Interview with Pearse Rothman, Colgate University

Interviewer: Today we have Pearse Rothman joining us from Colgate. He is an econ major, he’s in the car club, investment group, and photography club. I am super interested to hear more about all of these activities, but let’s start where I always do and hear about how you found yourself at Colgate. I think it’s always a great place to start.

So where are you from and how did you choose Colgate?

Pearse: Yeah well thanks again Will for having me on, I really appreciate it and reaching out to me, but yeah I’ll tell a little bit about myself, I know you just kind of gave a brief introduction but my name is Pearse, I’m from Madison, Connecticut and you know back in high school when I was going through the college admissions or application process I think I applied to around 13 or 14 schools total. Colgate was one of them and I already kind of knew that I had an interest in Colgate. I visited a few times, it made sense for me location-wise; I’m around four and a half, five hours away. I wanted to be somewhat distanced from home but within driving distance and being able to go back home without a flight. I do also have family that live about half an hour, 40 minutes from here, so that was also nice knowing, you know, if I really need something, I have someone nearby. That’s what drew me to Colgate. I applied regular decision and was lucky enough to get in. I’ll also add that one of the highlights of Colgate for me is how beautiful the campus is, especially in the fall. They have great academic prestige and their study abroad program is another plus. A lot of people talk about it and it was one of the biggest points that people brought up on the tours, and I’m really excited that I am going abroad to London next semester through the economics department. And they have tons and tons of other opportunities on campus. Another thing too that a lot of people tend to kind of stray away from about Colgate is that it’s a very expensive school tuition-wise, but thankfully they do have a great financial aid program, and that was one of the reasons that I was interested in Colgate personally. They gave me one of the best packages and it just made a lot of sense for me and my family.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s awesome, that’s such a thorough run-through, I think the first question I really have is about you applying to so many schools.

Was Colgate high on your radar because of family? Why did you apply to so many schools?

Pearse: Yeah, I was kind of all over the place; I applied basically to all east coast schools, some a little bit north of where I am from in Connecticut, some also south. It’s been on my radar primarily because, like I mentioned, I have family that live by here and my uncle did graduate from Colgate, I think in ’86 or ’87, so he went here and he loved it when he was here. But I really wanted a school that wasn’t huge because I’ve always gone to smaller schools. Like my high school graduating class was 36 kids, and even back in middle school I was always at small schools, so I wanted something that wasn’t like a giant state school, you know, 50,000, or 60,000, you know, kids in student body, so Colgate kind of fit that bill.

Interviewer: Yeah, that makes sense. Sure and, I have the benefit of having visited Colgate through my job too. It was a sleepy town on the day I was there.

Pearse: Yeah, there’s not a lot going on.

Interviewer: So you get to Colgate after applying to a ton of schools. Did you visit all of them before applying? I know some students just show up day 1 without visiting previously.  

Pearse: That’s one thing that I do recommend if you can do it you know, even if you can’t visit all the schools, I think I only visited about half the schools I applied to but if you can visit three to four schools it gives you a really good idea of what you really like and what you might not like, and it kind of gives you a good comparison to other schools that you’re applying to.

Interviewer: Yeah, and speaking to student like you who applied to so many, definitely consider the budget for flying to 13 colleges that you’d be applying to, but no, it’s very thorough to apply to a bunch options.I think I applied to two schools when I was in high school. I wanted to apply to one, which is where I went, but my mom got mad and said if I don’t get in, that wasn’t a good plan, so I sent that second app in.

Remind me what year you’re in, I think you might have mentioned it.

Pearse: Yeah, I’m a sophomore.

Interviewer: Okay so you’re somewhat settled on campus at this point and familiar with the area through family and being there for a year and change.

What was the first year like compared to now as a sophomore at Colgate? Was it a big change?

Pearse: It was definitely a big change. I’d say especially the first semester, freshman year, I think can be challenging for anyone. One big thing that helped for me, and I know it’s kind of a unique situation, but from my small high school, one of my friends from high school actually came to Colgate as well; it wasn’t planned at all, but we just ended up choosing Colgate, so knowing a familiar face on campus helped especially with the first couple weeks settling in, you know, trying to make new friends and meet your group. A very large change between last year and this year is just like outside of class responsibilities and extracurriculars. I got myself involved in a lot of clubs and activities, like I found myself sitting around in my dorm a lot more last year. But especially this year, you know, I’m always pretty booked most days whether it’s doing class work, doing extracurriculars, or even you know spending an hour with one of my friends getting dinner or something like that. Like, I always try to keep myself busy.

Interviewer: It’s good to have a mix of formal academic commitments that you’re focused on, and then things lie just hanging out with friends which is also such a big part of college. I’m also fortunate to know that Colgate does such a good job from the professional side with their admin and the staff. They have so many supportive ways of welcoming students to their campus and like we just said.

Pearse: Definitely yeah very close-knit place.

Interviewer: What did Colgate do or what do they have on campus that helps you get settled into your new place, your new home when you arrive freshman year?

Pearse: Yeah, I’m actually currently a CL (Commuinty Leader) student living on campus and this is the first semester I’m doing that. For those that don’t know, it’s basically an RA like any other school. I would also say that the majority of the classes are going to be like 10 to 15 students at the most and so it kind of builds a really nice community around students in your class as well as the teachers. If you take the time to go to teachers’ office hours, you know, even every other week and talk to them after class, you can really build a tight and nice connection with a teacher which helps a lot too in adjusting freshman year. One thing that Colgate does really well is bringing freshman to campus early. You get to campus think it’s around a week earlier than everyone else, and you kind of get adjusted. Then you stay with that group for your first semester class and work with them throughout the semester so by the end of the first semester, you know all these kids really well. Even a year later I still say hello, check in on them, and we all still know each other.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s nice. Is that open to everybody or do you have to sign up?

Pearse: No, yeah it’s actually mandatory so every freshman has to do that their first year., At Colgate you’ll be placed into these groups by random preference. You get to pick the class with like three or four options to choose from and Colgate organizes it from there based on everyone’s interests.

Interviewer: So whether you want to be settled early or not, you’re required to do so which I think is a good requirement.

Okay, last freshman question: What was it like moving into the dorms? Are they close to academic buildings? Is it a good setup campus-wise?

Pearse: Yeah, it really depends where you’re placed on campus. I was put in Curtis Hall which is right next to one of the main dining halls, a little bit off to the side of the academic buildings. I would say that’s a pretty good location, it’s not like the worst, not the best, but all of the freshmen are either put in Curtis or in Drake which are part of the commons then they do have a lot of room for them to be able to sit in the dorms so that’s kind of the reason why I was put in Curtis Hall is because you have I believe it’s four or six residential buildings on what’s considered the residential quad. And those are all in like pretty close proximity to all the classes, that’s really nice and again the campus is pretty tiny, like once you get used to it, it’s really only a 15-minute walk to get you from one end to the other end of campus. You’re never in a spot where you’re like ‘oh I have to run to class because I live, you know, half an hour away.’

Interviewer: But typical college campus, you’ve got a couple hills to worry about.

Pearse: The hills – you get accustomed to it in the winter time; they can definitely be pretty brutal. Although like half the stairs on campus are heated now, so it melts a majority of the ice off.

Interviewer: Oh yeah, that’s fancy. You’ll have to bring a sled when you’re on your way back down the hill. Well, I think that’s great. So the main themes that I always try to touch on are always the campus feel and how to get acclimated, the curriculum and the community and just what it’s like to go to school there. I think it’s such a special thing to share.

I’m really curious what it’s like living in Hamilton, NY, so when you want to go have fun or go do something, where do you go off-campus or on-campus, what’s it like living at Colgate?

Pearse: Yeah, so one really nice thing is that for the most part it’s a really easy walk into town, so if you want to get a break from the dining hall food which honestly a lot of people kind of are back and forth between. It’s not too bad. But if you want to take a break, you can easily go into town, but being on the actual campus, of course, it’s really beautiful in the fall time and even the spring, you know. Today was the warmest day so far, I think we hit 60 degrees, and everyone’s outside in their shorts and t-shirts and enjoying it. But it’s really easy to stay busy on campus, I’d say whether that is just in the library studying or whether it’s you know actually getting engaged in clubs and club sports and even intramural sports and really all sorts of things, so I’d say that there are very few times I look back and I’m stuck in my room or feeling bored. I’m always getting out there and being active doing something and I think they definitely encourage that at Colgate, so that’s a big part of it. And again, like all the academic buildings, they all have very similar feels to them in the interior and exterior, so can get a feel of campus very quickly. I like how everything’s pretty centralized and a lot of good study spots and places where you can kind of feel comfortable.

Interviewer: I think the downtown access is big, I know it was kind of close where I went to school in Rochester but not as convenient as I remember from Colgate where you can really just walk downtown and feel like you are off campus really quickly, which I think is so important. Going back to what you mentioned about clubs, I think you’re involved in a bunch and I saw car club which I’ve never heard of, so I would love to hear about that. But do you think sophomore year is the best time to start adding those commitments to your plate?

Pearse: Yeah, I think freshman year, you know, especially first semester is a big adjustment period. It’s good to get involved in clubs, but obviously you’re not going to be running them or really getting really deep into them. But especially sophomore year even second semester freshman year is a great time to get like heavily involved in the clubs that you really like because a lot of people go to the club fair at the beginning of freshman year and sign up for 10 clubs and you know at the end of the day you’re not going to show up to half of them. But it’s good to kind of figure out what your interests really are what you’re really passionate about and then kind of focus in on those passions and expand upon them. So for me, one of the first clubs I did was the investment club, the Colgate investment group and I started as a general member showing up to the meetings, just kind of getting a broader idea of something that I was interested in career path wise, and then I moved to an analyst role and then I was an analyst for another semester, and now I just got promoted to a manager, and so now I’m leading the groups that I was once a part of-it’s a really cool experience. I know you also mentioned the car club too, that one we’re still trying to get off the ground because my good friend, who’s also like a big car enthusiast, he went abroad to Australia this semester, so when he comes back and I’m back, we’re going to try to get things running again. But we did try to get one of the events going because there’s actually a really cool car museum about a half hour from here, so we’re trying to get like a good group of people to go over there and visit it, take photos, and kind of talk about it. We’ve also been discussing doing a Formula 1 watch party and things like that.

Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, Formula 1 I’ve been watching that Netflix season like every day. It’s so cool, they’re =insane athletes in such a unique way.

Pearse: Yeah, they are.

Interviewer: So what you’re saying is that even early on in undergrad you can get immersed in some of these clubs – maybe don’t try to join 15 of them because it’s hard to manage that time-wise, but you’ve already moved up-you’ve got new skills where you’re trying to organize events based on your interests, you’re managing teams that you used to be on. So I think it’s a good indication of the skills that everyone is hoping to develop as and undergrad, and I just think it’s super important. And again, you just mentioned your right-hand man is abroad right now and…  

…you’re going abroad; was that process something that you’d recommend to students going abroad as well?

Pearse: Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously I haven’t gone away yet, but every single person I’ve talked to that has gone abroad or is currently abroad has nothing but good things to say. I think it’s a great experience if you can do it and Colgate also makes it really affordable – a lot of people generally think that going abroad is really expensive, but if you are on financial aid or have some kind of aid, they make it really accessible, which is great. One really cool thing about the econ program specifically is that everyone is guaranteed an internship while you’re over there, so everyone will be doing a five-week internship over in London with a company that’s kind of targeted at your interests, and that’s something that’s really good for you know someone who maybe didn’t get a sophomore summer internship or just wants more experience; it is a great resume builder.

Interviewer: And is that a campus that Colgate has in London or is it a partner in London?

Pearse: We used to be a partner in London, but we’re partnered with London School of Economics now and I think we just do a summer program with them and now I think we’re partnered with King’s College too. Okay, so yeah, but they have rented out apartments for us over there, that are around 15-20 minutes from the campus that we’ll be studying on.

Interviewer: Oh that’s amazing yeah. London School of Econ pops up left and right, they run programs for undergrads as well, which again you’re probably aware of but I think the fact that they’re just a landing zone for all these abroad programs and it’s just a great kind of cycle of undergrads coming and going and learning and kind of mixing all their thoughts in one place and it’s not too far away too which I think is great. I guess my last question around professional experiences and going abroad is,

…did you consider a lot of different programs for going abroad or was London and the school of econ where you wanted to be?

Pearse: It was primarily London originally even before I came here that was the one that a lot of people spoke about was the London econ program, however as a freshman, obviously you’re not declared major minor wise but the plan was econ major and actually a German minor and so I also plan on possibly studying abroad in Germany for the German minor and I definitely want to go visit Germany when I’m over in London. I definitely want to get that experience and I really enjoyed taking German as a language but learning languages is not my strong suit unfortunately I learned pretty early on but it’s something that still really interests me and I want to use my time wisely while I’m abroad and I think again using the resources that Colgate has for going abroad is a wonderful opportunity.

Interviewer: I think there are just so many opportunities to kind of that combination we talked about where you can work on projects, you can learn from different campuses and then you also have the informal kind of ‘I want to travel and see some places’ and hopefully you’ll have that chance after undergrad as well but right now it’s such a good thing to jump on for an opportunity. So moving toward that. And again, you’re going to be going into junior year and senior year and some people as sophomores they feel like undergrad is just flying by already even though you still have a couple years left.

Have you put a lot of thought into your post-grad job prospects yet? What are you interested in coming from Econ?

Pearse: Yeah, no I’ve definitely put a lot of thought into, you know, my possible career paths. Colgate also does a great job at putting it into sections, like you know, you’re a freshman, second semester, these are the steps you should be taking now, then when you come back after summer, these are the next, they schedule it very well, so you feel well prepared, and you know I think career services does a great job at that as well as setting up events. One big thing that Colgate has is called Sophomore Connections, during sophomore year, you come back a few days early from winter break and you speak to previous alums that come back and they kind of talk about their career paths and you can, you know, make connections with them and often a lot of kids will get an internship or at the very least, build connections that will always come up in the future. And one thing that I can really talk about is the Colgate alumni network is a great; you know, since it’s a pretty small school people are more often than not willing to reach out and help you as long as you make that first step. I think I’ve reached out to at least 70 or 80 alumni at this point, and I probably hit over 80% success rate in connecting with each of them. I’m hearing back from them, which is a lot more than other people from other schools I’ve heard from and that’s something I’m really grateful for. And every single person I talk to, it’s always a great, you know, really informative conversation. They always have great tips and, you know, always like, ‘How’s Colgate?’ You know, they always try to want to know more about the school. Yeah, even one guy I was applying for an internship back in Connecticut, and he graduated back in like 84, 85, and I reached out to him on LinkedIn; he got back to me pretty quickly. We spoke on the phone for a good while, he spoke to his manager and HR, and unfortunately, it wasn’t the right position, it wasn’t great timing, but nonetheless he was a great guy and it felt like progress. We’re still in contact, and you know, he hasn’t been on campus in over 20 years and he’s still asking about different things, and you know, it was really animated about Colgate.

Interviewer: Has that been easy for you in terms of outreach, does it come naturally or have you had to work on that?

Pearse: I think for me one thing that’s really helped me is that over the years I’ve been able to work with a lot of people, and I’ve been able to do that the last couple summers. And back in high school, I worked in retail for three years, so I’m kind of used to like talking to people and you know striking up conversations, like cold calling things like that. But without that experience, I remember back early in high school I did a thing called Harvard Model Congress, and you know I had to get up and speak in a room in front of 800 people, and I was like, ‘You know this is like a crazy experience!’ But I think all those experiences over the years really helped with kind of reaching out. But Colgate’s network really does make it easy because everyone’s Super friendly and super willing to help, yeah.

Interviewer: And I think just from those experiences, you can go back to even high school when you have these things that kind of shape your skills and your comfort level, and I so often hear about these close-knit communities and how they’ll respond to you and always want to help if they can. It sounds like you’ve learned really well how to just inquire about a connection without really necessarily needing or wanting something out of the connection, yeah. I just think that’s so important. And again, your response rate is incredible. And hopefully you can keep going. With that, it’s a testament to Colgate and you just touched on all these resources like sophomore connections and going abroad and the things that Colgate’s doing. There are a lot of other colleges that do that, but it also goes into the other factors you talked about: location, size of institution, the majors that they have. I think those are the insights that are really going to help high school and college students kind of figure out where to go. I mean sophomore year you’ve got so many things ahead of you and you’re just kind of dipping your feet in different areas and trying to check things out, and I just I think it’s the best way to go about undergrad as an experience, and so I’m just again emphasizing and highlighting things you’ve touched on, I think it’s great. Again, for the sake of time, I have one last question for you, and it’s…

What is your best advice for making the most of undergrad?

Pearse: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is I kind of touched on it before, but keeping yourself busy getting yourself involved and whatever it might be. You know, I’ve met a lot of friends through just getting out there, being active in class, being active in clubs. I think that’s the best advice I can give to people. One challenge I know you kind of mentioned that I am involved in the photography club and last year I tried to get it off the ground and now this year I was able to successfully, you know, bring it back to Colgate after kind of dying off before during COVID and now I’m the president and I’m running the. Photography club and it’s been a great experience and I’ve met a lot of great people and like-minded people through it, yeah. And I think again, same with all the other clubs that I’ve been a member in, and running it-it’s a great way to meet people that have similar interests. And then just keeping busy, you know, even if it is studying in the library for an exam, you’re still doing something. It’s rewarding, you feel good about yourself after. Yeah, that’s the best advice I can give to someone-is just being active in the community and keeping yourself engaged.

Interviewer: That’s great advice and since you’re the president I have one more question, what’s photography club like? Obviously the name kind of explains it, but is it a combination of like going around campus to events or are you doing freelance, kind of out on hikes? Is it both?

Pearse: So it’s still relatively new on campus. We’re running formal photography and then we’re doing separate sessions or some kind of mentorship training where we just go over the basics of how to use a camera. And a few other people also help run the club and they are experienced photographers who will kind of teach new members. We also have a trip to star trails to do like landscape photography of like the night sky that should be a lot of fun. And then when the weather gets it’s a little bit nicer definitely do some hikes up around the trails up on you know the northern part of campus and you know do some photo shoots in the woods. Which will be a lot of fun, yeah.

Interviewer: So another skill I mean I could probably find my way around a basic camera, but it’s a skill in itself. And then you get to maybe explore and it might be important for some of those first years and sophomores that they don’t know where the trails are, they want to get outside and go do something on the weekend or midweek. But all kinds of good activities, so we’ll pause there for questions. I can’t express my appreciation enough, thank you so much for your time.