity to earn an award (besides FBLA, TSA or any clubs like that) Do you guys have any suggestions? 🙂 I writing a senior profile for something else and seeing that I don’t have much to write about myself.. Please help out this worried junior!
I think your issue is where your focus is. “meaningful” to who? “awards” for what? By the simple fact that you are a human being, you’ve got more layers and depth than we probably need and most of it just gives us subconscious angst but worst case scenario, you’re not in tune with it all. You’ve got to know yourself. You have to know what is meaningful to you, not what will mean something to college admissions.
The college application process is often erroneously viewed as a mold that has been cast by previous generations of applicants, and the future generations need only fill that mold as best as possible. No. No. no. Every single time someone applies to a college, my hope is that they have writhed their way through life, making mistakes, learning, experiencing, enough to cast their own mold with their own lines, indentations and grooves.
If you don’t have much to write about yourself, you simply have not given yourself enough thought. Think yourself to death.

4. How do I deal with being away from my family?
You start focusing on you. You realize that you’ve spent 18 years in the nest of people who will love you unconditionally. To be in such an environment for longer can be detrimental to a person’s growth. College is your opportunity to grow in dog years, dude. Let that happen. Seek a better version of yourself. Smarter. Better learned, educated. Better seasoned with the infinite personalities and characters that live in this world with you. Better aware of who you are as a person and where you interconnect with the rest of the universe. The only way you can do that is to be, in my opinion, alone. In the sense that the one to love yourself unconditionally, who is immediately available and present, is you.

5. Do you think you underestimated yourself when you applied to schools?
I don’t think I gave the application process that much gravity. I knew college is what I wanted and I knew, as much as I could without the actual experience anyway, that I was on the verge of a potentially life-changing catalyst. Myself and my applications were merely the protocol. Going into it all, my gut told me this college admissions process is hit or miss. It’s a system that does its best to sort the right students into the right places but it can be wrong and and it can be right. Its really out of my hands so I didn’t bother myself about it.

6. What is college like for you?
It’s changed the course of my life that I could only myopically envision before college.

7. What’s the difference between a double major and a dual major? Which is better in your opinion?
I have no idea.

8. How do you manage your time in college since you now have a flexible schedule?
Know what gets your gears going. Commit to all that.

9. What were your thoughts on DB once you entered college?
That I was supremely blessed to have gone through DBHS’s AP calc curriculum. That I was supremely blessed to have taken all the AP classes with all the great, caring teachers that I did. Thankful for all the opportunities. And thankful that I was OUT AND FAR FAR AWAY from the stifling, homogeneous bubble I found myself stuck in during my time there.

10. Would you recommend the east coast or west coast?
I don’t think I could recommend anything without knowing who you were. For the sake of the questions, I will say west, only because the weather on the east scares me. But I would like to be there some time in the future too. … do your research on what you like and what there is..

Questions directed for Rose Kim:

1. I plan to pursue a Communications major in college; how is the major for you at Davis?
I haven’t taken any comm classes yet… I’m sorry! I entered the university as a com major, vehemently intent on changing to an English major. Then I found my love for drama and considered Drama. I studied a lot in both majors for the first year. At present, I am determined to pursue this major now for the breadth that I desire and will be minoring in English and Drama. So, my first com classes start next year….

2. What extracurriculars do you participate in and how well do you like Davis? What is the best part about your school, to you?
Freshman year, I was on the sailing team for a quarter. I did a bit of Aggie TV. And a lot of recreational stuff that year, just meeting people, getting to know myself, seeing the city and the campus. Experiencing it all. That year I took my first acting class and really fell in love with it. Sophomore year, I was in the UC Davis winter production of Woyzeck as the female lead. I’m now sort of making my way into the student-run theatre orgs here, the Dead Arts Society and Studio 301. I love Davis because, well, I had the opportunity for all these things! And I’ve met the best people up here. The best. Also our campus is incredibly beautiful and useful and accommodating and I am always hesitant to leave it. It is also very big and I never get bored of walking through it, discovering new little nooks and crannies hidden within the trees and the buildings! Davis is also super bike friendly with great bike roads that span not only throughout the entire campus but also the entire city. Every establishment has bike parking spaces. I don’t have a car and won’t have one any time soon so this is very convenient for me. The bus system is pretty great too.