Winter at Doon with King’s College London: Are you missing a unique opportunity? Universities and employers in India and abroad are always looking for signs of ambition in young people when they offer admission to undergraduate and postgraduate courses, or jobs in their companies. For most applying, much of their c.v. will be about their time in school, and universities and employers look back to where applicants went to school - and what they did there - for many years after they graduate. Increasingly, universities are placing value and emphasis on pre-university courses that show that an applicant has a genuine passion for a subject. Just gaining high marks and repeating over and over in an application that you are “passionate” about a subject or pursuit in or out of the classroom or lecture hall is not persuasive; anyone can write that, but evidence has to be produced that there is a genuine commitment to a claimed “passion” beyond the textbook or beyond basic attendance in a co-curricular activity. Application forms are increasingly leaving space for candidates to show how they have stepped out of their academic comfort zones through pre-university courses; the best candidates for colleges and desirable employment are able to fill in those blank spaces. Winter at Doon offers a unique, tailor-made opportunity for girls and boys to enrich their academic lives and demonstrate intellectual ambition to universities and future employers. There has been much talk about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a way of demonstrating such academic ambition to universities and future employers, but a very large number of those taking them already have a degree and/or are retired. Completion rates are usually in single digits (for instance, UPenn reports that only 4% of those who register complete their MOOCs), and one of the main complaints is that the courses lack human interaction and can become boring. Winter at Doon not only offers senior age students a chance to get ahead of most of their peers in the world by working in the lovely, Ivy League-like environment of The Doon School campus with acknowledged experts and researchers in a number of fields from one of the world’s most respected and top-ranked universities, but is also specifically designed to give a taste of elite university education to boys and girls in Classes X to XII. The future of work and lifelong study is increasingly multi-disciplinary, so several of the courses on offer are cutting edge. The Science module focuses on the science of space exploration; with India’s Mars probe in the world news, taking that module could not be timelier for young people interested in science, technology and engineering. The social sciences course on Global Cities in the Global Economy could not be better suited to those seeking placements and careers in economics, development fields, architecture and engineering, and the International Relations course is perfect for those thinking of careers in the world of policymaking, the media industries and politics, or working with multilateral agencies in the future. The English Literature course is invaluable for obvious reasons. If you are in Classes X to XII will be able to show that they are genuinely committed to their chosen field of endeavour at university and beyond. Boys and girls who are competing for placements and jobs will be able to place on their c.v.s the fact that they stepped out of their academic comfort zones, went to India’s pre-eminent boarding school, demonstrated that they have a genuine passion for an intellectual pursuit and completed a face-to-face course with experts in their chosen field of study. For ambitious girls and boys and their parents, it makes no sense to miss this amazing opportunity. A short film about the course is now available on the school website and on the website doonschool/winter/kcl Yours sincerely, Dr. Peter McLaughlin Headmaster, The Doon School
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 13:29:10 +0000