My name is Katarina Nikolic (25.6.1999.), from Belgrade, Serbia. In January 2018. I was accepted at undergraduate Mathematics Course at Oxford University (University of Oxford, Lady Margaret Hall College).
I applied and being offered a place at five most prestigious mathematics universities in the UK: Oxford, Imperial, Durham, UCL, and Warwick.
As my country is not an EU member, the tuition fee is much higher for me than for the students from UK and EU. Fee for them is 9,000 pounds and for me is 25,000 pounds. Overall expenses for one year at Oxford are about 40,000 euros (120,000 euros in total for the duration of the course). As a citizen of Serbia, I don´t have access to scholarships and loans designed to UK and EU. The only financing source is my family and they cannot afford this investment. My parents will give me all of their life savings, and we are selling my grandparents apartment, but that is far from enough. I still miss 40,000 euros. This link represents the overall Oxford fees for international students.
Therefore, even before being accepted at Oxford, and with advice from my School, I contacted the widest range of institutions in Serbia to find help for scholarship: Serbian government ministries, prominent domestic and foreign-owned companies and banks, as well as international organizations. Oxford is a magic word, and they welcomed me and congratulated me on my achieving a place for maths at Oxford. Unfortunately, their answer was always the same, that they have no funds for this purpose.
About me
I was born with synesthesia, a condition where my senses of hearing and seeing are connected – when I hear numbers and letters, I see a particular color. Thus, as a child, I developed a game where I would perform functions on numbers while simply mixing colors in my mind, so my earliest memories are connected to maths. As I grew older I realized that maths is the only school subject that excites me because in resolving problems I would need to use more than knowledge and creativity.
I started to extend my maths from a primary school in the Society of Young Mathematicians. In summer I went to maths camps where the focus was on developing logical thinking through fun tasks outside of school lectures. In high school, I attended Petnica Science Centre where I was introduced to real science. Competitions are a special part of my life. I won prizes competing in maths, physics, and informatics, being the only girl in my generation to win medals in the Serbian Maths State Competition.
I
am a student of The Mathematical Grammar school in Belgrade which is a
leading specialized school in my country and one of the best maths
high schools in the world. My most notable success is becoming a
member of National Girls Olympic Team as the youngest member and
competing on European Girls Math Olympics in 2016. I got an honorable
mention and showed myself that I can compete with anyone in the world.
That gave me confidence and supported my decision to study at some of
the leading global universities.
Last summer I got a scholarship for summer school in the USA, spending two weeks at Amherst University and one week at UC-Berkeley. We had courses in leadership and engineering, that included critical thinking.
Giving back
Giving young children free lectures in maths I try to transfer my knowledge, enthusiasm, and love for the subject to them.
I also volunteered for the Days of Science, which promoted science in Serbia.
Hobbies
I love challenges, whether it is an unusual maths problem or a sports match. The unobvious link between two subjects intrigues me because developing a game plan by considering the probability of events and outthinking opponents is similar to the process of solving a math problem. Football, my first passion, as well as 12 years of playing tennis, taught me discipline, commitment and time management. I am also the only girl member of a mixed rowing team of my school, that won the third place in the final high school senior race.
Instead of conclusion
My wish is to achieve the highest level in studying maths and get the opportunity to spend my collegiate years focusing on my greatest passion, which universities in my own country cannot give me. I want to prove that women can be equally involved as men in solving the most complex problems and actively participate in future progress.
Contact
Katarina Nikolić
Street Karadjordjev trg No. 34c
11080 Belgrade, Serbia
