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20 Questions With Lily Herman Of The Prospect

For our latest 20 Questions, we chatted with Lily Herman, creator of The Prospect.

We chatted about success, books and what being named one of Glamour‘s Top 10 College Women is like. See what she had to say!

We love your website, The Prospect! Why did you create it?

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Thanks so much! The Prospect was created after a series of events and experiences my co-founder Steven Gu and I both had in high school. We found that 1) students were not getting the resources they needed to successfully navigate the admissions process from school or home, and 2) a lot of high school students felt really alone during the process. So many teens are left underserved by the traditional college admissions process, and we wanted to help.

The Prospect serves to give students the resources they needed from their peers, which is why our entire organization is student-run (we have 140+ contributors and all of them are under the age of 22). Because we’re students (and not college counselors or administrators), we can give high schoolers the honest truth about the admissions process and how to complete it. We also have a lot of fun doing it, and I personally hope that our readers don’t feel like scanning our site is a bore.

Do you have any success stories from The Prospect? Talk to us about how you’ve helped students get into their dream colleges.

To date, we’ve helped over 650,000 students get into college, so with that comes a lot of great success stories!

One particular story that comes to mind actually happened recently: A student from rural Virginia emailed us last week to say that she’d been reading our site since June 2013 (almost two years!) and that since her high school had no college admissions resources and neither of her parents went to college, The Prospect gave her the knowledge, confidence, and help she needed when applying to colleges and finding financial assistance. She’d recently been accepted to the University of Virginia with a scholarship, and she wanted our team to be the first ones to know. It was a real tear-jerker!

Additionally, “success” stories also include students who’ve come to other realizations because of The Prospect. Two years ago, one of our contributors wrote about being rejected from her dream school, Barnard, and how her college experience ended up being wonderful despite not attending her top choice school (her point was that life is what you make of it regardless of where you are). A couple weeks ago (nearly 24 months after the initial post was published), a reader left a comment on that piece saying that she too was just rejected from Barnard, but reading about someone else’s experiences gave her the reassurance that everything would in fact work out. For us, it’s not just about helping students with the technical parts of the admissions process, but showing them that getting into college isn’t just about where you end up going. It’s about how you get there and what you do once you arrive.

You were named one of Glamour’s Top 10 College Women this year. Congratulations! What has that process been like? Are you inspired by the other nine women?
Oh goodness, it’s been a long road! I applied for the competition way back in early September 2014 and got the call that I was one of the winners right before Christmas after many phone interviews and email exchanges. The process obviously didn’t stop there: We headed to New York to a photo shoot in the dead of winter, and there was lots of fact-checking and other emails that I was constantly responding to. It’s been a whole lot of fun over the past six months!

And to say I’m inspired by the other nine winners would be an understatement; I’m in awe. They’re so incredible, so down-to-earth, and so enthusiastic, and I’m happy to call them all friends now. It’s also really cool to meet other alumni of the Top 10 College Women competition—one of my friends was actually on HuffPost Live a couple weeks ago, and her host was a TTCW alum, so that was an awesome coincidence.

You’re a government and sociology major. What do you want to do after graduation?
That’s a big question! I’m actually more interested in going into media, journalism, and entrepreneurship than I am into politics or something similar. We’ll see what the future holds!

What song instantly puts you in a great mood?
“Come on Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners. As soon as I hear the beginning of the song, I start bopping to the beat.

What are three guilty pleasures of yours?
Survivor, awful pop music, and YouTube cooking shows. But mostly Survivor.

What’s your own recipe for success?
I have a lot of thoughts on what makes people successful, but here’s an incredibly boiled-down version of what’s worked for me: Work smarter and harder than everyone else, and be your own advocate.

What have you been streaming on Netflix lately?
It’s incredibly embarrassing, but CSI: New York. It’s one of those mindless shows that you can put on in the background while you do other things. My Snapchat story is just screen grabs of CSI. I’m on the last season now and I’m getting really emotional about it being over. It’s so bad.

Choosing only one person, who’s your girl crush?
Well, that’s a hard one since I have so many…Given that I’m coming off all of the Glamour news, I’m going to say Abbe Wright, the editor in charge of the Top 10 College Women competition. She’s incredibly inspiring and awesome to talk to, not to mention absolutely hilarious. I refer to her as my fairy glam mother; she’s the best!

What’s the last book you read?
#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso. It was a fabulous, quick read! I got through it all in one day when I was flying back to school after spring break.

What do you want the next book you read to be?
I actually had the pleasure and honor of siting next to former press secretary Dana Perino at a Top 10 College Women event, and she gave me a free copy of her book, And the Good News Is! I just started it a couple of nights ago, and it’s great.

What should all high school seniors consider when choosing a college/university?
Again, I have lots of thoughts, but I won’t bore you with pages and pages of my rambling. Two quick things: First, when choosing a college, realize that every college will have its fair share of problems, so pick the college that has issues you can deal with. It’s a bizarre, inverted way to look at colleges, but it can provide a lot of clarity.

Second, don’t just focus on what I call “The Freshman Experience.” Too many high school seniors get wrapped up in what they’ll be doing as freshmen (“I want to live in Dorm X! I want to take these three intro classes!”) but don’t think about what that college will be doing for them when they’re older. My priorities are entirely different now as someone finishing up junior year of college than when I was a high school senior trying to pick a school, and I personally wish I’d just given that a little more thought.

Which season is your favorite?
My birthday is in late April, so I’m partial to spring!

What’s your favorite on-the-go snack?
Sour Patch Kids. Always.

What’s one class in school that’s underrated?
There isn’t one class I’d necessarily point to, but one type of class that’s really underrated by a lot of students is any kind of student forum. Wesleyan (and many other colleges) allow students to actually teach classes on topics that interest them, and it’s a great experience if you’re looking to learn about something unique in a more relaxed environment.

I took a student-led entrepreneurship course at Wesleyan during spring semester of my sophomore year, and it was awesome; the other students were really encouraging, and I found so many great resources that no other class would’ve had. A couple of my friends are taking a Game of Thrones-themed student forum this semester, and I’m really jealous.

What’s one class that’s overrated?
Honestly, I really don’t find any class all that overrated; it just depends on what you were hoping to get out of it and what you actually got out of it!

What’s your favorite thing to shop for?
Books! I have so many books sitting around my room, all bought from Amazon. The worst thing about online shopping for books is that I don’t just buy a book and sign off; I’ll read the book website, scan reviews, check out the author’s Twitter, the works. As a total internet person, I fall down the cyber rabbit hole when I start looking at purchasing a book.

Coffee or tea?
Tea. I drink three to five cups of it per day.

What’s the best place on campus to get stuff done?
I actually do better with chatter in the background than I do with silence, so I like to sit in our student center to work on things. The only problem with that plan is that people stop by to say hi and chat, so if I really want to get something done, I’ll find a table or couch in the corner where people can’t see me.

What’s one skill you’d like to learn?
If someone could please teach me how to code (or how to not be absolutely terrible at it), that’d be much appreciated!