Markets with Madison
00:25:25 · Jamie Beaton, Madison
[00:25:25] S1: So I guess, I think about my time at, say, Harvard undergrad, I took all these classes in areas from math to stats to finance to business to entrepreneurship. Very few of them have any kind of political exposure in general, and so I think for the typical student, you don't really see politics into the classroom almost at all. Even in international relations or government style class, still not that much. I think where you see it sometimes is in debates or in campus protests or if you go and join political clubs like the Republicans on campus. At Yale Law, they have things like, for example, the Federalist Society. And if you join that, you sort of yell to the campus that you're a Republican and you're really proud of that, and that will trigger a bit of animosity sometimes, but on the whole I would say it's quite exaggerated. From an ideological standpoint, about 92% of undergrads at Harvard are Democratic voters, and so you do, of course, have that skew, but also international students tend to have a pretty balanced, you know, neutral view as well. And so on the whole, I wouldn't say it's as highly charged as it seems. A lot of the protests are about, certain issues like Israel Palestine. But if you're just a Republican guy rolling around or girl, you can have a pretty chill four years. [00:26:28] S0: What about that from the top down, though? Have you noticed or witnessed at all any ideological views stemming from educators
00:26:28 · Madison, Jamie Beaton
[00:26:28] S0: What about that from the top down, though? Have you noticed or witnessed at all any ideological views stemming from educators [00:26:37] S1: Good in these question. So I would say the presidents are usually very almost politician like in their... Well, I should say diplomatic like in their in their neutrality. So they don't really have any sort of partisan smearing. Even when Trump is saying things that, you know, are really attacking higher education, few university presidents will actually speak about that. They'll generally opt for a more diplomatic tact and a lot of their public comments are about, you know, the general value of academic research or inquiry, so I would say no, I haven't seen all that much. The only class I can think of would be my Yale Law seminar on advanced contracts with Amy Chua, and you know, she famously has helped lots of folks get Supreme Court clerkships, which is quite a political process, and within that class she actively calls on people across different sides of the political aisle and encourages that free flowing debate. But I think that's actually a good example of kind of what you want in the university, which is a relatively safe debating chamber for different ideas. And so I love that, I thought it was a fun experience.
00:26:37 · Jamie Beaton, Madison
[00:26:37] S1: Good in these question. So I would say the presidents are usually very almost politician like in their... Well, I should say diplomatic like in their in their neutrality. So they don't really have any sort of partisan smearing. Even when Trump is saying things that, you know, are really attacking higher education, few university presidents will actually speak about that. They'll generally opt for a more diplomatic tact and a lot of their public comments are about, you know, the general value of academic research or inquiry, so I would say no, I haven't seen all that much. The only class I can think of would be my Yale Law seminar on advanced contracts with Amy Chua, and you know, she famously has helped lots of folks get Supreme Court clerkships, which is quite a political process, and within that class she actively calls on people across different sides of the political aisle and encourages that free flowing debate. But I think that's actually a good example of kind of what you want in the university, which is a relatively safe debating chamber for different ideas. And so I love that, I thought it was a fun experience. [00:27:33] S0: On recent administration Spicy stuff. Alterations to education, specifically international student intake, do you have a view on what that means for education and also for your business, which relies, this entire business really relies on putting these international students into these education institutions in America. Could that completely disrupt what you're doing?
00:27:55 · Jamie Beaton, Madison
[00:27:55] S1: Yeah, it's a great question. So I would say a couple of things. There's three shocks so far. One is Trump saying he might ban Chinese students. The second is saying he might ban all international students from Harvard. And the third is freezing visa interviews. So first of all, for... Let's take the Chinese students. He recently announced that actually all Chinese students are open to come to America, and that was part of the trade tussle with Xi Jinping. So I think that was a classic Trump strategy where he initially announced this sort of scary thing to put pressure on China, but then walked it back entirely. Similarly for Harvard, they've won two lawsuits now to keep their right for international students, and so I think they will be able to take students all fine. We're of course helping kids this year who are sort of nervously waiting to begin this class, but I think that should also be okay. Then finally, there's the visa interviews. Unfortunately, this year's Kiwis largely have their visa interviews already scheduled at the embassy, so they should be able to get their student visas. But if that stuck around for a while, that could be a bit spicy. But on the whole, seems like it's de escalating quite a bit. [00:28:48] S0: You're an international student at these institutions. How would your life be different if you didn't get to have that experience? [00:28:56] S1: Yeah, I mean, well, selfishly, I've already knocked out a lot [00:28:59] S0: of my studies,
00:28:59 · Madison, Jamie Beaton
[00:28:59] S0: of my studies, [00:29:00] S1: think I'd be all right. But, you know, it would be sad. And I think about actually what I would feel like if I was 17 or 18 holding my Harvard offer back when I was in New Zealand and this whole wide world of America and, you know, entrepreneurship and everything was closed and, you know, what that would be like because I would have spent at that point four or five years training to get into Harvard like many of our students do. So it would be absolutely gut wrenching. And so we're, of course, working very hard through all the channels we can to make sure our students can, of course, enroll on campus. And, my general advice for an ambitious high schooler is don't blink, you know, keep preparing. And, you know, by the time you apply, it should be nicely settled down. [00:29:34] S0: Jamie's taking even more bets on himself. He's enrolled at Columbia to study journalism here and is currently studying healthcare policy at Cornell. So that's Okay, just casually.
00:29:34 · Madison, Jamie Beaton
[00:29:34] S0: Jamie's taking even more bets on himself. He's enrolled at Columbia to study journalism here and is currently studying healthcare policy at Cornell. So that's Okay, just casually. [00:29:44] S1: That's a new and exciting one for me, learning a bit more about different health systems around the world. That's... Why? Why healthcare? Well, guess I'm really interested in healthcare because I guess if you think about, for example, New Zealand, you know, two of the biggest expense items for the country is education and health. And for a long time, we've actually had a pretty good healthcare system in New Zealand, but it's struggling recently with long wait times, you know, inflated costs. So it's actually really interesting learning about other models, for example, in places like Switzerland or, you know, even some of the challenges in privatisation in North America. So yeah, really fun intellectual adventure. [00:30:15] S0: I think I know you well enough, Jamie, to guess that you're probably gonna start like a healthcare academy, or privatised healthcare business off the back of that, [00:30:23] S1: not The TEN guys are doing well right now, but we have got some amazing health work experience programmes for our students, where, you know, kids can, for example, hop into, online medical experiences and learn what it's like. So there's a bit of a Crimson link, of course. [00:30:36] S0: I look forward to seeing it. Hey, thank you so much for having us, I really appreciate your time. [00:30:39] S1: Cheers, you too.