"Amidst the pandemic mayhem of 2020, I have somehow been lucky enough to be gifted with the opportunity to be welcomed, yet again, to the industrious community of Park Lane, this time working alongside their sterling staff. Though I have limited professional and scholarly expertise, I’ve endured the full rigour of the IB programme and as such, I hope to share all my insights and learnings from my academic journey with the current students."

After achieving 45 IB points and now having completed 1 1/2 years of study, Simon Ilincev talks to us about his experiences as a Computer Science student at Cornell University, USA 1. From Prague to Ithaca, New York, tell us about how you settled into life as a Cornell student. It takes 30+ hours to get from Prague to upstate New York, so the first step was lots of travelling! But life is really nice once you get there, and Cornell helped a ton with settling in with its Freshmen Orientation Week. There was daily programming, I made close friends, joined clubs & societies, and generally settled into my new accommodation (all first-years live in on-campus university housing — there are 20-30 huge buildings for this). Things were definitely a change, what with having to fully look after myself and being so far from home. But again, the uni was very supportive, and I was lucky to have a like-minded Computer Science roommate. What’s more, the food (very important to me!) is terrific… Cornell is top 10 in the nation in terms of student dining, with some ten-odd dining rooms, newly constructed buildings on par with 5-star hotels, a dozen cafés with credit to spend them at… in short plenty of choice. As for the weather — not as much of a change there; the weather is similar to that of Prague’s. And replete with beautiful scenery! We have gorges, trails that were hiked during orientation, and even large lakes dotted around campus. What have been the key differences, academically and socially, between Park Lane (IB) and Cornell 1st year courses? Academically, I noticed that there was more lab work in my first year than at Park Lane. I attended weekly discussions led by masters students for multiple classes, and a couple of these stretched for 2-3 hours at a time. Additionally, I found the curriculum to be incredibly flexible — I can choose pretty much all of my courses. Of course, my major (Computer Science) does have a number of requirements to meet, with 4 set classes and 10 electives. However, almost half of the overall graduation requirements are more broadly engineering- or simply study-based, so I’ve taken classes like Elementary Persian, Optimizations Research, and Mountain Biking. Then, don’t tell Cornell this but… I found my first year at university was easier than Y13 of IBDP! Perhaps on account of much fewer large projects and college applications. Or the scheduling difference — depending on what I choose to do, I may only have one class a day! 3. What is it like living and studying in the USA compared to the Czech Republic? There’s quite a range of experiences across different college campuses in the States, and even within them. But speaking for myself and Cornell specifically: first off, Cornell is a so-called ‘college town’, named that way because just about half the residents are college students (there’s ~25,000 of us). This means that I can — and do! — walk anywhere, though possibly just because the public transport is nowhere near as good as Prague’s. Overall, the campus is like its own mini-city; very compact, pleasant to walk around with parks and gardens, and full of people I regularly recognize which makes me quite happy. I’m very content with where I landed for university. 4. What else are you involved with at college other than your studies? I’ve gotten involved with all sorts of programmes! What stands out the most is a for-credit ‘student project team’ that I’m in called Cornell Digital Tech & Innovation. It has about 80 students working in 7-8 teams on various software products, and has been an excellent source of friendship and professional development. For my first three semesters, I worked as a developer on CoursePlan, a tool to help undergraduates track their progress towards graduation, and starting next year I’ll be a ‘Developer Lead’ for the entire project team. I also co-founded an entrepreneurship club called Armada, which brings together technical entrepreneurs on a weekly basis to work on projects. As part of this, we’ve raised over 100,000 CZK, had people drop out, and won half a dozen pitch competitions. What’s more, drawing on my experiences running Hack Club at Park Lane, I’ve been co-instructing ‘Trends in Web Development’, a software engineering course at Cornell with ~40 students. I’ve also taught Czech at the Language Resource Center, and had help with my Mandarin in return. Finally, lots of day-to-day social activities like ice skating, playing board games, or even visiting alpaca farms! 5. If you could give IB students some advice, what would it be? This could be about university applications or about studying IB. – Aim high and don’t always go too safe — you can achieve more than you think! – Find the course that you enjoy and that will help you in your future – Treat learning not as a chore but as a source of intellectual stimulation; this sort of mindset will do wonders for your studying – When at university then volunteer, apply for internships, find new people, and all-in-all explore + try new things! – USA universities care deeply about building community, so be actively involved in school activities, extracurriculars, competitions, and so forth 6. What are your future plans? I intend to stick to my Park Lane graduation quote, i.e. keep learning like I’ll live forever, but living like I’ll die tomorrow. So a continued emphasis on studies, but interspersed with many adventures and lovely memories. More broadly, I look forward to an internship in the Bay Area with Google this summer, and plan to spend a few years in the industry post-graduation before possibly doing my own ed-tech/productivity startup. 7. Is there anything you miss about home / school / Prague? Family and friends! Am super glad to be back for the winter break to spend time with everyone, as well as have the freedom to get around and do a bit of traveling.

It was great to have Nina back in school to chat to us before she heads off to Newnham College, University of Cambridge, UK, to study Land Economy. She is here to tell us about her journey through Park Lane and into Cambridge University of Cambridge So, what did it take to be accepted to study at Cambridge? Well first I put the UCAS application together with many drafts of my personal statement and the University of Cambridge was my first choice. I had to do some research and comparisons to add my college preference, but looking at all the options available for Land Economy, I chose Newnham. Having good grades is a priority, if you don’t have the right grades to meet the entry requirements, the university will not even consider giving you an offer. There wasn’t an entrance exam for Land Economy, but I did have to submit supplementary essays and then wait to be interviewed. The admissions officers were looking for intellectual curiosity, academic potential as well as a genuine interest in the subject. What is also important for Land Economy is that students must be able to handle the quantitative aspect of the course as well as the essay writing. They are therefore looking for people that have a strong mathematical background but are also capable of analytical writing. The interviews were intense as I had multiple with a range of questions. I am glad I did a lot of preparation for these in advance and my former debate coach, my friend who studied Land Economy as well as the teachers from school helped a lot. I am sure, after all the work I put into the application, it was the interview that was the deciding factor. What is Land Economy? Land Economy as a Bachelor degree is unique to the University of Cambridge. Law, economics, and their relationship to the built and natural environments are central to Land Economy, along with other areas such as business regulation, the financial aspects of real estate and international development. The multidisciplinary nature of the course is particularly relevant in the 21st Century where the environment, law and economics and the control of scarce resources affect the daily lives of people around the world.

A Park Lane Graduate, Class of ’23, Ori G took a gap year after completing her IB Diploma before she went off to university. Here is what she had to say: Your reasons for taking a gap year? The reason I took a gap year was to explore what I wanted to pursue in the future. The gap year reinforced my decision to study Psychology at University. How well did that work out and how beneficial was it? I believe taking a gap year was beneficial, as it meant that I could take a break and explore new things. I advanced my skills in teaching, time management, and adapting to my students’ needs, which are skills that I will use in my job in the future. What did you do with regard to working at Park Lane and any other activities outside of school? In Park Lane, I worked in the SEND team, where I worked one-on-one with some amazing students. I also worked in the library, where the older students could come and ask for subject-specific help. Outside of school, I dedicated a lot of time to tutoring for Maths, Sciences, and English. I enjoyed this because it challenged me to be creative with teaching approaches and it was rewarding because of the students’ progress. What did it mean for your university applications? Taking a gap year removes any worry from university applications – since I had already received my grades, I got unconditional offers. It also meant that I could spend more time on university essays and entrance exams. Any advice for students considering a gap year? For anyone considering taking a gap year, I would recommend that you choose a position that would give you job experience in an area you would like to pursue. This will help test whether you actually want to follow this career path as well as look great on your CV! How is it going at university now, tell us how you are getting on? I am very happy at the University of Amsterdam! I believe that my subject choices in IB prepared me for this course and that the gap year helped me handle the responsibilities of living alone.