- Hi guys, my name is George.
We're currently in London right now, it's where I live.
I'm originally from just east of the city,
from Essex, specifically Brentwood.
And, I actually spent the last 6 years of my life
studying in the United States.
I moved there when I was 18 years old.
I was considering the U.K., considering the U.S.,
and definitely decided that the U.S.
was the preferred choice for me,
and I had the best 6 years of my life.
Studied at Harvard University, where I studied sociology.
I had no idea about the U.S. system before I was about 17.
So before, like 3 months
before the actual application was due.
And I found it and just absolutely
fell in love with the system there.
It's an opportunity, it's an experience,
that I wish that everybody knew about.
'cause I think there are lots of people in the U.K. that
would really benefit from what they provide over there.
(upbeat music)
When I found out about the liberal arts system in the U.S.
I knew that it was perfect for me.
In essence, in the U.S. you get this opportunity to take
as many subjects in as many different
disciplines as you want.
In my first semester at Harvard I took four classes.
I took one in psychology, one in philosophy, one in Chinese.
I'd never studied Mandarin before,
but I started learning that, and then my final one,
I can't remember right now,
but it was in another really, oh politics!
And I'd never taken any of these classes before.
Right, so at A level I studied maths,
further maths, music, and Latin.
And I didn't really explore those at all
when I was at Harvard.
'Cause I had this opportunity,
I had this freedom to go and find other passions of mine.
And that's what the liberal arts system is.
It gives you that freedom to just
check out different classes,
and then ultimately only about a third
of what you actually study for your major,
a third of the subjects you take have to be in that major.
Some of my fondest memories from Harvard,
well the classes that you take
are just taught by the most incredible minds.
Like to have the opportunity to learn from
people that write your textbooks.
Like we were using textbooks that other universities use,
other students use, around, not only the U.S.,
but around The World.
And you are there,
listening to them talk about the material
that they are experts in.
It's just incredible.
And it's also not as dense as you might expect.
It's not as if you have to really learn some really
heavy topics all the time at Harvard.
In fact there are a lot of classes where
you can really tailor your own education.
I took a seminar that everybody has to take
as a sociology major where I was able
to write a paper on queer black music
historically from the 60s onwards.
And it was this incredible opportunity to explore just
a world that I'd never really thrown myself into before.
And Harvard gives you that.
The University itself gives you that flexibility.
It's a very flexible institution.
But the professors themselves give you such a free reign
over what your education is.
So if I could speak to my 17 year old self
and tell him one thing, I would say that,
you have no reason whatsoever to be homesick.
Now I, when I was younger,
literally from even the age of 16,
I would go away on trips for one or two days,
and I would be crying my eyes out
'cause I was such a homesick person.
So it was weird of me to be considering
this opportunity three thousand miles away.
But it felt, I know it seems very cliché,
but it felt so much like home.
The University themselves know that
people from around the world
are looking to come to this place,
and they are far removed from their comfort zone.
So they put everything in place for you to feel comfortable
and feel like you are welcome,
and feel like you are part of the community.
And a lot of it is done without you even realizing it.
From the word go,
you're introduced to incredible roommates,
and incredible house mates,
and you get thrown head in to classes,
and straight away you meet,
I think honestly in my first week at Harvard
I met about five hundred people.
And you don't have a moment to really catch your breath.
It's just such an exhilarating experience
and then before you know it, it's two months later,
and you're back home for break and you're like,
where did that go?
Did I have any challenges ever?
Yeah the academics are challenging at Harvard for sure.
There were some times where I had to pull some all-nighters.
There were some times where I had to get six cups of coffees
down me at 11 p.m. so that I could
get in for an 8 a.m. deadline.
A lot of it was my doing.
You know there's definitely,
I think if you put your mind to it,
you don't have to pull any all-nighters ever.
I think I only probably pulled 2 during my time.
But yeah it was challenging, but you know,
that's why you go there.
You go there for the academic challenge.
There's no place where you can get as much of
an academic challenge, in my opinion, than at Harvard.
So its all in a days work effectively.
(upbeat music)
So the most insane experience
that I had while I was at Harvard,
was definitely in my final year.
It was actually after I even graduated.
I spent most of my final year singing with
The Harvard Krokodiloes who are the oldest
all male acapella group on Harvard's campus.
12 guys singing every year,
and every year we have this opportunity to travel the world.
And so, I graduated on a particular Thursday,
heard Joe Biden, and Mark Zuckerberg speak at my graduation,
and then in that evening did all the celebrating,
congratulations I've finished University,
and then flew off to Taiwan to begin 12 weeks of touring
around Asia, East Asia, South East Asia,
we went to Australia, we went to Fiji,
we even went to Bhutan
which I never thought I'd say in my life.
Then flew over to Europe.
France, England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy.
We managed to fit I think 19 countries
in the space of 12 weeks.
And yeah, every single day we're going to a new place
and I'd have to take a moment just to say
how on Earth is this happening?
17 year old George would have had no idea that this
was something that could have come his way.
I'm honestly just very grateful for that experience.
It's something that I feel like
I couldn't really have gotten if I had pursued other
interests or options of mine in the U.K. or even elsewhere.
I just felt that Harvard,
and many other Universities in the U.S.
just have that connection with extracurriculars.
You know extracurriculars are often where
a lot of people find their best experiences at university.
University is partly about academics, right?
You're going there to get a degree, but,
the experiences that you remember,
and the connections that you make
aren't necessarily through that.
I will never forget that experience.
And actually the Kroks is like one giant family to me now.
And I stay in touch with all of these guys
as if they were my brothers, on a really regular basis.
So yeah, that was something
that just absolutely took my breath away.
(upbeat music)
So the process of applying to American universities,
it definitely isn't straight forward.
There are more balls that you need to juggle,
there are more things you need to be thinking about
when putting it all together.
You have your academics, as we all do,
but then extracurriculars is super important,
and standardized testing,
SATs, ACTs, these types of things,
writing essays at the end of it.
It can get quite overwhelming to be honest,
if you allow it to.
But there is a very trialed and tested way of going about
approaching the process and it can be sometimes a really
great help to have somebody, have a mentor,
have somebody that's been there and done that,
gone through the process help you through it.
I know that it's something that in hind sight,
I would have really benefited from.
If I could speak to my 17 year old self again,
I would have loved to have
found somebody who knew the process.
And then once you get it all lined up in a row it becomes
honestly relatively straight forward.
So you know, that's definitely something,
a word of advice from me,
definitely try and look out for mentors,
look out for figures.
Crimson provides incredible mentors, incredible tutors,
people that will help you with every step of that process.
But at any rate, if the U.S. is right for you,
it's right for you, and you have to go for it.
I can't tell you how insane my life has been,
for the better, as a function of my moving
to the United States.
It is single-handedly the best decision I have ever made.
My life has changed so much for it!
And I really hope, I genuinely hope that people out there
who at least have this interest or this burgeoning idea
pursue it, explore it.
Because you never know where it might lead,
and you never know what might be waiting
on the other side for you.
(upbeat music)
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