Taking pity on our exhausted students, I have taken it upon myself to pen the final instalment of the New York Diary.  Day 5 began in typical fashion, a final potential heart attack on a plate at Mama S’Barro’s. A mixture of excitement for what was in store for the day and idea of going home to catch up on sleep was in the air. The first stop was a trip to CitiGroup, organised through the Old Fettesian network. This was a great opportunity for the students to see the inner workings of one of the worlds major financial institutions, gaining an understanding of what they do which included a visit to the trading floor as well as a detailed presentation from the graduate recruitment team. We were then met outside by our Wall Street Guide Jarred who entertained with his charismatic New Yorker tones as he gave us a detailed history of many of the key buildings. The obligatory photograph at the Wall Street Bull was followed by a visit to the New York Stock exchange building (...

After yet another monstrous all you can eat buffet at the legendary Mamma Sbarro's, where Mr Duthie clinched the bacon eating contest, we boarded the bus for our excursion to Princeton University. We were met with $1 any size coffees and our cheery tour guide Tom Quirk who was well versed in the skill of walking backwards, even up stairs whilst touring us. We were led around the residential section of the campus while informing us of the rich history that this prestigious establishment had to offer. Not quite as rich however as the sweet and sour chicken buffet we were presented with on arrival at Whitman College for luncheon. Joining us for luncheon was a range  of faculty and students from the university who spoke to us about quick maths, economics and the wonder of general life as a Princetonian.  Aprés our delicious luncheon, we had the pleasure of hearing from a member of the admissions department on Academics, extracurriculars, residential life and financial aid. Th...

We were met by the New York autumn weather, the girls now understood gossip girls fashion with their amazing long warm coats and high covering boots.  First thing in the morning, we boarded the ferry to go to the Statue of Liberty. We were met by a gust of wind which led to Arran seeing the purchase of a rather large green blanket to be a perfectly inelastic good.  Everyone was very impressed by the Statue of Liberty as many did not know it was given as a present from the French 100 years after the revolution to celebrate their relationship created from the French’s aid so they could beat the British. The whole group of Fettesians were wanting to catch this unique moment by taking multiple photos, even the teachers wanted to catch this moment...with some interesting results from photo-bombers. Ellis Island was the next stop of our day. The buildings were screaming grand American architecture. The history of America is vast and diverse just like the volume of immigrati...

Our motley crew had mostly managed to shake the crippling jet-lag by the time we assembled in the trusty YMCA in the morning. Following a walk through Times Square to a breakfast buffet, we were informed that only one solemn trip for the collection of food was allowed, leading to the heaping of an ungodly amount of food onto our small, struggling trays. From here we continued onto the interactive Maths Museum called Momath featuring a multitude of exhibits; the majority of which begged several explanations before they made sense. Several pupils and most of the staff members clubbed together to build a Menger sponge big enough to merit inclusion in the MoMath hall of fame - we still haven’t got word on whether we succeeded... There were several physical exhibits with all of us having the opportunity to test out bikes with square wheels; a running game that demonstrated the difference between position, velocity and acceleration; and a very competitive set of logic puzzles incl...

Our New York adventure started with many weary-eyed teenagers dragging themselves from napping place to napping place as we went from the boarding houses to the 5am coach and then to Glasgow airport for our early morning flight. The excitement hadn’t quite settled in as we were all still rubbing the sleep from our eyes but the buildup of a rather lengthy flight gave us time to anticipate the adventure ahead. Alicia Keys was not joking with her comparison to ‘concrete jungles’ we were all in awe at the differences we could see between the UK and the US without even having left the airport building. We were quick to sample the American ‘cuisine’ with a pit stop at Dunkin’ Donuts whose sugary snacks fuelled us through the journey to the YMCA where we would be staying. With a swift turnover only stopping to grab our purses, we headed right to the heart of the city. We marvelled at the vastness of Central Park and let loose to find our way round for lunch and then to the Empire State Build...

Book Review by Lily P (U6th) - Who Gets What and Why This book investigates the capitalist world we inhabit, it explores how finite resources are allocated using the example of kidney exchange. Alvin E Roth is a Nobel Prize winning economist who used game theory to save thousands of lives by improving allocative efficiency in the market for kidney exchange.  In the USA in the early noughties, two-way kidney was pioneered; this occurs when two donor/recipient pairs trade organs for a better compatibility match. The system was long and slow with donor/recipient pairs having to wait long time to find a compatible matching pair; this was inefficient as many matching markets are. Alvin E Roth realised that if the correct algorithm was designed matches of up to 12 parties could occur; meaning the donor from pair 1 gives the kidney to the receiver from pair 2 and then the donor from pair 2 gives the kidney to receiver 3 and so on, all the way along the chain until the receiver f...