Kwasi Enin is an African American student from New York who got into all 8 ivy league colleges. A recipe of passion, pure talent, versatility and heritage have aided in Kwasi’s success. However, there were other influences, which helped earn him a spot in all 8 of the Ivy’s. Boost acceptance chance – Kwasi Enin’s experience
Having a good college on your resume can help win a job in a competitive field, much like having a degree from a competitive high school can help one get into a good college. Right?
The interesting part of Kwasi’s story is that he did not go to a very good high school, but excelled anyway. The lack of opportunities given in Kwasi’s high school caused his inner light and ambition to stand out more, earning him a higher probability of success in becoming an ivy league candidate. While admissions teams are not necessarily aware of all high school rankings, what went into winning a certain award, volunteering quality, club official roles and student government duties, they can only compare students to their peers of similar backgrounds.
Therefore, if your high school doesn’t have a psychology club and you are interested in studying psychology in college, starting your own club would be considered a greater achievement than joining a psychology club already in place. Sometimes coming from a less advantaged background has its strengths, because you are able to shine brighter as a diamond in the rough, than a diamond amongst other diamonds.
Kwasi’s High School
William Floyd High School is located in Suffolk County on the south shore of Long Island. It is roughly a two-hour train ride out from Manhattan, and a one-hour drive to the end of long island. Shirley-Mastic, the area in which William Floyd is located is one of the least expensive suburbs of Long Island. While Mastic has some rather large homes, and a beach located nearby, Shirley is filled with boarded up, dilapidated houses and is considered one of Long Island’s slums. Surely the more elite residents of Mastic would send their children to elite private schools, while the public schools are reserved for the lower-income individuals living in this area.
William Floyd is also a very large school, with four grades and between 600-800 students in each grade. While the majority of these students are white, 24% are from diverse minority backgrounds. According to US News, 12.8% of students who graduate from William Floyd are ready for college based on their math and English scores alone.
Kwasi’s success can be considered, among many determinants, the result of being smart and ambitious in a lower class environment. Being cast in the shadows can sometimes urge one’s inner light to shine brighter. In college applications, we are only expected to shine enough as much as we can given our circumstances. Therefore, if one attends a lower quality high school and grabs all the opportunities they can in a less competitive environment, they are more likely to shine on college applications.
My Experience
I can present a similar case, in myself. I attended Dowling College, a small school not very far from William Floyd for my undergraduate degree. Since I showed initiative in the small school atmosphere, starting a new club, volunteering to be vice president of our sector of the National Honors society, amongst other things; my college resume was bulked up enough to prepare me to get into Columbia University. Sometimes all it takes is having the ability to stand out, to shine, and to succeed in an environment that urges you to do so.
Boost acceptance chance
At the end of the day…
Standing out is key. If you are one of a hundred over-achievers applying to Harvard from the same high school, you are less likely to make a dent in any admissions team member’s memory. If you are one ‘diamond in the rough’, and the only member of your high school to apply, you stand out more.
While I believe Kwasi must be a brilliant young man to get into all 8 ivies, I think his environment should be looked at as well, to paint a fuller picture of the application process. Translating this idea to Australian standards, while high school students studying in IB programs may have the upper hand in the admissions process, because of their well-rounded course load, VCE students have the capacity to stand out more, coming from an environment where it is optional to take extra courses and push oneself where it is not expected. If IB courses are not available at your school, you can take courses that challenge you and still come out on top.
If other students don’t like to study, this gives you the opportunity to be the star student and to take every opportunity that comes your way. This also gives you the opportunity to get closer with your teachers, and to show them your unique personality and earnest desire to learn. You can also ask them to suggest extra curricular activities, conferences or other events they may know about in their subject of expertise. In addition, you can apply for an extension program through a university in your city. If your school doesn’t offer political science, for example, you are able to sign up for a political science course through, for example Monash University, which will not only quench your thirst for politics and give you some college experience, but will polish and shine your application documents, showing that you went the extra mile to learn something that interests you.
