Achieving a rare academic feat, a 17-year-old high school student has got through all eight Ivy League schools.
Kwasi Enin, a high school senior at William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach, applied to all the Ivy League schools hoping to get into at least one. But he was surprised when offers from all the eight elite schools, Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Cornell and the University of Pennsylvania, poured in.
"By applying to all eight, I figured it would better the chances of getting into one," Enin, a Long Island resident, told New York Daily News. Princeton accepted him in December and the rest seven schools' responses came in March end.
The acceptance rates from the Ivy League schools are collectively less than 9 percent of all applicants for the class of 2018. This included Harvard with 5.9 percent and Cornell with 14 percent acceptance rates.
"I've never heard of someone getting all eight," he told Newsday. He received responses from the Ivy League schools March 27. And Enin said he could not believe that all the responses were positive. "I was like -- this can't be happening." Then came in an email from Harvard and Enin thought they will not accept him. "It has to be the one to reject me," he said. "They're Harvard."
What's more? Apart from the all the Ivy League schools, he was accepted by Duke University, Stony Brook University, SUNY Geneseo and Binghamton University.
The news has thrilled his school. "I've never seen anything like it in my 15 years as a high school counsellor," said Nancy Winkler, Enin's guidance counsellor. "He's going to be a leader in whatever he chooses."
What Exactly Made Kwasi Enin Get In to All the Eight Ivy League Schools?
Enin had a 2,250 SAT score. This placed him in the 99th percentile for all students taking the exam. Plus he is ranked 11th in his year of 647 students in William Floyd school's district.
And most importantly, it was the essay he wrote on his love for music which opened the doors of all the prestigious schools. He explained how music sparked his "intellectual curiosity" and helped him connect to his community through plays. Enin plays the violin, bass and sings too.
"While onstage as Big Jule of Guys and Dolls during my favorite musical, I helped create a wonderful atmosphere in the school auditorium by singing and dancing," reads the essay posted by the New York Post. post
He goes on to say that he gets totally immersed in conversations between the performers and the audience whenever he performs in public.
"With improvement and balance comes success, and music taught me all of these virtues," he wrote. "My haven for solace in and away from home is in the world of composers, harmonies and possibilities." He also said that he was grateful to music for being his educator and teaching the importance of leadership, teamwork and friendship.
Despite the love for music, Enin says he wants to build a career in medicine, cardiology and neurology in particular. He also volunteers in the radiology department at a local hospital, reports The Independent.
"Although I hope that my future career is in medicine, I love that I still have much to learn about and from the world of music," he writes. "A doctor is a community leader, a protector, someone who people turn to ... when they need help," he says.
He originally hails from Ghana. His parents, both nurses, immigrated to the U.S. in 1980s. Enin has yet to decide on which Ivy League school to pick depending on the financial aid he gets.
