One of my jobs is giving campus tours to prospective students at the University of Edinburgh. A lot of parents and students ask me why I chose Edinburgh.
This is a bit of a story, but unfortunately enough time has passed that I’m a little fuzzy on the chronology and the details. So, this is how I remember it.
At some point during my junior year of high school, while I was in the middle of my college search, my dad told me he had a friend whose son went to the University of Edinburgh to study languages. This was also around the time I read the book Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes and discovered linguistics.
While obsessively googling the university and reading everything I could about it, I completely fell in love. I vaguely remember sitting on my bed one Saturday afternoon on my computer for about two hours reading the entire website, watching videos of students talking about their experiences, etc. I think I came out of my room and told my mom that I was in love.
Of course, at this point I had no idea that I could leave the country to go to university. I had never met anyone who had done this. I’d never even heard of anyone doing this. I didn’t think it was logistically, financially, or otherwise feasible.
After many months of more research and daydreaming, I started to get serious about applying. I had a meeting with a recruitment officer from the university. I went to a prospective student event in Washington DC. I starting looking into the application and visa application processes. Before I knew it, it was my choice university and I was applying.
About a month after I applied, I got an email saying that I had a message or something on my UCAS account (which is the application portal for UK universities). I logged on and found my acceptance letter to the University of Edinburgh! I was thrilled.
I couldn’t decide that’s where I wanted to go, because I was waiting to hear from other universities and from scholarships. But I think I knew as soon as I got my offer that I wanted to go to Edinburgh.
The University of Edinburgh has the best linguistics program in the UK and third best in the world (after MIT and UCLA). It is an international university. It was the size I was looking for. It’s actually cheaper than going to any of the private universities I was looking at (that’s including the airfare to get over here a couple times a year!). Above all, though, it was in SCOTLAND.
My family has always been quite involved in Scottish culture. My parents used to take my sister and me to their Scottish Country Dance practices every Tuesday night. We went as a family to the Highland Games at Loch Norman near Charlotte, NC and the ones at Stone Mountain in Atlanta. There are plenty of pictures of me in kilts as a young child.
I’d also not really gotten the chance to travel, so I was really excited at the opportunity to be close to countries I’d always wanted to go to (including Scotland).
So, basically I thought living in Scotland would be really cool. That’s essentially why I wanted to come. Oh, also going to one of the best universities in the world!
So that’s essentially why I came here. I think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. If I had stayed in North Carolina, I don’t think I would have changed that much from how I was in high school. I don’t think I would have ever gotten to travel this much. My life would not be anything like it is now, and I am so grateful for the way everything has worked out thus far.
