James D.

In the 2025 application season, NKCS has once again reported excellent news. Relying on their outstanding academic performance, three students from NKCS have successfully obtained offers from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)!

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has always hovered around the 50th position in the QS World University Rankings. In contrast, the other members of the G5 group, namely the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and University College London (UCL), all rank among the top ten. Such a significant gap in rankings has led many students and parents who are not well-informed to underestimate this "small but exquisite" institution.As its name suggests, the London School of Economics and Political Science specializes in the fields of "humanities and social sciences + economics". It has no science and engineering majors, no medical majors, and no architecture majors... Meanwhile, all the universities ranking high on the QS list are comprehensive universities. The fact that LSE can reach the 50th place in the world relying solely on these two professional fields demonstrates how powerful its ace majors are!Since its establishment in 1895, this renowned institution has nurtured 20 Nobel laureates and countless elite figures in politics and business. Its admission process is jokingly referred to as "mysterious" by people.The undergraduate admission data of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) for the academic year 2024/25 shows that the total number of applications reached 28,239, among which 4,612 offers were sent out, with an offer rate of 16.3%. In the end, 1,842 students officially enrolled, and the actual admission rate was 6.5%. Judging from the data, LSE's admission rate is even lower than that of the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

When James received the admission email from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), he was analyzing a set of consumer data using an econometric model. The founding student of NKCS admitted, "From being a gamer to a prospective economics researcher, it was the school that made me believe that passion can serve as the starting point of academic pursuit."

1. Starting with interest, ending with deep cultivation.

In the eighth grade, James was fascinated by the game logic of resource allocation in the virtual world. As this interest gradually transformed into curiosity and contemplation about economic phenomena in the real world, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the core principles of economics, he began to read N. Gregory Mankiw's *Principles of Economics*.This introductory economics textbook opened a door for the young boy. Under NKCS's personalized course selection system, he gradually built up a systematic understanding of the subject: from the market law of the "invisible hand", to the logic of government intervention when the market fails, and then to using calculus to deduce the marginal effect. After the math teacher noticed his sensitivity to models, he specifically recommended *The Princeton Companion to Calculus* to him, saying, "In an economist's toolbox, mathematics is the sharpest scalpel."

The EPQ (Extended Project Qualification) program in the 11th grade became a crucial turning point. Under the guidance of his teacher, James Dai chose to study consumer behavior using econometric methods. "When I first used Stata to process real data, I was at a loss when facing the outliers," he recalled. In response, the economics teaching team formed an interdisciplinary tutoring group: the math teacher assisted in optimizing the algorithm, and the computer teacher provided guidance on code debugging.The research paper that eventually received an A* not only verified the differences in the price elasticity theory among different income groups but also enabled the young boy to truly feel the pulse of academic research. "EPQ taught me how to transform the strategic thinking in games into rigorous academic language." Now, this work lies quietly in his application documents, becoming an important bargaining chip for opening the door of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

2. Nurturing Academic Roots in the Soil of Freedom

"At NKCS, you define the boundaries of exploration yourself," James summed up his growth path in this way. This "tailor-made" cultivation model is known as "a personalized class schedule for each student" at NKCS. We are not craftsmen who trim the branches and leaves, but gardeners who provide sunlight and rain. Just as James Dai said, "Here, the identities of a strategic game player, a data researcher, and a math enthusiast can coexist, and ultimately blend into a clear pursuit of economics."

3. Waiting for the bloom patiently

At NKCS, the "time of flowering" of every child will be tenderly watched over."We chose NKCS seven years ago precisely because of this sense of 'composure'," James's mother said with emotion. From discovering his interests in Grade 8, to finding his academic direction in Grade 10, and then shining brightly in Grade 12, the school has always maintained an appropriate guiding rhythm: not forcing the premature ripening of young inspirations, nor allowing any spark of exploration to be extinguished.This concept has even reshaped the family's understanding of education. "When our child became interested in the economic system in the game, instead of simply stopping him, we, together with the school, guided this enthusiasm towards an in-depth reading of *The Wealth of Nations*. When he encountered a bottleneck in his research on consumer data, the teacher taught us how to be a 'wise listener' rather than an 'answer provider'."

In James's story, we can see the educational philosophy of a burgeoning school: True international education is not the standardized production on an assembly line, but rather enabling every child to set out with their unique passion, and allowing them to develop an irreplicable academic personality in a free and open environment. Education is about helping a tree find its own spring.Perhaps in the future, when James is in London, he will still play "games", but the screen of his computer will have quietly changed to the modeling interface of the Federal Reserve Economic Database. There, in that vaster real world, there are more opportunities awaiting his "strategic planning".