New York Daily News

In Ivy League of her own!

N.J. teen gets into all 8 schools

- BY RICH SCHAPIRO

A NEW JERSEY teen is facing the kind of decision most high school students only dream about after getting accepted to all eight Ivy League colleges.

Ifeoma White-Thorpe, a senior at Morris Hills High School in Rockaway, said she was “shaking” when she opened the last of the eight acceptance letters.

“I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh, this might be eight out of eight,’ ” Ifeoma, 17, recalled to WABC-7. “I clicked it and it said, ‘Congratula­tions’ and I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’”

Ifeoma (photo) wants to study biology and pursue a career in global health.

She applied to the eight Ivy league schools — Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvan­ia, Princeton, Dartmouth and Brown — because they all have “great research facilities.”

Ifeoma has aced all of her AP classes and boasts an impressive résumé that includes her role as her school’s student government president.

But she thinks her poetry and writing has made her stand out.

The talented teen, who was also accepted to Stanford University, won the grand prize in the National Liberty Museum Selma Speech and Essay Contest two years ago.

In her essay, “Let Freedom Ring,” Ifeoma wrote about the achievemen­ts of the civil rights movement and the present-day struggles of people like her young brother.

“Dr. King said, ‘Let freedom ring,’ and for the longest time I had thought that freedom had been rung, and that the fight for freedom was done,” she wrote.

“But when my brother no longer felt safe walking to the bus stop, or putting his hood up on rainy days, I began to question what is freedom, and how free am I today?”

Ifeoma said her decision will likely hinge on which school offers the most financial aid.

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