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“My dad and I were looking through the internet, and we found Coastline Community College. It was one of the greatest moves I’ve ever made in my life.”
For this week’s student feature, we are spotlighting STEM student and musician Ohm Rajpal! Ohm is a high school senior who took Calculus 3 with Coastline last semester as a dual enrollment student and has been accepted to many universities, such as USC, Berkley, and Georgia Tech. In this interview, he shares his experience with dual enrollment, the pros and cons, and advice he would give to students wanting to pursue the same path!
What was your high school experience like?
I was around really collaborative people in high school. I had a really hard time finding the correct friends to hang around with early on, but once I found a select group of people, I always felt like I was motivated and encouraged to do the right thing and not be distracted. When I found the right group of friends it motivated me to try as hard as I could in whatever field, like academics or karate, music, or whatever extracurricular I was interested in. Even volunteering opportunities.
How did you find out about dual enrollment?
It was in the tenth grade when COVID-19 began. I was exploring other options to further my learning, and I found community college is a great way of not only pushing myself in school but also pushing myself beyond school through college courses and preparing myself.
Explore Dual Enrollment @ Coastline
Why dual enrollment?
Dual enrollment, for me, was a great opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. I was doing AP classes to earn college credit, but an even better way of earning college credit is taking the college class in the first place. So, I take college classes to get credit, so then when I go to a university, I can transfer, or maybe potentially finish a year faster, so I graduate in three years rather than four years.
And how I found Coastline College specifically was kind of unique because I typically go to community college at Saddleback. There are great professors there, and I found the learning to be awesome, but I was signing up for a Calculus 3 class and unfortunately, I missed the deadline for Saddleback. My dad and I were looking through the internet and we found Coastline College. It was one of the greatest moves I’ve ever made in my life. I took a class with Son Nguyen which was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had.
What was your experience with dual enrollment like?
I would say depending on how many credits the class is, it varies in difficulty. For instance, when I was doing Calc 3, it was a five-credit class and it was challenging - I had to spend a lot of time independently learning on my own, and I think that was a big-time commitment on my part. However, it never felt stressful because I just loved the subject so much. So, just depending on how many credits there are in a course, it can vary on how difficult it is to manage your time.
What was your reasoning for wanting to get ahead?
I feel like it gives me a variety of experiences that high school wouldn’t provide. I took a class on music appreciation - I’m a musician and I play the cello quite often. Yet in my school specifically, if there was a music class, I wouldn’t be able to take it because it just wouldn’t fit my schedule. So, if there was a class that I wanted to take that my school didn’t offer, I would just take it at community college. That’s a great alternative.
What are the pros and cons of dual enrollment?
The pros are that you get to connect with really, really intelligent people. In my Calculus 3 class, there were very, very smart people, and it was very humbling that you’re not the smartest kid in the room. There is always room to grow and improve yourself, and that was a great motivating factor for me. Also, the professors are very accessible, especially at Coastline.
My experience with Son Nguyen basically has really shaped my positive view toward community college. It’s unparalleled education, and it’s something very valuable. Every student should definitely take it. Some of the cons of community college, though, are that it’s very fast-paced because it’s college-level. High school courses take 15 weeks to cover a course that a community college would go through in 10 weeks or less. You have a midterm in your third week, and you're like..."What?!" You must be a lot more responsible with your learning - you have to take charge of your own education.
What advice would you give to a student who wants to do dual enrollment?
I would say pick subjects that you’re really interested in. I’m a STEM student and I really like math, so pursue what you love to the best of your ability in community college and things that high school might not provide. Maybe community college provides classes on number theory, linear algebra, calculus 3, or multivariable calculus, and your high school doesn't provide that because it’s so advanced. You want to really expand your skillsets early on by going ahead and taking a community college class that you enjoy. You don’t want to take classes just to solely boost your college application, which is primarily why most kids do it - you want to take it because it’s fun and you enjoy learning. I think that’s the core idea.
What was your favorite part about Calculus 3?
I would say it’s not even the content itself, but the amount of life skills that I learned taking that class. For instance, the independence factor and learning and taking responsibility for your education - that was one of the greatest skills I have ever learned, and I have not learned that skill from any other class besides Coastline College. I think that’s really good because in real life, you have to be independent and look out for yourself and Coastline does a really good job doing that.
Get Your Math Degree @ Coastline
What colleges did you get accepted into?
I got into UC Berkley, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO, USC, Georgia Tech, Purdue—their honors program, University of Minnesota…there were so many colleges I applied to, I applied to twenty-something colleges. I kind of overkilled it, but I got into many of them. My top choices right now are USC, Georgia Tech, and Berkley.
What is next for you?
Right now, the current goal is to decide which college to go to in the first place because there are so many pros and cons for each one. My next goal is just to take it easy right now because as the semester goes on, it’s just going to be really hectic. I’m trying to destress a little bit before I go onto the next part of my life, so over this summer I just plan to take more community college courses if possible, expand my skillset in engineering, and go visit the world. I’m going to visit India pretty soon, so that’s pretty exciting.
We thank Ohm Rajpal for sharing his dual enrollment experience at Coastline with us, and we’re wishing him luck in this next part of his life!
