Photo used under Creative Commons License
Stephany Reyes, Staff Writer
Many young students dream of getting accepted into an Ivy League school. Few, however, aspire to be admitted into all eight of these prestigious universities; being accepted by all eight Ivy League schools is extremely rare. According to reporters from CNN, though, that is exactly what 17- year- old Kwasi Enin from New York has done. Enin has been officially accepted into the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, Yale, Harvard and Cornell and was asked to be part of their class of 2018.
The young man has an uncle and cousins who have gotten accepted to some Ivy League Schools, but Enin was glad he surpassed his family’s accomplishment. Enin said, “I knew that going to any of the Ivy League schools would be wonderful. I thought if I applied to all eight, I figured I’d get into one… but from the first one onwards I said, ‘This can’t be happening!’ I was shocked seeing all these acceptances under my name.” Enin’s parents immigrated to New York from Ghana in the 1980’s. Both his mother and father went to a public college and became nurses.
It is not surprising that this bright student performed well on standardized testing. He scored 2250 out of 2400 on his SAT, which places him in the 98th percentile of all students taking the exam. According to his principal at the public William Floyd High School, Enin is ranked the 11th best academic student. In addition, he is also very extracurricularly talented, playing three instruments for the chamber orchestra, singing in an a cappella group, throwing shot put, running for the school’s track and field team and participating in student government. His principle describes Enin as an incredible, respectful and humble person. He is the first from William Floyd to get accepted into all eight Ivy League schools.
Enin has planned on applying to all eight Ivy League schools since he was in 10th grade. Still, like all students, he will eventually have to narrow down his options to one. “I’m thinking about Yale. I really liked their sense of family, the relationships between undergraduates and professors and the residential college. They also have a strong biomedical engineering program, which is a wonderful combination of biology and creative tools that doctors and health care professionals can use,” said the soon-to-be high school grad.
Enin’s parents have always pushed him to follow his dreams and do well in school. Their influence is apparent in Enin’s advice to future Ivy League applicants: “Follow your passions in high school, don’t just follow suit for what you think can get you into good schools. Develop your outside interests –– not just academics.”