Interview by Elsa Kim.
Jess Kim has been an admissions blogger for MIT since she started school there in the fall of 2006. Last month, the New York Times featured Jess in a cover story about the MIT admissions blogs. We asked her to sound off about blogs, new media, and the role that admissions blogs have played in her life.
Full disclosure: Jess Kim is the interviewer’s sister.
Q: Tell me how you started blogging.
A: Ever since I was little, I found web design really interesting, and I was always compelled to write. Blogging was also a way to experiment new ideas. If I had an idea for a story or a website that I was designing and wanted to see how people responded to it; it was a very easy medium for that. It was also very intuitive and very free form. You just put your thoughts down, and in that way you can relate to other people.
Q: So how social was blogging when you began? Did all your friends have blogs, or were you the only one?
A: Pretty much been the only blogger in the world since 1992. It’s a lonely path but someone has to be there to make snarky comments on the Internet. And who’s gonna meme Kanye if I’m not there? Someone has to be there to argue on the Internet with no evidence to back up their points. And that’s really the service I provide.
Q: But seriously.
A: All of my friends have blogs. We use them to talk to each other more than we talk to each other in daily life. So that when we see each other, it’s like, “hey what’s up?” “Oh, I hung out with D. last night.” “Oh, I read about it on your blog.” And then we have nothing else to talk about.
Q: How does blogging now differ from when you started blogging in high school? When did you start?
A: I was a sophomore in high school, I just came back from summer camp and I had all these residual feelings – about boys and puberty and those sorts of heart wrenching things… Now I try to write a lot more about more broad issues. I write an MIT admissions blog and a personal blog. The MIT blog is for the prospective students and the application, so that blog has to be specifically geared toward that.
Q: So how do you orient yourself toward this audience?
A: It’s not particularly difficult because it’s for people who are just like I was a couple of years ago, so I can relate to them very easily. I know what they’re going through. I try the best I can to humanize the process and put a face to admissions
and show that MIT is a place with people who breathe, and work, and buy food from Anna’s Taqueria and get gastrointestinal diseases, and spend all afternoon trying to get rid of that Anna’s burrito.
At the same time, I tend to put a lot more effort into those posts because I want those to be much more substantial and thought-provoking, and I want them to be funny – usually it takes me three or four hours to create a good post.
Q: What is the main reason why you write for the admissions blog?
A: When I was a high school senior applying to college, the whole college admissions process terrified me. It seemed like I would never in a million years be able to conquer it. It was very daunting to me.
My friend sent me a link to these admissions blogs. I started reading them and I really felt like these were people I could go to school with, and it made me feel like MIT was a place, not just a scary letterhead at the top of my college applications. And so when the chance came to apply to be an MIT admissions blogger, I pretty much jumped at it, because this is something I wanted to pass on to college seniors for years to come.
Q: Did you ever feel like the MIT admissions blogs were part of a marketing tool? Part of the college’s way to advertise themselves?
A: No, I never felt like that. Especially because once I became a blogger I found out that there was no editing process, so we pretty much just write whatever we want to and it gets posted – and if we’re writing about something that’s a little controversial, we might email the other bloggers and admissions officers and ask if it feels too informal or controversial.
As a high school senior I never felt that they were particularly false because they just seemed very genuine, they seemed like one of my friend’s blogs. Even in reading the admissions officers’ blogs I felt very strongly connected to these people. Especially Ben Jones, who wrote an entry called
I remember when I applied to college had to buy the “Underground Guide to College,” which offered information on all kinds of things I don’t want to mention here. It’s awesome that honesty, transparency and the voice of students themselves now play a greater role in connecting applicants with the truth and helping them make decisions. As a parent with kids who’ll be making their own decisions in years to come, I’m glad to know that people like Jess are available.