Opinion: Applying to college at 16 is daunting, but possible with role models, support
Amy Wong poses for a portrait in nature after graduating from community college. (Courtesy of Amy Wong)
By Amy Wong
Oct. 21, 2024 5:26 p.m.
This post was updated Oct. 22 at 8:38 p.m.
Applying to university at 16 years old and as a transfer student is no easy task.
It was especially difficult because I had little-to-no parental guidance.
My mother asked me a month after applications were due if I had considered applying to university. When I excitedly told her I was accepted to UC Berkeley, she turned to me and asked, “What is Berkeley?”
When I graduated from community college at 17, my mother asked me what associate degree I was graduating with.
I told her that I was graduating with seven of them.
Last month, she asked me what year I was entering at UCLA.
I told her that I was a senior.
“You’re a senior?” She asked me over the phone. “But you’re so young!”
If my mother is surprised by my age, you can probably imagine how strangers react. Once I even got asked if what I did was legal.
While I can now confirm that my educational path was in fact entirely legal, I will say that it was difficult. I started college full-time at 14 years old, finished high school at 15, and transferred to UCLA when I was 17. While my expedited education makes me competitive in the classroom and job market, it has simultaneously been the cause of most of my problems in the past.
With my lack of life and work experience, I was concerned that I would not be admitted.
My fears worsened after I met with a college counselor.
One of the community colleges that I attended hosted university application workshops, designed to teach community college students how to transfer into the UC system. I distinctly remember walking into the room wary that a counselor would look past me in favor of students who had more experience.
I was the only student who showed up.
The counselor asked me about my life: how many years I attended community college and how many years of internship experience I had, among other things.
I had been in community college for a while, but I was mostly focused on my high school classes. I was unsure of how to apply to internships and jobs. I was only 16, after all.
I vividly remember her facial expression – a combination of disappointment and disgust.
She asked me which universities I was applying to. Her response to my answer was devastating.
“I think it is unlikely that you will be accepted to UCLA or UC Berkeley,” she said. “You are too young. You lack the qualifications.”
I remember clenching my jaw to avoid saying anything. I wanted to feel supported during the application process. After our discussion, I was more confused about whether or not I made the right decision to accelerate my education and what my future would look like.
While her words hurt, they outlined objective flaws in my application, primarily my lack of experience.
Not only did my age present obstacles in pursuing career-related experience, but my intended major, philosophy, was not one associated with internships or jobs at the community college level.
Instead, I spent my time participating in related clubs such as the philosophy club and the critical theory club. I developed my communications skills during discussions at these club meetings by speaking in front of over 30 students about topics such as democracy, nihilism and deontological ethics.
During one of the Philosophy Club meetings, someone asked me what I thought the meaning of life was. I answered as best as I could with my limited knowledge.
I said that meaningful existence looks differently for everyone, depending on their goals, preferences and personality. Thus, seeking a definitive and unchanging answer is unnecessary as people change over time. If this is true, humans should revisit their understanding of a meaningful existence many times throughout their life and define it themselves, rather than being dictated by societal expectations or a textbook definition.
After the meeting concluded, another club member approached me and shared that she deeply appreciated my answer. I thanked her for the feedback and asked why my answer resonated so deeply with her. She said that I gave her hope that her life would improve.
This reinforced my decision to major in philosophy and I even wrote about the conversation in one of my personal essays for the UC application. This experience may not be exactly what the counselor had in mind when she advised me to become more qualified, but I found it reflected my potential as a prospective philosophy student.
It demonstrated my ability to not only understand philosophical texts, but to also impact the world positively using philosophy.
In hindsight, and in a strange way, I am grateful for the uncomfortable experience of being told upfront that I was inexperienced. Being criticized from an early age has taught me how to become adaptable.
I later realized that just because applying to university presented a significant challenge, I was not alone.
I turned to people online who had already graduated from UCLA.
One of these people, Jessica, who runs the channel dvyjessica on YouTube, was a recent UCLA graduate who also transferred from a community college. She now works at Amazon Web Services as a software engineer.
She posted videos about her acceptance to UCLA and included information about how she spent her time at community college. Although our academic backgrounds and career goals are drastically different, her belief in her viewers lifted me up during such a tedious and uninviting process.
Another YouTuber named Ashley, who operates the channel bestdressed, created videos that also motivated me when applying to UCLA. Ashley graduated from UCLA with a degree in film and television.
Having moved from Maryland to Los Angeles on her own at 18 and being one of 15 students admitted to her major that year, she proved to me that a Bruin can go after their dreams, regardless of the odds, and actually succeed.
I strived to have this mentality. I applied for the statewide Community Colleges Pathway to Law School program before applying to UCLA. Through the program, I was offered a referral for a judicial internship at the Los Angeles Superior Court.
During my summer after being accepted to UCLA and UC Berkeley, I learned about criminal law and court proceedings as an intern, gaining the essential career-related experience I had always dreamed of in the past.
Watching Jessica’s and Ashley’s experiences at UCLA, whether that be Jessica’s dance practices for a UCLA competitive hip-hop team or Ashley editing her video for five hours the night before a final at UCLA, allowed me to think about UCLA as a place of growth and as a soon to be home for all future Bruins – including someone like me.
Applying to university at 16 years old was disheartening. Applying with people who guided and uplifted me was the exact opposite – it was inspiring.