Stars, stripes and study

We’ve asked three young leaders currently at universities in the United States about what drew them away, and how they’ve found their time in the US so far.

“I was always interested in living overseas,” says Alex Toumar, who is working toward a PhD in materials science and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She’s proved that already, with the US her second country of study outside New Zealand; in July she graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Engineering.

“Since I moved away for my undergraduate degree, it was a fairly natural choice to move even further for grad school. And of course, the US boasts a few of the very top graduate universities in the world for science and technology, and MIT is definitely one of those.”

Though her course only began in September, Alex has already noticed some differences between studying in New Zealand and studying in the US.

“Perhaps it is a symptom of going to such a high-ranking university, but there is a lot more pressure to succeed here than one feels in New Zealand. I think this is worse for the undergraduates than for graduate students. However, it is still fairly different from the postgraduate environment in New Zealand. Grad students are funded by their supervisors, so the relationship between student and supervisor I think is different from that in New Zealand. There is more of an employer-employee feel to it.”

Robbie Allan, who’s studying towards a Master of Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley, has also noticed some differences between studying in New Zealand and studying in the US. In his case though, it’s more about the scale of opportunities available.

“Berkeley has resources that New Zealand universities can only dream of – access to great companies such as Google, Autodesk, and Facebook; a world-class faculty – the economics department includes three Nobel Prize winners; and the prestige to draw incredible speakers such as Guy Kawasaki [entrepreneur and author], chef Ferran Adrià and Warren Buffet on a regular basis.”

It was this breadth of opportunities in the US that attracted Divya Dhar. “I wanted to learn about policy-making in an international context, since most of the biggest problems facing the world are global in nature and so will require cross-national collaboration.”

It’s an area that deeply interests Dhar, who set up the P3 Foundation to help tackle extreme poverty in the Asia-Pacific. She’s now studying towards a Master in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School in Massachusetts. Though she had to leave New Zealand to extend herself, Dhar said her education here had prepared her well for the US.

“I actually found that my education in New Zealand has really put me on par with my colleagues here. I believe we are very fortunate to have a good education system relative to much of the world. The biggest difference would be that class participation here counts for a lot. This means students always want to contribute in a class discussion, and that makes it more interesting with diverse opinions coming through.”

All three speak positively about their time in the US so far – and are able to dig up only minor quibbles.

“There haven't been any significant lowlights,” said Toumar, “outside of being a bit strapped for cash in the first couple of months, which I guess is fairly normal for starting life in a new country!”

Images:
1. Robbie Allan's class during orientation week at Berkeley.
2. Alex Toumar (front row, second from left) and Divya Dhar (front row, far right) together in Boston for a Rugby World Cup game.