Accepted to every Ivy League school: How did this teenager reach his goal?

Harold Ekeh will have his pick of eight prestigious universities. His passion for biochemistry is what got him to this point.

Harold Ekeh of Long Island, New York, just accomplished the Ivy League sweep. He received acceptance letters from all eight schools.

Coming to New York from Nigeria at 8-years-old, Mr. Ekeh has become a prime example of what it takes to get into the Ivy League: passion.

Ekeh applied to the eight Ivy League schools – Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania – with the dream of becoming a neurosurgeon. His interest began when he was 11-years-old, when his grandmother experienced memory loss. Thus sparked a career pursuit that led to his success.

“When other kids would say, ‘I want to be a superhero or police officer,’ I would say, ‘I want to know what is on the inside of us,’” Ekeh told CNN Money.

Curious about what affected his grandmother, he began to conduct biochemistry experiments. He wants to find a solution for his grandmother’s condition. Earlier this year, he became a 2015 Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist for his research, which looked at the effect a specific chemical had on his grandmother's illness, CNN Money reported.

Ekeh is not just passionate about science, but also about people. Coming to the United States as an immigrant, he said that the transition from Nigeria was difficult. He detailed this journey in his admissions essay, according to the New York Post, which showed the colleges his determination and ability to adapt in the midst of difficult situations.

The Elmont Memorial High School student also gives back to his classmates. He has a GPA of 100.5 percent and an SAT score of 2270, yet he spends his spare time mentoring younger students at his school in the college mentorship program he founded. He plays the drums and directs in his church’s youth choir. [Editor's note: An earlier version misstated Ekeh's grade point average.]

“I am very humbled by this,” Ekeh told CNN Money. “It's not just for me, but for my school and community. We can accomplish great things here.”

Ekeh is not the only young person to achieve the Ivy League sweep. Last year, Kwasi Enin also got accepted into all eight schools. He was also a Long Island resident, and his parents immigrated to the US from Ghana. Mr. Enin is currently completing his freshman year at Yale University, and told Business Insider he made the right choice and is in a “happy state of being” as a biochemistry major.

Less than 15 percent of applicants to Ivy League schools get accepted, with some schools boasting even more exclusive rates. Forbes reported that of the 34,295 applicants for Harvard’s class of 2018, only 5.9 percent were accepted.

James Marshall Crotty, a contributor to Forbes, said that Ivy League schools look for applicants who are passionate.

Colleges, like marriage prospects, like future employers, want to see that you’re committed to your interest . . . Get involved in a project or activity that deeply engages you. If that’s football, or chess, or the math club, or theater, or social work of some kind, it’s all good. The main thing is passionate commitment. Remember: elite colleges are not asking you to be ‘well-rounded.’ They are looking to build well-rounded classes around a pool of world-class specialists.

Now, the decision is up to Ekeh. He said that a certain school in New Haven, Connecticut caught his eye, and he has already made friends and found mentors there that inspire him.

“I am leaning toward Yale,” he told CNNMoney. “I competed at Yale for Model UN, and I like the passion people at Yale had.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Accepted to every Ivy League school: How did this teenager reach his goal?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2015/0407/Accepted-to-every-Ivy-League-school-How-did-this-teenager-reach-his-goal
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe