IECs Invade London!

In late July, twelve members of AIIEC came together for a 7 day tour of London universities. While some were familiar with the city, for a few of us—including myself—it was a first-time experience.

We kicked off the trip with a lovely welcome dinner organized by our friends at Lumiere. The next morning, we started early with a visit to UCL, where Arvind Vepa gave us an excellent tour filled with interesting details about the university's history, notable alumni like Coldplay's Chris Martin and director Christopher Nolan, and admissions trends. The tour ended with a highlight: a sneak peek into the university's fantastic zoological specimens.

Following our UCL visit, we had lunch and an information session with Investin, an organization that offers high school students internship experiences. After a quick group catch-up, we had the evening free shop, grab dinner and explore the city.

The rest of the week followed a similar pattern. On Tuesday, we took the train out to Cambridge, where we learned about boarding school and prep school options in the UK with the Dukes Education group, and visited a few of their schools. Afterwards, we had a guided tour of Robinson College, the newest of Cambridge's colleges, and then toured the city (and, of course, stopped for lots of photo ops!)

After soaking in Cambridge's historic charm, the next day we had a very different experience as we visited Central Saint Martins in the morning, followed by lunch and a visit to Northeastern London. I personally loved touring Central Saint Martins' design labs and facilities, and seeing students' work in progress. Afterwards, hearing professors, students and admissions officers and Northeastern speak about their emerging tech-focused majors, global expansion, and thesis projects at the intersection of AI, ethics, and law enforcement felt like a glimpse into the future of global, interdisciplinary education. Through these interactions and site visits, I came away feeling much better equipped to speak with students and parents about the universities and respective student experience.

On Thursday, we had the pleasure of meeting David Hawkins (a bit of a celebrity in the college counselling world), who gave us a fascinating overview of trends shaping UK and international admissions. After a brief tour of SP Jain's sleek London campus (including their 360-degree viewing room), we headed to Bayes where we met with admissions officers for a tour, and learned more about their new programs and student life.

Friday's visit to Imperial College London started with an informal tour (thanks to Google Maps) followed by an official student tour where we learned more about majors, research and incredible industry partnerships with companies like Bayer, Dyson, Nestle, and Jaguar Land Rover. This was followed by a presentation with admissions officers, which was spot-on in terms of the attention to detail and specialized information they included relevant to Indian IECs. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we were blown away by the kinds of projects students were working on in Imperial's Enterprise Lab.

On our final day, Saturday, some of the group visited Oxford, while the rest of us prepared to fly back to our respective cities.

The trip left me with a fresh perspective and a deeper understanding of the UK university experience. What I valued most, however, was the sense of collaboration and camaraderie among my fellow IECs. During and after all of the college visits, inevitably someone would comment, "Man, I wish I could go back to college." But as we congregated in someone's hotel room for an evening, explored London's nightlife together, and met up with familiar faces the next morning at breakfast, I couldn't help but recall some of the best parts of my own college experience.

I think many of us become IECs because we loved college - the continuous learning, the excitement of new beginnings, and the joy of meeting new people. With AIIEC, I don't long for my college years; I've found a way to bring the best parts back into my life.