The Unspoken Reality Behind the Harvard Gates | Alex Chang | TEDxYouth@SHSID 

My fav quote: "Don't let school ruin your education".

I can feel his stress through the screen

The worst is when your friends find success while you’re still looking and you feel less superior, it hurts man!

50 cent:” i didn’t study at harvard, but my employees did.” Think about it.

I’ve met quite a number of people who attended prestigious colleges who still have no StreetSmarts or any common sense. Book learning only gets you so far in life.

The best thing at Harvard is that library.

I graduated from Oxford university in 2005 and can relate to this video. I graduated top of my class in high school, but when you reach a top university you are all of a sudden surrounded by super high achievers which can be a bit demoralising. Several students (10-15%) in my year dropped out as well as they couldn’t cope with the intensity. Plus the worst part is having to spend evenings/weekends writing out application forms for summer internships/ jobs. Looking back, I’m still pleased to have gone to Oxford but I know it’s not for everyone.

I went to a small college, but even I dealt with some of the stresses discussed in this video

Me: I really want to go to Harvard! *watches this video* Me: actually I will just stick to just walking around the campus.

Nicely said and thanks for sharing.

And here I am studying one day before exam 😂

Excellent presentation! 👍👏👌

I don't even attend such an important college but I still complain every day about my university.

Once you go to a place where competition is everything, it's either you win or you lose. If you win then congratulations, you will be very comfortable throughout your years in college life. That means you have established your identity which people could look up on to. If you lose, things began to crumble since you will be living in a place where you dont have an idendity as an introduction of yourself. Let say when school needs a singer for an event, and people already know oh you could ask somebody somebody and it was not you. Even if you wanna try it might be too late by then only miracle at this point could help you since you have missed up the first chance. You dont have your own name in things and slowly you began to doubt yourself, insecurities eat you up slowly, then in the end you lose yourself. Some even thought they could never succeed or wake up ever again from that nightmare because it was too late by then. This is simply beacuse you can no longer be the ebst and comfortable with yourself. I truly agreed with everything that he said. It was painful, it was unbearable but when you realised it, you can't never go back to how you was before and ceryaunly you cant no longer live in your present.

Beautifully said

Looking forward to May, 4th. Hopefully seeing you guys in germany then

Harvard was 4 tough years One commited suicide 50% show signs of depression. We talking about college or prison??😅

Had a nearly identical experience in a similar to Harvard institution and looking back I’m amazed how I survived with a ‘fight or flight’ mental setting, extreme, unrealistic expectations and all other symptoms mentioned by him, for years and years and now I realize how we as teens and young adults are simply exploited with the these psychological tools used in the hustle culture and unhealthy competition and etc. We are so corrupt and each and every demographic suffers in one or another way. Even if you are a ‘gifted kid’, you are not privileged, you will suffer but in a more creative way

*There's Hard Mode, then there's Harvard Mode.*

It's great!

The traditional education system is flawed. Everyone is different. I myself went from being in one of the worst schools in the country, to one of the best colleges (with low grades), to a sub-par university, and then to a great career. Anybody can make it regardless of your education. Sure, an education can open a door to something better or more senior, faster, but it doesn't guarantee anything. Finding good oppertunities where you can grow as a person is far more important to your success than landing in a great school.

Thank you for being REAL sir 👍

I fail to see the appeal of Harvard anymore.

Okay!

I'm in a private medical College n I can still feel the stress .

Rn I´m studying Fashion design and management, in the beginning, I was afraid of telling close people bc that could have said "what a waste of money and time", and I know that you shouldn't pay attention to things like that, but it will always be hard to deal with it, hopefully, most of them supported me. The other thing is that people say that studying Fashion is just easy, and it is absolutely not, nit because it's not a traditional career makes it easy, I feel exhausted but so proud of my career.

I think all colleges should run like Ivy League schools, in how important learning is & the distinction. Harvard & those type of schools are for the wealthy. Why are the wealthy considered important, but the rest of the world, who are not, considered less important? I was struggling in a college class, tried every avenue for help, finally went to the professor. He told me I wasn't worth sacrificing the rest of the students. All I wanted was help.

Harvard(looks at the thumbnail): " _that's what she said_ "

Why was this reuploaded?

Spot on!!

Very good presentation.

After listening to this speech, I think that at Harvard they should start to focus more on teamwork and how to help instead beat each other. Maybe all those inhumane enterprises led by their greedy CEOs would not put our hole society, planet and everything at risk just to win some game.

smh all you need to get into harvard is 99 strength on runescape

Really very much inspiring

I feel sad for the Harvard student or any student who feels such stress in life. I do not believe that God would want this mentality for his humans.

Same story at IIT 😥

PARABÉNS PELO SEU EMPENHO ...GOSTO🧡💛❤BOA SORTE 🍀🍀🍀🇵🇹

Who feels like a failure??

I would like to study I don't care the stress or if is hard. But I don't have money even for to eat sometimes and less for study. The hard the prepare for a hard life.

If he wouldn't have been Harvard material they wouldn't had accepted him. That CV is beyond any average student could have.

Maybe i have no idea what struggling is i strugly even to finish my diploma...

don't all university students go through stress depression and parents :/ im not even from the united states but this is collage and u have to work hard!

Nice video!

Seems like Harvard is all about look at what i can do. See what i did... brrrrr

Harvard student: Harvard is HARD UPSC aspirant: Bro here the whole situation is UNPREDICTABLE.

I already saw this somewhere ...

The video is old btw

Great

Join me in life-changing story!

I HOLD THE RECORD FOR EARLIST ADDITION TO THE DISCIPLINARY PROBATION ROLLS(DURING FRESHMAN ORIENTATION WEEK)! SO I AM A NO. 1. RIGHT?

HARVARD IS HARD *kid named harvard*

Take a shot every time he says "Harvard".

4th..... Consolation prize

This talk didn’t reveal anything groundbreaking. I recently attended an event with Harvard alums and a fellow attendee asked me “did you graduate from an Ivy League”, which I replied “no”. Then he proceeded to tell me, “ well at least you’re beautiful, and that’s not easy” lmao 😂. All to say... I would never wanna be one of em.

Why do people even have "dream schools". In the end it is still a school.

Hi

G.W. Bush: Harvard was easy peasy lemon squeezey.

Harvard should let anyone carrying a pencil be their student...

There should be a ted talk about why Asians are so smart.

Türkler kendini belli etsin

"little did i know, i got in" - asian man before they started discriminating against them

they pay thousands of dollars to behumiliated socially and mentally? in real life its free fyi

Harvard discriminates Asians.

This Ted talk is old I have seen it before

There are two types of people Once watching the RU-vid videos Other working for Harvard

Glad that Harvard rejected me and finally ended up at UofT two years ago.

I could never imagine caring this much about homework lmao

✌✌✌

How is this even worthy of attention for a *TEDtalk*? This is the reality of any student who cares about succeeding in college.

This is hard to watch

You didn't tell how much you invest on Harvard 😂

These comments are so sad lmoa

So many wrong things about it. Eh.

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People who struggle at Harvard unfortunately sad to say end up successful lol jk jk Hope life hasn’t been too stressful for this guy

I don't mean to sound glib, but I really don't understand how Alex Chang got admitted to Harvard. Not that his credentials aren't impressive (I'm downright impressed!), but his response as to "why" he wanted to attend Harvard sounds really lame to me. I'm not a college admissions officers, so I can't say I know what colleges are looking for, but it seems to me that the reasons for attending any college (especially an elite one) should be the product of much drive, passion and reason, expressed in well articulated terms. Alex said his reasons for going to Harvard were to fulfill his desire to receive the best education, and to make his parents proud (and justified in their many sacrifices). I think that's all quite worthy, but are these the requisite passwords to Harvard admission? I really wanted to know from Alex's talk why it is he thinks Harvard accepted him when he thinks his academics were sub-standard for a Harvard admit.

This presentation is a C-

Eh. Maybe you earned "ivy league mentality", but you haven't got a clue how to prepare an engaging and relatable talk.

Poor little rich kid

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