Jack, a junior at Northeastern University, walks us through his college application process, including a non-profit he started to help a boy and his community in Nicaragua. 

Part 2 is here.

Transcription

Kamila
Hey college kids. Welcome back to my podcast who cares about college? A couple things before we start here number one, make sure to subscribe so you know when new episodes are released, number two, make sure to check out my blog, a college kid.com. Number three, make sure to follow me on Instagram at underscore a college kid underscore. But other than that, I hope you enjoy my interview with Jack from Northeastern.

Hey, college kids, welcome back to my podcast who cares about college? In today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing jack. So could you please introduce yourself?

Jack
Hi, thank you so much for having me. I’m Jack Rackleff. I was originally born in Trinidad and Tobago. Throughout my life, I’ve lived in Puerto Rico, Panama, Miami, Shanghai, I’m currently in London as we speak, I go to Northeastern University, I am a third year students studying business administration and Political Science, with concentrations in management and law and legal studies. And I’m currently in the process of applying to law school, which is pretty exciting. And I’m really excited to speak to you about Northeastern and to give you some insights about the school.

Kamila
I have a question did you apply to colleges in general as an international student? Or were you in the United States when you applied for colleges?

Jack
No, I was in in High School in Miami, Florida, and caliber Preparatory High School. And that’s where I applied from. I’m also a US citizen. So I don’t I’m not considered an international student.

Kamila
Okay. Okay. So let’s start from the very beginning. And I want to kind of set the, I guess, dynamic here for education. When you were perhaps in middle school or entering high school? What were your goals or expectations with higher education? Where you expected to go? Was it like a no brainer? You were going to college? And then following up on that? Were you expected to go? Or was it your goal to go to a prestigious university? Because So can you explain the situation there.

Jack
So my family is very big on higher education. On one side of my family, my mom’s my mom’s side of my family, none of the family members have attended college, but on my dad’s side everyone has. So it was very important for me to attend college. Um, in terms of prestige, it really didn’t matter to my family, or to me really just, you know, get into the best school possible. And I’m a firm believer that you can succeed no matter what school you go to, if it’s a volunteer school or top school, once you strive hard, and you work hard, you will achieve great things. So proceed was not really an important factor. But definitely, I knew from a very young age that I would be attending tertiary education, higher education, and I was looking forward to that.

Kamila
And did you have any older siblings or Yeah, like older siblings or cousins, maybe that could guide you through the process? Because you’re you did say your dad went, but the college process is much different for you to due to like the age gap. So did you have someone to like look up to know what to do know how to format your application, or were you kind of left to your own devices.

Jack
I was left pretty much to my own devices. I had an older cousin that attended university, but I really didn’t get any insights from him. But I was fortunate enough to go to a Preparatory High School, which focuses on you know, helping students go on to an undergraduate education. And we had a really good counselor counseling program, and a lot of courses and lectures and so on, focused on helping students, you know, navigate the high school, the college process, so I don’t feel like I was put at a disadvantage, because my school really gave me all the tools and the knowledge necessary to, you know, complete the application process and be successful.

Kamila
Yeah, and I want to talk about, you know, being in a prep school that specializes in, you know, helping kids through the college application process, but let’s first get through, I guess, the grades portion, the high school transcript. So first is GPa. Can you take me through? Again, were you like a straight A student mixture of A’s and B’s? And then what kind of classes did you take? Were they IBS, APS honors classes.

Jack
So I, I had an interesting high school experience because I did ninth grade, first year of high school in Panama. I lived in Panama and I went to an international school there. So I was doing IB style coursework, not IB, in the sense that it was the diploma program, which most students do in 11th and 12th grade but it’s called MIP middle years program. So I was doing IB in ninth grade. Then I moved to Miami, Florida. And in Miami, I took regular a CP courses, college prep courses, this basic level, they’re not honors, they’re not IB they’re not AP. I took I think two two honors courses, my sophomore year of high school, and then I applied to be in the International Baccalaureate IB program, the DP program, which is 11th and 12th grade I got accepted. And I took three high level close courses which were English, Spanish as a second language and global politics. And I took three lower level standard level courses, which were mathematical studies, anthropology and environmental systems and societies. So I did have the benefit of taking both regular level club courses as well as IB courses. And I do recommend that any student who’s looking to pursue higher education, especially some of the more prestigious or top level schools, you definitely should look into taking, I mean, so a large amount of either AP courses or IB courses, because it does, it does really assist you. And in many cases, those level courses are very similar to the level courses that you’ll be taking in your first and second year of college.

Kamila
And by the end of high school, what was the GPA, both unweighted and weighted that you submitted to colleges?

Jack
So if I do not know my unweighted GPA, I cannot remember that this point, but I believe my, I may be wrong, but I believe my weighted GPA was a 3.53. I believe that’s what my weighted GPA was when I submitted college applications. It’s important to note that I also well, we’ll get into that after so go ahead with you.

Kamila
Yeah. So next portion I want to get into is Sh sh in att. And we can kind of go into the fact that you did go to a prep school. So with a CT and a CT. When did you begin? And then did your school kind of initiate it and tell you tell you and your peers, oh, start this kind of prep? Or did they offer specific courses for it? So how did you? When did you start preparing? And how did you prepare for the either the SH your AC T,

Jack
I want to say I began preparing in 11th grade, which I think is standard, I may be wrong. I began in 11th grade. And at that time, I probably had several conversations with my counselor and she would have indicated that it was probably a right time to begin studying. My high school did have relationships with different tutoring companies, which I was fortunate to have that so I did take a couple of like practice tests with the different companies at school. But I eventually did most of my I think I did tutoring like once a week for maybe like, I don’t know, six to eight months. And I did that with a with a company that I found I think the name is varsity tutors. I was not good at standardized tests at all. i My score was mediocre. And my scores were lower than what was indicated for most of the colleges I applied to. Fortunately, I caught in, which is a sign that you don’t necessarily need to get the sh t or AC t score that is required. And I did not do the AC T I was horrible at the AC T I couldn’t understand the science section. And the speed of the math was just not my thing. Math is not my forte. So I did the LSAT. I took the LSAT, I believe three times. And yeah, I got a pretty mediocre score. But it got me where I needed to go. And if you

Kamila
don’t mind sharing, what was You did say you took the LSAT three times. So what was your super score? In the end?

Jack
My super score, I believe was a 1280. Okay,

Kamila
it’s almost 1600 scale. Okay. Okay. So what advice would you give for standardized test prep for students? Who are perhaps entering high school? Would you recommend to start earlier? When Yeah, when would you start? When would you recommend to start? What What helped you the most? Was it the tutoring? Or was it perhaps some practice books that you were given? So what helped you the most with LSAT prep?

Jack
So I would say first of all, I didn’t study as much as I should have once a week is not like it’s not nearly enough for what you should be studying and I’m sure you probably have some experience with that. I would say start early maybe like at the end of 10th grade would be a good time to start and you know, use all of 11th grade and part parts of you know, 12th grade to be studying. I say the prep books helped me the tutoring helped me as much as a tutor could help me but I just my family does not have a good history of taking standardized test I I was never good at any standardized tests I’ve ever taken. So I kind of knew going into going into that I didn’t really have high expectations. And maybe that’s why I didn’t put so much effort into it. But I definitely would say start early and you know, go through the books and if you can afford and you have the ability to to hire tutor, definitely pick up on that opportunity.

Kamila
So now I want to get to the more exciting stuff which is extracurriculars, and also your high school helping you they were a preparatory school. So coming into high school. Everybody is mostly given a counselor when they come in. So did your counselor kind of have a meeting with you and lay out high school for you was it very analytical for you guys like Find your interest, try to join like a couple clubs in freshman year, did they guide you in that way? So like, how was it set up for you was a very analytic for analytical for you, when you came into high school, it was more like trial and error, like, I’m going to try this club, whether I like it or not. And like move on.

Jack
I would say that, well, as I said, might ninth grade was different for me because I went to different High School in different countries. So I did switch college counselors from ninth to 10th grade, I, I would say, I was always a very involved student, I was always I was in student government. In ninth grade, I was the vice president of the Student Organization for my high school. You know, I was very involved in different clubs and different organizations, everybody knew Jack on campus. So I would say I didn’t really need like the extra push from a college counselor, I kind of knew that I needed to, you know, not that I needed to get involved. But you know, if you get involved, that does help your application. But I’d also say don’t get involved just to write put it down on the application, because you really need to explain, you know why you did it and what you got out of it. It’s one thing to just write, yeah, it was part of this club. But it’s another thing to really be able to explain what you did and what impact it had on you and on your community. So I would say get involved in two or three things that you’re really interested, I would also highly recommend starting early with, like a club and really progressing. So if, for example, you’re part of student government, I don’t know what the lowest level is, maybe you’d be at the lowest level when you’re in ninth grade. And then you’d apply for another position 10th. And then you kind of go up, colleges really like to see progression, they like to see growth. So if you have an opportunity to join a club or an organization, you know, try and stick with at least one throughout all of your, your college, your high school career, because that really looks good.

Kamila
And can you tell us the different extracurriculars that you did in high school? So both in that school in Panama, and then coming into a school in Miami, what are the extracurriculars you did? And then for college application purposes? What positions Did you hold? What positions did you write on the college app?

Jack
So I was in ninth grade, I was the vice president of the Student Government. And I was I was on the swim team, I was captain of the swim team. And I was probably I was part of a club called Operation Smile. And I was probably part of one or two other clubs that escaped me at this point that was in ninth grade in 10th grade, I was transitioning to a new school, so I really wasn’t that involved at all. I continue to be on the swim team. And I don’t think I might have been part of one club. I think I joined the Operation Smile club of my high school and 10th grade. And then 11th And 12th grade, I became vice president of World Cinema Club. I was a I was a we call it Gulliver ambassador, so I basically gave tours to incoming students and parents. So I attended different events. In the evenings. I was a student mentor. So I mentored ninth graders, incoming ninth graders, and as well as 10th graders, kind of actually navigating them through the college process and what they should expect. I was I will, I signed up to be a silver night nominee, which is basically you get elected or you get chosen to you know, represent your school in like a specific in a specific area of study. So I was the English silver night nominee. What else did I do? I, I think that’s about it. That I can that I can remember at this point, I’m sure I was involved in some other things. I also I did fund my own organization called funds for Francisco, which was a nonprofit organization where I raised money, and I built some houses and some portable filtration systems, bathrooms, um, some stoves, that sort of stuff in Nicaragua. So that was kind of like my community service portion of my of my application.

Kamila
So I want to get into swim first. And then because you did say you did do swim when you were in ninth grade. And then coming into Miami, you did swim as well. And then definitely that nonprofit organization. So with swim, did you stick with it all throughout high school up to college apps?

Jack
Yes, I stuck with swimming. I swam all my life. Unfortunately, when I was in 11th grade, I had an injury. So I had surgery for my shoulder. And at that point, I had to stop swimming for a couple of months. But I joined the team, not to the intense degree that I once swam, but basically just to keep training and I did some, some competitions. I didn’t apply to university to swim. That was never my intention. But I did. I did highlight that on my on my application and say that, you know, I was I was in a team sport for for four years of of high school.

Kamila
And I said you Captain freshman year when you I know going to different schools, you don’t have the same position, you start from rock bottom. And since you did have an injury that did interfere, but in the end, were you. I don’t know swim team works. But were you like Captain or like some section leader?

Jack
No I was I was in any I didn’t have any position then I was just part of the swim team. Yeah.

Kamila
And let’s get to the really, really interesting sounding extracurricular, which was the nonprofit you started. So I mean, take me through the whole process of that. And for people who are potentially listening, I get, I guess I’ll give a little background to this. But a lot of people in high school don’t realize they can branch out, they think they have to do a club at high school, they don’t realize there are other opportunities out there. So can you tell me how you came upon creating your own nonprofit? And then what was the process of it? Like, what did you go through? Was it really difficult? What did you have any like forms to sign anything official to do? So can you take me through the process of actually creating a nonprofit? And then we can talk about the specifics of what you did in that nonprofit?

Jack
Awesome. Okay. So before I actually go into speaking about my, my experience working with community service, I just want to highlight that if you have the opportunity to engage in community service, do it, you and it doesn’t need to be part of your high school, it can be part of an organization outside of high school, or it could be something that you do on the side separately, that’s not involved with anyone, but community service giving back to your community, something that definitely universities look for, and it does, you know, enhance your application, I would say that my my, my community service project was unique. In that I was I did something that was, was very different. And not a lot of people have the opportunity to do my my project funds for Francisco, the genesis of it was out of what we call caste, community action and service was part of the IB curriculum. Alongside the courses that you have to take, you also need to write an extended essay, and you have to write and you have to be part or do a Community Action Service Project. And I thought, Okay, well, I’m going to do this project. I’m not sure what it’s going to what it’s going to be about. But in my 11th, I think it was 11th grade, or somewhere before 11th grade, I took a trip to Nicaragua to visit an old teacher of mine, who was living in Nicaragua, and he had a recycling project. And when I visited him the first time I was touring the city, and I went there for like two or three weeks. If you’re not familiar with Nicaragua, it’s the second most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti. And there’s a lot of poor people, there’s a lot of suffering, and I was touring the city. And there was this one time, like, late at night, I was going through and I was meeting this family. And there was this boy that I met Francisco, he suffered from Down syndrome. And he was basically locked in a very small room, and he lived there for his whole life. They never let him out. They just put food in for him to eat. He did all of his business in there. And because of his disability, he was basically shunned by society. And his parents, his father had died, his mom was working always so she never had time to, you know, really be there to take care of him. And I saw him and I said, you know, I really want to do something to change the way this boy, this boy, his life is. And that was basically how my project started. And I said, Okay, well, how can I really help? And I said, Well, I’m going to raise some money. And I’m going to build Francisco, basically a new house with better living conditions, so that he can, you know, have like a concrete floor instead of mud. And he can, his family can build a kitchen so they can provide healthy food for him. And we can, you know, provide a bathroom so they don’t have to, you know, use the bush. So I raised quite a significant amount of money on a GoFundMe page. And I publicized it on Facebook, and I raised I think it was $8,000. And I decided I was going to build this house for Francisco and a kitchen and a bathroom, um, you know, costs, floors and proper infrastructure. And the way I went about that is I connected with another nonprofit in Nicaragua called What is the name of it, the name escapes me at this point, but it’s a nonprofit, if any international, and they do similar projects, they do home improvement projects, they do water filtration systems, all that type of stuff. So they were really the ones that helped me on the ground connect with, you know, contractors to build and that sort of stuff. So they really helped me, you know, get things rolling. I took two other visits in Nicaragua one was kind of like plan, how we were going to build this structure and who we were going to hire and that sort of stuff. And the third one was to actually start the project and work on it. For a couple of days. I didn’t get to see it complete, but I was there for Part of the construction. And then at the end of the project, I realized, well, I have a lot of access funds. It didn’t cost me the full amount of money. So I said, Well, what else could I do for this community because Francisco’s family’s not the only one suffering. There’s many others. So I said, Well, I can provide stoves, I can build stoves, for people to cook, I can build water filtration systems, and I can build latrines, essentially bathrooms. So with the rest of the money, I provided several different latrines, bathrooms and stoves, for different families in the community. And that was essentially my project.

Kamila
And I mean, that sounds incredible in as for you to say you were connected with another nonprofit within Nicaragua itself. So can you explain a little bit about how you connected with them? Did you just send over an email or visit their location? Like, how did you get a connection? Because most people don’t know where to start?

Jack
Yes. So I was lucky. On my first trip, when I went to visit my former teacher, I was introduced to some of the work at the of the organization and she was kind of like helping, she was there with me for most of my time on my first trip, because we kind of toured Nicaragua, I went to many different villages, many different towns, to kind of immerse myself in the culture, culture, meet the people. And she she had lived there, she was an American, she had lived there for many years. And she, I got in contact with her. I knew she worked for this nonprofit. So when the time was right, I probably had a phone call with her, I sent an email or a text and I said, Hey, I have this project, can you help me out? And she said, Sure, no problem. They had all the contacts and everything that was necessary. They also provided they have a medical unit of their organization. So they provided Fransisco with like, a medical checkup, they diagnose them, and they provided some advice for how to best treat him. So that was also that was also very helpful.

Kamila
I mean, that that’s, that’s really that’s really incredible. It you did that? And was it difficult starting this like starting this nonprofit raising the funds going through like the actual process of going to Nicaragua, building the home and then having extra money in like, distribute distributing it to the rest of the community? Can you explain like, was it really hard for you to some people? Did were people really eager to help you? Or did you find it hard to, like, have people on board and raise funds with you? So I

Jack
would say it was, it was hard in the sense that I was like an 11th grader in high school, I didn’t have any experience, like running like such a project of that magnitude, I did have experience of being Vice President of Student Government, I was always very involved, but I didn’t really have that level of experience. In terms of raising funds, I would say that once I posted it, and really explained my story, I made a lot of videos, like speaking passionately about the project, I took a lot of footage when I was there, so people could actually see this was a real thing. And people were very willing to donate, um, you know, $20 $30 $10, just any, any small amount. So I think I didn’t have trouble raising raising the funds. But I did have trouble, you know, like, kind of figuring out in my head, like, what what it was going to be and how it was going to work out. And then the other problem I had was that, because there were so many needy people in Nicaragua, it was kind of hard for me to decide who would get what, and, and how I would distribute the rest of the project, even with Francisco’s project, the original idea was to actually build like a restaurant for his sister, so that she could have her own place to work, and she could raise money, and, you know, take take care of Francisco. But in the end, she, we didn’t get along in the end, and she kind of wanted to, like do her own thing that really wasn’t going to be benefiting Francisco. So I kind of changed the whole project and decided, okay, well, I’m not going to really work with his sister, but instead, I’ll just, you know, provide better living conditions for him at his house. So it was difficult as a, you know, how was I 1617? I think I started the project when I was 16, as a 1617 year old, interacting with these adults and these people within this community trying to understand in a foreign language, I mean, I do speak Spanish, but you know, that was also that was also something that was a huge learning learning curve.

Kamila
And for people who want to start nonprofits or organizations in general, and you did work, like outside of the United States, it wasn’t even within the United States, for people who want to branch out in help those countries who are in need, what would you what advice would you give them for starting a nonprofit? Or just any type of organization?

Jack
I would say, in terms of like a nonprofit, my situation was unique because I knew people that live there, and I knew people and I had experience of traveling, I’d say, obviously, you need to be able to like travel to the country, you need to experience and you need to see like if there’s an actual need, because oftentimes, you know, there’s already these organizations that do this. In my case, they were probably, I don’t know, 20 different organizations that can build a house from France. to school, they just never found him. So I had that opportunity to, you know, really connect with that family and help them, I would say, you know, travel to the to the country experience what the people are living through and kind of decide what they need. I would also say you don’t need to like form your own nonprofit to help people, there’s a lot tons of organizations that are already on the ground, that have established themselves and really understand what people need. And they’re always looking for volunteers and people who could support you can even you know, have your own little project within that, that organization. So it’s not really necessarily about starting your own thing. It’s really just about finding if there isn’t a need, and if there is the need, how you’re going to, to, you know, help help that community?

Kamila
And any, that means you just have incredible, and do you have any other major extracurriculars that you want to go through and do a little bit of a deeper dive into

Jack
in terms of high school? To be honest, I don’t really remember much. But if I think of something later on in the interview, I’ll bring it up.

Kamila
Okay, so then we can move on to, I guess, more college application stuff. So number one is recommendation letters. Again, you went to a prep school, and I know some schools that really focus and hone on on getting kids into college, they have special like services for recommendation letters, and like, crafting the right one and such and making sure it’s the best it can be. So in terms of recommendation letters, who did you get them from? What was the process of, you know, asking people? And eventually, what how did your high school help you in getting those recommendation letters.

Jack
So I, I got a letter of recommendation from my math teacher. And I chose that strategically, because math was my worst subject. So I didn’t have a really good grade in math. So I wanted to, you know, kind of highlight him for the teacher to speak to, you know, what type of student I was, and if I worked hard or not that type of stuff. So I chose my 11th grade math teacher to write me a letter of recommendation. And then I always had, this is something I really stress, if you go to high school that’s relatively medium to small size, and you have that opportunity to connect with teachers really do. I always had extremely good relationships with all of my teachers, so much so that I would just spend like my free time with them, they became almost like my friends. So I asked one, one teacher that I was very close with my English teacher, who taught me IB English in 11th and 12th grade. So he had a fairly good understanding of my academic, my academic abilities, as well as you know, my personality and the type of person I was. And then I also believe I got a letter of recommendation from my college counselor.

Kamila
And what what kind of letters do college counselors write? Because they don’t see you in an academic setting? Well, at least most of them, some of them do teach classes, but a lot of college counselors don’t see you in an academic setting. So what exactly do college counselors write in their recommendation? Recommendation letters, if you know,

Jack
well, what is interesting is I was never able to see what letter what they wrote about me, I don’t think that’s allowed. Yeah. So what I what I think they would have written about me is kind of speak about my act, my extracurricular activities, my personality, the type of person I was, they probably spoke about my involvement with different clubs. And you know, the type of you know, the type of person how involved I was on campus, I did have a close relationship with my, my college advisors, so much so that she still reaches out to me ever so often to ask me to look to toss a student around Northeastern. So I think she would have just mainly spoken about, you know, my personality and stuff that wasn’t necessarily academically related.

Kamila
Okay, so let’s move on to actual colleges and the actual call a college application. So number one, let’s get through the schools that you applied to, and like we’re thinking about, so when did you start thinking about actual colleges, whether that’s going on tours, or doing some more in depth research about specific schools? When did that all start for you? And then can you give the list of schools that you did apply to that you eventually Yeah, eventually chose to apply to?

Jack
Oh, wow, you put me on the spot testing my memory. Okay. So I I believe I did a college tour. I didn’t know anything about universities. I didn’t know what university I wanted to go to. I didn’t know anything about it. I did a college tour with my high school for about a week or six or seven days through the northeast, that was at the end of my sophomore year, so the end of 10th grade, and I visited bu Babson not Babson bu Northeastern BC, Harvard, Yale, NYU. via and maybe like two or three others within the Northeast region. That’s where I really decided, You know what kind of school I like, if I like Open Campus, if I like closed campus, if I like city, if I like rural if I like, well, if I like the building structure if I like what, what it offers, etc. So that’s like my first exposure to college and then throughout 11th grade, I think I would have done a lot of research, just looking up at different universities seeing what they had to offer, you know, acceptance rates, rankings, what kind of extracurricular activities they offered, what was their ranking for the individual school because I wanted to go to business school. So that’s, that’s basically how the process all started for me. And then observe, go ahead.

Jack
No, you go, you go ahead.

Jack
In terms of list, so I did what I think most students do. You kind of have like, safety schools, you have schools that you think you most likely get into. And then you have reach schools. And I think I did like 333. And the end, I probably had, like 11 schools that I applied to, and those included Well, first of all my my dad never allowed me to apply to schools in Florida. He said you’re not you live in Florida. Now you’re not going to any schools in Florida. So that was kind of like bam.

Kamila
Did he want you to kind of branch out and like I guess become more independent.

Jack
He wanted me to you know, know something else out away from Florida and I wasn’t really interested to be honest, if I would have applied I would have been to you. But he didn’t allow me to, which was fine. So I applied to safety schools were American University, Syracuse GW University of Boston, University of Massachusetts Amherst, I think, and maybe one more I can’t remember my kind of reach schools were like bu Northeastern NYU, and then my windows that I get into I have applied to University of Toronto, and I think that’s, that’s about it. And then my sort of like, higher level schools were BC, Notre Dame and Emory.

Kamila
Okay, so we’ve gotten to the college list. And before we get into which ones you got accepted, you know, wait listed and rejected from let’s go through your college application. So did you apply common app to all of these,

Jack
every school, I decided I’m doing common app, I’m not doing this another type that I’m not I don’t even know the name of I said, I’m not doing that. And I also decided, if there’s a bunch of schools that are gonna have me do like a bunch of essays, I’m not gonna do that either. So I think maybe one of them I did like two or three. But besides that, I didn’t really write a lot of like, supplemental essays.

Kamila
And in the comment app, the personal statement, which is the longest essay 600, I think that’s 600 words, can you give us the general topic that you wrote about, you don’t have to go word by word, but like the general topic and how you came to it.

Jack
That was probably I would say, like, one of the strongest points of my application, I worked extremely hard at it, I did not have help from anyone at the end. My parents read it. And I would say my college counselor at it, and my English teacher at a, they gave me feedback. And that was it. I submitted it, nobody helped me write it. They told me Jack, this is a spelling error, this comma goes, Hey, etc, etc. But besides that, I wrote my essay on my own. And my the topic of my essay was my story about funds for Francisco and sort of my life of, you know, kind of community service how I was raised in a family that’s very strong and community service how, since my youngest years, I, you know, I participated in painting houses or giving food to poor people, etc, etc. So that was basically the focal point of, of my, of my essay.

Kamila
And can you give us a sort of rundown of the process? Like, you don’t have to go into like, exact numbers, but like, how many drafts did you go through? Did you have a bunch of ideas? And you know, a bunch of scattered ideas and pick one or were you really set on the funds for Francisco?

Jack
I was I kind of thought like, what would be something that really explains my story best, what’s something that really is who I am and I said, you know, funds for Francisco is a really nice way for me to start this story and kind of speak to my journey of moving around and community service and all that stuff. So I kind of had that idea the back of my head the entire time. I did not have any other ideas. I’m sure other things came to mind, but I didn’t really pursue them and As far as writing, I think what would have most likely happened is in an English class one day, Mr. Woodbury, my English teacher, he would have said, Okay, guys, it’s time to start writing your college essay. And I think I sat down in one class and I wrote it. And they just kind of like, you know, just flushed everything out of my head. And then from there, maybe for No, for 234 weeks after that, I kind of just went back to it ever so often and tweaked it took out a sentence here to get a sentence there, I would recommend to anyone who’s kind of struggling just to, you know, clear your head and just write it doesn’t need to make sense. It doesn’t need to be coherent, but just put all your thoughts out, and then you can pick and choose what really works and what you don’t what you don’t want to use.

Kamila
Okay, so we’ve gone through coming up, and you did say you wrote a couple supplemental essays. So were you as like, I guess, thorough with those essays with as compared to your common app? Or were they more just like, last week?

Jack
I was thorough, I did answer the questions. I didn’t obviously didn’t put as much effort and time into it. But I don’t think they were lacking in any way. I answered them to the best of my ability.

Kamila
So we’ve gone through the app, the actual applications going to the schools that you apply to so you gave us a list of the schools you apply to can you tell us which ones you were accepted into? Deferred wait listed from and then rejected from?

Jack
I was rejected from BC, Emory and Notre Dame, I got into every other school.

Kamila
We went to every other school and how did you end up choosing which school you actually ended up attending? At the

Jack
end of the day I I got accepted to like, I got accepted to I think every other school and my top four schools at the end were University of Toronto, NYU, GW and Northeastern. Northeast, it was interesting because I didn’t even like Northeastern when I when I went to visit the campus. And I only applied the day that the the application was due, I just said, You know what, they don’t have a college essay. Let me just apply. It was the first school I heard back back from and it was the college I finally accepted. But what I did in the end is I made a spreadsheet and I went through things like price, ranking acceptance rate, what kind of campus it had, what programs it had, the city was in, etc. And I kinda like mapped it out. And so which school gave me like the best score. And I also was fortunate enough to do a trip, I did a trip to all four. So I spent like a weekend and I went from, went straight to Boston and I visited Northeastern, and then I went to Toronto, I visited University of Toronto, I went to New York, and I went to Washington, DC to visit GW just to kind of get a sense of the campus. And I decided, okay, I really don’t like University of Toronto, I didn’t really have a good feeling about it. And I visited NYU, and I said, I’m not a huge fan of where this is within the city. And I’m not, you know, it doesn’t really have much to offer, in my opinion in terms of like a campus, it’s basically a bunch of buildings, you know, throughout the, throughout an area. It’s like too connected to the city. Yeah, it was, it was basically like, you’re just walking around the city, which I did wasn’t for me. And then I visited GW and I campus was alright, but nothing really like nothing was like wow, about it. And I went to I visited Northeastern and I kinda, you know, I started to like it a little bit more. It had like a camper it had it has a campus, and a lot of my friends were going to be in Boston. So at the end, I decided, you know, when I look at the rankings and everything for me, it makes sense for me to go to Northeastern and all these schools are kind of like in the same like ranking. Similar so it wasn’t like wow, one of these is so much better than the others they will you know, within like a similar range. So it wasn’t like wow, I’m going to be losing so much if I go to this school over that school.

Kamila
That concludes part one of my interview with Jack make sure to subscribe so you know in part two comes out. Part two is going to be amazing and so special because Northeastern is a school that everybody should know about. Again, check out my blog, a college kid calm for more college related content. Follow me on Instagram at underscore a college kid underscore. Well, other than that, I hope to see you next week where I’ll be interviewing Linda from Pomona College