YOUNG OFS CHOOSING TO STUDY INTERNATIONALLY

We are seeing an increasing trend for our leavers to select international institutions for their Higher Education choices.

This year has seen success in the US for Della Carney (CE 2021–2023) at Yale, Leo Thomson (Ki 2018–2023) at Columbia, Marissa MacLean (PS-CE 2015–2023) at Holy Cross, Callum Johnston (Ca 2019–2023) at Notre Dame, Will Lancaster (PS-Ki 2017–2023) at Lindsey Wilson College, Connor Dawson (Ca 2021–2023) at Pennsylvania, and Kai Lewis (Gl 2018–2023) at Harvard. Looking elsewhere, Emma Golding (CE 2021–2023) has been offered a place at McGill University in Canada, Mia Currie (CE 2021–2023) at Bocconi in Milan and Anson Wong (Mo 2021–2023) has been awarded a scholarship to Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Three of the above have OF relatives. Marissa Maclean is the daughter of Murdo Maclean (Ki 1992–1996), Callum Johnston is the son of Chris Johnston (Ca 1983–1988) and grandson of David Johnston (Ca 1953–1958) and Kai Lewis, Head of School, is the great grandson of William Lewis (Gl 1912–1915) (Deceased)

Richard Smith (Staff 1994–present), who many will remember as teacher of Drama or Housemaster of Kimmerghame, is now responsible for our overseas applications.

In November the cohort of Sixth Form students intending to apply to study in the US were joined live on Zoom by young OFs from Princeton, Columbia, USC, Brown University and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Each representative was in a different period of their US Higher Education journey and provided fascinating insights into their experiences.

Fergus Bolton (PS-Gl 2011–2022) is a freshman at Brown University and plans to concentrate in political science or economics on the public policy track.

Amy Wong (CW 2015–2020) has been studying Chemistry at the University of Bristol, is on exchange at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the year.

Ava Peters (PS-Ar 2012–2019) is at Princeton University in New Jersey majoring in Politics with a minor in Spanish.

Annarosa Zampaglione (Da 2017–2019) joined Columbia College of Columbia University in 2019 where she immediately began taking History courses of regions, people and cultures she had never learnt about before. Annarosa hopes to graduate in May with a degree in History & French Literature.

Justin Sian (Ki 2014–2016) graduated from USC in May of 2020 with a Bachelor of Science from the Viterbi School of Engineering for Computer Science. Since graduating he has been working as a software engineer for a fintech startup.

Having a network of support from recent leavers now studying in the US is very insightful and helps us to provide first-hand life experiences. Richard Smith runs a programme of weekly tutorials for those applying to the US. This live webinar provided invaluable hints and tips on all aspects of the US College journey from application through to enrolling as a first year, through to the Junior and Senior years, as well as explanations of core curriculum and the breadth of course choices to inspire Major selection. We are hugely grateful to all who took part.

In April Richard visited an array of US Colleges and met several OFs studying in the US as well a number of College Admissions staff across the country to ensure Fettes ever growing number of US College applicants are well equipped to navigate the admissions process.

We are keen to grow the OF network overseas. If you have connections with an international Higher Education institution, please let us know by emailing ofa@fettes.com