The School Newspaper of Vista Ridge High School

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The School Newspaper of Vista Ridge High School

The Word

The School Newspaper of Vista Ridge High School

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Cream Of The Crop

Twenty nine thousand students around the world send their applications to Harvard each year. Yet only 10 percent of that number receive acceptance. The small number of admissions is one of the large aspects that divides an Ivy League college from the rest. Besides requiring high SAT scores and 4.0 GPAs, admissions also depend on the excellence a student embodies in every sphere of their life. Excellence is measured in hours of community service, amounts of leadership roles and memberships in organizations while demonstrating a clear passion embedded in an excellent person.

Senior Diana Powell has wanted to go to the University of Harvard since she was four, and she dedicated her high school career to achieving that goal. Even though it seemed so far, Powell worked hard to see her dream come to life. She is ranked number two in her class, with a stellar GPA and thus a wonderful transcript. Powell scored a 2200 on her SAT and received scholarships from participation in science fair. Also, Powell is a member of many organizations, namely NHS, Student Council and RADD. With these attributes, she decided to apply to four colleges, three of them from the Ivy League and one from the Public Ivy League.

“I applied to Harvard, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UT,” Powell said. “I received acceptance from all of them.”

With these achievements, Powell becomes one of the 2,700 freshmen accepted to Ivy League schools. Powell said there were no set requirements to achieve acceptance at Yale and Harvard, and thus made the event a more surprising one. Also, Harvard and MIT admissions are intensely capricious and their acceptance process can be more rigorous and take longer periods of time.

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“Yale was the first I got into and it was a huge surprise,” Powell said “MIT and Harvard were also huge surprises because they’re so ridiculously hard to get into because of their unpredictable admissions.”

How do they determine who becomes an Ivy League student? The answers are infinite. It depends on the admissions committee and the circumstances of the student. It can also be measured in the aspects beyond academics such as volunteer hours and extra-curricular activities. Yet sometimes, students who have the perfect score on the SATs don’t get into these colleges, thus supporting the fickleness of the process.

“Ivy League colleges want a human rather than a machine,” senior Ashley Covington said. “You need to have extra-curricular activities that show your goals, for instance, the math and science classes and participation in science fair helped me a lot. Also, you need to have high SAT scores and a lot of AP classes.”

Harvard can throw out an application of a valedictorian who is a member of NHS, the French club, the Robotics club, Student Council and so on and so forth. It doesn’t matter if he was part of the varsity football team either. If he did not illustrate a common theme, or most Ivy League advisers call it a spike, in his extra-curricular activities, it shows that he does not have the ability to show passion for focus  on one aspect and grow in that area. Being a jack-of-all trades can be a weakness in one’s record, thus the Ivy League wants a student who can separate themselves from others, a spike that would divides them from the other brilliant students of the world.

“Diana’s passion is in physics and research,” Covington said. “She’s focusing a lot on the sciences and participates in clubs that demonstrate her passion.”

Powell is currently in RADD, the French club and NHS. She was also previously in the Diversity club, Robotics club and Science Fair with some activities outside of school. This spike shows her interest in science, thus clearly supporting her dream of becoming an astrophysics researcher. She also wants to take courses in French or political science in college. After those goals, she wants to win the Nobel Prize and then have a family before she turns 35.

“I plan on studying physics or astrophysics and possibly French or Political Science,” Powell said. “I want to go to grad school and do astrophysics research.”

An astrophysicist is an astronomer that deals with the study of celestial bodies and physics of stellar phenomena. There are many centers for astrophysics research, namely the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for astrophysics or the Institute for Astrophysics Research at Boston University.

“Ten to twenty years from now, all I want to see is for her to be doing something that makes her happy,” freshman brother Adam Powell said. “I think she will be very successful though because she has off the chart intelligence, determination, and a somewhat decent way of dealing with anger.”

A successful alumnus-to-be, the first to go to Yale and Harvard, Diana is divided from the rest by her determination to succeed. She has lost many hours of sleep and dealt with the rigor and stress that school gives unconditionally to be at the point where she is standing. Whatever path she may choose, Powell has her family always at her back supporting her at all times.

“I’m going to be listening to all her issues and providing support,” Adam said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen [my parents] happier because of the acceptance, and I know they will support her.”

Toward her legacy of becoming the first alumnus to receive acceptance from Yale and Harvard, Diana remains humble and supportive of her fellow students. As with the recent successes of students such as senior Kenny Marino who received acceptance from MIT and senior Ashley Covington who received acceptance from Brown and Cornell, Diana believes that everyone who tries to do their best can achieve what she has done.

“It’s nice, but I know that more people from Vista could get in,” Powell said. “You just have to get involved in clubs that interest you. I made sure that I always got my work done. I kept a hardcore planner and to do lists so I can stay on top of everything and most importantly balance social life and school.”

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