Owen Seabrook, a sixth form student from St Helens in Merseyside, reflects on his week in America on the Sutton Trust’s US Programme.

Our week in America began with a bleary-eyed and jetlagged wakeup at Yale University. The Sutton Trust and Fulbright Commission’s army of students had left their homes in the UK to cross the Atlantic and experience life as an American undergraduate in and around one of the nation’s most prestigious colleges.

The first day entailed everything Yale – a campus tour, a bookstore visit, two lectures from recognised college professors and a vastly helpful information session. We heard old college legends and saw student artwork, as well as experiencing American college cuisine in one of the grand dining halls (a culinary experience which puts the UK to shame!).

Our next stop was New York City – the culturally immersed Columbia University embedded in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It was a bubble in the concrete ocean that students could enter and exit as they pleased – the laboratories and libraries may be in one place, but the campus covers the whole city. The Trust gave us a driving tour past its iconic monuments then took us to the 9/11 Memorial Museum before we were introduced to the British Consul-General and his American and English high-flying colleagues in his penthouse reception.

We later visited the rural Princeton University in New Jersey, an academic sanctuary with one of the largest libraries in America today. It held the apt title of “prettiest campus” but what blew me away was the food. After conquering my lunch there, I can’t envision any Princeton student going hungry.

The following day held a trip into beautiful Massachusetts, where Amherst college and its close-knit community were found nestled in the haven of the Pioneer Valley. One campus tour and information session later, we were back on the bus to Yale for a quiz and some time exploring the campus.

As the week came to a close we spent the final day at Yale in information sessions and interview practice. We left the following day, Harvard-bound to the college fair, where we spoke to a myriad of top university representatives before starting the long journey home. Two crossings of the Atlantic, three university T-shirts, four US states and five top colleges all in one week arranged for us by the Sutton Trust US Programme. It was an amazing week that I was glad to have experienced.

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