LaunchX Admissions Student Experience

This is an adapted version of a post by a LaunchX alum which originally appeared on the Competitive College Club website here.

On December 21, I submitted my Early Admission application to the LaunchX summer program for young entrepreneurs.

“LaunchX brings together top aspiring high school entrepreneurs from around the world each summer, supporting them through the process of launching an actual startup.” – check out their website here.

A little bit of LaunchX Summer Program information

• entrepreneurship hands-on experience for high schools students
• you launch a real startup with your team, many of which are related to technology
• LaunchX has held programs at universities like MIT, UPenn, UMich, and Northwestern (a lot of speakers, mentors, etc are from there!)
• need-blind financial aid (can you imagine?!)

The thing that is interesting about this program is that you don’t have to have a desire to pursue a business/entrepreneurship major in the future.

LaunchX has a special section in the application “teaming questions”, which helps to determine your entrepreneur type, your role in a team! Many teams form with all of the entrepreneurial types of a Brander, Brain, Builder, and Business Developer. That’s why if you do code or engineering, it is a great opportunity to put your skills into practice. You will dive into the field of your specialty within the team and work together while developing a real company. 

A lot of helpful information about LaunchX, admission, dates, what are they looking for, and so much more is located on the website, so check it out!

My (unofficial) advice about the LaunchX application

• Know which type of teammate are you and translate it through your application. The admission committee wants to know how you will contribute to the team if admitted (soft+hard skills)
• Show your entrepreneurial vibe, resourcefulness, desire to learn and innovate; don’t forget to stay true to yourself!
• Be concise in the short responses, don’t waste word count, and get straight to the point. Don’t forget to translate the theme of the application.
• Be honest in your answers. My interviewer, for example, asked me concrete numbers of my income from some of my projects, I assume, to understand if my answers were valid in the application. But be honest not just because of that, but because of personal morals and honesty. 
• Ask for a recomendation from the teacher who knows you the best (general, I know). Also, it was not a full letter, but an evaluation of the student.

A little bit of my LaunchX interview process

I applied EA and got an interview with alumni of LaunchX.

She is a CEO of a Business Bootcamp, duo-enrolled in two universities, and just an interesting person to talk to. 

Here goes my advice: 

• Research is as everyone says it is! I contributed a lot of time figuring out what the program is looking for, what is important in the admission, what personal traits they want to see, etc. Of course, you should not show yourself as a completely different person; you should understand which of your traits can help you and how you can put them on the table of the admission committee. It will also help you to understand if this program even a good match for you.
• Personal connection with the interviewer and good attitude matter. It is important to show interest in the conversation, show your passion and energy, nod, and smile if you want to show that you are a great listener (and a good member of a team, because you know how to listen to others). Above listening carefully, I found it helpful to find similarities between you and the interviewer. For example, we both had Art School education and enjoyed a rigorous STEM curriculum at school, while starting our own business initiatives. These tangential points helped me to connect with her, which is helpful.
• You can’t memorize all potential questions for the interview in the world, but the good news is that you shouldn’t. Interview, in that case, is not a standardized test with right and wrong answers, it is primarily a conversation. If you encountered a question that you do not know how to answer immediately, don’t stay silent; show your thinking process, how you evaluate the choices, and what are your values and mindset are. Be open, show your learning process, and keep up with the conversation flowing.
• It would be great to send a thank you email after the meeting. Show that you enjoyed the interview, had insights, and maybe even share some additional information! In my case, I also sent a link to my new project’s website so she would pass it to the admissions committee for additional review (with her permission)

LaunchX Admissions Decision!

I received my decision on February 1st, 2021. LaunchX covered around 95% of my need (almost the whole amount of the program fees), which is wonderful. Now, I’m waiting for the welcome package, which traveled across the world. Looking forward to the program, I am extremely grateful to CCC for the great resources and help.

I am by no means an admission officer or a person with a great amount of experience in this, but I hope I could give you some insights on how I got accepted to this pretty competitive summer program (and how you can too!).

If you are interested in LaunchX, visit their website for more information and contact me if you want any (unofficial) advice. 

Remember, that you can do anything if you work for it.

Maybe, you’ll participate in the LaunchX for the upcoming summer!