A STUDENT from Bishop Wordsworth's School has been awarded a scholarship to Harvard University. It is believed to be the first time any student from a Salisbury school has been offered a place at the prestigious college.

Deepak Singh, who went to Harnham Junior School and is head boy at BWS, received an unconditional offer from the Ivy League university after applying because he was unsure over which degree path he wanted to follow.

He said: "When I was thinking about what I wanted to do at university, I really didn't know what I wanted to specialise in.

"In the UK you have to do one course so I looked abroad and Harvard jumped out. With Harvard you apply to the college, not for a course.

"I'm thinking about Politics, Economics or Physics - the great thing is I can do a mix of all of them in the first year.

"I also liked their campus ethos - this idea of 'leaders of tomorrow', that really appealed."

The application process involved a series of SAT tests, two essays, an extensive application form and an interview.

"One essay was about how you have responded to failure so I wrote on being quite bad at rugby but playing it anyway," Deepak said.

"The second was on some of my ideas on how one person can fit into multiple cultures - it was a reflection of where I thought I was culturally."

Deepak attended a seven-week summer school at Harvard at the end of Year 11, studying undergraduate courses in astronomy and expository writing.

"I'd been thinking about applying since Year 10, I did my SAT a year ago and then started my application in September," he said.

"My interview in November was conducted by a former Harvard alumni and was completely different to an Oxbridge one, it was so much more casual.

"I went to Basingstoke and had my interview in Costa - we sat down and had a conversation for an hour. I really liked it. You tell them about yourself and they find out who you are as a person rather than just your schools and grades."

The 18-year-old found out he had been accepted in December via an updated email portal.

"I was quite shocked. I had set up an exclusion zone around my computer so I was the only one near it and I almost fell down the stairs trying to find my mum to tell her. I was very excited," he said.

Deepak is taking Further Maths, Chemistry, Physics, History and Economics as A-Levels and GCSE Chinese. He completed his Maths A-Level last year and is self-teaching himself Economics due to a timetable clash with his other subjects.

"It's been tough but it's been worth it," he says.

Passionate about politics, he enjoys debating and says he has thought about going into grassroots politics or doing something in the private space industry.

His four-year degree programme at Harvard begins in August.