Indian Students at HARVARD (culture shock, admission tips & more!)

namaste everyone this is avanthi and if you're new here i went to harvard for my undergrad and i graduated in the class of 2020. actually we might have an official graduation ceremony this year because we never had one because of kovid so if that happens i will definitely fingers crossed show a teal a couple months ago i was back on campus and i met with a few students from india and south asia let's go meet sarah away from delhi resources aren't accessible to you as as they are in like other metropolitan cities so school wasn't a way for you to know how to apply the colleges of doors so you had to actively make an effort to learn about the application process and then reach out for guidance so it definitely was hard i think the internet was a humongous resource as much as i hated but linkedin was so helpful because like you wouldn't know things i wouldn't know things that i did unless i connected with certain people and saw the things that they were doing and i thought oh yeah this is interesting this is something that i might enjoy doing and i applied and even though i got rejected from some places i mean certain programs i thought that at least i got to know about them and after that uh like it opened up a lot of doors for me to see guidance to meet new people and then yeah they that sort of multiplied and then yeah so you stepped foot and what was the first thing you felt or you knew it was just so sad but i'm so underwhelmed because i expected everything to be like much more grandiose and fancier because you because when you hear hear about harvard the first thing is like oh this place is insane it's beautiful but then i came in like everything's so much smaller than i expected it to be it's so sad no but it that doesn't take away from the fact that it's very beautiful and it's amazing but yeah i remember one of the conversations i had first conversations i had here was i so i was taking a picture of somebody here and they said oh this place is magical it changed my life and i was like at that moment i realized oh yeah i'm actually here okay sarah was so sweet and she's also so gorgeous i hope this video is helpful to you because you know it's rare to get kind of one-on-one time with current students though to give you a variety including a couple from nepal but before we move on to the next student this is not the only way you can access students besides youtube there is an organization called collegepass which we're partnering with for this video but they're incredible i genuinely wish i had something like this when i was applying because they have an app which i will show you right here which has a bunch of different master classes live streams a lot from ivy league alumni and also campus tours for example some of these live streams are about applying to the uk or applying to specific universities there's a bunch applying to harvard et cetera and you're able to view these play the lessons it's very very cool they also have master classes from folks who went to these universities so you're able to kind of see directly and all in one place there's also live classes on the sat on test prep and you know the uk ivy league et cetera several types of videos and campus tours it's really cool because there was never anything like this which was a one-stop shop when i was applying so i'm super excited that they have this so they have a bunch of content and besides that they also have advisors you can talk to one-on-one in real time and the app is super easy to download you just have to go to the app store or the play store and now let's go meet divangana my name is nivang narana amazing and where are you from so i'm an international student from shimla india but i grew up in urbana illinois and i moved back and forth between the two countries i love that yeah being i guess from shimla to boston i know you did live in other parts of the us but did you feel any culture shock coming here to boston i think um boston is much bigger than like urban illinois where i grew up and um shimla is just like another vibe and either like i couldn't believe it that i was just like at harvard and i saw like john like the statue and i seen pictures of it and like it's just like a famous like tourist spot and i walk by it every day now it's just so like crazy that like i'm here i know right it feels very dissonant for sure and i applied to a lot of schools because i wanted like a generous financial aid package because like i really needed it and um i think my best piece of advice would be um to like only apply to like schools which you know are like give like private like so i only applied to private school like private colleges and need mine schools so i think um just like diversifying your like college list is like very important and i had like the five schools that that i need mine like memorized so i like definitely applied to them and i think what's just really important is just being your genuine self and your genuine story and not like trying to be anybody else in your application and not trying to be what you think a harvard student should be because harvest students are like so different yeah and i just meet so many different people like every day from so many different backgrounds so i think just being genuine to yourself and um generating your application is my best piece of advice i know it's an amazing piece of advice yeah okay ivana is also going to go show us her dorm room which is exciting i'll get up to her i'm on campus i show you a variety of different types of dorm rooms please let me know in the comments below so i will do that amazing this is maureen this is this is the crib this is the crib this is your dorm really convenient location and this is phillips brooks house yes it is a volunteering public service space which what are they doing an event here it seems like they are that's room yeah so um this is my suite so to make sure like everybody has a single we put one but in the common room so um my um suitemate from montreal lives in the common room amazing and then this is my room um inside um okay we're going to go to your favorite spot and then we'll just hang out awesome of a human now let's go meet prasad prasid is from bombay as well he went to tiruvaimbani and let's hear his perspective on harvard where are you from mumbai now you are at harvard what are you studying i study applied math just applied math are you on any of the tracks um i have a focus in the biological sciences but um it's pretty flexible so what did it feel like the first time you stepped back on campus oh my gosh i missed this place so much um i think i just wanted to be back from the second that we were sent away and so it was kind of unreal to be back um to see so many people in the dining hall in those like familiar spaces again but um wanted to do this for so long so i'm so glad i think it's easy to want to conform to some sort of personality that you think would get in um or that people would like to see but i think the authenticity in your application really matters and it's it's just really important to be yourself and show who you are and i think that's probably your biggest strength i mean thanks after meeting prasid i was walking through harvard yard for the main academic buildings are and this kid yells out to me saying hi and it turned out to be ishan who is a current student there from nepal and one of his friends is also visiting him so let's go hear what ishaan had to say it took me like two weeks to actually feel that i was in harvard and yeah also with the jet lag i mean i i couldn't remember anything that i felt that time yeah oh my gosh wow and if you had one piece of advice to anybody from nepal or an international country applying to colleges what would you say um try to bring in your authenticity and you know background try to explore that in your essays and also be good with your academics and yeah just show your true self in your application i love that up next we have the queen sasha agarwal she's from calcutta and i've known her before she got into harvard because she is part of this organization called the period society incredible girl so it was amazing to meet her in person and chat about her time at harvard so so let's go hang out with her i'm sasha um i'm from kolkata india and right now i'm at harvard with aventi yes you are we are in the science center what was the first thing you felt when you stepped onto campus really hot yeah the 25th of october it was insane um i almost had a heat stroke and everyone like prepared me for the boston winter so i had a closet pulled up like winter clothes um and it was hot it was so it was very hot yeah but it was also crazy to just like see everyone in person if there's anybody who is safe from kolkata or india or any other part of the world that thinks it's inaccessible to get here what advice would you have um honestly you'll lose nothing if you try it's not inaccessible because i'm here and i see people from literally every walk of life and like everybody has a different background and so you could come from anywhere um and still be here so apply um and maybe i'll get to see you one day on campus and um yeah if there's anything you need you're surrounded by people there's me there's avanti and we'd all be so willing to help you after meeting sasha i actually caught up with my friend satwik satwik meredith alvarez and he was also at harvard for undergrad but he's currently at harvard business school so i asked him to give me a tiny tour of the business school so that you all get a little perspective on that if you want a proper video on harvard business school and mba kilikia ka naporta please let me know so i can do that the next time i'm on campus but for now enjoy this little sneak peek of the business school and let's go hang out with sassy hello hello hello what is your name scott click suit already amazing and uh where are you from i'm from andover massachusetts and where did you go i mean you went to harvard you are currently at hvs what did you study when you were in undergrad so i studied computer science with a minor in economics and now yes i'm at hbs studying business administration i love that what was your favorite part about your experience at harvard harvard undergrad yeah um the people definitely so like harvard college had a really big south asian community so it was great just having that support network and that family away from home um i think harvard does a good job of creating physical spaces where people can kind of come together and have a lot of spontaneous interactions and build relationships so that was my favorite part what advice causes you now have gone through the hbs process like what advice would you have to people who are applying to harvard undergrad or is this cool i think what a lot of people don't think about is one thing hbs really looks for is um some devotion to community so if you can show in your application if you and if you're applying that there was a community that you were passionate about and that you really work to serve and work to support that is a big value-add that's a really awesome pro tip thank you thank you bye ah so i hope this was useful all of these people are so incredible the next time i'm on campus which hopefully will be for graduation in a couple months i can make a few more videos though jovi ideas have please let me know in the comments below so i can try and show you aspects that you may not be able to see through the internet please also don't forget to check out collegefast because they have a host of content about kind of preparing for college which is incredible and it's literally just an app that you can download if you've been watching till here comment below whose perspective you enjoyed listening to or watching the most from all of the people we saw okay i hope this was helpful uh all of these students are so incredible or um all videos banani value education kevin also was on other campuses when i went a couple months ago and i will be later this year so please let me know what else is useful and any other places that you want to see anything else you want to know about harvard until then sending you lots and lots of love [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Avanti Nagral

Views: 352,330

Keywords: harvard university, harvard, how to get into harvard, harvard indian students, harvard indian alumni, how to get into harvard from india, how to get into harvard business school from india, indian students at harvard university, indian at harvard university, indian students at harvard, harvard nepali student, avanti harvard, avanti nagral harvard dorm, harvard dorm tour, harvard dorm room tour, harvard university admission for indian students, harvard university indian students

Id: 9CS16Htc_iQ

Length: 13min 3sec (783 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022