Each school year, WLRN News welcomes high school students to intern with us. They get hands-on experience in news production, writing and voicing stories for broadcast and publication on WLRN.org. WLRN All Things Considered producer Sherrilyn Cabrera, who works closely with the high school students as a mentor, shares more about her experience with our 2023-2024 intern Mia Sanquintin.
I knew almost immediately Mia Sanquintin and I would get along so well.
For the past nine months, I got to work closely with Mia, 17, who attended the same high school I did — Miami Coral Park Senior High. And we haven’t had many former Rams in the newsroom.
I also saw myself in Mia in many ways. We’re both Miami natives. We both identify as Latina. I was a first-generation college student — and Mia is about to be.
“It is not for the weak,” Mia said, referring to her experience as being the first in her family to apply for college. “There was times where I just wanted to reach out to my family … but I [couldn't] because they didn't know the process. So I just kind of have to, like, search it up on Google."
“I never want my cousins or my sister to feel that way,” Mia said. “So I want to go to college, so that … they can come and ask me, ‘Hey, what do you know about this? What do you know about this?’”
"Right after that moment, that fear just vanished. I was like, ‘Okay, well, at least there's one university that wants me.'"Mia Sanquintin, WLRN high school intern
Her main advice for her younger family members was this: “Start your college journey in sophomore year, beginning of sophomore year. That’s the best thing you can do, honestly. So that senior year, you're not stressed about anything.”
Mia and I had many, many conversations about her day-to-day life as a South Florida high schooler, and the stress of college applications was a main topic countless times. Mia was determined to get into the college of her dreams — the University of Florida — while also dealing with the stress and balance of exams and extracurricular activities on top of just being a teenager.
She was worried she wouldn’t get in to any of the schools where she applied — until one day, a big envelope arrived in the mail from Florida Southern College, a private school in Lakeland.
“I kid you not, I read the letter like 10 times to fully confirm what I was reading. I was like, ‘There's just no way a university accepted me,’” Mia said. “Right after that moment, that fear just vanished. I was like, ‘Okay, well, at least there's one university that wants me.’ And thankfully, after that, they just kept on flowing. I did get rejected from a few, but most of them kept flowing. After two or three [acceptances], I was like, ‘Okay, there's no more fear. I don't have to be scared. There are schools that really want me.’”
As Mia embarked on her college application journey, she and her friends felt frustrated by some of the rejections they received. It felt as if it was getting harder and harder to get into Florida’s public universities. And that’s not just a feeling: In fact, acceptance rates have dropped in recent years.
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At the University of Florida in Gainesville, only 23% of students who applied for the upcoming academic year were admitted, down from 30% just three years ago. Florida State University in Tallahassee is similar, with a 25% rate, compared to 37% in 2021. Florida International University in Miami this cycle accepted 64% of applicants.
Julie Park, associate professor of student affairs at the University of Maryland, offered a few explanations.
Many more colleges and universities have recently joined the Common Application, so students are able to apply for several institutions at once. Since it’s now easier to apply, more students are submitting applications.
Also, since the 2008 recession, when public university budgets were slashed, many around the country started more aggressively pursuing out-of-state students, since they pay higher tuition rates than in-state students, making it harder for in-state students to get accepted.
Further, she said, “the elephant in the room is population growth. Right now, we are at about the apex of … public high school graduates. … You have more people who are applying because you have more kids who are graduating from high school. And those numbers are going to go down bit by bit in future years.”
Christine Mederos, Mia’s College Assistance Program (CAP) advisor at Miami Coral Park, offered Mia some words of advice after experiencing some college disappointments.
“Rejection to the school that you ideally want to go to is rough, but that does not speak to who the student is,” Mederos told Mia.
“You have to find your path. You have to find the path you’re being led to follow,” Mederos said. “There’s no shame in failing, as long as you’ve tried, right? You just have to try. If it doesn’t work out, you pick up the pieces. You feel sorry for yourself a little bit… because it’s sad, right? You just pick yourself up and get a hug from somebody.”
Mia got lots of hugs from her family members — and some advice from them, as well, about considering financial factors when making a final college selection.
This fall, Mia is headed to Miami-Dade College before enrolling at FIU for the spring semester.
To hear more about Mia’s journey listen to her audio piece.
