Julie Randles celebrates the early successes of the students taking part in our US Programme this year.

December is always full of anticipation – for Christmas, for the end of term, and for the nights finally starting to get a bit shorter. For the students taking part in our US Programme this year, they had the added anticipation of waiting to hear whether they had an early acceptance to a leading American university.

Today we’re delighted to announce that 43 young people from all across the UK, have been accepted early, to institutions including M.I.T,  Harvard and Princeton.

We’re sure that many more of our students will be accepted later in the year as part of the normal admissions round, but for now these 43 are set to join the 135 Sutton Trust alumni already studying in the US. Congratulations to them all – their success is very well deserved.

Although applications to US universities have increased in recent years – there are now over 5,000 British undergraduates at American universities – students from less advantaged homes may not have access to the same level of support and resources for US admissions that their counterparts from fee-paying schools might have.

Our US Programme, now in its fourth year, gives bright state school students from less advantaged homes a taste of life at an American university and – if they decide it’s for them – intensive support and advice through the admissions process. Applications for our 2016 programme close on 20th January and interested students can apply here.

We work in partnership with the US-UK Fulbright Commission to send 150 students to a week-long summer school in the US. We usually base our weeks at Yale, MIT or Harvard, and make sure that students experience as much as possible of what life at a US university will be like. We take them to visit a small rural Liberal Arts college as well as a big city Ivy League institution, and provide a series of introductory events and activities.

Following this, students who decide they want to apply to a US institution are supported throughout the process from study sessions for the ACT college assessment test to choosing which university is right for them, help with filling in the myriad of forms needed and advice on how to write the best personal statement. We also provide all applying students with a mentor who has experience of the US system themselves, for advice, a friendly ear, and that all-important moral support during the process.

Of course, we’re equally proud of the students on all our programmes and recognise that there are many reasons why a student might want to stay in the UK to study. One of the things that makes our US programme so life-changing for the students who win a place to study in America, is the access to finance that comes with the offer. Those 43 students have been offered, between them, $10m of financial aid, meaning that they will graduate with little or no debt – and they join our current students who between them have accessed $33m of financial aid.

And that’s why we run our US programme. We believe that all bright students, no matter their family background or school, should have access to the best education they can, yet often students from less advantaged homes will not have access to the same level of support as others. We aim all our programmes at less advantaged students, whether that’s because of low family income, attending a school without a good track record of sending students to top universities, or having no one in their family with university experience who can help them apply. The backgrounds of this year’s early admissions bear out our success; 88% of them will be the first in their family to go to university, and 53% are from households earning less than £25,000 a year.

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