Meet Ian, an Incoming Freshman at Caltech 🦫

Students, back-to-school season has officially begun! For us Juniors and Seniors, it is the perfect time to find inspiration and motivation to strive for our very best. With schedules packed with SATs, college applications, school clubs, and more, things may feel overwhelming. I hope this interview with Ian Kim–Class of 2025 graduate and incoming freshman at the California Institute of Technology–encourages you to plan wisely, embrace spontaneity, and give your best effort in your pursuit of success.

Early High School Goals/Challenges

1. How would you describe your goals when you first started high school, and how have they changed over time?

I think part of my academic success is because I stuck with the same overall goal since I started, which was getting into an elite university. Realizing what I ultimately wanted out of my high school experience that early, and committing to it, just gave me more time to play the admissions game than others. And there were a lot of smaller subgoals under that (most of which I didn’t complete, which I’ll discuss in Q4), but my overall goal didn’t change for the most part.

I intentionally didn’t set any social goals. For one, they’re harder to keep because so much more is out of your control. But more importantly to me, I thought that took a lot of the joy out of socializing. I’ve seen people that set goals/limits like “I’ll hang out with my friends at most/least X times per week”, and then the “relaxing” turns into a stressor. I just tried to be as social as possible and took life as it came to keep it full of surprises. Friend asks at 530 if I want to go to the mall at 6? Sure. Sandwiches at 330 AM after a 9AM-1AM campus tour? All for it. Of course, this lifestyle did interfere with academic goals sometimes, but I managed to stay on my toes and keep the “work hard, play hard” throughout high school, and plan to do so in college. So I guess, I met this goal of not setting goals.

2. Was there a specific moment or experience in high school that shifted your perspective or ambitions?

Mr. Anglin’s AP Capstone program caused the biggest change in perspective, but my ambitions were shifted in Mr. Adams’ AP Calc class. He introduced me to a competition called the MathWorks Math Modeling (M3) Challenge, which shifted my ambitions toward winning these competitions. Before this, I hadn’t really thought about doing anything outside of class to further my goal just because I didn’t know these competitions were a thing. And the same day Mr. Adams showed me M3, Mr. Anglin just happened to be wearing one of his old ISEF team polos. I asked him what it was, and the rest is history. Through sophomore and junior year, my focus was on collecting prestigious accolades.

My experiences in AP Research and Science Fair helped me figure out why these awards were so prized – not for the titles themselves, but what winning one shows about someone. And of course, awards are not the only way to show these qualities. After I realized this, I backed away from the competitions and focused more on just doing what I loved at a high level. That’s pretty vague, but I think that’s truly all you need to do to be a successful applicant. No need for any flashy awards, just show that you are passionate about something and are capable of “doing it well”, for lack of a better phrase. (I think it’s better explained in Q15.)

3. What challenges did you face throughout high school, academically or personally, and how did you overcome them?

Academically, I struggled a lot with letting pursuits go when they stopped being “worth my time”, falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy. I couldn’t imagine dropping stuff I spent tons of valuable time on, simply because I’d already put time into it. I think what helped me get over this was changing my perspective from “look how much time I’ve already put into this” to “look how much more time I have left to allocate”. In the long run, there’s always more time to invest than what you’ve invested already. For example, in junior year, while I was doing my science fair project, I also decided I wanted to compete in the Physics Olympiad. By the time winter break rolled around, I was a little burnt out from science fair, so I dedicated all my work time toward studying for F=ma, the Physics Olympiad qualifying exam. After break, I kept working on my research, but with the F=ma studying on the side. As a result, progress on both pursuits suffered, and by mid-January, I had to pick one if I wanted to succeed in either of them. After 3 days of thinking, I decided I wanted ISEF more and completely dropped studying for F=ma. I ended up bombing it but did well enough on my science fair presentation to score an ISEF spot.

Personally, I got burnt out all the time. Many weekends were spent just thinking about doing stuff, only to sit in my bed all day on my phone. I couldn’t really spend more than an hour or two doing something productive unless I had to get it done then. I still haven’t really gotten over this problem yet, but I did manage to circumvent it when it really mattered. I would just try to keep the momentum going from school – going to PHSC/USF libraries to keep myself in academic environments to induce productivity. During peak times (January – March 2024 for science fair, October – December 2024 for college applications), I would usually take 8AM-8PM days working outside, then come home and use whatever productivity I had left till I ran out (usually around 10PM). This way, my inaction at home was less of a problem.

4. What subjects or fields captured your interest the most, and how did you explore them beyond the classroom?

I was most captivated by math, physics, and their intersection, and I explored them in very different ways. My ISEF project was in computational physics – simulating the dynamics of electromagnetically levitating vehicles and testing control systems on them. This was my first look into “real physics” – the kind you won’t get to see just by taking classes. Learning from research literature instead of textbooks greatly expanded the subject for me, which led me to discover a subfield, control theory, which is what I’ll be researching at Caltech.

As many people know by now, I decided to pursue my passion for math through Tutorium, an online platform dedicated to bringing the cool and interesting bits of math to as many people as possible. Mr. Adams’ class was where I first saw just how intricate mathematics was, and how creative the mathematicians before had to be to arrive at the rules and results we take for granted today. That inherent creativity was what set off my interest in math, and I wanted other people to have the opportunity to see math how I saw it and get excited about math too.

High School Projects and Competitions

5. Can you tell me about any major projects, research, or competitions that were especially meaningful to you?

I’d say my most meaningful projects in high school were my science fair research and Tutorium. Since I’ve already talked about them in the last question, I’ll keep this brief and just say that they really helped me grow as a person, both academically and personally. Doing research taught me the skills to push through setback after setback, building my resilience toward challenges, and being a content creator taught me the patience I needed to keep creating and outlast the beginner slump.

I sort of stumbled into FBLA – when I joined, I didn’t even dream of being on the national stage. I signed up for the first time in 10^th grade just for fun. My friends had done it the year before and had a blast so I figured I would just join them this time, treating FBLA as a “just for fun” activity. But that year, one of my friends ended up placing at nationals, which made me realize it was possible. I asked for his study materials and did his event the following year, and pulled it off for WRHS agribusiness for the second time in a row (funnily enough, I placed one place above him at nationals)! But other than the competition, going to FBLA states and clowning around with my friends was genuinely a top 5 highlight of every year, and I’m very glad I got to do it for 3 years of my high school experience.

6. Were there any mentors, teachers, or programs that significantly influenced your academic journey?

There were very many mentors in my academic journey, but if I had to pick two it would be Mr. Anglin and Mr. Cordero (the physics teacher). Mr. Cordero’s laid-back but still immersive style of teaching was what got me into physics and led to my research, and Mr. Anglin helped me learn to think and analyze at a higher level, their contributions complementing each other and leading to a sharp increase in my personal abilities and ambitions. But more than everything, they kept the growth process fun and lighthearted, which I feel was far more valuable for me. This not only had me focused for the entire process, but it made me want to come back to continue every time I left, which significantly contributed to who I am today. Without their influence, I don’t think I would have done and achieved what I have.

It’s funny that you mention programs – because I was literally rejected from every single program I applied to in high school. During junior year, I applied to 4 research programs – all denied. The Regeneron Science Talent Search in senior year – didn’t make it. MIT’s fly-in tour? Nope. I was even rejected from Caltech’s fly-in tour – the very school that would admit me for undergraduate study 7 months later. I guess what I want people to take away from this is don’t let rejection get to you. One no means nothing about you as a person – it just means that one school/group received better applications. Applications, not people.

7. What inspired your science fair project(s), and what was the process like from idea to execution? 

It started off as a simple interest in physics sparked by AP Physics 1 the year before. I didn’t know what specifically I wanted to do when junior year started, but I knew I wanted something in physics. And after that, the next 2 months was all about narrowing down and identifying a specific problem in a specific area. I think my pipeline was physics -> electromagnetism -> applications of electromagnetism -> maglev vehicles -> control for maglev vehicles -> fuzzy logic control systems -> fuzzy logic membership function arrays. This planning process was the hardest part, but that wasn’t to say the execution was easy either. I had to learn how to program in MATLAB from scratch and solve constant crashing, processing timeouts, and so many other minor inconveniences that tripled the experimentation time. Overall, it was very tiring but very rewarding, and I would do it all again every time.

8. What did you learn from participating in competitions, both technically and personally?

Of course, I learned and retained some of the competition materials, but I would say I more importantly learned how valuable the non-competitive events at these competitions were. The strongest examples are FBLA and ISEF – in the times we weren’t competing, we were doing everything from trading collectible pins, running around Universal Studios, riding the slingshot in Orlando, and just making new friends in general. There are people I still talk to today and am planning ventures with that I’ve literally only seen once at these competitions, and that’s the real value of getting to these elite competitions – meeting other high achieving people and being able to pool your talents to do even bigger things.

9. How did these experiences contribute to your growth and your college application?

I would say that each of my experiences taught me something that I needed to participate in the next one. Being in AP Physics showed me how interesting physics was and gave me motivation to pursue it further. Having AP Capstone gave me an outlet to do that in, which was my pathway toward ISEF. Competing in ISEF gave me the presentation skills I needed to start and maintain Tutorium. Through Tutorium, I was able to show admission officers what I wanted them to see and know about me in an unforgettable way. Every experience was a stepping stone toward the next, and I couldn’t have made it with any step missing.

Personal Interests:

10. Did you maintain any personal hobbies or interests throughout high school that served as a creative outlet?

My main creative outlet was music. I play the cello and piano: cello as part of the WRHS Chamber Orchestra, and piano by myself as my own pursuit, making sure I spent a lot of time playing music to stop myself from burning out all the time. I was pretty prolific on both instruments; I think I’ve performed publicly 30+ times combined. Playing music wasn’t the end though, I would also arrange music for other instruments onto cello and/or piano myself and play those. I did try composing my own stuff a few times, but that never really worked out. Being  heavily involved in music and the musical community in general gave me an outlet to redirect my focus from academics, which gave me the breaks I needed to stay productive. It was always something to look forward to after a long day.

11. Do you plan on pursuing these interests throughout college?

Yes, I intend to at least keep playing the piano. The cello is dependent on if I can get it to California. Regardless of the instrument though, I think I’ll try joining one of the Caltech chamber groups. After seven years of full orchestra, I want to do something new for a bit. If I can bring my cello though, I’m definitely going to play in the full orchestra at least once.

College and Future Plans:

12. Why did you choose Caltech, and what do you hope to study or pursue there?

It was a very difficult choice, and I waited until the final days to make it. Before I’d been accepted anywhere, one of the strongest factors I was considering in my decision was the social scene / the ability to hang out frequently at the college I went to. But after touring both Caltech and Yale, even though they were completely different, I knew I’d be fine socially at both places. Caltech was more like a 3 AM impromptu fireside chat type school, and Yale was all about very grand, organized events. I had a blast at both schools, so the social scene was not a deciding factor.

It just came down to which school would set me up best for anything I wanted after undergrad. Prestige and name brand (where relevant) was pretty much equal, as well as the quality of education. Caltech’s location, relatively close to Silicon Valley and big tech, was what made me commit in the end. I’m betting that proximity will prove valuable as I apply to internships and jobs during and after college. Right now, I plan to study electrical engineering, though that is subject to change based on how my interests change.

13. What are you most excited about in this next chapter of your life?

I’m most excited to meet all the new people and see what we can do together! Going to college, especially somewhere like Caltech, is less about the education itself and more about being surrounded by wildly ambitious, successful, and talented peers, sharing ideas amongst ourselves, and taking the steps to build the next big thing, whatever that is. I’m confident that one of us will go on to change the world, and I’m very excited to play a small part in that journey (or live it!).

14. Where do you see yourself in the next 5-10 years? Do you have a dream career or personal goal you’re aiming for?

I don’t know, and that’s one of the greatest things about Caltech. They have systems in place to ensure that their students truly have time to think about it deeply, commit, and then uncommit just as easily if things change. For example, I literally can’t declare a major until my last term of freshman year! I’ll be spending that time thinking about what I really want to do, but I think it won’t change a lot. I’ve “chosen” electrical engineering, but applied and computational mathematics (ACM) seems interesting too. I guess I’ll have to see.

I have three career paths in mind that I want to explore as an undergraduate: big tech, because of the constant innovation going on in those companies, startups, because the thought of building and scaling something of my own on my own terms sounds really exciting, and quantitative finance, because mathematical finance is such an interesting, intricate system that’s so delicately gamed (and getting huge money to do math and program all day sounds great). I probably won’t be able to get internship experience in all three fields, but I’m aiming to get enough to help me decide what I want to keep pursuing (and hopefully, a return offer). If I still can’t by the time I graduate, I’ll go to grad school to keep thinking.

Advice and Reflection

15. What advice would you give to students who are just starting high school and are unsure about their path?

Above all else, do only what you are passionate about, and start your own initiatives. It doesn’t matter what that is – if you care about something, you will always have the motivation to keep going. And with that motivation, keep going until you reach the highest level you can.

Nervous high schoolers are always asking “What activities should I be doing? What activities are/look impressive to colleges?”, and the truest, most honest answer is that no such activity exists. There are no “impressive” activities – you make them impressive. Of course, the stats you garner – the number of subscribers, dollars raised, people helped – enhance your resume. But colleges don’t admit resumes, they admit people. The most important part of any activity is the “why”. Why do you do what you do? Why are you always volunteering in your local hospital? Why do you organize school-wide clean outs? Why do you make math videos and post them to the internet? At the end of the day, colleges want students who are going to make meaningful contributions to their campus. And if they see a student who is making huge impacts backed by a powerful conviction, that student becomes very valuable. If they truly love helping people, that hospital volunteer would definitely be a source of positivity in the student body. If they truly want to see the world better than they found it, the clean out organizer would be going around improving their college in the future – both physically and emotionally. And if they truly love watching people get excited about math, the video maker would be a significant contributor to the intellectual discussions on campus.

Admissions offices are only partly interested in what you’ve already done; they care more about what that shows you can do in the future. If you’re already able to turn your passion into real impact as a high schooler, imagine what you could do with the resources of a university. I read a quote published by Caltech admissions: “No one thing will get you into [college], but everything about you might.” I think that fits perfectly with what I have to say.

The kind of drive needed to accomplish the most impressive feats translates, and colleges are hyper aware of this. So, if I had to give one piece of advice on having an academically successful high school career, it would be this. Follow your passions, and don’t be afraid to keep going if they lead you off the beaten path. It’s much easier to write convincingly about your passions when they’re real.

16. If you could go back and give your freshman self one piece of advice, what would it be?

I think I would say the same thing I said in Q15. Even as late as junior year, I was still struggling to let go of things that I didn’t feel strongly about just because of the sunk cost fallacy, which I feel took away from what I could’ve done.

17. Looking back, what are you most proud of from your high school experience? Would you have changed anything about it?

To be honest, I am most proud of the fact that I had fun throughout it. Yes, it was a very difficult process, but I was able to have fun whenever and wherever I wanted. For all the late nights spent doing math problem sets and annotating research articles, there were just as many late nights spent having fun with my friends. And school itself was fun too. Countless days were spent doing stupid stuff in physics class and laughing with Mr. Anglin about random things. I was always able to find the fun in every little moment, and that kept school and life in general very interesting. I made lots of mistakes, but I wouldn’t change anything about my experience. If I had to live through high school again, I would just let it play like a four-year long movie.

Ian’s Current Endeavors:

Ian has recently launched a college admissions counseling site with his friends Rohit and Abhinav, two outstanding students and personalities. Their new business, Acceptional, provides a roadmap for every part of the college admissions process, including:

• Guided course selection, to build a strong academic foundation,
• SAT / ACT prep, to justify your readiness,
• Extracurricular guidance, to make you stand out, and
• Essay writing, to make you unforgettable.

With the new Common App cycle just beginning and a fresh academic mindset, NOW is the perfect time to gain support from successful graduates. Visit tryacceptional.com to schedule a free call!

Don’t forget to also check out the STEM videos posted to Tutorium’s Instagram and YouTube:

https://www.instagram.com/tutoriumofficial

https://www.youtube.com/@Tutorium

Both Ian and Rohit are 2025 Wiregrass Ranch High School graduates, and Abhinav is a Land O’ Lakes High School graduate. Rohit is attending the Georgia Institute of Technology and Abhinav is attending Princeton University in the Fall of 2025.