Beyond the College Brochures for Jan 13, 2025

Mary McGrath (00:00.962)
Hello and welcome to the Beyond the College Browser podcast where we provide you information and guidance about college financials and decisions. My name is Mary McGrath, a current senior at Lynyrdwood University and my co-host is Dr. Gary Stocker, who is the founder of College Viability. Gary, welcome back to the podcast. Happy new

BTCB For January 13 2025 (00:17.843)
Well, Mary, it's been a couple of weeks since Santa Claus come to your house. And you had a few days off, I understand, from the basketball season.

Mary McGrath (00:21.398)
Yes, he did.

Mary McGrath (00:25.718)
Mm-hmm, yes, was very good to be home.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (00:27.391)
And as you well know, you and I kind of decided to change the content focus for the next few months. And for those listening to the podcast, we've talked a lot about college financial health and viability, and those podcasts are going to be available into a per perpetuity. But for the next few months, Mary and I are going to talk about the journey and it's going to be her journey, her journey from high school where she played basketball at a high level into her college decision, her college years. And in the next few weeks, we're going to focus a lot about what Mary is doing for that first

post college career, an effort to share with you with all listeners what it's like to be strong on academics and a strong athletic college athlete as well. So Mary, you know, I've talked about this, you know where we're headed. Let's go back to high school. And you played high school, tell us where it was at. Tell us about those junior and senior years in high school when you realized you might have the talent to play college basketball.

Mary McGrath (01:20.866)
Yeah, so I went to John Hersey High School, which is in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which is in the northwest suburbs of the Chicago area. Very good school. Loved it there. Yeah, so I started my college recruiting journey. I would say summer going into junior year. Obviously, as you know, with club or AAU basketball, that is kind of where it starts. You get like coaches attention from that. And then during the school year, they can come and see you at your high school games and things like that and keep in contact with you that way.

So I started that summer, got some looks from several different schools, a few D1, some D2, some D3, kind of all over the board a little bit, which was good at the time for me, because I wasn't exactly sure where I wanted to go with that. So I was just talking to anyone and everyone that was willing to talk to me, which I think is a good idea to do at the time, because you never want to say no too fast, or you want to keep your options open, basically.

So that started that summer. And I actually began contacting Lynyrdwood that summer as well, going into my junior year of high school. And I talked to them. Up until the point, I made my decision, which was actually the following summer. So it took me about a year, which some people would say is kind of long, especially nowadays, people kind of commit pretty fast to a place. But I just wanted to make sure I was making the right decision.

with all of that and that included me taking my time with that kind of stuff.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (02:52.489)
So a couple of follow-up questions on that, Mary. What role did your parents, friends, and family have in looking at colleges and in that final college decision?

Mary McGrath (03:02.946)
Yeah, for sure. They really didn't place a limit on where I could go or what I could do, which I greatly appreciate. They just wanted me to be happy and for it to be a good academic school. That is what they were most worried about, to be honest. They cared about basketball, but they were more so worried about me being able to finish my degree in four years on time, everything like that. That was most important to them. And then in regards to myself, I did...

want to stay like somewhat close-ish to home, like you know, no more than like a six hour drive was ideal for me, which, Linwood is about a four and a half hour drive, so that was a good distance for me. Just because I didn't want to have to like take a flight to get back home or take a flight to go see my family or anything like that, so yeah.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (03:49.407)
Sure. And interestingly, the four and a half, five hour drive to Lindenwood, I'm guessing you had never heard of Lindenwood prior to your high school days.

Mary McGrath (03:57.994)
I had not, which is surprising because two of my older sisters actually went to St. Louis University, which is only about 20-ish minutes away from Lyndon Wood. So I had never heard of it until, well, actually my good friend Kendra Lee, who is now an alumni of Lyndon Wood and was also part of the women's basketball team. She went to a high school in my, like a rival high school in my conference and we actually played a U basketball together. So I had first heard of it because I saw that she committed there.

And then around that same timeframe was when they actually started talking to me as well. So I had heard it like heard the name, but I didn't know much about it until I started talking to the coaches.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (04:27.571)
Hey!

BTCB For January 13 2025 (04:37.193)
So you're wrapping up, you're going to get your degree in four years. And I know you're working even on some graduate studies this semester. You went from D2 basketball during your four years to D1 basketball. Tell us about the mental and physical challenges associated with that.

Mary McGrath (04:52.95)
Yeah, so obviously it's a given. The physical was the most like first present thought in my mind. Obviously the competition, everyone's stronger, faster, bigger, all that stuff. So the training was obviously upped a lot as well as like our overall hours per week. You're granted more hours per week with coaches and practice time. And also you were granted you were able to practice during the summer. So that meant that starting that, I think it was that following summer actually that we went, D1 was our

We were on campus in June and July for almost both the full two months just practicing, know, trying to prepare for the season ahead because we knew it wasn't going to be easy because the OVC is very competitive.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (05:26.313)
Yeah.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (05:36.243)
And not only did during your four years at Linwood University, did you go through a D2 to D1 change, you also had coaching changes and those can be very traumatic. How difficult was the transition or easy was the transition from Katie Falco to Amy?

Mary McGrath (05:53.922)
Yeah, obviously going into it, I was pretty nervous just because you never know what to expect with everything. But Coach Egan honestly made it as easy as possible. Obviously there's bumps in the road and things like that. given what she was handed or what she was dealt with, I think she's built up an amazing program. Obviously we're five and one right now in conference, which is a huge difference from where we came from, not even two years ago. So yeah.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (06:19.497)
Amen.

So you're now an experienced veteran of selecting a college, going through the D1, D2 change, going through a coaching change. There'll be other young women and young men listen to this podcast that either going through that, may go through that. What kind of lessons have you learned and what kind of guidance could you give to others who might go through either the D1 to D2 change and or the coaching change?

Mary McGrath (06:45.122)
Yeah, one of the first things that comes to my mind at least is obviously it can sound a little bit daunting going from D2 to D1 in that specific regard if you're talking about that situation, but I think it's important just to not count yourself out right away. Obviously, don't think like, no, like kind of that imposter syndrome thing, like I can't do this, like I wasn't recruited to do this or that kind of thing. You just got to have confidence in yourself and know that you were put there for a reason.

you were kept for a reason, kind of thing. just keep training, keep working. Don't lose all your confidence just because you start second guessing yourself.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (07:24.831)
So we've spent the first five or six minutes talking about athletics. I understand colleges are also there to give an education, is that right? And you're supposed to be right, right? And we may have talked about that on some of the previous podcasts. And you're a double major. You're a double major in finance and marketing. Tell us how you evolved to that decision,

Mary McGrath (07:31.532)
Yes, they're supposed to be, yeah.

Mary McGrath (07:44.642)
Yeah, so when I first came to Lynyrdwood, I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do specifically. I knew it was most likely going to be something in the business world. I started out, I didn't really declare a major, but I just kind of said, okay, I'm going to be in business administration for now. And I had up until the end of my, or second semester of my sophomore year to decide. So when that point did come, you know, I had been kind of thinking it over for a while and I was looking at,

you know, my course credit sheet and like my career or college course like plan that I had on my Excel sheet. And I realized that I could either just graduate a full year early or I could do a double major and just graduate a semester early and then possibly start a master's, which is currently what I'm doing right now. So I did talk to my parents about it. I talked it over. I got their opinion on what they would think would be the best option for me.

And we came to the decision that it would be nice to try to get a double major while I can, you know, just to have both of those things, you know, on my resume and just have both of those skill sets rather than just one or the other. So that's how I decided.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (08:53.108)
And you mentioned graduate studies. You just now started your graduate program. Can you expand on that?

Mary McGrath (08:57.122)
Yes, today actually is the first day of classes. So I just started the graduate program. I'm getting my MBA with an emphasis in management currently. I already did complete two graduate courses in the fall because I applied for the Early Access program at Lyndenwood since I had enough time to be able to start grad classes in the fall. But now I'm a full-time graduate student as of today. So that's pretty exciting.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (09:25.767)
And so the MBA will be done, what's the time frame for that, Ari?

Mary McGrath (09:29.902)
Yes, I'm hoping it will be done after the fall 2025 semester because I will be continuing my courses going into the summer and then I think I will be about just one course shorter. So I'm going to have to take that course in the fall term this coming year.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (09:46.975)
And I want you to answer that question again. I think you were cut out. So I'm going to ask it again and answer it again. That was at 9.53. So maybe what's the time frame for the graduate degree?

Mary McGrath (09:51.692)
Okay.

Mary McGrath (09:58.542)
Yeah, so I'm hoping to have it done by the end of 2025 after the fall term just because I'm going to be taking it through the summer. I'll have three more classes in the summer and then I think I'll be about one course short. So I'm going to finish that up in the fall.

BTCB For January 13 2025 (10:14.911)
Well, very good. So we have looked at Pat at Mary's young life, but history about choosing, playing basketball, making that college decision. We've talked about her college degree. When we get together next time, we're to ask Mary a couple of questions. We're going to ask her about that first job. What is she looking for for the first job? We're going to talk about her status with where she is with things like her LinkedIn profile and her resume and just what kind of job she's going to be looking for in the coming weeks. So Mary, get down to work.

get those courses done for this last regular semester in college. Try not to generate too many tears and let you and I get together next week and keep the conversation going.

Mary McGrath (10:50.53)
Yes, thank you, Gary. I look forward to sharing my pre-college, college, and post-college career journey with you and any listeners that we might have for the next few months. So thank you.