OHS Alumni Spotlight: Krystle DiCristofalo

Pixel Journal: Tell us a little about yourself, including your interests and anything else. 

Krystle DiCristofalo: I’m currently a senior studying creative writing and business management at Columbia University (originally class of 2023, but I ended up taking a bunch of courses and will be graduating this year!). I love music and play the harp and piano, and I also dance ballet. I also write absolutely everything, from poetry to flash fiction to novels. My short story was recently published in The Adroit Journal — y’all should check it out! :) 

PJ: Why did you choose to attend OHS?

KD: I was a kindergarten dropout! My mom pulled my twin and me out of school in the first week of kindergarten to homeschool us because she saw we needed more of a challenge. We started taking math and writing classes through the precursor to OHS, Stanford’s Education Program for Gifted Youth, and other online programs. We were never sure exactly what our educational future was going to bring for high school, or if we were going to have to do early college instead because we were maxing out the classes available to us (we actually took placement exams for Rutgers University when we were 11), but when we found out about OHS, we knew it was perfect. We loved that there were so many classes in all different areas, and that placement was based on where you needed to be, not your age or grade. We also loved the design of the Core curriculum and all the clubs.

PJ: What was your personal experience like at OHS?

KD: Everything that made me want to go there in the first place really checked out. I got to take a lot of classes in really different areas, including the first- and last-ever iterations of some courses, like the first year of Designing Your Life and the last year of AP World History. I also took a ton of English and Creative Writing courses — Ms. Kimberly Grey was such a wonderful mentor to me. (Side note: I was the president of the Literature Club and editor of the Literature Journal, and we got to partner with Dr. Kerr to help make Creative Writing courses free to students and not only be accessible at an additional cost when they were first introduced.) I was also a Student Ambassador, Peer Tutor, and Teaching Associate, so I had the chance to work closely with current and prospective students as well as teachers. I also really had the opportunity to grow close to some of the teachers because I took so many classes with them, like Dr. Sletcher and Dr. Lamont. In fact, Dr. Lamont did something that I think is really indicative of how personalized the education is at OHS. My twin and I had taken AP English Language and Composition outside of OHS in 7th grade, but the school wanted us to take one semester of their AP ELC class in 9th grade too, because even though we already had our 5s on the AP exam, the OHS course doesn’t just teach to the test. Dr. Lamont was teaching that class, and when it came time for everyone else to study for the exam, she actually took time out of her week to basically give my twin and me a private class on some of the readings from the other semester that we hadn’t taken. It really made “Panopticism” a lot easier to understand!

PJ: What have you been up to since graduating?

KD: I’ve been super busy juggling working full-time on my tutoring and academic consulting business, My Ivy Education, and taking enough Columbia courses to graduate in three years instead of four. We’ve introduced a lot of new, really fun initiatives through My Ivy - I’ve offered free tutoring to OHS students during the pandemic, put together a team of students to compete in the Congressional App Challenge, taught creative writing courses, and helped my students create their own nonprofits and businesses and win awesome competitions like the Davidson Fellows Scholarship, National History Day, the USA Mathematics Olympiad, and the National YoungArts Foundation. I work with a lot of OHSers, and some of my long-term students have even joined me at Columbia after graduating from OHS! I’ve also been honing my own writing craft, and was recently named a Semifinalist in the Adroit Prizes in Poetry and Prose. I’m finishing up my debut novel, and hope to seek representation soon to get it published. Finally, living in New York City has been a blast - there’s always something going on!

PJ: What inspired you to become a college counselor and create a YouTube channel?

KD: When I was applying to college, I had no idea how to navigate any part of the process. I didn’t even know how to access the Common Application, or what the purpose of Naviance was. I had originally wanted to create my own school alongside my mom, who’s been an educator for twenty years, but we pivoted when we saw we could help more people more quickly by offering tutoring and academic consulting services. It’s been absolutely amazing - I get to meet just the best kids ever, all the way from elementary school through to high school, and we take a completely different approach with every one of them, so it takes a lot of creative planning and problem-solving. Ever since, I’ve helped them get into all the Ivies, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and of course Columbia, as well as other top schools like Stanford. I started my YouTube channel to let people know I could help them, and in an effort to make my personal experiences and insights into applying for college and figuring out what it all entails more accessible. I’ve gotten emails from a lot of people saying my videos helped them understand their points of confusion much more, so I guess it’s been working!

PJ: What does a typical day at Columbia University look like for you?

KD: My most recent YouTube video is actually A Day in the Life of a Columbia University Student, so you can see it right here! However, I’d say every day is a little different. Columbia has a super similar academic schedule to OHS, so we have Monday-Wednesday classes, Tuesday-Thursday classes, and usually no classes on Friday. (I’ve been able to avoid them, at least.) I usually wake up and answer emails from clients or meet up in person with some of my students at Columbia before heading out to morning classes, which are usually of the creative writing variety. My afternoon and evening classes are usually econ or poli sci, plus ballet, which I take every semester to keep my skills up, and then I go back to my dorm for six or seven hours of tutoring and mentoring my students on their homework or applications for college, summer programs, internships, and more. I like to grab meals with my friends throughout the day if there’s time, or order from my favorite Japanese food place if there isn’t. I also review novels for a club called In the Margins, so I attend meetings for that and you can see my reviews in our monthly publications.

PJ: Do you have any tips for current OHS students and/or OHS seniors? Looking back, is there something you would’ve changed while applying to colleges?

KD: I’m really big on fit and following your passion, not anybody else’s. For example, Princeton was my dream school until I realized they didn’t have a creative writing major. Their campus also wasn’t the right fit for me. On the other hand, as soon as I visited Columbia for Columbia Splash (which I ended up teaching at myself freshman year!), I knew I had to go here, and there’s nowhere else I would rather be. It’s really easy to just feel like all colleges with similar acceptance rates, offerings, or even geographical location must give more or less the same experience, and that’s just not true, so campus visits - even virtual ones - are of the utmost importance. I even took advantage of a few overnight programs at different colleges, which helped me rearrange my list and figure out what my priorities were in a school. Finally, it’s easy to feel as though you can only find success by studying a handful of majors, even if you’re not passionate about them. However, if you’re able to find what you truly love and go absolutely as far with it as you possibly can, then you’ll enjoy the process much more - and be more successful.

PJ: What are your plans for the future?

KD: Definitely to keep running My Ivy Education. I absolutely love the work and feel like this is what I’m meant to do. I’m also working on expanding my YouTube and TikTok accounts (@krystledicristofalo) to offer more tips and an insider’s look into what life is like at an Ivy League school, so students can watch and make more informed decisions. My hope is to reach as many students as possible. I’ve also been bitten by the wanderlust bug during lockdown, so I would love to travel and see the world once it’s safe.