“Oh, this is crazy; I’m going to be a college student soon. I need to learn how to do the laundry.”

Those were the first words to come out of Hyejee Bae ‘16’s mouth when she saw the words “Congratulations” streamed across her computer screen confirming her acceptance into the prestigious school of Harvard.

“The notifications had been sent out during my soccer practice, so I had to check my portal a few hours after the official notifications had been sent out,” Bae said. “When I saw the words ‘Congratulations’ on my computer screen, of course, I was surprised but to be honest, I wasn’t jumping up and down because I still wanted to go to UT at that time. Now, I look back at that moment and have since then attributed much more importance to the moment and have realized just how lucky I was.”

Growing up in Austin, Bae initially set her eyes on the University of Texas, a school that all of her family members attended. She never fathomed, however, that a whole new window of opportunity would be available to her.

“Since I was a kid, UT Austin had always been my dream school. I’ve lived in Austin my entire life, both my parents and my older brother went there, and I grew up going to a ton of sports and academic camps at UT so I always thought I would go there,” Bae said. “That dream changed fairly recently in my second semester of senior year, after I was accepted into Harvard in December.”

November was the big month where thousands of students from around the world submitted their early action and/or early decision college applications to their desired school(s). Bae herself was vigorously working on her two applications for UT and Harvard. When she began to work on her Harvard application, however, she hesitated. With over 30,000 students applying to the Ivy League school, what would help set her stand out from the rest of the applicants? After much dilemma, Bae typed away what she thought expressed her true personality the best: humor.

“Some people tend to go through this part of the application like the rest of the application, similar to just inserting their name or checking off boxes,” Bae said. “However, in my case, I tried to stand out as much as I could in this process. I knew my forte would be the comical route rather than a serious route, so I attempted to infuse as much humor into two unique topics as I could. Guess it worked.”

As a month flew by, Bae left the application behind as she looked onward into her senior year. Her anticipations in getting into the Ivy League school were mild for she had already been accepted into the University of Texas, her first-choice school.

“I had been notified a few weeks before my Harvard acceptance of my acceptance into the UT Business Honors Program, so honestly I was not too concerned about my Harvard application and was not really expecting anything,” Bae said.

Despite Bae’s intent of attending UT, the second big month of December was when everything changed. Bae received her acceptance letter from Harvard, and was given the opportunity to visit the campus if she accepted. As one of the very few students accepted into the school, Bae was able to envision a new path available to her and her future career.

“I never really considered Harvard an option so I never put too much thought into the school,” Bae said. “When the acceptance came in December and that option fortunately opened up, it allowed me to truly consider the school and my choices. To put it simply, I started to think it would be a good exposure for me to move out of my comfort zone of Austin and that Harvard was a better fit for my ambitions, and in that sense would open a lot more doors for me in the future.”

Bae, after accepting the offer, set off to Cambridge to visit the school she would be attending for the next four years. In a different state with a whole new environment and people, Bae couldn’t help but to make comparisons between her hometown, Austin, and Boston Massachusetts.

“I kept drawing the differences between Austin and Boston,” Bae said. “Boston is so full of history and Harvard itself is infused within the vibrant city of Cambridge. I loved that there were so many great places to eat, was in awe of all the various famous and influential faculty and students strolling casually through the campus yard, and I kept constantly thinking the weather was not the best. I also was made fun of all the time for saying ‘y’all’.”

Ultimately, the future that Bae had anticipated to have was not perfectly aligned with her original ambitions. Striving to follow a similar path her family members took, she was teetering over to the side to the college that was within her personal comfort zone. However, with her own morals set strongly before her, Bae sought to do her best, and as a result, received the best. Her words of advice and encouragement are as followed:

“My apologies, but I’m about to lay down a string of cliches: Do what you love. Spend time with people you love. Get out of your comfort zone. Stay ambitious. Don’t just do things to put them on your college resume. And most importantly, don’t forget about having fun and being aware of the importance of the people around you. Ultimately, it’s the relationships you build with others — whether it be a team and teachers, or friends and family- that will make you happy. Success follows naturally afterwards. I truly believe I have no regrets in my four years of high school because I stuck with these values.”

As Bae sets off to college to major in economics, leaving Westwood behind as part of her past, her family, friends, and faculty will show their support as she strives to reach the apex of her dreams.