Young, Gifted & Black Series
By Taki S. Raton
Kwasi Enin
Our YG&B feature this week is receiving praise from across the United States and even from his parent’s native home, Ghana.
He has appeared on the Dave Letterman show and according to Christian Post writer Leonard Blair, Gospel star Yolanda Adams posted a note of congratulations on her Facebook page.
He is young, gifted & Black. Kwasi Enin has been accepted into all eight of the nation’s top Ivy League schools.
Cites Elizabeth Barber in her April 1, 2014 WN.com article, this Long Island high school senior was accepted into Princeton this past December.
On March 25 at 5:30 p.m., Barber reveals that Harvard told him, “yes”.
Kwasi has been accepted into Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania.
“The yesses kept coming,” he is quoted in ABCNEWS.
“This can’t be happening,” he says.
He scored 2,250 out of 2,400 on the SAT. Published accounts note that this scoring places him in the 99th percentile for all students taking the exam.
“My heart skipped a beat when he told me he was applying to all eight,” says Nancy Winkler in Citi97.3 FM Online.
The William Floyd High School guidance counselor adds that, “In 29 years as a counselor, I have never seen anything like this.
It’s a big deal when we have students apply to one or two Ivies.
To get into one or two is huge. But this was extraordinary.”
Notes Greg Toppo in his USATODAY.com April 2, 2014 writing, for most of the eight schools to which Kwasi applied, acceptance “comes rarely,” even for the nation’s high achieving students.
At the top end, USA reports, Cornell University admits only 14% of its applicants and Harvard accepts just 5.9%.
But Kwasi has “a lot of things in his favor,” says college admissions specialist Katherine Cohen, CEO and founder of Ivy Wise, a New York based counseling firm.
“For one thing,” as quoted in Toppo, “colleges are looking for great boys.” She submits that the application pool these days are “skewed heavily towards girls.”
Data shared in USA by the U.S. Department of Education estimates that females comprise 57% of college students in degree- granting institutions last year.
College campuses, and in particular the elites, are struggling to keep male/ female ratios even.
So admitting academically gifted young men like Kwasi, says Cohen, gives them an advantage.
Yet another concern according to college counselors as to why very few students apply to several Ivies as positioned in Citi is, “because each seeks different qualities for their freshman class.
Almost none are invited to attend them all.”
A probable reasoning is that one individual applicant could not possibly have all the varied respective qualities that would be attractive to each and every eight Ivy League schools in the country.
At William Floyd, he ranks number 11 in a graduating class of 647 placing him in the top 2% of his class.
By the time he graduates this spring, he will have successfully completed 11 Advanced Placement courses.
Winkler in a phone interview discloses that the Long Island south side high school has over 3000 students enrolled.
The counselor says of Kwasi that, “He is a wonderful person and such a pleasure to talk to.
He is obviously very, very bright and I find him extremely inquisitive as he thoroughly researched every college to which he applied.”
She adds that, “besides being a great student academically, he is additionally quite grounded, considerate of others and is very well liked by his peers.
Kwasi is just a very great person who is concerned about the world outside of him.
He carries and presents himself well and it has been enjoyable and memorable and I am just proud to have had the opportunity to work with him during my career as a counselor.”
A first generation American born from Shirley, New York, Kwasi plays the violin and sings in the school’s acapella choir.
He volunteers at Stony Brook University Hospital’s radiology department.
The 17 year-old plans to study medicine in college as did both of his parents, Ebenezer and Doreen Enin, who immigrated to New York from Ghana in the 1980’s to complete their studies.
Both are nurses. Kwasi also has a younger sister, Adowa.
“I’m thinking of being a cardiologist or neurologist,” said Kwasi as quoted in FACE-TO-FACE AFRICA. “A doctor is a community leader, a protector, and someone who people turn to when they need help,” he adds.
He says in Toppo that he first got the idea to apply to all eight during his sophomore year and in his research, he discovered that each, “has their own sense of school spirit” and other qualities that were quite attractive.
Kwasi also applied to all three of the area SUNY campuses (State University of New York) and to Drake University.
And yes, he was accepted into all four.
ABCNEWS further reveals that with high eight acceptance letters plus the three SUNY freshman opening slots and even the Duke prospect, Kwasi has surpassed the accomplishments of all of his uncles and cousins combined who were also accepted into several Ivy League schools.
“We are very proud of him,” says his father in Barber.
“He’s been trained to be a high achiever right from when he was a kid.” USA in a recent interview says that Princeton so far has offered the most generous aid package.
But he has yet to receive offers from Columbia, Cornell or Harvard.
“He’s sitting in a very good place right now,” says Cohen.
“I think he can negotiate the very best financial aid package he can get at his top-choice school.
Almost any of them would do anything for this type of candidate.”
She further advises that once he decides on where to attend by May 1, he should write letters to the seven remaining sharing that he is “honored to have been admitted to their freshman class.
After all, he’s got to keep his options open for graduate school.”