Justin
Back to Bell College Consulting Home Page
Justin’s Story
The first time I met Justin, he was wearing a Frank Lloyd Wright T-shirt. He has known that he wanted to go into architecture since he was a little kid. I thought my work with him would be straightforward and all about architecture, but during the YOU phase, it became clear that Justin had a number of interests that really put him more in the humanities camp than a typical math-heavy engineering student. Justin was drawn to the historic beauty of buildings. He once said that he was most drawn to architecture as an academic field of study. That said, Justin may not have loved math classes, but he did well in them. He even was on track to complete the IB Diploma program at Centaurus High School.
Student Facts
Interests and Extracurriculars
Architecture, architecture, and architecture
Academics
Favorite classes: LA, Art, Social Studies
Most Difficult classes: Math and Science
Personal Descriptors
Collaborative, Team Player, Socially Flexible, Balanced Focus, Large Vocabulary, Investigative, Problem-solving Pacesetter, Methodical, Logical, Solution Oriented, Balanced Brainstormer, Elaborative
College Characteristics
Justin shared the following statements, among many others, in our FIT work together:
- I want some type of strong architecture program and opportunity for studio art
- Accessible and engaging professors is very important to me
- I strongly desire a school with a more close-knit feel with more supportive rather than competitive classmates
- Having access to the cultural aspects of a larger city is important even if the school isn’t right in a city. I’d like to be able to get to the city via some sort of public transportation.
- I want to have lots of opportunities to study abroad
- It’s important that my college experience sets me up for a career in some of form of architecture and I get the guidance to figure out how to do that
Perfect-Fit College List
As we worked to build Justin’s college list during the FIT phase, the tension of different approaches to architecture would surface. Was Justin interested in a design-oriented program that focused on artistic aspects of architecture, or historic preservation? And it seemed that he was opening up to the idea of embracing a heavily engineering-focused program as well in some cases. He applied to:
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Haverford College
- Tufts University
- Northeastern University
- Washington University in St Louis
- Temple University
- Hampshire College
- Syracuse University
- Hobart William Smith Colleges
- Case Western Reserve University
Outcome
Justin was admitted into every single college on his list!
In the end, he opted to go to Carnegie Mellon because he was drawn to its rigor, reputation, and it has some flexibility on a couple architecture paths that he can explore during his first year there.
Note: This is a description of an actual student-client of Bell College Consulting. All aspects are real and accurate; however, the name and photo have been changed to protect the student’s privacy. The photo is used by permission from Philip Wang’s page at https://www.thispersondoesnotexist.com and uses the underlying algorithm created by Nvidia.
- CATEGORY Stellar Academics , Introverted , Humanities , Architecture , Friendly