By Colleen Dardagan
Kearsney College matriculant William Scott, 18, has set the Durban educational scene alight by being accepted into Harvard University, one of the most prestigious universities in the United States.
Speaking from his Durban North home, an elated Scott said after spending three months in Canada as an exchange student he was determined to attend the R284 400-a-year institution.
"I started the application process last year as I was determined to go to the best university in the world."
Scott's successful application has been described as exceptional by Clive Ward, a spokesperson at the US consulate in Johannesburg.
"It is extremely difficult to get into Harvard as there are tens of thousands of applications received each year, and the acceptance criteria are stringent. I would like to convey my congratulations to this extraordinary student," he said.
Roberta Paola, the Durban-based representative of the US consul, said it was the first time in her 18 years of service that a local student had been accepted into the university.
Scott, whose favourite subject is maths, has a long history of academic achievement, starting in his final year at Durban's Clifton Preparatory School where he was awarded the Rod Lamont scholarship for academic excellence.
A substantial academic scholarship was also awarded to him when he was accepted into grade eight at Kearsney College. As early as grade nine, Scott was identified as a prospect to represent South Africa in the international maths olympiad.
He was chosen to attend a maths training camp at Stellenbosch University in grades nine, 10 and 11, after being selected as one of 15 mathematicians in the country to attend another maths camp at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. "Unfortunately I was never selected to represent South Africa in the international olympiad.
"I never actually competed as I was also a member of the science olympiad team chosen to travel to Australia at the beginning of this year for the National Youth Science Forum, and this clashed with the olympiad dates," said Scott.
He missed the three months prior to this year's trial examinations because he was in London enjoying his prize for winning the South African science olympiad, which was a trip to the London Youth Science Forum.
On why he would rather go to an American university than a local one, he said: "It's not just any university. Harvard is acknowledged as one of the top universities in the world by far."
Kearsney College headmaster Elwyn van den Aardweg said Scott's acceptance to Harvard was an incredible achievement.
"Scott has been accepted ahead of his matric results coming out, which is a credit to his consistently high academic results," he said.