Emma Humphries Wins Place at Smith College, Massachusetts, on Sutton Trust US University Programme

Emma Humphries, aged 18, who is completing her A levels at Cronton Sixth Form College, has won a place and a financial aid package to study at Smith College, Massachusetts, after participating in the Sutton Trust’s US Programme run in partnership with the US-UK Fulbright Commission.

Last summer, Emma was one of 150 students selected for a summer school in the US at either Yale University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They competed with over 1,600 applicants to win a place on the programme and spent a week living on campus and visiting a number of other US universities. For over half of the students, this was their first trip to the US.
Emma, formerly of Wade Deacon High School said, “Smith College has been my top choice university since very early on in this process, so I am absolutely ecstatic to have been admitted with such an amazing financial aid award. Studying in the US definitely wouldn’t have been a realistic option for me without the Sutton Trust; their guidance and support was so valuable in helping me to achieve my goal. Being on the programme was such an amazing and inspiring opportunity, and I can’t wait to begin my studies at Smith.”
The students benefited from residential activities and received an intensive programme of support, delivered by the US-UK Fulbright Commission over a number of months before and after their US visit, which covered admission tests, college choices and the application process.

The aim of the Sutton Trust’s US Programme is to encourage academically talented, low and middle income British students to consider studying at American universities. The 2015 – 2016 programme cohort comes from across the UK and 86% of the students admitted early will be the first in their family to go to university. Of the 43 accepted students, 53% of participants are from households that earn less than £25,000 a year.
Emma is one of 43 students who have been selected under the early application deadline to US universities, and more students will be applying by the January deadline with results available later this spring. The participants admitted early have been offered a total of approximately $10m of financial aid from the universities over the next four years. They have been accepted to 28 different institutions through the early admissions deadline, including four at Harvard, four at Princeton and two at Yale.
Dr Luke MacMahon, Head of the Prestigious Universities Programme at Cronton added, “We are all incredibly proud of Emma’s achievement. The central aim of the Prestigious Universities Programme is to give the college’s most talented students the opportunity to realise their academic potential. In gaining a place to study at an outstanding American university Emma has epitomised this objective.”

Applications for this year’s programme close at the end of January and can be completed online (http://us.suttontrust.com)