A HIGH-flying South Cheshire College student is packing his bags for the USA to take part in a prestigious university residential.

Dan O’Neill will travel across the Atlantic in August 2014 to spend a week at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Summer School.

He is one of just 175 UK college students to be chosen as eligible applicants for the Sutton Trust US programme from more than 2,800 entries.

The Sutton Trust US programme aims to give UK students a taste of life at an American university and a week’s residential helps students to make the right decisions about choosing an American University as their next step.

Dan, who is studying A-Levels in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Critical Thinking at the college’s Crewe campus, first applied for the Sutton Trust US programme in December through the College’s Honours Programme.

As part of the application process, Dan submitted a series of videos and assignments before taking part in an introductory April residential in London where he learnt more about the programme.

The Sutton Trust were highly impressed by his suitability and commitment to the programme and were impressed with his performance at the April residential.

Dan is now looking forward to spending a week at MIT, from August 5 to 12, where he will experience life at the American institution first hand.

Following his US experience and his first year AS-Level results in August, Dan will then decide whether to officially apply to university in America.

Dan said: “I’m delighted to have been accepted to continue on the Sutton Trust programme and I can’t wait to head to America and experience university life there.

“When I first heard about the Sutton Trust US programme it was something that really appealed to me and I was serious straight away about applying to study over there.

“As well as the universities having excellent reputations, the financial support given to students over in the US is much more generous than in the UK so it could potentially give me the opportunity to complete a university course and come out of it all debt free.”

Linda Buchanan, Honours Programme Co-ordinator at South Cheshire College, said: “We are thrilled with Dan’s achievement and he has done exceptionally well to be selected to continue on the US programme.

“We wish him well on his experience in the States and hope that he benefits from the experience before committing to his next step after college.”