Black Children : 15 y/o Going to Harvard: Fall 2011

cherryblossom

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Piscataway girl, 15, decides to go to Harvard after being accepted to 13 colleges
Published: Wednesday, May 04, 2011, 10:30 AM
By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger


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PISCATAWAY — Saheela Ibraheem wasn’t sure any college would want to admit a 15-year-old. So the Piscataway teen hedged her bets and filled out applications to 14 schools from New Jersey to California.

"It’s the age thing. I wanted to make sure I had options," said Saheela, a senior at the Wardlaw-Hartridge School in Edison.

In the end, 13 colleges accepted her — including six of the eight Ivy League schools.

After weeks of debate, Saheela settled on Harvard. She will be among the youngest members of the school’s freshman class.

"I’ll be one of the youngest. But I won’t be the youngest," the soon-to-be 16-year-old said....

...For Saheela, her unusual path to college began when she was a sixth-grader at the Conackamack Middle School in Piscataway. Eager to learn more about her favorite subject, math, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants asked to move to a higher-level class. The school let her skip sixth grade entirely.

By high school, Saheela said, she was no longer feeling challenged by her public school classes. So, she moved to the Wardlaw-Hartridge School, a 420-student private school, where she skipped her freshman year and enrolled as a 10th-grader....

...Saheela also excels outside the classroom. She is a three-sport athlete, playing outfield for the school’s softball team, defender on the soccer team, and swimming relays and 50-meter races for the swim team. She also sings alto in the school choir, plays trombone in the school band and serves as president of the school’s investment club, which teaches students about the stock market by investing in virtual stocks.

Saheela began applying to colleges last fall. Her applications included her grade point average (between a 96 and 97 on a 100-point scale) and her 2,340 SAT score (a perfect 800 on the math section, a 790 in writing and a 750 in reading).....

...She was delighted when she got her first acceptance in December from California Institute of Technology. "I was so excited. I got into college!," Saheela said.

More acceptances followed from Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Cornell, Brown, Williams College, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Washington University in St. Louis.

On March 30, she got her sole rejection letter — from Yale. Saheela isn’t sure why the Ivy League school didn’t want her.


"My parents were thinking it was the age thing," she said....

...Saheela said she wants to major in either neurobiology or neuroscience and plans to become a research scientist who studies how the brain works. As for her own brain, Saheela insists she is nothing special....

..."I try my best in everything I do," Saheela said. "Anyone who’s motivated can work wonders."



http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/piscataway_15-year-old_girl_he.html
 
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....Her mother gave a glimpse into the life of her gifted daughter saying she has always been way ahead of the academic game since kindergarten.

She said: 'She’s like always independent. I never get to help with her homework because she’d say "it’s my work mommy, not yours".'

As well as English, the teenager speaks Arabic, Spanish and Latin and wants to become a research scientist and study the brain.

Teachers at her current school The Wardlaw-Hartridge School told CBS she was an old soul.

Jim O' Halloran said: 'I believe that she’s 15 years old, because I’m told that. But other than that I have a hard time.'


....http://www.africanoutlookonline.com...d-by-13-universities&catid=99:outlookscroller
 

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