Vedic Sharma is a sophomore at the University of Florida studying computer science with pre-med intentions. He is a National Merit Finalist who received a full scholarship covering both tuition and residence, and is actively involved in research labs and extracurricular activities on campus.
Vedic's approach to productivity centers on consistent daily habits rather than last-minute cramming. When asked about managing studies in college, he emphasized the importance of spreading out work: "you'll want to spread out your studying because unlike in high school in college you can't really study the day before the test... there's just so much content that it's best to study like review everything after class instead of trying to do it um the day before." His method involves reviewing material immediately after each class and completing assignments by the next day, creating a sustainable rhythm of continuous learning.
For organization, Vedic keeps his system relatively simple but effective. He relies on basic tools like checklists and Canvas's calendar system to track upcoming deadlines, rather than complex scheduling applications. "Sometimes i make lists um checklists but apart from that um i rely on canvas's calendar um to keep me updated of upcoming deadlines but i don't have a dedicated like scheduler application." This minimalist approach allows him to stay organized without getting bogged down in overly complicated systems, focusing instead on consistent execution of fundamental habits that compound over time.
Vedic's core message to students centers on the power of early preparation and long-term thinking. "Once again as i've been saying just try to keep on track um it's best to start if you're preparing for college it's best to start early um even in your freshman year just get a plan," he advised. He emphasized that students don't need to execute everything immediately, but having a roadmap from the beginning creates tremendous advantages over time.
His philosophy extends beyond just academic preparation to developing foundational habits early. Vedic noted that "good habits the earlier you develop them the better" and that even middle school grades, while not directly impacting college admissions, serve as valuable practice for building the discipline needed later. For students facing the competitive college admissions process, he offered a realistic perspective: when applying to highly selective schools with acceptance rates under 15%, "be prepared to get rejected from most of them because even if you have like everything else perfect... unless you're like a good fit they're probably going to reject you no matter what." His advice is to focus on creating the best application possible while maintaining perspective about factors beyond one's control.
"For extracurriculars it's best to select one or two things that you really like instead of doing like 50 things but only like doing a little bit of each select one or two things that you really like and try to make like a big impact on that."
— Vedic Sharma Discussing college admission strategy and how to approach extracurricular activities effectively.
"It's important that when you're applying to schools that have acceptance rates under like 10 15 that you apply to a lot of them, you have a safety school in mind that you know you're going to get into and be prepared to get rejected from most of them because even if you have like everything else perfect they in the end they have just too many applicants."
— Vedic Sharma Sharing realistic advice about college applications to highly competitive schools.
"In your first year in any club you're not going to know a lot you're probably not going to be able to do too too much but it's important to just like find one basic thing like charging batteries and just find some way to make a contribution to the team."
— Vedic Sharma Explaining how he started contributing to his robotics team as a freshman by taking on simple but necessary tasks.
[0:00] i started my youtube channel [0:02] five months ago [0:04] and finally i was able to convince my [0:06] son [0:07] vedic [0:08] to appear on this podcast as a guest [0:13] he is a national merit finalist and he's [0:15] studying his computer science from [0:18] university of florida gainesville [0:21] he got 100 scholarship that covers his [0:24] education as well as resident so whether [0:27] tell the audience [0:29] who you are what you do [0:32] so um i'm currently a sophomore at the [0:35] university of florida [0:37] i'm studying computer science and [0:40] intending to go the pre-med route [0:43] um [0:44] [Music] [0:45] apart from that um [0:48] i do some extracurricular um activities [0:51] around campus i'm [0:53] in a research lab i [0:55] am part of a club igem and a few other [0:59] things here and there but um [1:02] mostly that's it [1:04] let's start with [1:06] how did you select [1:09] that you want to do [1:10] computer science or pre-med [1:13] um i think one part of knowing um [1:17] what you have to want to do is trying it [1:19] out um so for a computer science um [1:23] it's mostly you take a class on it and [1:25] you see if you like it or not you can [1:27] pretty much um even with the basics of [1:29] computer science you can like understand [1:32] what it's going to be around the logic [1:34] the that sort of understanding and um [1:37] that can help you decide whether you'd [1:40] like it or not and then as for pre-med [1:42] um [1:44] it's somewhat similar um i'd say [1:48] shadowing doctors um [1:51] volunteering at hospitals that kind of [1:53] stuff can um [1:55] tell you pretty fast um whether you [1:57] would like that or not [2:00] so initially i believe in the middle [2:03] school and high school you wanted to [2:05] join [2:06] aeronautics and then to computer science [2:10] and now [2:10] medical right so what that journey [2:12] looked like [2:13] well i've always um like computer [2:16] science um [2:18] aeronautics and middle school i liked a [2:20] lot um [2:21] and then i did computer science thinking [2:23] it would be like a combination of um [2:26] engineering and um [2:29] computer science and then um [2:32] pre-med was always in the back of my [2:34] mind but it was really after shadowing [2:36] um [2:37] doctors and um [2:39] volunteering on hospitals that i thought [2:41] yeah i like this um so [2:44] i [2:45] i'm doing computer science as well [2:47] because i like combining my computer [2:49] science um knowledge with pre-med and [2:52] that's often what i do in um [2:55] for example um [2:58] clubs or research labs it's very um [3:03] it's very involving of both fields and i [3:05] like that interdisciplinary field [3:08] there's a typical norm about indian [3:10] parents that they're typically top 1 [3:13] kids for the greats and all [3:16] tell about yourself how did you handle [3:18] that [3:19] um [3:21] for [3:22] well-being purposes i'd prefer not to [3:24] answer this [3:27] i think it's important for [3:30] me to have some sort of um [3:35] pushing force that um [3:38] makes you want to get those high grades [3:40] and um [3:42] do well because [3:44] although like your grades in middle [3:45] school won't matter for college [3:46] admissions it's still a good [3:48] place to like develop good habits and [3:52] um kind of practice for when you're in [3:54] high school and college because those [3:55] good habits the earlier you develop them [3:58] the better speaking about that let's [4:00] talk about one of your teacher we won't [4:02] name her [4:04] but a math teacher who was really tough [4:06] she always said [4:08] that if [4:09] you can survive this [4:12] it will help you in the college so [4:15] did that really happen did it help you [4:18] um a lot of those concepts um learning [4:21] them early and learning them in an [4:24] environment that was so high stress and [4:26] um [4:27] like on top of it actually like first of [4:30] all help develop good habits but also we [4:32] would end up using that many times [4:36] the next topic is for a college [4:38] admission [4:40] um you need grades you need a ct score [4:44] you need [4:45] extra curriculum activities so let's [4:47] talk about that what was going in your [4:49] mind when you was in high school [4:52] and preparing for the college [4:55] so um [4:57] um as you said you need grade [4:59] extracurricular and then test scores um [5:02] so [5:03] obviously you want to get all of those [5:05] as high as possible for grades um that's [5:08] uh um pretty simple just [5:11] do well as well as you can in classes [5:13] for um [5:15] sat scores um [5:17] i actually wrote an article that you [5:19] should check out i will hyperlink it [5:21] okay um [5:23] and then for extracurriculars um it's [5:26] best to um select one or two things that [5:30] you really like instead of doing like 50 [5:33] things but only like doing a little bit [5:35] of each select one or two things that [5:37] you really like and try to make like a [5:39] big impact on that [5:41] and i think that really helps [5:43] um with college admissions and also [5:46] since you really like them you'll have [5:48] you're actually going to want to do them [5:50] instead of just [5:51] doing it for a line item on the resume [5:54] okay so we will come back to [5:55] extracurricular activity going back to [5:58] sat class [6:01] you have done [6:02] a self-study you've done st orlando [6:05] classes you have done [6:07] some of the classes outside [6:11] what helped you most um definitely self [6:14] studying is the [6:16] number one thing to do [6:18] um khan academy offers a lot of [6:21] resources for free [6:23] and i think [6:24] the best practice you can do is just go [6:26] through their practice exams and then [6:28] their practice problems and [6:30] um more than anything else that's going [6:32] to help you and the best thing is that [6:34] once again it's free it's not going to [6:35] cost you any money [6:37] and i believe [6:38] in 11th grade as well as a 12th grade [6:40] before the exam [6:42] he was [6:44] doing one exam every week [6:47] from the textbook and also from online [6:51] yeah [6:52] um [6:53] that sort of practice is quite important [6:56] um [6:57] [Music] [6:58] and if you run out of like sat because i [7:01] think there's only eight officially [7:03] released sat practice tests but [7:05] um there are other resources um [7:08] in addition there's also act practice [7:10] tests which are pretty similar to the [7:12] sat so [7:13] that can be good practice as well [7:16] and then obviously the khan academy [7:18] practice problems [7:19] and then the last question on this um [7:21] you got national merit finalist how'd [7:24] that happen what's the procedure for [7:26] that [7:27] um [7:28] in 10th grade you're going to take a [7:30] practice psat so a practice practice sat [7:34] in 11th grade you take the real psat [7:37] and [7:38] the score would vary depending on your [7:40] state and um the year and everything but [7:44] usually [7:45] um for most states in most areas it's [7:48] around higher than a 1470 out of a total [7:51] of 15 20. um if you get that's [7:54] like sort of [7:56] score then you can be selected to [7:59] advance as a national merit um [8:01] semi-finalist or [8:03] um [8:04] nominee and um then they ask you to [8:07] submit your extracurriculars and a few [8:09] other um things and of them they then [8:12] select um national merit finalists [8:15] semi-finalists and finalists and [8:17] i think if you're selected as a [8:18] semi-finalist then at least in florida [8:21] most schools in florida will give you [8:23] full tuition so [8:25] that is nice to have [8:26] but once again um [8:28] it's just a matter of doing well on the [8:30] psat [8:32] moving to extracurriculum activities [8:36] uh [8:37] you did couple of them which one [8:39] was the major that you submitted [8:42] um for me it was robotics um i served on [8:46] a robotics team um [8:48] for four years i always had fun with [8:51] that had some good um competitions we [8:53] went to worlds um a few times and [8:57] um [8:58] i would recommend um first robotics for [9:01] people who are interested in computer [9:02] science or engineering um [9:04] or even not any of those but even [9:06] business or there's a little something [9:09] for everyone um [9:10] so that's good but once again um [9:13] i wouldn't advise anyone to just do some [9:16] extracurricular because i did it um [9:18] try to find something you're interested [9:20] in because the important thing is [9:22] not what you pick but how much of an [9:24] impact you make [9:26] what other activity you did other than [9:28] robotics [9:30] um other than robotics um i did a few [9:34] other clubs around campus um [9:39] um i also um this is related to robotics [9:42] but i helped create a robotics team at [9:46] um [9:47] my um school because my school didn't [9:49] have one at the time [9:51] and we just helped the team um go [9:53] through register for first that kind of [9:55] stuff um [9:57] so [9:58] mainly just and then i also um was part [10:01] of nhd and bpa which were um nhd was a [10:04] national history day [10:06] um [10:07] just a [10:08] club where you make a project on some [10:11] historical event relating to a theme and [10:13] then bpa is um [10:16] a presentation you make for um [10:19] something related to business so these [10:21] kind of things um [10:23] more than anything else were um [10:26] good first of all good ways to spark [10:28] your interest and also um if you can [10:30] like go far on them [10:32] achieve something then that's also good [10:34] um [10:35] for your applications as well um [10:38] and then [10:39] forming a club founding a club that kind [10:41] of stuff that's also good for your [10:43] um resume that shows leadership and [10:46] initiative [10:47] robotics you did it for four years and [10:50] one of the things that i still remember [10:51] in your first year [10:54] somehow you found that [10:58] team needs somebody to ensure that [11:01] batteries are charged [11:03] and [11:04] in the first competition or second [11:06] competition you you pick that work [11:09] and [11:11] that immediately recognizes you as part [11:13] of the team as part of somebody who is [11:15] contributing so how did you find [11:18] that [11:19] this is something that [11:21] you [11:22] could do and contribute to the team so i [11:26] think in your first year in any club [11:28] you're not going to know a lot you're [11:30] probably not going to be able to do too [11:32] too much but it's important to just like [11:35] find one basic thing like [11:38] charging batteries and um repairing [11:40] batteries that's not very hard it's um [11:43] mostly just paying attention and [11:45] everything but um [11:46] either way it's still some way to make a [11:49] contribution to the team and once you [11:51] start doing that then you can go on to [11:54] helping out in other ways so it's mostly [11:57] just finding like [11:58] something even if it's basic or simple [12:01] that you can um [12:03] help out on and then late in your later [12:05] years once you get more experience you [12:07] can actually start helping out even more [12:10] and then from there [12:12] next year and next year your interest [12:14] grew [12:15] tremendously so how that that happened [12:18] so i think once you start [12:20] being put in [12:21] more positions of responsibility and [12:23] start working more than your interests [12:25] will grow because you're not doing just [12:27] like you're not watching people but [12:29] you're actually helping out um [12:32] so once i actually um started to [12:36] um help on the building and um [12:40] the actual um building of the robot then [12:43] i was a lot more interested because now [12:45] i actually had a purpose and [12:48] so once you achieve that then the [12:51] interest will be in yourself and you [12:53] won't like be looking for things to do [12:56] because you'll have responsibility to do [12:59] stuff [13:00] what was your last year final year in [13:03] robotic looks like [13:05] so my last year i was um [13:08] co-captain of the team and we um [13:12] so [13:13] i was also um [13:15] code like t uh lead builder and so at [13:19] that point it was um [13:22] not just voting for myself but also [13:24] helping newer members who [13:26] were like me and my freshman year and [13:28] maybe giving them like a small thing to [13:31] do um [13:32] just so they could help out and um [13:36] learn so that when i left the team at [13:38] least there would be people to pick it [13:40] up after me [13:42] what was your best moment in robotics [13:44] for four years um my best [13:47] moment was probably um [13:50] during the competitions was probably my [13:53] favorite part because um we got to see [13:55] how our hard work like [13:58] paid off and also compared to other [14:00] robots and [14:02] ultimately that was just fun it was also [14:04] sometimes stressful but it was [14:06] ultimately fun we won the inspire award [14:09] at the world competition we got to go [14:11] out in a big stadium and receive the [14:13] award and it was pretty fun [14:16] [Applause] [14:17] [Music] [14:22] you have two coaches mr prasad and [14:25] mishri [14:26] who you love most [14:28] i plead the fifth [14:32] who do you like more me or shushti [14:36] here tons of [14:38] let's move to your college admission you [14:41] apply to many colleges what was your top [14:44] preference [14:45] so i had a few um top preferences um [14:50] they were hard to get into schools like [14:52] mit or um [14:55] ivy leagues um those kind of schools [14:57] they were obviously very difficult to [14:59] get into and i didn't end up getting [15:01] into them um [15:02] which wasn't like too unexpected because [15:05] their acceptance rates were so low but [15:08] it's important that when you're applying [15:10] to like schools that have acceptance [15:12] rates under like 10 15 [15:15] that [15:16] you apply to first of all a lot of them [15:18] you have a safety school in mind that [15:20] you know you're going to get into [15:22] and be prepared to get rejected from [15:24] most of them because even if you have [15:26] like everything else perfect [15:28] they [15:28] in the end they have just too many [15:30] applicants so [15:32] unless you're like a good fit they're [15:33] probably going to reject you no matter [15:35] what so it's important to like keep that [15:38] in mind [15:39] so how did you handle [15:41] the emotionally when when you was not [15:43] picked by mit which is you [15:46] i believe best well once again um as i [15:48] said they have too many applicants [15:50] sometimes it just comes down to fit um [15:53] fit of [15:54] how well you fit into a school so it's [15:56] important not to take that kind of stuff [15:58] personally um because ultimately [16:02] sometimes it is a bit of a [16:04] just [16:05] luck based um what in admissions officer [16:08] likes [16:09] um for the most part just try to come up [16:11] with the best application you can and [16:13] beyond that it's out of your hands so [16:16] you was okay emotionally yeah [16:18] between georgia tech and uf so how did [16:20] you made that uh choice [16:23] um [16:24] ultimately i was getting bene kisto from [16:27] uf which as i said covers all of my [16:30] tuition while i'd have to be paying out [16:33] of state tuition for georgia tech so the [16:35] cost factor definitely um was the [16:37] biggest thing in pushing me to uf [16:40] but um in addition to that um [16:43] uf did offer a lot of um [16:46] good opportunities and programs such as [16:50] um [16:51] honors program and research scholars and [16:54] um so ultimately i just decided that all [16:56] of those things would um [16:59] end up encouraging me more uf um than [17:02] georgia tech you've been there for [17:05] almost two years now [17:08] are you still okay with your decision do [17:10] you ever regret that [17:12] you made a wrong choice i think i'm [17:14] pretty okay with my decision i like [17:17] uf um [17:19] it's nice the campus is um a big drab [17:22] but other than that i like the um [17:25] environment the people um [17:27] and i think it's a [17:29] good education and ultimately i also [17:32] think that um for the most part no [17:34] matter where you go your education will [17:36] be similar [17:38] um [17:38] so it's important more important to look [17:40] at um other factors like [17:43] your fit what opportunities outside of [17:46] school that you're you you'll be [17:48] provided as well as um [17:51] um [17:52] just what campus you like more and [17:54] obviously cost as well um [17:56] so and i think uf does offer a lot of [17:59] research which i was interested in so i [18:01] think i'm happy with you [18:04] how do you manage your finance um i have [18:07] a finance manager who um [18:10] manages my expenses and everything for [18:13] me [18:14] how do you do youtube he works for free [18:16] investing [18:18] oh i also have an investment manager [18:20] coincidentally the same person he also [18:22] works for free how do you manage your [18:24] studies not worry for most of the [18:27] semester just the day before the test [18:28] cram and everything and um study all at [18:31] once [18:32] i'm just um that's a joke um don't do [18:36] that do the opposite of that um you'll [18:38] want to spread out your studying because [18:41] unlike in high school in college you [18:43] can't really study the day before the [18:44] test it's not going to end up well [18:47] because there's just so much content [18:49] that it's best to [18:51] study like review everything after class [18:53] instead of [18:54] trying to do it um the day before [18:57] so you have a class and then by next day [19:01] you [19:01] try to do their homework and everything [19:03] yeah assignments [19:07] do you maintain any kind of schedule any [19:10] application [19:11] how do you manage your time and all [19:13] sometimes i make lists um [19:16] checklists but apart from that um [19:19] i rely on canvas's calendar um to keep [19:23] me updated of upcoming deadlines but [19:26] i don't have a dedicated like scheduler [19:29] application [19:31] how are you planning [19:33] what you will be doing two years from [19:35] now [19:36] for example [19:37] what do you want to do next [19:40] um so i think um next year i'll be [19:43] getting ready for taking the mcat um [19:46] and then also beyond that applying to um [19:49] schools [19:51] so i think that's my [19:52] goals for the foreseeable future um [19:56] and obviously um keep up with everything [20:00] else be that um [20:02] my coursework my extracurriculars all of [20:05] that so um last few questions [20:08] one [20:09] uh what's your hobbies [20:12] um i like to um [20:14] read play chess um [20:18] and then occasionally when i free time [20:20] um play games but apart from that you [20:22] know that occasionally mean friday night [20:26] from 11 00 pm to 4 a.m 11 p.m [20:31] yeah [20:32] every night [20:33] so during the weekend that's his [20:35] schedule [20:36] you have a lot of knowledge and [20:38] experience with college admission if [20:40] anybody any audience if they want to [20:42] reach out to you um yes i will be happy [20:46] to answer [20:47] any questions um either in the comments [20:49] or [20:50] any other medium [20:52] whether you you don't use facebook you [20:54] don't use twitter [20:55] you barely use whatsapp [20:58] um [20:59] how do you [21:01] keep yourself away from these [21:04] um [21:06] mostly [21:07] i mean [21:08] if i need to contact someone i can text [21:10] or snapchat um [21:12] apart from that i don't really [21:15] i've never used them so i don't [21:17] really [21:18] feel the need to [21:20] plus i hear that often they just waste [21:22] time okay so what is your message to the [21:25] audience [21:26] once again as i've been saying just try [21:29] to keep on track um [21:32] it's best to start if you're preparing [21:33] for college it's best to start early um [21:36] even in your freshman year just get a [21:38] plan um you don't have to do everything [21:41] um immediately the moment you started [21:43] freshman year but it's good to get [21:45] started early [21:47] thank you so much for finally coming on [21:50] my show [21:51] um it's very hard to convince your own [21:54] family [21:55] thank you so much vedic [21:56] i think this will be a great episode for [22:00] anybody who is preparing for in high [22:03] school or even in the college [22:06] and [22:07] typically that gave [22:10] bring some connections similar minded [22:12] people okay
Nick is a seasoned software developer who spent eight years studying for his bachelor's degree in Computer Science while working odd jobs to avoid debt. He landed his first job as an unpaid intern and
Ferran is a Scrum Master in AdventHealth and helps consumer teams build digital products. She is passionate about Agile and believes in agile servant leadership methodology.
Samreen Mongillo, a Life Coach, and Physical Therapist. Her passion is to help you make the significant transformation, achieve your life goals, improve your health and maximize greater joy! I can hel
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