Who would have thought that Törökbálin is Harvard's genius incubator?! Interview.
Tamara Lehoczky, a graduate of Toldy Ferenc High School, was admitted to one of the most prestigious universities in the world, Harvard, in Cambridge, a suburb of Boston. The 18-year-old young lady follows her elementary school friend from Törökbálint, Ferenc Soma Kovács, who is one year older than her, to the legendary New England educational institution. There may be something in the air in this small town wedged between Érd, Diósd and Budaörs.
It is a special experience for a journalist to conduct an interview with a Hungarian student who was accepted to one of the most prestigious universities in the world, Harvard. At this time last year, we talked with Ferenc Kovács Soma, a graduate student of Illyés Gyula High School in Budaörs, and now with Tamara Lehoczky, from Toldy Ferenc High School.
The interview reveals
• why students love Toldy so much,
• the two Hungarian Harvard students attended the same elementary school,
• Tamara struggled with the confusion of abundance when choosing a university,
• the woman preparing to become a diplomat even wrote a complete drama,
• received serious help from the Milestone Institute and
• even the post of foreign minister is included in his plans.
After Ferenc Kovács Soma, Tamara Lehoczky was also admitted to Harvard
One minute, a fleeting conversation with Deputy Director Zoltán Takács is enough to make you wonder: why didn't your parents enroll you in Toldy Ferenc High School several decades ago? It would have been logical, since he grew up just around the corner from there, on Mária tér in Víziváros... Because teacher Takács is the embodiment of cordiality when I inquire about Hungary's newest Harvard student, Tamara Lehoczky.
"I'm already calling Tami's class teacher, Attila Tapodi, talk to him, unfortunately I don't know if the young lady is here at the high school right now. But wait, Attila is on the line, I'll give it to you."
And yes, Mr. Tapodi promises that he will apply as soon as he can. Then I walk once more around the corridors of the patina educational institution, founded in 1854, then get into my car and drive towards Óbuda.
But I'm not even at Margaret Bridge when my phone rings. On the other end of the line, no fraud, no deception, Tamara Lehoczky. He is waiting at the gymnasium, he has forty minutes, the main rehearsal for the fool's graduation is about to begin, we can talk until then.
U-turn with screeching tires (when it comes to Harvard, let's apply the overseas terminology to the rear face), and five minutes later I'm back on the eastern slope of Buda Castle, Tamara is waiting in front of the porter's booth as agreed. It's like he's getting ready for a date, but it quickly turns out that it's just a costume, dressed for the fool's prom. After two sentences, it becomes clear that I am sitting opposite an average lady about to graduate. He surprises me with his first sentence.
Did you know that I am Turkish-Balintic? No? Ferenc Soma Kovács, who got into Harvard last year, is also from Törökbálin, we went to the same elementary school, he is a year above me - he says as if it was the most natural thing in the world to go from Törökbálin to the elite university in Massachusetts. "His parents also called me when it turned out that I was hired as well."
Political science decided for Harvard
Together with Fercsi Kovács - as the boy's parents call him - and Olivér Lontay, who is also finishing his first year, there will be three Hungarians at Harvard, where only about 3.5 percent of applicants are accepted, and where the proportion of foreign students is 12 percent. Tamara is on good terms with Olivér, she has heard a lot of good things from him about the famous institution.
Admission is very complicated. I myself went through the British, Hong Kong and American procedures and was admitted to UCL, i.e. University College London, as well as the London School of Economics and Political Science and SOAS, which is also a London university. . And also to the University of Hong Kong, HKU and the French university Sciences Po.
At this point, I note that Tamara could have even announced a competition among the educational institutions competing for her favors.
"After the results of my American applications came out, the decision caused a serious headache - he talks about the pleasant problems. – Because in addition to Harvard, I was accepted to NYU, i.e. New York University and Columbia. These are all private universities. In the end, there were two universities left, Harvard and Columbia, it was not easy to choose. What made you decide on Harvard? On the one hand, its prestige, and on the other hand, the fact that I want to study political science, in which Harvard is very strong, so much so that it is the world leader. I'm sorry that I keep speaking in English and saying political science, but the Hungarian "politology" is not an adequate translation of this."
I interject that, according to Deputy Director Takács, Toldy is more of a humanities-oriented secondary school, and if the teacher is to be believed, and why not, then Tamara has already written a complete play and a novel.
Yes, I wrote, but I want to work in the field of diplomacy, not playwriting - in the UN or some other international organization
he corrects.
When I note that it is not excluded, I am currently conducting an interview with the future foreign minister of Hungary, to my surprise he does not blush, there is no obligatory protest, but only a nod of agreement. Why not?! Well, back to the admission process!
