Honest Review of The Knowledge Society (TKS)
I went through two years of TKS, a human accelerator program for students who want to explore how STEM can solve global challenges.
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Background: I did the program in my sophomore and junior years. I’ve only ever been to public school. I’m a first-generation Canadian. I’m a senior now with an offer to study Human Sciences at Oxford (in the same building where Robert Hooke studied !!!!!!).
I also got the Morehead-Cain (full ride) scholarship to UNC-Chapel Hill, valued at $300,000+ CAD, which is where I am heading next year. That means my return on investment ($10,000 CAD) is 2,900%. I can confidently say I got the scholarship BECAUSE of my experience at TKS.
This post will summarize what I got from the program, who I recommend the program to, and my critiques.
Quick oversight to the most valuable parts of the program:
- Two consulting challenges with companies: you work in teams to build a recommendation deck to solve one of their problems.
- Access to directors pretty much 24/7. Most are former founders, graduates of top universities, who have worked on difficult challenges (anything from improving semiconductors to enhancing B2B security).
- Exclusive guest speakers pretty much every week (noble prize physicists exclusive).
- An environment where you’re encouraged to foster your ambition. With the community and directors, you can realize what you’re capable of (e.g. I learned how capable I was at learning biochemistry concepts quickly and explaining them in simple ways).
There are three main assets I gained from the program:
- People Skills [for professional environments]
- Experiments to find my passion areas
- Great friendships
I want to be clear that I LOVED my experience at TKS. So this review is coming from someone whose journey through the program was immensely positive — and I am not a lone case. 99% of the dozens of people I know through the program would say it was the single most life-changing experience.
