Some will look back on their high school years in vain, while others feel they were critical to their success. Ava McElhone Yates ’17 got a chance to talk to alumna Elizabeth De’Ubl ’12 from Hadley, Massachusetts. Liz is currently at sophomore at Yale pursuing a major in political science. Liz played sports, participated in band, and worked on the Green Team during her years at Williston in addition to being the Willistonian’s Editor-in-Chief for 2011-2012.

 What are you studying at college? Have/ how have your interests changed since high school?

LD: I’m currently working on restarting the Yale Pre-Law Society, which will host several events for students interested in law. For now, I’m aiming to bring in speakers and establish a mentorship program between Yale undergrads and current Yale Law School students. I am also an editor of the Yale Review of International Studies. I’m currently a liaison for Global 21, which means I’m helping to coordinate a conference at Yale that brings in students from all over the world from different chapters of The Globalist magazine to share ideas and discuss their publications. I recently joined the Amnesty International group here and the Club Lacrosse Team!

Right now I’m studying political science and planning to go to law school once I graduate. I also study Chinese here, which I started at Williston! My interests haven’t really changed academically from high school until now. I’ve always been more interested in reading, writing, and learning foreign languages than anything math/science-based.

What was your favorite part of Williston?

LD: My favorite parts about Williston were my friends and all the nice teachers. It’s not easy staying in touch, and I really miss getting to see my friends from high school all the time.

In what ways was Williston an important part of your education? Do you think you took advantage of the opportunities there?

LD: Williston offers a lot of challenging classes that not only prepared me for the college courses I’m in now, but also helped form my interests and show me my strengths and weaknesses. I definitely tried to take advantage of the many opportunities available. I got to try a lot of great things, like running cross country, playing lacrosse, taking Chinese and Latin, etc. Though you can’t always predict whether or not you will stick with something later on, there is usually an important experience to get out of it. For example, I don’t take Latin in college, but Ms. Cody was such an amazing mentor and role model for me in high school. She teaches her classes so well, and the foundations and skills can be applied to other things I’m involved with now.

Is there something you learned at Williston that has been particularly helpful in college?

LD: Time management is probably one of the most important things I learned at Williston. Also, Williston has a truly extraordinary English department. I was lucky enough to have Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer, Mr. Thompson, and Ms. Mantegna as teachers. My writing improved greatly during my Williston years, which been one of the most important skills for college. I’m pretty sure Ms. Sawyer’s AP English class is more challenging than the sophomore English class I’m taking at Yale right now! I’m so grateful for everything they taught me, and I wouldn’t be where I am now without learning from them how to approach reading with an analytical mindset.

What was the process like applying to college for you? Did you know right away what school you wanted to go to? How many schools did you apply to?

LD: The college application process was pretty stressful for me, as it seems to be for almost everyone. I used to be a huge procrastinator in high school, and I was still applying to schools up until the last minute! I will never forget that one terrible week before Jan. 1st of winter break during senior year. I ended up submitting 13 applications, which was more than necessary. I was really worried about how arbitrary admissions decisions can be and felt as though I should apply to extra schools to ensure I had options. Looking back, I probably should have done more careful decision-making and eliminated more schools from my list that were not a good match for me. As soon as I stepped onto Yale’s campus, I fell in love with the school. However, I liked most of the schools that I toured.

How did you know this college was the right one for you?

LD: I’m starting to think that you can never really know if a school is “right” for you before spending a significant amount of time there. There’s definitely factors that can eliminate schools from your list–such as size, course offerings, location, etc. But beyond these obvious traits, it’s really hard to get to know what a school is like without spending time with the people who go there, getting a sense of how academically rigorous it actually is, and seeing what people do for fun. One piece of advice I have for anyone applying to college is to make every effort possible to reach out and maybe spend a couple nights at the schools you’re most interested in. Even though this isn’t always possible, if you know anyone who goes there or if the admissions office allows you to do an overnight, take advantage of this opportunity!  Try to seek out students who will talk to you honestly about their experience. Tour guides might not be the best people to talk to because most of them are paid by the school to portray everything as 100% positive. If you find other chances to talk to students, you might get more realistic answers to your questions.

What is your favorite part of college?

My favorite part about college is the amazing learning opportunities, not just the ones in the classroom. I spent this past summer in China learning Mandarin for 8 weeks at an intensive language program in Beijing. The trip was fully funded by Yale, due to a generous fellowship available to any students studying Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. I also got to travel to Shanghai and Hong Kong after my program ended. I met up with several fellow Williston alums in Beijing and Hong Kong, which was really cool. Next semester I’ll be studying in Prague and traveling all over Europe in my spare time. There are some really amazing classes and professors at Yale, but it’s also important to me to have great experiences beyond a strictly academic setting.