Henry from Tufts – College Reality Check

Kamila

Hey college kids.

Kamila

Welcome back to my podcast.

Kamila

Who cares about college?

Kamila

This is my episode with Henry from Tufts.

Kamila

Will he’ll be attending Tufts this upcoming fall?

Kamila

I’m just here to remind you to subscribe so you know in future episodes are released.

Kamila

Other than that, I hope you enjoy.

Kamila

Second hey college kids.

Kamila

Welcome back to my podcast.

Kamila

Who cares about College in today’s episode I’ll be interviewing Henry, so if you could introduce yourself.

Henry

Yeah, I’m I’m.

Henry

Henry Circle I’m from Massachusetts.

Henry

Obviously I’m a senior next year at Tufts University and I’m just a little bit about myself.

Henry

I’m Cambodian.

Henry

My parents are both Cambodian.

Henry

I speak your language.

Henry

I’m I’m from like an upper middle class family S suburbs in Massachusetts, the Boston area.

Kamila

And can you tell us about your distro, gender point application so we.

Kamila

Can sing this thing or like popular.

Henry

Oh yeah, I identified.

Henry

Yeah, identify as a male.

Henry

He him pronoun.

Kamila

Alright, alright so let’s start with the very basics on kind of getting a feel for how you went into this college admissions process.

Kamila

So you said your parents are from Cambodia?

Kamila

Did they like immigrate here and did they go to college here or did they immigrate and neither of them have gone?

Kamila

To an American College.

Henry

Uh, they immigrated.

Henry

Here and they both actually and only.

Henry

My father went to college.

Henry

He graduated university, yeah.

Kamila

So obviously like even like.

Kamila

The age gap.

Kamila

There’s obviously going to be differences in the college process, but did your parents or maybe some older siblings?

Kamila

Did you have any like family surrounding you to help you with the college admissions process?

Henry

Ah yeah, my older sister. I have 200.

Henry

Sisters who were both in college now and they were very vocal and helping me like Guy needs.

Henry

Loop guiding me through the process.

Kamila

OK OK OK, that’s good because you had that and then also with I mean your older sisters went to college choice symbols and expectation for you to go to college.

Kamila

Were you expected to go to an elite school like a very prestigious school?

Henry

Uhm, I would say I was because like growing up I was like seen as the smartest Childs of my siblings.

Henry

So I’ve been quite a bit of pressure.

Henry

On me and my dad wanted you to make.

Henry

It to the Ivy League, but I I don’t.

Henry

Really like I really got chose, Thompson said, and.

Henry

I’m happy with my decision.

Kamila

Alright, so OK, we’re going to get into high school now, so coming into high school you said you had your older sisters to help you when you came into high school.

Kamila

So did you have like a game plan as to how you were going to approach high school? Did you say like OK by the end of senior year plan application, I want to have this many AP’s to submit to colleges or like show colleges that I’ve taken.

Kamila

Did you say I’m going to join these extracurriculars and stuff?

Kamila

So, was it like, very planned out for you?

Kamila

Or was it more like?

Kamila

You’ve found out on your own.

Henry

I think there’s definitely more of me like finding out like what I want to do like.

Henry

Obviously, I took hard classes, AP classes, but come as far as clubs I just signed up with their interests.

Henry

me and I guess that works for me.

Henry

It’s just more like.

Speaker 1

Thank you.

Kamila

Now go ahead, go ahead.

Henry

Oh yeah, I was just saying it’s more I’m.

Henry

Just more like I.

Henry

I didn’t have a coffee plan at all like I just like went into.

Henry

Wanting to do it, what I want to do.

Kamila

Alright, can you quickly tell us what kind of school you went to and what kind of like resources and how resources and help they gave you in the college admissions process?

Henry

Ah yeah.

Henry

I went to an.

Henry

All boys Catholic private School Grade 6 to 12.

Henry

Uhm summers in Massachusetts, and I’d say like there’s a pretty good like support for college.

Henry

You know, we have these guidance counselors everywhere, but I think our guidance counselors are really proactive and making sure like we’re doing what we need to do for the college application process.

Henry

So I think I definitely did have a lot of support from, like bad dancers.

Kamila

Alright, so let’s get into your.

Kamila

We can talk, I’ll talk about like grades and then test scores and then we’ll get into like extracurriculars essays.

Kamila

And then the actual college application. So by the end of high school when you were submitting, when you’re still in high school, but when you were submitting your college applications, how many AP’s did you have?

Henry

Uhm, I rice middle applications.

Henry

I had eight APS to sophomore year and six junior year and I think I think you asked for my my scores.

Henry

My GPA was of.

Henry

A 4.51 out of four or five. I’m not sure how it works.

Henry

And my city was a 1510.

Kamila

Scene 10 and then you.

Kamila

Gave it all at once.

Kamila

Alright, so obviously your GPA is going to be high.

Kamila

I mean, you got into talks for, asked it how many times did you take it?

Kamila

If you maybe only took it once, and what preparations did you do for that?

Henry

Uh, my took it twice. I got 1490, my first time for 1490 again my second time and now my super score is 1510.

Henry

And as far as preparation, all I did was just the summer junior summer.

Henry

I just like went on Khan Academy.

Henry

It’s like completely free and like even taking practice tests and they just tell you what you need to work on, and that’s basically what I did.

Henry

Just offer it.

Kamila

All right, all right all right.

Kamila

So I guess we’re pretty much done with transfer.

Kamila

You really flew through that all right?

Kamila

Let’s go into extra curriculars so.

Kamila

I guess I’ll have you take it from here.

Kamila

Can you list out like I don’t need like the very small like you know you may be joined a club for a year or something, but I would say what are like the main extracurriculars that your application like Beverly Shine in your application.

Kamila

So can you list through them and then from there we can go into like a deep dive of what you did with each one?

Henry

Yeah, uhm.

Henry

So first and foremost.

Henry

First and foremost, I am the President of the future Medical Professionals Club, which is a club that was started when I was a freshman.

Henry

And basically it’s just.

Henry

Like a club like talking about medicine topics.

Henry

We have visits and talks from like surgeons and residents and parents and whatnot.

Henry

Other than that, I’m I’m.

Henry

I’m on a scholarship right now, which is it’s only executed, but it’s like I like to serve my kids in a class that is certain scholarship for getting students to run the tests.

Henry

I’m not sure exactly how it works.

Henry

But I’ve I’m a I’m active in a campus ministry which is like our community service like center in in on campus.

Henry

Like I’m a tutor I visit like.

Henry

We have a call.

Henry

It’s a class called.

Henry

Like the brother Bond where it’s like a retired like people just like staying in.

Henry

We do visits and stuff.

Henry

I’m also part of a club called Learn which is, uh, learning and educating anti racism now and so it’s just, uh, a club like dominant and talking about like racism in our community and how we.

Henry

Can deal with it.

Henry

But yeah, so those are pretty much like the main.

Henry

Key things of my application.

Kamila

Alright, so the first one you said you’re the president of medical.

Kamila

Like this medical professions club.

Kamila

So before we get into the actual club when you came into high school, did you know?

Kamila

Did you know that you wanted to like go into medicine?

Kamila

Were you like set on?

Henry

It was definitely thought in my mind.

Henry

My parents really were trying to push me and my siblings into the medical fields so I knew was in the back of my mind going in.

Henry

So that’s why.

Henry

I signed up for the club.

Henry

I ended up really liking it and I’d be.

Henry

Seeing President my junior year and yeah.

Kamila

And then OK, this is going to be like down.

Kamila

The line but.

Kamila

Because medicine was on the back of your mind, you were obviously like became the President of this club when you were applying to colleges.

Kamila

Was that like a main focus of yours?

Kamila

Like did you focus on anything sort of medicine related, or were you like and I’ll go through undergrad and then later I’ll think about like Graduate School for medicine.

Kamila

Like did it influence your college choices at all?

Henry

Oh yeah, I definitely was looking at schools that are more like stem focused and like uh, like good premed resources.

Henry

My college applications talked a lot about my inspiration for medicine, so that was like a big a big component of my applications.

Kamila

Alright, so OK, let’s get into the club now, so can you tell us just a little bit more?

Kamila

About like what you’d first did.

Kamila

I guess freshman year or sophomore year and then junior and senior year like what was your role in the club and then how did you climb yourself?

Kamila

Up to be president.

Henry

OK, so first it started as a freshman.

Henry

I think I already said that, but at that time it was run by sophomores who were year older than me and basically all we did was just like have make presentations for Jelly like every day like we would be in smaller groups.

Henry

Then we make presentations about different different topics in the medical fields.

Henry

Uhm sophomore year.

Henry

It was pretty much the same thing I was I.

Henry

Wasn’t the president yet, but.

Henry

It was like, uh, again.

Henry

The talks and from discussions like one of the Presidents his father was a dentist.

Henry

So he came and spoke to us a couple of times.

Henry

And yeah, but obviously sophomore year myself, media COVID struck, so the club was just put on like just putting holds.

Henry

I was pretty much put on hold until like second semester my junior year and that’s when I received like the I was nominated for President.

Henry

The former presidents were graduating so they handed down the Presidency to me and dumb.

Henry

I was trying to get us into hospitals to internship and whatnot, but it was kind of hard, especially, you know, with totally and even now.

Henry

It’s so hard, hospitals not.

Henry

Really, opening up to let people in.

Henry

But yeah, and this year.

Henry

I’d say it’s pretty much the same thing.

Henry

The club at its foundation, is to just inform students about medicine who are interested in medicine and like what the medical field is like.

Henry

So it’s basically just what the club.

Kamila

Is did you figure out what kind of medicine you want to go into?

Henry

I have no idea yet.

Henry

Yeah, I’m no clue.

Kamila

And with your college app like, obviously you’re going to write that you became president.

Kamila

’cause that’s like the highest position you can get in a club.

Kamila

But when you’re actually doing the college app, do you ever say like freshman year?

Kamila

I had this role?

Kamila

I mean, there’s like you know, Treasury Secretary and stuff like that for clubs.

Kamila

So do you ever say like freshman year I had this role sophomore year?

Kamila

I had this rule?

Kamila

Or do you just put like the highest position?

Kamila

You got in that club.

Henry

So for this club specifically, I just put like member for the first few years and then present for junior.

Henry

Senior year about one period.

Kamila

Alright, so let’s go into the second extracurricular that you mentioned, which was this scholarship that you got him through a test.

Kamila

You said it wasn’t really much of an extracurricular, but you still put it on your college app.

Kamila

So like what test did you have to take and then what was the scholarship for exactly?

Henry

Uh, yeah it was.

Henry

It was a I think it’s a private institution.

Henry

Everybody just take like a which is like, uh, stands for high school placement test.

Henry

And if you score like above 95% or higher, they give you like a certain amount of money off the year.

Henry

I’m not sure exactly.

Henry

How much?

Henry

It is but.

Henry

That’s pretty much.

Henry

It’s just like it’s just based on your test school.

Kamila

Oh, and this is for like this private school you attended, like they cut some of your tuition off for you.

Kamila

OK, does that look good for colleges?

Kamila

If you were able to get in and then get in with the scholarship.

Henry

Oh, definitely I would say so.

Kamila

OK, alright now next.

Kamila

You said I I didn’t catch this one exactly.

Kamila

Was it campus ministry?

Henry

Yeah, campus ministry.

Henry

Umso campus ministry like I think most like.

Henry

Catholic schools have.

Henry

It or any kind of like Christian denomination school.

Henry

It’s basically like a Center for like community service and with service and retreat trips and whatnot.

Henry

So through them you do like they connect to your different service opportunities like this.

Henry

Something to do every day.

Henry

Like some days I’ll I, I think I said it before but I’ll visit the brother Barn, which is where it’s on campus.

Henry

It’s like a place where we’re tired.

Henry

Brothers go and you can speak to them.

Henry

And there’s also like a like a retirement home just on the street that you can walk to and and like talk to you and play games with senior citizens.

Henry

It’s just like service stuff like that.

Kamila

How big is your campus like?

Kamila

What is there on your campus?

Kamila

I mean, I go to public school so I don’t know how private schools.

Henry

Uhm yeah, I I.

Henry

Think it is.

Henry

Pretty big, it’s like 150 acres. I’ll I’ll, I’ll know.

Henry

What kind?

Henry

How like how what?

Henry

That’s what size that is, but it it is pretty big.

Henry

There’s like a few buildings scattered around fields dotted around.

Henry

It’s something like, uh, Phillips Academy or anything like that, so it’s a nice it’s.

Henry

In high school.

Kamila

And with like campus ministry, was it just like you’re like volunteering here and there and then?

Kamila

They’ll say they’ll track you and then give your hours?

Kamila

Or do you have like actual positions that you guys have in campus ministry?

Henry

So chemistry is just definitely like a general term.

Henry

Like you, it’s all.

Henry

It’s like the thing you really sign up for.

Henry

It’s just like the Center for all these different things so you keep track of everything yourself.

Kamila

Basically, yeah, and going to a Catholic school like what does that entail in terms of like requirements for you?

Kamila

’cause I mean when I was interviewing.

Kamila

I was I literally just interviewed him.

Henry

Oh Tyler.

Kamila

Tyler yeah talent I.

Kamila

Just interviewed him.

Kamila

Yeah, I don’t forget.

Kamila

So Tyler was saying like you guys have some like required classes but besides that like is there really much else to a Catholic school?

Kamila

Do you have any like I don’t know masses that you have to go to any other requirements.

Henry

Oh yeah, so there are like mandatory masses like couple times a year.

Henry

Like maybe like three or four times a year.

Henry

And then they’re like I’m tired.

Henry

Probably talked about how we have a religion class every semester we take, but other than that it’s like nothing else.

Henry

It’s like they don’t force their religion on you or anything like they’re very open.

Henry

And diverse so, but yeah.

Henry

So there’s not much.

Kamila

And so you’re not like forced to do.

Kamila

Like a bunch of stuff.

Henry

No, no, not at all.

Kamila

OK, alright and last thing you mentioned with extracurriculars is this this learning club.

Kamila

So can you elaborate more on that?

Kamila

Like you know, what do you do there?

Kamila

What’s your role and what’s your position there as?

Henry

Yeah, so learning stands for learning and educating anti racism now.

Henry

And the basically the club is about how we can work to like to promote anti racism in the need community.

Henry

So in our school community, so this year, like it started last year, but the first half of the year is talking about and learning what racism and what anti racism is like, what they are and how they affect our.

Henry

Society, the second half of the year, is developing a project to change something in our community.

Henry

So last year my junior year we we added a few books to the curriculum.

Henry

The most notable book I can think of is the sign, her flowers by Ruby Core.

Henry

It’s a book about the immigrant experience about a a girl, her family from India, but yeah.

Henry

And then this year working on other projects, we’re not sure exactly what’s going to be yet, but we’re having talks and as far as far as position, it’s like there’s no like president or anything.

Henry

It’s every just like.

Henry

It’s just like.

Henry

A it’s a very open space, everybody just having a conversation with one another and you can just say whatever whatever is on your mind basically.

Kamila

Did you found that?

Kamila

Did you find this club like or?

Kamila

Was it already existing?

Kamila

When you joined like did you join it?

Henry

So when I was a junior, some seniors were trying to start the club and then like they asked me to.

Henry

Join so that I joined the club, yeah.

Kamila

That’s really cool.

Kamila

You actually got some books into the curriculum of your school.

Speaker 1

Yeah, yeah.

Kamila

This has something easy to do.

Kamila

I feel like that’s very set in stones.

Kamila

Alright, that’s that’s pretty cool alright, so I guess we can move on to your actual application now unless you have like other extracurriculars, you want to go over, but those are like, I guess, pretty much the main ones.

Kamila

So now I guess this is about junior here, and you’re genuinely thinking about colleges so.

Kamila

How did you start your college list?

Kamila

Obviously you were thinking about medicine, so that’s one thing.

Kamila

But what were the requirements or like?

Kamila

The things that you were looking for in a college and then how did you eventually narrow your list down?

Henry

Uh, so I’ll be completely honest.

Henry

When I was a junior, I was really.

Henry

Looking at like.

Henry

The top schools like looking at rankings, which you probably shouldn’t do.

Henry

’cause rankings don’t mean anything.

Henry

For schools they

Henry

All look the same at that point.

Henry

But on the I.

Henry

Rankings deftly played.

Henry

It played a big part.

Henry

Like my whole.

Henry

List at one.

Henry

Point was just.

Henry

Like maybe like 20 schools from the top 30 schools become.

Henry

Yeah, I think after that I will look into the schools more and then like pick and choose like certain programs they have in certain programs they didn’t have and that was basically how.

Henry

I conducted my college search.

Kamila

And did stuff like class size, City, suburb rules setting to best of matter two at all?

Henry

I definitely did I when I visited Columbia, I absolutely hated it.

Henry

It’s directly in the city like there’s like.

Henry

No campus feel really like it’s on top of some buildings.

Henry

I didn’t like that so I knew I wanted to be in the suburbs like somewhat or like like.

Henry

Just obviously there tough is just like 2 miles in the city I.

Henry

Can just help him train whenever.

Henry

I want and go to.

Henry

The city and as far as class size.

Henry

I definitely didn’t want to go to a big school like a big public school or anything.

Henry

I I like a medium size where like it’s like big enough that you’ll meet new people but not like too big or there’s like just it’s just overwhelming so it’s hard to say that perfect size for me.

Henry

And that’s why I like that.

Kamila

And then how many college visits did you actually go on before you decided?

Henry

Uhm, I’d say about like 12 because I I live in the Northeast and all the Ivies are in the Northeast, so I bet I like did it like a loop with all the Ivy leagues and then a few other schools like I want to see Carnegie Mellon too.

Henry

And but yeah, it was more of.

Henry

Just like virtual stuff too ’cause.

Henry

Like schools were really having in.

Henry

Person tours yet until like.

Henry

They started talking now, but even.

Henry

Then it’s really limited.

Henry

So it’s more just like online research, watching YouTube videos or not.

Kamila

And did you visit Tufts when you like?

Kamila

Did you visit the campus?

Henry

Yeah, I visited many times.

Henry

I was like 40.

Henry

Minutes away, so it’s pretty close.

Kamila

OK, alright, so let’s talk about your actual.

Kamila

Well, actually, can you list out the colleges that you did apply to like safety targets and then reaches and then we’ll go into your actual application.

Henry

So I I plotted 21 schools.

Henry

Uh my almost yeah.

Henry

Are you kidding me?

Kamila

Me, I thought I replied to a lot.

Henry

Don’t know if I can do this.

Kamila

Oh my God.

Henry

Yeah, I don’t know if.

Henry

I can list them all like from Tom.

Henry

And become a top tops.

Henry

Definitely apply early decision round to Johns Hopkins.

Henry

I applied early decision round one and I got actually got rejected from there.

Henry

Baylor, UMass Amherst that got into those they don’t.

Henry

Nobody got accepted early early action and then just a bunch of like some ID.

Henry

Like I know Dartmouth Cornell, I applied to Stanford.

Henry

Just ’cause like?

Henry

Why not and dumb.

Henry

Yeah, few other schools in there.

Henry

But my talk.

Henry

My safeties were definitely U mass and Baylor, my retries, Johns Hopkins, which ended up being too much of a reach and touch is like my like upper target kind of low reach school.

Kamila

21 Why would you apply to 21 schools like rolls? Your thinking behind that?

Henry

My dad he looked at, he thought I had the chance and I think he was like sort of right?

Henry

But he said that like if I can get.

Henry

Into these schools that I should just.

Henry

Apply anyways and I.

Henry

I like did like get him out of.

Henry

Work in the summer.

Henry

Too, so it wasn’t.

Henry

Too overwhelming and yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Kamila

Oh my God, OK?

Kamila

Let’s go into your application now.

Kamila

So number one.

Kamila

I mean, I used to ask about letters of REC, but they’re kind of like pretty obvious.

Kamila

You get them from like someone that you like, have a somewhat connection with like a teacher, like a personal connection.

Kamila

They’re not like too important anyways, in the call jet process.

Kamila

So let’s go into your application essay, which I mean, I’m probably most of the schools you apply to.

Kamila

You applied through common app.

Kamila

So can you tell us about what essay what your common app essay was, and then specifically for Tufts and their supplemental essays?

Kamila

What did you write about them like you don’t have to give like the whole essay, just like what general?

Kamila

What topic did you choose?

Kamila

And then what story did you choose to?

Henry

OK, so for the common app essay, the one that you sent to all your schools I just.

Henry

Did like the.

Henry

Free right one.

Henry

Where you can write about anything you want.

Henry

And basically I wrote about my grandmother.

Henry

And her journey like.

Henry

Experience experiencing the choir roots, which is like the the genocide there and I’m like a story she.

Henry

Would tell me.

Henry

About like it was.

Henry

It was sort of the rabbit in the banana.

Henry

Basically, like a childlike folktale, and I talked about that story and tight her experience from coming from Cambodia and also experience undergoing breast cancer at the same time and how that played a role in in the deepening.

Henry

Our passion for medicine.

Henry

So that was what made us.

Henry

It was about and then ask for it helps.

Henry

The submental I choose was wide helps.

Henry

I think that’s the only error has to do and it was I just wrote about like this, certain mitigated.

Kamila

Or do you mean you?

Kamila

Chose there’s it’s not like a required amount of supplementals.

Henry

Offer Tufts, there’s one mandatory one, and there’s like you can choose an option from 3, like this two.

Henry

What to do once mandatory and one like an option from 3 so mandatory one was the white tops worn and I just wrote about a certain major they had ’cause I.

Henry

I know I really want to be.

Henry

To basically can say like a sense of community.

Henry

Like I want to like.

Henry

This is why I.

Henry

Wanted Tufts and I wrote about the.

Henry

Quantitative economics major which I plan on majoring in.

Henry

And then also I wrote.

Henry

About was like.

Henry

Something about I think it’s something about your identity, like a cultural experience, something like that.

Henry

And I wrote about a Cambodian dish.

Henry

My mom would always make me for for school, like once a week, and about that like open my eyes.

Henry

It’s like perceiving different cultures in America.

Kamila

And one thing about your common app essay so.

Kamila

Like I’ve talked to like essay like essay Coaches and Stuff like that.

Kamila

And I’ve also listened to admissions officers and obviously they want to hear your voice like you should be the focus and center of it, and it’s completely alright to include Someone Like You included your grandma.

Kamila

So how did how were you able to in that like limited word space I?

Kamila

Guess word count how?

Kamila

Were you able to introduce her?

Kamila

Introduce her struggles.

Kamila

And then tie it to your own passion.

Kamila

Like how were you able to affect you?

Kamila

Obviously did it effectively.

Kamila

How were you able to do it so it wasn’t too much on her, but she was still there like she was still present in the essay.

Speaker 1

OK.

Henry

I am definitely doing like stricts with.

Henry

Like where you live from.

Henry

Like the amount of space you can designate.

Henry

For one thing, like I know I had like it’s only like 650 maximum, so I said to myself before I run it like the first half.

Henry

The 1st 325 words is.

Henry

Gonna be my.

Henry

Grandmother about my grandmother the second half.

Henry

The second half has to all be all be.

Henry

All about me and so basically like.

Henry

What I did was I it. I kept rewriting it until I got down to 320.

Henry

Five, and then on.

Henry

The next 325 were on me.

Henry

So I just made sure I was really strict on that, ’cause I obviously like you said it has to be about you.

Henry

Like you, she’s

Henry

My inspiration, but they don’t care really care about her.

Henry

They care about.

Henry

Why I want to like pursue a college education?

Henry

So yeah.

Kamila

And like how?

Kamila

Did you make that transition from her story to like you’re?

Kamila

You’re talking about yourself like, how do you make that like, really smooth transition?

Henry

I I don’t know what a lot of work went into, I can’t.

Henry

I can’t really nail.

Henry

That’s one thing, but it was definitely like.

Henry

A mix of.

Henry

Like the childhood story, she would tell.

Henry

Me about the rabbit and banana.

Henry

And like I also like when I when I was a little kid I would witness her going to treatments.

Henry

And whatnot, so I I could.

Henry

Talk about how I.

Henry

Saw first hand like what was happening.

Henry

There, so yeah, that’s pretty much how it’s already.

Kamila

OK, so I guess we’ve gone through your.

Kamila

Essays now I mean.

Kamila

You’ve applied to colleges by this point. Can you tell us which colleges of the 21 that you can remember?

Kamila

Which ones did you get accepted, deferred and waitlisted from? And then why did you do Y. D2 to Tufts? Or is it like your?

Kamila

Top choice or something?

Henry

OK yeah, so uhm Johns Hopkins was my first choice more so for like the the academic reputation and for like the like they have an amazing programs and anything you can imagine and I love the campus and when I visited that I loved it.

Henry

So I applied Eddie once or there.

Henry

’cause they have some.

Henry

Like I said, there’s some of the best programs in the country.

Henry

How crowded like I had.

Henry

So I had to give it a shot there.

Henry

And I think more so Tufts my first choice.

Henry

But I I wanted to see if.

Henry

I had a chance at Hopkins so.

Henry

That’s why I applied ET one.

Henry

There and then I knew like.

Henry

Right away that.

Henry

I was applying it to the Tufts UM.

Henry

Yeah, so I got rejected from Hopkins and then did my sister tops apply D2 dot accepted. I’m here now and then in the toilet I got accepted into Baylor which is a safety in UMass Amherst, which is also safety and Villanova, which is more like a target school.

Henry

But those are the schools I’ve heard I’ve heard.

Henry

Back from the rest of schools I have to like rescind my applications, obviously.

Kamila

All right, so how did you feel when you opened up tubs?

Kamila

Because that’s not an easy school to get into either.

Kamila

What was the reaction?

Kamila

Where were you when you opened the ladder?

Henry

Uhm, I was in my room.

Henry

I was on FaceTime with Tyler and two other friends and basically like I was like I was like shivering.

Henry

I’m pretty sure like.

Henry

I I’m just undergoing.

Henry

This sometime when opening conversations but my body is like shaking.

Henry

I was like so.

Henry

Nervous, I was like what if?

Henry

I don’t get in like what am I gonna do?

Henry

But yeah, I opened it.

Henry

I got in.

Henry

And it was just.

Henry

It was amazing.

Henry

Feeling it’s like.

Henry

Your hard work.

Henry

After all those four years just pays off.

Kamila

And it’s great that you got it now, ’cause now you don’t have to stress.

Kamila

About it for.

Kamila

The rest of senior year.

Kamila

Yeah, so I have a lot of senior friends.

Kamila

Who are kind?

Kamila

Of like stressing about the decisions alright so.

Kamila

You’re in Tufts.

Kamila

Can you tell us a little bit about like Tufts itself so you know where is it?

Kamila

Where exactly is it located?

Kamila

And then what is Tufts known for?

Kamila

Like it’s a top school, so it’s going to have like a bunch of things that it’s good at.

Kamila

But what are some programs that it’s specifically known for?

Henry

OK yeah tops is located in Medford, MA literally 2 miles outside of Boston.

Henry

Like I said, then you can take a train in Boston so you have like city access, but you’re not in the city, it’s just in a little quiet suburb of a nice little town.

Henry

As far as programs, they’re they’re known in this area, at least extremely well for their sciences program, and there’s that like a big focus on STEM.

Henry

Like they it’s like a liberal arts school, but they have.

Henry

Their own engineering school.

Henry

Which not many of the large schools do.

Henry

There’s already talk major international relations, like uh, diplomacy.

Henry

I’m not, I’m not sure.

Henry

Too much about.

Henry

That, but I.

Henry

Know you know Health Sciences, biology, chemistry, all that is really.

Henry

Like it’s really.

Henry

Like well known and they have their own.

Henry

Medicine Medical school too so.

Kamila

And you’re probably going to pursue that right there.

Kamila

Oh yeah.

Kamila

And you said your what?

Kamila

Is it qualitative economics you’ve wrote about so?

Kamila

This doesn’t really have to do much with the college process, but can you explain like why it is that you can get into medical school without pursuing something that’s necessarily medical related?

Kamila

Like I’ve never understood how that work like you can get into medical school, but pursuing an undergraduate degree, that’s like completely nothing to do with medicine.

Kamila

Like how?

Kamila

How does that exactly work?

Henry

Oh well, yeah.

Kamila

And if you know.

Henry

As far as the logistics of it, you can major in anything you want, but they are like certain courses like biology, biochemistry, organic chemistry.

Henry

But you have to take in order to apply to Med school, So what a lot of people do is they’ll just major in like biochemistry.

Henry

Then you go through all.

Henry

Those requirements, like right away and no point.

Henry

In Med school, but I want to like.

Henry

I want to do something that I was like like in case Medical School didn’t work out.

Henry

I want something that I could use.

Henry

So quantitative economics.

Henry

Is like come.

Henry

Just the numbers and statistics behind economics and they can’t.

Henry

But yeah, that’s that’s something I’m.

Henry

Also really interested in to.

Henry

Like both tide to each other.

Henry

Kind of so yeah, ’cause.

Henry

They’re both just like extreme passions that I have.

Kamila

Oh OK, so that’s how so, so long as you’ve do the minimum requirements for medical school in terms of classes, you can be anything.

Henry

Yeah, exactly.

Kamila

Oh OK, OK, so we’re coming to an end here and you’re not in college.

Kamila

So like I, I usually have more to add with like the college you know experience, but are you going to go on campus this coming fall?

Henry

Uh, yeah.

Henry

First first two years I have to live on campus, so I’ll I’ll be on campus.

Kamila

Alright, OK, so last thing we do is advice.

Kamila

So number one is advice for.

Kamila

It could OK.

Kamila

Let’s do this.

Kamila

Let’s do advice for current high schoolers.

Kamila

Who are, you know, maybe coming into high school or yeah, in the college are going to start the college app process soon, like juniors.

Kamila

Like me, right?

Kamila

So what advice would you give them?

Kamila

You can give like general high school advice if you want.

Kamila

Or you can do something more specific to the college at process. Maybe like a regret you had and then #2.

Kamila

If you want to add this in like what advice?

Kamila

Would you give for those who are still waiting?

Kamila

So they’re, you know, college letters and are freaking out now, so you can do those two groups.

Henry

OK, so as far as a general high school experience, I would say to try a lot of different things like so like colleges really like to.

Henry

See, like, uh, uh, why?

Henry

Like apply throughout different activities that somebody Baldwin.

Henry

It shows that you.

Henry

Are willing to try new things.

Henry

So, so that’s that’s like for some general advice.

Henry

For specific college.

Henry

Advice I’d say that time management is the most.

Henry

Important thing in college?

Henry

In college admissions like obviously applying 21 schools is no easy task. I had to really like manage my time extremely well on top of AP classes I take, I take 5 AP classes right now so it’s a big workload too.

Henry

But yeah, time management is key and I’m sorry what we lost was the last question you said.

Kamila

Uh, if you don’t have to do this one.

Kamila

’cause like I mean, it’s not that necessary, but like for for people who are like waiting for their cars is using like seniors who haven’t gotten like you know they’re not easy.

Kamila

They’re just doing regular.

Kamila

What words of like consolation would you give them just so they can freak?

Kamila

Out a.

Kamila

Little bit less, I would say.

Henry

Come if you don’t get to your top.

Henry

School, it doesn’t matter I.

Henry

Got rejected from Hopkins.

Henry

I was like, alright whatever.

Henry

They they don’t want me so.

Henry

Why would I want to go?

Henry

There you know.

Henry

But yeah, just just be patient like they come out in like a month I think.

Henry

Yeah, like in in a month so.

Henry

From just be like just be like.

Henry

Just be have an open.

Henry

Mind, it doesn’t matter where you go, the name, the name doesn’t really mean that much.

Henry

It’s more like what’s what?

Henry

You do with it from what?

Henry

I’ve been told to, but yeah.

Kamila

Alright, thank you very much Henry for coming on.

Kamila

I’ll email you when I release your episode, but other than that I hope you have good evening, goodnight.

Henry

Thank you for having.

Kamila

Me Yep bye bye bye.

Kamila

That’s it for my episode with Henry.

Kamila

Thank you if you made it this far again, make sure to subscribe and I hope to see you in the next one.