The Knowledge Society Reviews 38

Surrounded by passionate ambitious peers who actually want to change the world, no competition just collaboration and honest feedback

TKS, I am grateful for nurturing my child into a meaningful learner. The efforts, planning, and human resource management, are highly creative, flexible, and purposeful. As a trainer, I admire your seamless integration of pedagogy, content, and technology in your weekly classes. As a parent, I am proud to be part of TKS. Your timely financial aid through a scholarship is helping turn our dream into reality.

If you have got nothing better to do than pay to stare at a screen 3 hours a week and deal with the arrogant and condescending behaviour from directors and some of the students, irrespective of time zones differences and other commitments they expect you to be committed 24/7. I don't want to comment on content but I'd suggest that unless developing a growth mindset is a key priority for you then it's probably not a bad idea looking for equal content on YouTube.

When I came across TKS, I thought it would be great. However, my experience with it isn't great. The application is relatively short, it asks you a few questions. I think that everyone gets accepted automatically after like a day. I applied again this year and got accepted again.
Then, there was an interview: I was interviewed together with 2 other applicants, and from my subjective feeling, I was the worst candidate of them - I didn't work on any real projects before, while the others had a lot of success. However, the next day (!), I got accepted. Why not during the interview? Or why not a week/two after the interview, after the team can get together and rate the candidates? To me, it looks like they do not care about the candidates, they only make a fake feeling of elitism and make you think that only the best can get in. And then everyone gets in...
But that's not all - here comes the best part. After the interview, you are not done yet - you need to write an article about a scientific field. I wrote about prime/gene editing. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed writing it - but I don't think people at TKS cared at all about the quality of the article. Why do I think that? Because from the statistics of Medium (the blog site), I can see that the article has been opened for 17 seconds. That seems too fast for a 4-minute article.
Making you write an article just to make yourself look like a competent institution that cares about quality? Disgusting.
Anyway, I finally got into this program - at this point, I was very sceptical (after reading posts on Reddit about TKS). I applied for financial aid, because 6,000$ for such a program is ridiculous - I could buy all online memberships for all course websites (edX, Coursera, Udemy, DataCamp). You might say, the networking is worth it. No. It isn't. I can go to one live event (a TEDx event is everywhere nowadays) and meet hundreds of experts at once. I can join a science fair and meet everyone. For almost nothing (well, not 6,000$). I can join hundreds of Discord servers for self-development, study groups, etc. I will meet more people for ZERO price.
Anyway, you need to submit a video project if you want to get aid. I didn't get the aid, because my project wasn't good.
You still have to learn everything on your own. They don't teach you anything that isn't available online.
Please, don't try it. Especially if you don't have 6,000$ to throw away.

1. Directors: TKS hires amazing people. All of the directors are so supportive and actually care about your growth. They're fun people who can help you figure out what you're passionate about and what you need to do to get there. These directors are the people leading your cohorts, running the challenges, giving you honest feedback on your presentations, etc.
2. Self-guided learning: Unlike school or other traditional extracurricular programs, there's nothing that's truly "required" of you. The amount of time you put in is completely optional, and that's why it works so well. You can explore technologies and build solutions to problems you really care about. The range of projects students are working on is so diverse because they're what everyone actually wants to work on! I'm passionate about IoT and biosensors to solve problems in patient monitoring, so I've been able to work in this space just as people around me are working on gene editing plants and building nuclear reactors.
3. Global community: In the virtual program, every session is like traveling around the world. People Zoom in from all over the place from Singapore, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, US, Canada, India, and so many more countries & cities. When you're working on solving global problems, having a globally-minded team is crucial. The global community is so supportive & collaborative. It's also fun because wherever I'm traveling next, most likely there's a TKS student I can meet up with while I'm there!

I was in TKS from 2021-2023 completing both the Innovate and Activate programs. I can say for a fact that without this program, I would not be anywhere near as close to my vision for myself and the future as I am now.
In innovate, you meet friends who share the same values as you do and are exposed to the whole new world of business and technology. Not only are you exposed to this world but you get unlimited coaching with directors, people who have had successful careers in these areas before they worked for TKS.
Activate is also an amazing program that thoroughly improved my ability to problem-solve and turn my projects from just being projects, to being things that can have real impact in the world.
Through TKS, I've met my best friends who are also people I admire, built projects that evolved into my passion for clean energy, and got to attend several conferences I never would have gone to without sponsorship.

TKS has been a fun and growth-focused experience that has left a big lasting impression on my life. The information-rich sessions and the dynamic community are some of the highlights I will always cherish from the program.

My TKS experience has been fun and eye opening in the least expected ways. TKS is a game changer, and a wild card for those who can discern😉 they, encourage diversity of opinions and beliefs. It is what psychiatrists call a safe space.

TKS is really fun! And I'm learning lots and lots of new things!

Absolutely epical. My confidence has increased, my technical depth and breadth of knowledge have increased, and I've made some awesome friends who have helped me in many ways. Community and personal growth are my two highlights.

TKS has been absolutely amazing and 100% life-changing.

TKS has been highly impactful for my social and academic well-being. I have never felt as good and successful being part of the program than before I joined.

TKS is magic on a rollercoaster for the brain.

Finding my purpose and creating a mindset and lifestyle that's focused on making consistent progress in all portions of my life.

Fast-paced, individualized progress guided with high-level directors and mentors to take project progress to the next level.

TKS is life changing, I've enjoyed my time so much. 10000% best decision I've ever made in my life.

The Knowledge Society program is a melting pot of talents and ideas where I have grown not only in my skills but also in my network and perspective. It's a journey of self-discovery and empowerment that I am grateful to be a part of.

Better than expected. Love the bonuses we find out during TKS that aren’t told to us prior.

TKS gave me a lot of beneficial mindsets and helped provide resources to push myself to a deeper understanding of topics I was interested in. However, they had a lot of cult-like tendencies; they used confession thought reform by making people at sessions confess (so to speak) if they didn't do enough work in the last week. They would also explain how bad it is not to be fully dedicated, putting TKS before school. They encouraged people not to try super hard in school since it "doesn't matter." Unfortunately, I let this get to my head, and a year later, I am still working to put effort back into school.

In addition, TKS is extremely elitist, and people in the group tend to think they are much better than those outside the group. People who also are normal school students and don't do TKS are seen as unfortunate people who won't succeed because they aren't being taught how to.

When someone tries to question the directors or Navid and Nadeem, they will commonly be shot down or discredited.

All this being said, though, TKS provides a large community with many connections, so if you're looking to build your network while working hard with other people your age, TKS might be good for you.

I really like the website and I think it’s easy to use and that overall it’s really simple, especially for someone who doesn’t know much about technology.