Podcast 52 | transcript
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Hello. Thanks for listening to our podcast, Autism Goes to College. I’m
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Miles Omara and I’m now a high school senior at Bridges Academy in Studio
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City, California. I’m close to making my decision about where I’ll go to college in the fall. and I’m going to share some
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of my experiences applying to college and trying to figure out where I really want to go and what will be the best
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match for me. I had a lot of input and I did a lot of research on my own and
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we’ll talk about all of that. I’m here with Katherine O’Brien, the host of the Autism Goes to College podcast and I’m
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going to hand it over to her. Hey everybody, it’s uh application
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season and I’m happy to bring you this conversation with Miles. So, we are
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taping at the very beginning of January. Um your applications are probably in and
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you may be starting to hear tell us uh how many applications you submitted and if you’ve gotten in.
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I have submitted 15 applications and I have gotten in to 10. Congratulations.
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That’s great. Can you give us a little more information about where you applied and where you’re in?
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I applied to um schools all over the country. Um I
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applied to American University in DC. Mhm. I applied to
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Oberlin College which is in Ohio. I applied to Reamit in Oregon, Whitman in
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Washington. I applied to Wheaten in Massachusetts. I applied to a place called Curry
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College which is in Massachusetts as well. Depal University, Drexel
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University, Lafayette College, Lyola Chicago,
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Marquette University, uh, Reed College, Trinity University,
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University of Denver, University of Fugia Sound, and I I think I’ve listed
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all of them. Yeah, that’s a lot of work. And you’ve gotten into 10 of those schools so far.
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So, congratulations. I’ve gotten into a lot and I’m Thank you. I’m very I’m very happy about them.
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I’ve gotten into Wheaton, Wamit, Trinity, Puget Sound, Denver, Malcette,
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Lyola, Draxel, Curry, and Reed. Those are all the places I’ve gotten into. Yeah, Reed was on my short list as well.
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It was a school that I got into and toured back in 2008 um when I was in
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your shoes. Um, so, uh, how did you pick where to apply? I’m
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not sensing a common theme in like geography, public or private, small or
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large. So, so how did you choose? It was honestly
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a lot of a lot of it was my my counselor, my college counselor talking to me, but it was also
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when I went into the college process, I
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um didn’t have a school in mind. I had interests in mind.
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So academic interests. Yeah. Like think like academic interests, what I wanted to study. I
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didn’t know where I wanted to study, but I knew what I wanted to study. So, I said that I wanted to study art
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history and I wanted to study music and I wanted to maybe get a minor in psychology.
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Okay. So I told that to my counselor and they gave me some suggestions
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and I kind of slowly accumulated all these suggestions because either my
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family or friends would tell me about them or my counselor would tell me about them or my school would have a
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presentation that the schools that the college was hosting and I would go to it. So that’s really how I found out
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about a lot of my schools just like kind of word of mouth and all that. Yeah. because you know you need some
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place that has all of those programs that you’re interested in and also has a
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level of flexibility as a student. Um there are certain institutions where if you are studying in the arts, you
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wouldn’t be able to jump over and also minor in the social sciences. Yeah. Um so I I see where um they would be
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looking at uh that for you. I had a combination of interests and a desire to be in proximity to somewhere I could go
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alpine skiing. Um, so I think it’s worth considering what brings you joy and what
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you need as a student, even if it’s not the typical search parameters. So, what
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was it like to apply to 15 schools? Was it a ton of work? It was honestly not as intimidating as I
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thought because sounds hard. I mean it’s it is hard but something to
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keep in mind too is that because of something like the common app all your your your
5:11
personal essay your letters of recommendation your transcripts all of
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that is kind of just sent to every college you apply to. You don’t have to
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rewrite your essay for every time you apply to a college. It’s just automatically sent. And the only thing
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you really have to worry about is supplementals. Um, some colleges do require you to write an essay for them.
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If you’re a music major like me, some colleges might require an audition, which can be pretty daunting and which I
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had to do, but I got through it. Congratulations. Yes. Yeah. But it’s it’s it was really not as
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daunting as I thought. It was definitely a lot of walk and it was just a lot of like revisions revisions revisions and
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oh my god I have to add another school to my list and oh my god I think I want to take this off I don’t know if I don’t
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know about this oh my god I have to write the supplemental it was really just a lot of writing and then once that
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was done it was just a lot of like going through questionnaires on the colleg’s
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section and just picking like I want to study this I want to study this. No, I
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don’t want to apply to this program. Yes, I want to be in this program. No, I’m not going to live on campus. Blah
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blah blah blah blah. It was just a lot of like yes and nos and pick your majors.
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Giving yourself time to do some of that formulaic work cuz there is a lot of urgency and a lot of deadlines.
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I see. And did you talk about being autistic in your application? Was that
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something that came up on the I I will say this, the only time I
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really talked about my autism was I talked about it briefly in my personal
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essay. Mhm. And I talked about Dr. My personal essay was about drumming and how it’s changed
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my life. and I talked about how my um kind of drumming experience has
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helped me when I’m having a bad day or when I’m kind of over stimulated and how
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it kind of regulates me. And the other time I talked about um my autism was
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when American University wanted a supplemental. Mhm. Um, for anyone who’s listening who is
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thinking about American University or maybe has heard of it and is curious about it, they have a supplemental
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essay. You have to write an essay for them. And it’s about social justice. It’s about what’s an idea or a belief or
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a topic that you’re really passionate about. And so I wrote about the
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portrayal of autism in movies. I’m from Los Angeles. My parents are in Hollywood. So it’s something that’s very
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important to me. Yeah. And that’s the those are the only two times I really mentioned my autism. But in in the American one, I made it all
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about autism and how I feel as an autistic person seeing my people and
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people like me kind of portrayed on the big screen. Yeah. The dominant emotion for me is
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anger because often these portrayals are less than deaf. Um but I I don’t want to derail.
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That’s a whole can of worms that we’re not going to open. Yeah. We don’t have to open that can right now. So, um, you cared for schools
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that had a strong music program for your drumming. Um, and you wanted to major in art history as well. So, are all of the
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schools that are that you’ve gotten into strong in that area? A lot of the schools I applied to have
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kind of it’s either both or like one or the other. Some schools have really
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strong music programs like obviously Oelin Conservatories, one of the top conservatories in the country. I didn’t
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apply though because I’m that’s way too intense. Yeah, the conservatory, you know, fine
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arts performance undergrad life is intense. Scary. But Oelin, great music program
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and pretty decent art history. Um the Paul School of Music is
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um very good. I sadly did got rejected but I did apply for art history as well.
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So I the art history program is good. Uh University of Denver’s school of music is also very good
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and their art history program is also good. A lot of the schools I applied to either have kind of both their art
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history and their music program are good or kind of their music program isn’t the
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best, but the art history program is really strong. Or sometimes like with Oberlin’s case, I don’t
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believe you can major in music in the college. However, you can minor in music
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studies and that’s and that lets you take classes in the conservatory.
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Yeah. which is a is a interesting tradeoff. Um I can see particularly schools where I
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had to choose between two of my passions like choosing between music and art and history that would have been a really
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hard thing to to choose at your age cuz you know it’s just it’s tough. Um so
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when you were thinking about applying to colleges, how did you approach support
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um for a for students with autism? you know, is your high school supportive and do you want to carry that through into
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college? Yes, my my high school I’m very I’m very lucky to go to this school. It’s Bridges
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Academy. It’s twice exceptional which means Oh, really cool. Yeah. gifted plus some other learning
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difference. So, autism but also disabled. So, that’s that’s what twice exceptional
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means. Yeah. It’s a very it’s a very unique school. There’s not a lot of two schools in the country.
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No, there are not. And not a lot of two schools in Los Angeles. So, yes, my school is very
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supportive and it’s, you know, the your IEP or 504 plan is built into your
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curriculum. So, each student has their own IEP and it’s very strong.
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Um, so yeah, I want to carry that with me to college. I want to be somewhere that feels like bridges and feels very
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kind of, you know, supportive and whatnot. And when I was looking at the supports for colleges, um, there’s two
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main colleges that have really good supports. There was Kerry College, which I applied to, uh, that has something
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called the PAL program. It’s, they think the program for effectiveness and learning.
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I can’t remember what it stands for, but they have two programs. the PAL program which is academic support and the sale
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program which is social support and then University of Denver has something called the learning
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effectiveness program. Um, a lot of schools don’t necessarily
12:00
have special programs, but they have an office of disabilities and they give you
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kind of legally required accommodations or sometimes just the school itself is pretty accommodating cuz it’s a small
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campus or the community is really accepting like Oberlin is not a
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inherently no divorce school. There just happens to be a lot of noriv kids there
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similar to Reed. It’s a relatively small campus, but they’re very sympathetic to
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all kinds of brains and different types of learning. I see. Um,
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were you able to visit most of the schools? I mean, you would have been traveling back and forth across the
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country from Massachusetts and the Midwest.
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I would have had like that was so much traveling. No, I only visited three
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schools. Okay, so three visits. Um, I visited Trinity University in Texas, which is
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absolutely beautiful. It is a beautiful campus. Not too big,
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not too small. Just outside of San Antonio, really nice. I visited Depal,
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which has two campuses. I visited the Lincoln Park campus, but they also have a loop campus, which is downtown. It was
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a it’s a it’s a more urban school like a a more urban campus but it’s still
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pretty nice. And I visited Lyola in Chicago which was similar situation to
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Depal except maybe like a just a little bit better academically. Although
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Trinity is the one that really stuck out to me. It was really beautiful and it’s closeish to home. So that really stuck
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out to me. But I’m going to visit more. I will say I did not visit every college
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I applied to before I applied, but I did visit the places that I was accepted to before I committed.
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That’s what you should do. Always when you get Yeah. Uh my parents and I kind
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of regretted not doing more visiting beforehand because we realized in the
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act of visiting the more far away colleges like Reed in my case cuz I was from Massachusetts like Colorado College
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that I just wasn’t comfortable that far away from home yet and we probably could have applied differently if we’d come to
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that realization sooner. Um because I ended up going to a college in Maine being from Massachusetts and it sounds
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like maybe you would prefer to be kind of closer to the West Coast. I mean, how
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do you feel about snow? It certainly snows quite a bit in um Wisconsin and and Illinois.
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My So my mom is from New York. Um less snowy than Chicago. There is
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My mom is My mom is a is an East Coastal. Okay. And uh so when I got into Mohead,
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I was thinking like, hey, you know, maybe I’ll go. And then my mom was like, Wisconsin is absurdly cold and I don’t
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think you would like it there. And I was like, yeah, I’m not very I’m not a very winter weather sort of guy. I can handle
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snow. Um I mean, the only snow I’ve really experienced is up in Big Bear,
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but that’s artificial snow. But I I feel like I can I can adjust to snow. My my dad’s Irish and so he lives with a lot
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of he’s lived with a lot of rain. I can live with rain. But I feel like in terms of just climate and staying closer to
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the west coast, I feel like I would like to stay closer to the west coast and stay closer to like California because,
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you know, Texas doesn’t really snow a lot. Washington maybe gets to rain but
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not really snow. Yeah. So just I feel like in general find a climate like actual physical
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climate that you’re comfortable with because what you don’t want happening is you’ll from like the middle of Dallas
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and you go all the way to like Chicago and you freeze to death. Yeah. I mean podcast star Tony Yao ended
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up leaving University of Oregon cuz he just did not like the rain. Um, and you
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know, it sounds like you’re more open to precipitation, but um, are there any
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schools that you didn’t apply to because either you, you know, ended up not
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liking the supports that were available, ended up not liking the programs? Were there ones you’re able to cross off your
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list? There were. Yeah, there were. I I got really
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ambitious at one point and put Bley College of Music at on my list. Mhm. And then I took it off basically
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like immediately cuz I kind of realized like I think that is reaching too far.
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That’s flying too close to the sun, you know, that’s too intense for me. I took
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Endicott College off my list because they have a very they have an entirely separate application process and you
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need to basically redo your common app application which I just did not want to do because
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I was already had I already had so much on my plate. I just didn’t want to add more. Yeah. I I moved St. Cloud. Yeah, I I
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moved St. Cloud in Minnesota because I didn’t really want to be somewhere that up north and that cold.
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Yeah. So, yeah, there wasn’t there there was some schools that I wanted to apply to, but I didn’t. Um like B, for example, I
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kind of thought the campus was a little druggy, so I didn’t want to apply. Yeah. I I thought about my brother
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applied to Wesian and I thought about Wesian but I also realized like I kind of need to
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have my own individuate from I want to separate from my family and
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just kind of explore my self and explore my own life and who is Miles Amawa and
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what is Miles Amawa like you know. Yeah. And and when you say Berkeley College of Music was flying too close to
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the sun, do you mean like too close to the sun in terms of you wouldn’t get in
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or once you got in, you know, the music school life as a drummer would you would
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be like Icorus and melt away in some regard? I I think it was like
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if you this uh if you’ve ever seen the movie Whip Whiplash I love that movie, but people probably
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haven’t seen it. It’s a movie about It’s a movie about a very It’s a movie about a drummer, but in in the movie
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there’s a very intense jazz teacher, which I I’m a jazz rock drummer. So I I
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kind of the thing with Bullay College of Music is I didn’t really want to apply
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to a a college of music or a school of music because I feel like it would have been too
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intense. I feel like I would have flown too close to the song cuz I would have been like I’m such a good musician. I
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can do this. I can go to a conservatory and then I’d burn out in the first couple days because I just
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can’t handle like the sort of constant fast pace of a conservatory and the sort
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of intensity that it takes and the discipline that it takes to be a conservatory musician.
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Mhm. That’s fair. And I for those of you that haven’t seen Whiplash, there’s like a
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lot of scenes of drumming until his hands bleed. So, it’s that level of intensity that you wanted to stay away
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from. That totally makes sense. Yeah. Um, everyone has their limits. Yeah. Um, and geographically,
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are there regions that you’re starting to cross off? You know, you’ve got kind of the New England, New York area, um,
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Ohio, the capital region. Any of these feel like a a big yes or a big no? The
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thing that the the places I’m really crossing off are honestly like Wisconsin and Illinois. The Midwest is
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the lake effect snow and cold is brutal. So yeah. Yeah. The the lakes the Great Lakes area
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of the Midwest sort of thing. Maybe besides like Ohio, all the places I’m crossing off because
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I just can’t like I cannot handle Wisconsin cold. I I really don’t want to
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go to Chicago. Like it’s a cool city, but I don’t think I could live there for
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four years and because it’s just so windy and cold. Big too. Yeah, it’s also I’ I’m from Los Angeles.
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I don’t need to be in a big city. I’d like to be more in a small town. The capital area like DC I’m keeping on
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catchup scale. Uh I’m keeping that on because I’m really interested in American and
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I’m interested in DC. The West Coast I’m keeping because the West Coast in like Texas.
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So I guess like kind of the like little strip. Yeah. I’m keeping on because it’s close to
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home. And then like Colorado and like Pacific Northwest I’m keeping because the same
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reason like they’re both kind of close to home and weather. I mean,
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yeah, Denver, if you want to live in a contrast to Los Angeles and experience
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something new, you know, the culture and the weather are very different. So, I can see that being really good. There’s
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so much that you’re considering in terms of lifestyle factors, in terms of
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programming. um you know if you had to do it again
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would you apply to these same 15 schools or if you could go back in six months and be like hey self don’t waste the
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energy on XYZ what would you say if I could time travel if I could get in
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like a totis from Doctor Who and time travel back to the start of my college application
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process I would definitely say apply to only like five schools don’t apply to 15
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Because there’s something to be said about casting your net wide. It’s always
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good to have a lot of options, but at the same time, if you have too many
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options, then it’s just going to be really overstimulating and you’re going to have to like whittle it all down and
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then you’re just going to be like, “Oh my god, I don’t want to get rid of any of these schools. I love them all so much. They’re all so appealing.” So, I
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would definitely cut out like a good 10 schools off my list. I think I would
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have only applied to my top five now that I think about it because those are
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the schools that I feel like I really resonated with and those are the schools that felt right for me.
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Yeah, that makes sense because if it’s a little bit hard to cross it off your
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list before you apply, it’s that much harder to worry about the fear of regret and the decision paralysis once you have
22:43
all these fat envelopes to choose from. You know, I think being a little bit
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more judicious at the outset can really help with the overwhelm at
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this part of the process, but you know, it sounds like you’ve already got some great direction and it’s way better to
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have good a bunch of good options. I’m really lucky.
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Yeah. And it sounds like you’ve earned it through hard work. Yeah. I I think if there’s to everyone
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listening to this who is struggling with applications and is stressing about I’m
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not going to get anywhere, you will because there’s so many colleges out
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there, not even just in the US across the world. There are so many places and
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you will definitely get into one because there was a place for you out there. And
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I know I’ve found my place. I know I’m gonna find a place and if I can find a place, you can find a place.
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Yeah. Um I I had a short list of of six and one of them was Trinity College Dublin which is in Dublin, Ireland. So
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my dad Dublins in America of which I’m sure Dublin, California.
23:55
Mhm. Your dad is Oh, okay. My dad is My dad is Irish. Irish.
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Full Irish. Not one of the many Irish Americans. No, one of not one of those like Bostononians who was like I’m I’m
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Irish like 15%. My dad is 100% but we were he was he’s Americanb born. His grandparents are um
24:14
we’re Irish citizens. So yes, I I understand the dynamics at play. So you
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said you’re you’re confident that you will find your place, but you also haven’t put in a deposit yet and you’re
24:25
still waiting for acceptances. Do you how are you feeling about the final
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decision? Scared. I’m scared because it’s it’s like picking your favorite child or picking your favorite animal.
24:37
It’s like you’re not supposed to pick a favorite. Yeah, you’re not supposed to pick That’s the That’s the point. You’re not supposed to pick a favorite, but then at
24:44
the same time, you kind of I feel like favorite. You’re supposed to acknowledge it.
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You’re supposed to be like, I I love you all equally, but I just want to go. It’s
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the That’s how I feel about college. Like I I I’m really I I know I’ll find
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somewhere. I just need to figure out the whale. And I I’m scared. I’m I’ve got
25:08
stragglers, but I also know that I’ve got good options. And I’ve just got to kind of keep it in the back of my head
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that like, you know, you are very lucky. Those people, you know, that have not
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gotten into colleges yet. And you know those people you know that have already
25:26
decided but you know everyone goes through life at their own speeds. Yeah. And you know you just have to visit a
25:34
couple places. You just have to whittle your list down no matter how big it is. Like whittle it down to your top five or
25:40
top three. And then you visit it and and then you visit your top three or top five if you haven’t already visited. You
25:47
compare all the notes you take because you should always take notes on a college tour. Mhm. You compare pictures you took.
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Maybe if you took a picture, if you took pictures of the campus, compare them as well.
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And if you know anyone there, talk to them. Ask them how they feel about it. Get student like feedback because some
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people might be like, “Oh, I feel like the campus is too big.” Or, “Oh, I really love it here. The campus is
26:12
perfect.” You know, always get a bunch of different opinions. Dining hall feedback is pretty key in my
26:19
dining hall feedback. And I would say also dorm feedback. Definitely ask
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people about dining hall feedback and dorm feedback. And if they’re artistic, ask them about
26:29
support feedback and see if they feel supported there. Um, so you haven’t decided yet. It
26:36
sounds like you’re going to visit a couple of your top contenders. Um, I can tell you what’s your plan.
26:43
My plan is if I get into Wittman, which is in Washington, I’m going to go with my mom and we’re
26:49
going to do a whole Pacific Northwest trip of Puget Sound, Whitman, Reed, and
26:54
Wamut. Mhm. Um, and if I get into Oberlin, which I will find out on the 16th of January,
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which is my mom’s birthday, which is hilarious. Um, but I Sounds like a good omen if you’re
27:08
superstitious. If I get into Oelin, I’m going to visit Oelin. Um, but yeah, I’m
27:15
those are the places I’m going to visit. The only two places that I’m going to visit regardless of where else I get in
27:22
are Oelin and Puget Sound because those are two
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incredible schools and Puget Sound is very close. It’s only it’s in Tacoma and Oelin is Oelin.
27:36
Everyone knows it or at least a lot of people have heard of it. Liberal arts college.
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Yeah, it’s a it’s a story of liberal arts college as a conservatory. It’s super famous. So, it’s somewhere I really want to see in
27:47
person. I know some people who visited and they said that they really liked it and it was a nice campus. So, I got to
27:53
see it by myself. I got to see what all this buzz is about. No, the fact that it is both an
27:58
excellent liberal arts school and a conservatory of music is unique. So, I appreciate why those are your standouts.
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Um and also the you know as as a pet owner and a teacher I will
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say you have to love all all the children equally but it is true that
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there are people for whom your temperament makes you find them easier
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to work with. Um your interactions are smooth and carefree and less stressful. So, it’s worth looking for campuses
28:29
where you’re able to feel at home um and and you’re able to move with ease, you
28:34
know? Yeah. It’s not always about like what do you necessarily love more than the
28:41
other. It’s about where do you feel comfortable? Where do you and I especially for autistic people like me,
28:48
what feels familiar to you? Even if it’s a new place, even if you’ve never been
28:53
there before, even if you’re super scared of college, what place feels like
28:59
home to you? What place feels kind of really comfortable to you? Yeah. Because I think that’s that’s the key.
29:06
It’s not always about like this place is really is physically really close to
29:11
where I grew up. It’s about what kind of what vibe does this campus give off and does it match the vibe of
29:18
where you’re from? It can be perfect on paper, but you actually have to feel it. Um,
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it’s like it’s like that kind of love at first sight sort of thing. You have to
29:28
you have to kind of feel it and if you don’t feel it then it’s not right for
29:34
you and you have to apply somewhere else. There are thousands of other options.
29:40
All right. So, I hope you’ll keep us posted. It sounds like you’re going to find out
29:45
um some big important exciting info from Oberlin pretty soon. So I find out from America on the 31st. So
29:52
I’m like I’m getting all my colleges like that and it’s big month. You’re going to know, you
29:58
know, sooner than I knew. I didn’t have all my info until March. Always apply.
30:05
Yeah. If you can apply early action, it’s really helpful. And if there’s a school you really like,
30:10
apply early decision. Yeah, just apply Oolie if you can, but watch out for
30:16
restricted oie action and watch out for Oie decision. Uh those two are a little bit finicky,
30:22
but Ollie action is your best friend. Mhm. Yep. Agreed. Couldn’t have said it
30:29
better myself. Thank you so much, Miles. Uh and congratulations on all of your
30:34
acceptances. You know, it can be overwhelming to choose, but it’s a good kind of overwhelm.
30:41
Yeah.