--- title: New York High School Student Accepted to All Eight Ivy League Colleges description: He was born in Nigeria and moved to the U.S. when he was eight canonical: https://time.com/3772494/student-accepted-all-eight-ivy-league-colleges/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-06T17:05:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:18:25.122Z og:title: This Teen Says He Was Accepted to All Eight Ivy League Schools og:description: He was born in Nigeria but now lives in Elmont, New York og:url: https://time.com/3772494/student-accepted-all-eight-ivy-league-colleges/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecef94c6870219da/6986882ae8524b5f946021d0/73071977.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Harvard University og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Teen Says He Was Accepted to All Eight Ivy League Schools twitter:description: He was born in Nigeria but now lives in Elmont, New York twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecef94c6870219da/6986882ae8524b5f946021d0/73071977.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Teenager Says He Was Accepted to All Eight Ivy League Schools ## Video: College Choice Doesn’t Affect Happiness … But Don’t Slack Off! [Watch (HLS stream): College Choice Doesn’t Affect Happiness … But Don’t Slack Off!](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oig4rJdD.m3u8) (1:51)  _Published 2014-05-06. According to a new Gallup poll, the Ivy League doesn’t always trump the small liberal arts college or the state party school. The poll indicated good professors and active engagement in extracurriculars had far more bearing on future happiness._ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 6, 2015 5:05 PM UTC  Harvard University Harvard UniversityGetty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 6, 2015 5:05 PM UTC High school seniors across the U.S. are currently making tough decisions about which college to attend — but one student in Elmont, N.Y., has a particularly difficult choice to make, because he was reportedly accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. His name is Harold Ekeh and along with the eight Ivies, he was also accepted to schools like MIT, Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt, ABC News [reports](http://abcnews.go.com/US/long-island-high-schooler-accepted-ivy-league-colleges/story?id=30108451). The 17-year-old was born in Nigeria and moved to the U.S. with his family when he was eight years old. His main college essay was about his struggles adjusting to his new surroundings, [according to](http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/04/pf/college/immigrant-accepted-all-ivy-league-schools-harold-ekeh/index.html) CNN Money. Ekeh says his parents told him they came to America for the education opportunities. Now, nearly 10 years later, Ekeh is choosing where to continue his studies. He told CNN Money he’s leaning toward Yale because he competed there for a Model UN competition and liked “the passion people at Yale had.” Ekeh’s ultimate goal is to become a doctor and neurosurgeon. His advice to fellow college hopefuls? “Like my parents always told us, the secret to success is unbridled resolve.” _Read next:_ [_‘Wasting Time on the Internet’ Is Now an Ivy League Class_](http://time.com/3543663/internet-education-upenn-college/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3772494/student-accepted-all-eight-ivy-league-colleges/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3772494/student-accepted-all-eight-ivy-league-colleges/"},"headline":"This Teenager Says He Was Accepted to All Eight Ivy League Schools","datePublished":"2015-04-06T17:05:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:18:25.122Z","description":"He was born in Nigeria and moved to the U.S. when he was eight","url":"https://time.com/3772494/student-accepted-all-eight-ivy-league-colleges/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Education"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecef94c6870219da/6986882ae8524b5f946021d0/73071977.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecef94c6870219da/6986882ae8524b5f946021d0/73071977.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Harvard University","caption":"Harvard University","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3772494/student-accepted-all-eight-ivy-league-colleges/","name":"This Teenager Says He Was Accepted to All Eight Ivy League Schools"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"College Choice Doesn’t Affect Happiness … But Don’t Slack Off!","description":"According to a new Gallup poll, the Ivy League doesn’t always trump the small liberal arts college or the state party school. 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