Grace Zhao, ’24, attends Claremont McKenna College. She is undecided in her major.

Q: Why did you choose to attend Claremont McKenna (CMC)?

A: I think something I really appreciate about CMC is that it clearly articulates its core values. Our school’s official motto is: “Preparing students to lead thoughtful and productive lives in business, government and the professions.” We also have a subtheme going on, which is all about constructive dialog and engaging thoughtfully across party lines, not just politically, but in general with people you disagree with. When I came to CMC, I found out people take that stuff seriously, and I appreciate that the school has such a purposeful direction. That’s why I applied to CMC. I’m really happy to find that they do take their core values of thoughtfulness and constructive dialog very seriously here.

Q: Are you participating in any clubs?
A: I am very happy to be a part of Free Food for Thought, which is our school’s official student-run podcast. It’s for speakers that come to our Athenaeum, which is a big formal event space where guest lecturers will come and give talks three nights a week. It looks like a fancy restaurant, and it’s a big part of CMC culture. We interviewed the guest speakers before they got on stage for their official talk, and it’s been a fascinating opportunity. I got to interview Ninth Circuit Federal Judge John Owens last week, and being able to talk to him personally was just an amazing experience. So I’m grateful that I got the position working on the podcast.

Q: How was the transition from Sacramento Country Day to CMC?
A: I’d say when it came to Spanish, Country Day prepared me very well for college. Dra. Pepa, and before her, Dra. Portillo, were such fantastic Spanish teachers. I didn’t fully appreciate that until I got here. It was really beneficial to have great Spanish teachers at Country Day and to be able to have months to go over topics, ask questions and practice because things just go so fast in college. The other thing I’d say about college is that working hard isn’t necessarily getting you better grades — you have to work smarter and harder.

I had to adjust a lot of my study techniques because in high school, I was able to do well by trying my best at everything, but in college, the workload increases to a volume and difficulty that you don’t have enough time to go around. You have to consider what to prioritize, which things to maybe not try so hard on, and which things to put your full effort towards. Otherwise, it’s just too much to manage.

Q: How are you adjusting to college life?
A: I love college life. My dorm, Beckett Hall, has a great community where people are always hanging out together. And the professors are great. The people are very smart, nice and passionate about their interests. I’ve really been enjoying CMC in general. I have never been a big school spirit person, but I feel like I do have school spirit now that I’m at CMC.

Q: Have you had any struggles with time management?
A: Oh, definitely. Time management is such a big challenge when starting college. A big mistake I made the first time around was either taking too detailed notes, which made me not have time to actually take notes for all the material, or not taking enough notes so that when the exam came around, I had to relearn everything without any of my prior knowledge to help me. So that was a lesson that I learned I’m still working on.

Q: Have you made any freshman mistakes?
A: Oh, boy. One thing that I learned, and this kind of goes back to the time management thing, is that you have to be intentional about prioritizing self-care. Self-care and academic productivity are not mutually exclusive; they’re mutually supportive. During my first round of midterms, I was like, “I’m so busy, I’m not gonna work out this week.” That ended up making me a lot more depressed, and my mental health a lot worse. I ended up doing a lot worse on that first round of midterms.

No one is going to be here to be your parent and say, “Hey, you have to get out of bed and go to the gym,” but you want to be the one who does that for yourself. Keep in mind that your own health has to be your first priority because that’s how you achieve productivity.

Q: What advice would you give to the Class of 2025?
A: I would say, first of all, going back to what I said about Spanish, take advantage of the small class sizes and the resources at Country Day. Build a good academic foundation there because once you get to college, you’re going to need to hit the ground running.

If you haven’t developed some foundation of study skills, time management skills or just technical skills in whatever subject you’re studying, it’s going to be a lot more difficult for you to pick things up in college. Also, chill out, it’s not that deep. You’re gonna have a good time and you’re gonna figure things out. A big lesson I’ve learned is that you have to be very comfortable with being on your own path.

For example, within the first two weeks I got to CMC, we went through club rush, which is when all the on-campus clubs and research institutes open up their applications. It’s a very tough time for a lot of people because they’re applying, getting rejected, hearing about other peers who got in when they didn’t.

I personally got rejected from mock trial, which was tough for me to process because I was so passionate about mock trial in high school. I had to learn that what I was really trying to do was seek validation from these outside sources because I was feeling displaced in this new environment where I wasn’t sure how I compared to all my distinguished classmates. I had to get comfortable with doing my own thing and trusting the process. If I had started that mindset earlier in high school, it would have helped me a lot more during those first couple of tough weeks of college. I figured out that for the rest of your adult life, you’re going to be in a cycle of applying for things, so you might as well get comfortable with seeing rejection as redirection and letting things work themselves out with time.