Diaspora NZ with David Booth
00:29:10 · Jamie Beaton, David Booth
[00:29:10] S1: Yeah. So I'll give you a couple of examples. In New Zealand, we have a student, Sam Taylor, grew up from Mount Maunganui, young Maori boy, came through Crimson, got into Harvard, received a financial aid package that made it cheaper to go to Harvard than the University of Auckland. Cowan Hamana, a young Maori boy from Rotorua, he wanted to go to The States through life sciences. Again, gone to Harvard, full scholarship, cheaply going to any university in the country. [00:29:35] S0: Were the paths... Were the were the scholarships specifically available? Is Rhodes often go to The US? Oh, UK? This is handful [00:29:42] S1: of This is financial aid. [00:29:43] S0: Yeah. So Oh, so financial financial aid is coming from the college themselves to really assume this year. It's not scholarship provided by a third party necessarily. [00:29:49] S1: That's right. [00:29:50] S0: So this
00:29:50 · David Booth, Jamie Beaton
[00:29:50] S0: So this [00:29:50] S1: is this is a key a key thing that I think is, you know, warped from, like, Gossip Girl or something. So there's the idea that, you know, NYU or Princeton costs $80 a year and everyone's gotta pay that. At Harvard, two thirds of students at Harvard are on financial aid. Off that one third pay nothing to go there. So one of the great things that's happened since I launched Crimson is many more of the top universities have what we call need blind financial aid, which means when you apply for the university, they don't care if you can pay the full rate or nothing. They admit you based on your meritocratic skill, and then they look at, okay, how much funding do they do they have to give you so you can make it financially affordable. The universities are actually highly incentivized to go on this talent's arms race to find the best kids anywhere in the country. That's one of the services Crimson basically is indirectly providing this network by sourcing kids from all around the wood, bringing them to these top universities. So, you know, of course, there are some families that are, you know, a New York three generation family who's been to Columbia three times and pays the full fee, but a huge portion of Crimson students. It's the first time they've gone to America, the first time they've gone to The UK. They need funding to be able to afford financial aid. And actually, we're doing is helping them figure out a affordable path to go from Pakuranga to Caltech [00:30:58] S0: Mhmm.
00:30:58 · David Booth, Jamie Beaton
[00:30:58] S0: Mhmm. [00:30:58] S1: Or, you know, Hamilton to Harvard. And that's pretty exciting. And, you know, just like what you said, you know, a lot of folks, they're super informed, they think Ivy League school is super expensive, no way to do it. And that's one of the, you know, big psychological, you know, sort of errors that we try and fix so that kids know, actually, they've got a shot. They can compete. More generally, Crimson's got a huge scholarship program, the biggest in our industry. We help more than a 150 kids a year pro bono. And then, of course, millions of students use our online resources. Many students I meet in New York City on these campuses come to me and say, hey, you know, I didn't use Crimson on a paid basis, but your resources were amazing. I helped... They helped me get into NYU. So that's really, you know, exciting, for example, too. [00:31:39] S0: There'd be there'd be an alumni program now where some of the people who have had success would be able to pay it forward and pay it... You know, help support others coming through, I'm sure. Yeah. Much more common among sort of The US endowment model where they'll hit the most successful graduates of their various institutions for sponsorship or scholarship or donation. They're very good at that. [00:31:58] S1: Yes. The US is ridiculously good at it. Yeah. I I am [00:32:01] S0: You'll see... I mean, you're only ten years in, but as as this journey unfolds and many of the early success stories start to unfold, I'm sure you'll see something similar, if not really.
00:32:01 · David Booth, Jamie Beaton
[00:32:01] S0: You'll see... I mean, you're only ten years in, but as as this journey unfolds and many of the early success stories start to unfold, I'm sure you'll see something similar, if not really. [00:32:09] S1: Yeah. Yeah. We we definitely have grateful Crimson parents that sponsor some students to go through the program, And we've certainly seen some early alums achieving amazing things. I think about one of our students, Brendan. He went from Australia to Harvard. He was a black student temporarily. He launched a company called Fig, and he sold it to Amazon in his mid twenties. Pretty impressive stuff. And so, you know, he's not even 30, and he's already had his first big win on the entrepreneurial school board. And, you know, someone like that is an incredible mentor for the next generation.
00:32:09 · Jamie Beaton, David Booth
[00:32:09] S1: Yeah. Yeah. We we definitely have grateful Crimson parents that sponsor some students to go through the program, And we've certainly seen some early alums achieving amazing things. I think about one of our students, Brendan. He went from Australia to Harvard. He was a black student temporarily. He launched a company called Fig, and he sold it to Amazon in his mid twenties. Pretty impressive stuff. And so, you know, he's not even 30, and he's already had his first big win on the entrepreneurial school board. And, you know, someone like that is an incredible mentor for the next generation. [00:32:38] S0: You said something that is really interesting. It's not just the students that wanna get into the top institutions. It's the top institutions that actually wanna build out a base of students, a pipeline of of students who are, you know, beyond perhaps the standard form... Model of of applicant, let's say. Have you... I mean, do you work actively with those universities? And if so, is there an alignment of incentives problem where, you know, you are representing a student and what's best for the student themselves and which institution is best for them? I imagine if you were... It's almost a little bit like recruiting, and the recruiter will work on behalf of a company, and they'll try and find the best candidate for the company even if it's not in the candidate's best interests. How do you sort of think about the serving two customers there and resolving that conflict of interest?
00:33:21 · Jamie Beaton
[00:33:21] S1: So we focus purely on the student and the parent and what's best for them as a unit. Yeah. We help them get into the school that best suits them, negotiate the best package for them, and that's our full focus. The universities benefit, of course, from our work around the world promoting the schools, the opportunities, the scholarships, helping to level up the human capital of these students so that they actually land on campus, they're more equipped to succeed, helping them get more applicants. So Crimson plays a really valuable role in the university's recruiting process. A lot of universities don't have the desire to send their admissions officers to far flung parts of the world to try and, you know, find students applying or explain the complicated process. A lot of the time, they can't even go into much detail about their process because they don't wanna be stoking the flames of competition. You know, they don't wanna go to Vietnam and tell everyone, hey. You need 15 AP exams to actually get in from this country or something. And so Crimson places important, you know, arm's length role in the process. But, yeah, we focus on students and parents, and that's a really important driver of our success. The students know that we're purely focused on them and and getting results for them.