Who is Ask The Alum

You might be wondering, who is Ask The Alum? I’m Alwyn, a proud University of Michigan alum. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Growing up, I felt average on the outside. But inside, I had a deep desire to succeed beyond belief. Although the definition evolved from fame, money, and power to passion, purpose, and influence. I began to excel academically and professionally in my high school years. I realized that I had strengths that others didn’t. And I doubled down on those and never looked back.

• 15 AP Classes
• Summa Cum Laude (4.0 GPA)
• Graduated top of my class with distinction
• 99th percentile test scores
• Accepted to Ivy League university
• Accepted to top 3 business school
• Accepted to 7-year direct medical program
• Accepted to 7-year direct dental program

The turning point in high school is really junior year. This is when the driven kids went 110% throttle on taking hard classes, getting strong test scores, and finding an extracurricular interest to stand out in. While, most average students took regular level classes and prioritized their social life over crafting a well-defined profile and application for colleges. It’s a trade-off. It was my junior year that I decided to stop fooling around and quit being average. I started surrounding myself with people I wanted to become. At the time this meant I started spending hours each week working for a doctor and alongside highly ambitious UofM students.

• Graduated top of class with distinction
• 30+ Interviews and 10 Offers
• 5 Internships over 4 years
• Completed degree requirements in 3 years
• Broke into investment banking and private equity

Similar to high school, I came to Michigan knowing what I wanted. I wanted to be an investment banker. I put my head down from day one and did my everything possible to secure the best opportunities to set me up for that path. I joined the most number of investment and consulting clubs, five, of any Ross student to stay involved and build experience. I interned every summer and during the school year to build professional, real-world experience and a network.

• Taught over 5,500 students
• Gained over 8,000 hours of business and teaching experience
• Trained a team of 5 instructors
• Developed thousands of instructional videos and explanations for students
• Started my own education business
• Helped college students secure 100k+ job offers
• Wrote hundreds of articles and videos with over ~750k views and ~5k newsletter readers

Throughout high school and college, I was always involved in business. As a sophomore in high school, I started teaching at Kumon. I wanted to challenge myself so I left and started teaching SAT and ACT at Kabir’s Prep. Here, I uncovered many important takeaways that I summarize in my newsletter.

• Surround yourself with people that are doing what you want to do or have achieved what you want to achieve
• Who you work for can be more important than what you work on
• You become passionate about things you are good at
• Double down on your strengths
• Always put the customer first
• Be genuine by leading by your actions not just words

Working at this business gave me the confidence and experience that I needed to bet on myself and excel professionally. Working full-time throughout high school and college, I was able to gain much more experience than my friends could get in internships alone. Then, I left to start my own business. The path seemed easy at first, but there were much more ups and downs when it is just you and no team to support. It was and is 24/7. But at least, I was building something of my own. But that meant that growth only happens at the cost of failure. Thinking like an entrepreneur was a hard transition but a powerful unlock.

• To capture economic upside, you must have ownership – with ownership comes risk
• Uncertainty and lack of structure are the hardest parts to overcome starting out
• Scarcity is at the core of all decision making
• Effort and outcome do NOT scale proportionally

I started this newsletter to give back. I had many mentors and seniors that helped guide me through each step of the process. My goal is to help provide direct and honest insight on preparing for college, college, and alumni life to both students and parents looking to guide their kids. I write to to students as if they were my younger brother or sister, imparting all the advice I received, gained, and wish to provide to save time, stress, and help them excel in their career. No wish too big. Alwyn