Yuanheng Mao

Hi, I'm Yuanheng. I graduated from Belmont High School this past June and am heading to Harvard in the fall. In high school I was heavily involved in student government. I served as co-president of the student senate and as an advisor on a school committee. I also did AI and healthcare research, including an internship at the MIT Jameel Clinic for AI and Health.



Lillian Yang

Hi, I'm Lillian. I just graduated from Lexington High School and am headed to UCLA this fall, where I'll study neuroscience on the pre-medical track. In high school I competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate for three years (becoming varsity captain and a teaching assistant in my fourth), served as treasurer of class council, and did research with Mass General Hospital and Columbia Medical Center.



Jerry Xu

Hi, I'm Jerry. I just graduated from Lexington High School and am heading to MIT to study mathematics, computer science, and molecular biology. In high school I focused heavily on STEM competitions; math and biology olympiads; and was a four-year member (and senior-year captain) of the LHS math team and science bowl club, alongside independent and MIT PRIMES research.



Audi Lin

Hi, I'm Audi. I graduated from Lexington High School in 2023 and I'm now a computer science major with a robotics minor at Carnegie Mellon University. In high school I competitively swam and was on the robotics team, and I also managed the LHS school store; in college I still swim and do robotics on the side, though most of my time now goes to coursework and TAing.



Baoren Liu

Hi, I'm Baoren. I'm currently studying math and computer science at UIUC, after starting my freshman year at Northeastern University. In high school I played on the freshman soccer team, played in the LHS wind ensemble, and built a scheduling web app that ended up with thousands of users; in college I've focused on independent projects and research.



Eli Olcott

Hi, I'm Eli. I graduated from Lexington High School in 2023 and went to Harvard to study computer science and philosophy. In high school I competitively played soccer and built and coded a number of apps; in college I took 18 months off to join an AI startup, Sapien, as its first hire, before returning to Harvard to finish my degree.



Isabel Li

Hi, I'm Isabel. I also graduated from Lexington High School in 2023 and am now at Harvard, majoring in regenerative biology and history of medicine. In high school I was an avid ballet dancer, and in college I've continued dancing, worked as an EMT, and done both biology and social science research.



Irene Gao

Hi, I'm Irene. I graduated from the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, MA, and I'm currently an incoming junior at Columbia University studying electrical engineering. In high school I focused mostly on CS, including building websites through the Youth STEAM Initiative; in college I've combined engineering with finance, including an EE internship at Columbia's plasma physics lab and an upcoming investment banking role.

Yuanheng: I got into student government by running for class president as a freshman, then moved into broader roles like school committee advisor and school council because I liked shaping policy at the whole-school level. On the tech side, joining the CS club and the Youth STEAM Initiative eventually led me to an MIT summer program that turned into an internship in AI and healthcare research.

Lillian: I came into high school planning to try a lot of things and narrow down over time. Debate ended up sticking because it helped me build confidence speaking in competitive settings, and class council let me indulge my love of planning events. Once I decided I wanted to go pre-med, I sought out hospital volunteering and research to explore that path.

Jerry: Like Lillian, I started out trying a lot of things before dropping the ones that weren't the best use of my time. My advice is to use freshman year to explore without worrying about results, then start narrowing down in sophomore and junior year; for me that meant doubling down on STEM competitions and research, even though I started research relatively late.

Audi: My freshman year looked like a lot of clubs and general exploration, but COVID limited things and I mostly did tutoring. Once we were back in person, I found myself spending hours every day on my robotics team and realized that was what made me happiest; which ultimately led me to study CS and robotics in college.

Baoren: I looked for activities that genuinely interested me, had real impact, and helped me explore; soccer and tennis because I enjoyed them, and the CS club to connect with others in the field. A scheduling web app I built the summer before high school (which ended up with thousands of users) is what really got me hooked on studying CS, and band gave me a way to decompress.

Eli Olcott: I wasn't especially strategic about it; I leaned into the few things I genuinely enjoyed and could see myself getting good at, like coding and soccer, which I had a natural pull toward. A lot of my opportunities came from cold-emailing people, which taught me that most researchers and professionals are happy to help curious younger people.

Isabel: My dad actually sat me down in middle school and told me I was overcommitted, so I had to pick things I was passionate about, could grow in, and was good at; that became dance, which took up most of my high school time. When COVID slowed things down, I used the time to start small self-directed projects, like a baking business with a friend and volunteering at a senior center.

Yuanheng: For me it came down to deciding whether something was worth my time, then going all in once I'd decided; that's how I ended up staying in student government. Just as important was recognizing what wasn't worth continuing, like Model UN, which I dropped after freshman year even though I enjoyed it.

Lillian: My philosophy became "closed mouths don't get fed." Apply to more things than feels comfortable, and ask people for help and resources rather than trying to figure everything out alone. For hospital volunteering, I applied to eight or ten places knowing only one or two would accept me, and that same approach helped with getting essay feedback on my college apps.

Jerry: I think your success in an activity depends on both effort and how many opportunities you expose that effort to. If you've worked hard on something, put it in front of as many people as possible instead of just one. I'd also recommend talking to older students about the paths they took, since established pathways tend to work for a reason.

Audi: I've found that most people are happy to help if you show genuine interest in what they're doing; that's basically how I ended up running the LHS school store, starting from just emailing about an assistant manager flyer and eventually taking over when the seniors running it graduated.

Baoren: Getting yourself out there early; especially at the start of the school year, when people are most open to making new friends; pays off in relationships you can lean on later. I've used those connections, including with grad students and people working at places like Apple and TikTok, to ask how they approached their own paths.

Eli Olcott: A lot of it was deciding "this seems cool, what would it take to make it happen" and then just doing it, rather than waiting for permission; that's been especially useful now that I've done startups, where everything is essentially made up and you have to figure it out yourself. The one caution I'd add is to follow up and respect people's time once they've helped you.

Isabel: I was a pretty shy kid, so initiative didn't come naturally; what changed it was pure repetition. Getting rejected or ignored enough times taught me that it's not actually a big deal, and that people generally don't remember your failures the way you do.

Irene: For me it's been about staying curious about how things work behind the scenes, and being willing to learn whatever sub-skills a project requires rather than sticking to only what I already know. That curiosity is also what led me to explore electrical engineering in college even though I came in expecting to stay purely in CS.

Jerry: Research can show up almost anywhere in your application; as an activity, an essay topic, or a source for a strong recommendation letter from someone who's seen you work through difficult, extended problems, which is different from what a classroom teacher sees. How central you make it depends on how central it actually was to your story; if it's something you're truly passionate about, it's worth writing essays about, but if it was more of a side project, it's fine to just list it as an activity.

Yuanheng: Work that I did with friends; like organizing our school's cultural food fair; didn't really feel like work, so that balanced itself out naturally. For more tedious tasks like studying, I used a rhythm of about 30-45 minutes of focused work followed by a 15-minute break, which kept me consistent without burning out on long, unfocused stretches.

Audi: I don't think you can force a "story" out of activities you only did because you thought they'd look good; it's much easier to build a narrative when you reflect on why you actually chose the things you did. Do the things that make you happy, and the story tends to follow.

Eli Olcott: Honestly, hard; I don't think anyone gets to the top of something without putting in real work. My junior and senior year soccer schedule was brutal (library after school, then a 90-minute drive to practice, then homework late into the night), but I generally enjoyed the process, even on the days I fell behind from exhaustion.

Audi: In college, with a lot more freedom over your schedule, it's really on you to figure out the balance between sleep, fun, and work; I actually found high school harder in some ways, since so much of freshman year of college was just learning how to study and figuring out what kind of student I wanted to be.

Eli Olcott: Having since worked long hours at a startup, I've noticed my relationship to "hard work" shifts by season of life; I'm taking school easier now than I did before the startup, because I'd rather spend that time with people. High school for me was a season where grinding made sense, but that doesn't mean it always will.

Yuanheng: The closest I came to burnout was the two weeks before the regular-decision deadline, when I'd underestimated how many supplemental essays I'd have to write and ended up working almost the entire day, including through most of December break. What helped afterward was consciously taking time to rest and planning more thoroughly so I wouldn't repeat the same crunch.

Lillian: I'd recommend time-blocking your day; set hours for work, then genuinely set it aside in the evening for family, friends, or being outside. I also hit burnout around the end of junior year, and talking to friends who were feeling the same way, rather than isolating, made a real difference.

Yuanheng: I'm glad I was able to recognize early on which activities, like Model UN and debate, weren't worth the time sink for me, which freed up space for things like coding projects, running an annual hackathon, and my student government work.

Lillian: Building a strong relationship with my counselor and other staff was something I did well, even though I wish I'd started earlier than the end of junior year. Beyond the practical benefit of a stronger recommendation letter, having people at school who genuinely knew me made high school's stress much easier to manage.

Jerry: A lot of what I did in my first two or three years didn't feel especially productive in the moment, but by senior year I could see how it had all tied together. My advice is to give yourself time to try things without needing early proof that they're "working"; most of the time it pays off, and even when it doesn't, you still take something valuable from the experience.

Yuanheng: I'd have worried less about squeezing an A+ out of an A through extra credit; looking back, the difference between a 4.28 and a 4.24 GPA wasn't worth the hours I put into it, and that time could have gone elsewhere.

Lillian: I was a big procrastinator and paid for it, including writing college essays on Christmas Eve instead of enjoying a family ski trip; build strong organizational habits early. I'd also tell myself not to take rejection so personally, since the people reviewing your application don't actually know you, and that most people are too focused on themselves to be judging you as harshly as you imagine.

Jerry: Don't copy the people around you just to seem more successful; colleges are explicitly looking for a diverse class of students with their own values and interests, not another version of someone who's already gotten in. It's easier in the long run to start early doing things that genuinely matter to you rather than chasing an already-proven pathway.

Irene: Building on Jerry's point; if your only goal is getting into a specific college, you'll get there and then still have to figure out what to do with your life. I'd flip it: follow what you're genuinely passionate about and let college be a byproduct, since trying to copy someone else's exact path doesn't guarantee you'll get their result.

Yuanheng: Protect some real time for yourself; I tried to keep at least one day a week where I could just rest, alongside decent time management so I wasn't constantly thinking about what I still had to do.

Lillian: Do things that scare you a little, because they build a real sense of confidence; I ran a half-marathon senior year having never run more than a 10K, and later used that as a mental reference point when college essays felt overwhelming. Being encouraged by my class council advisor to give my graduation speech, despite how nerve-wracking that was, taught me I could handle high-pressure moments.

Jerry: Use school hours as efficiently as possible; if you have free blocks, finish homework there instead of scrolling on your phone, so you can actually be done when you get home. I found I worked much better overall once I stopped letting assignments pile up, though this depends a lot on your school and teachers, so it's not a one-size-fits-all rule.

Lillian: Fair warning; I think junior year is actually harder than sophomore year. The same time-management habits that help with sophomore slump apply there too.

Yuanheng: Sophomore year is when I'd say grades become the real priority; freshman year has more room for error. Once your grades are in a good place, that's the time to start exploring extracurriculars, though you shouldn't feel pressure yet to pick things specifically "for college apps."

Jerry: Treat your counselor like someone worth really getting to know; talk to them about school and non-school things, because they need to understand your character to write a strong recommendation letter. Given how many students each counselor has, the ones who talk to them regularly are the ones who end up being remembered.

Lillian: I'd recommend meeting your counselor one-on-one outside the time the school schedules; just email them, and use a free block or study hall. Beyond letters of recommendation, having a counselor who genuinely knows you gives you a real support system when things get overwhelming.

Audi: I started college doing things similar to high school: ultimate frisbee, club swimming; before ending up spending a lot of time TAing (about 15 hours a week) because I discovered I really enjoyed both the CS course and teaching itself. My internship search took real prep, but I got there by trying a lot of different things and staying ready for whatever came up.

Baoren: I applied to around 20-30 colleges and got rejected by my top choices, which is why having safety schools mattered. I started at Northeastern, transferred to UIUC, and after a few months of coasting, reconnected with friends who were networking and doing research; reaching out to CS professors with my own project ideas, rather than just asking to help with theirs, is what got me into research.

Eli Olcott: I spent freshman year exploring clubs before taking a year and a half off from Harvard to join a friend's AI startup, Sapien, as the founding engineer; I built search and product infrastructure, then led go-to-market and customer deployment teams working with companies from mid-market up to the Fortune 500. I came back to finish my CS and philosophy degree because I wanted the startup experience itself, and I've leaned more into philosophy and writing classes since returning.

Isabel: I came in unsure whether medicine was truly my interest or just familiar, so I spent freshman year exploring broadly until an interdisciplinary math/CS/physics/biology class pointed me toward biology, and a history-of-medicine class became my second major. My summers moved from research to anthropological fieldwork abroad to my undergrad thesis, while dance, volunteering, and becoming an EMT rounded out what made campus life fulfilling.

Irene: My first semester at Columbia, I joined clubs early on both the finance and engineering sides; a race-car club and a rocket-building Space Initiative club; and met people in both worlds, which led me to pursue engineering and finance in parallel even though I came in expecting to stay in CS. This past summer I worked in a lab building power systems for fusion research, and next summer I'll be doing investment banking.

Audi: I spent a lot of high school worried about what other people were doing, which I now see as wasted energy. What actually stuck with me were the people I met and the experience of investing real time into something I cared about, like robotics; that sense of knowing who I am and what I like to do has carried into college.

Baoren: The Youth STEAM Initiative mattered a lot for my application because it demonstrated volunteering, leadership, and CS skills all at once, along with a freelance website I built for my tennis coach. Honestly, I don't think anything I did "didn't matter"; even less central activities like tutoring ended up being somewhat useful.

Eli Olcott: I don't think it was any single activity; it was the combination of experiences that built the work ethic and soft skills I rely on now. My rule of thumb is "do less but better": narrow down to two or three things you actually care about instead of spreading yourself thin chasing marginal GPA gains.

Isabel: I wouldn't tie any one skill to a specific activity. The biggest thing college requires is the confidence to learn things you don't already know, and that's something you build generally, not through any one "correct" high school activity.

Irene: Nothing I did felt like a waste, even the things that turned out less relevant to my current path; I spent a lot of high school time playing keyboard in bands, which had nothing to do with my major, and I still don't regret a minute of it. If something is meaningful to you, it's worth doing regardless of whether it "matters" for an application.

Yuanheng: There will always be some weakness in your application, and often it's too late to change it by the time you're applying; so the better strategy is to make everything else as strong as possible rather than chasing an impossible, flawless application.

Eli Olcott: I joined Sapien after two friends from high school, who'd both done AI research, started it around the idea that companies sit on huge amounts of financial and operational data they can't easily analyze; we built ways to plug AI systems into that data so companies could get answers in minutes instead of months. A lot of the early growth was iterative: talking to people, finding new pain points as we moved into new industries, and letting trust with one customer lead to referrals and the next.