BY THE NUMBERS: IVY LEAGUE ADMISSIONS FOR THE CLASS OF 2018
College: Total Applications Received / Total Applications Accepted
Brown: 30,432 / 2,619
Columbia: 32,952 / 2,291
Cornell: 43,041 / 6,014
Dartmouth: 19,296 / 2,220
Harvard: 34,295 / 2,023
University of Pennsylvania: 35,868 / 3,551
Princeton: 26,641 / 1,939
Yale: 30,932 / 1,935
Source: www.theivycoach.com
Kariss Alcorn has done something that no other graduate in the history of Carlisle High School has by being accepted to an Ivy League university, school officials say.
Alcorn, who will graduate Saturday as the class valedictorian, will attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., this fall. Alcorn applied to four Ivy League universities and was accepted by three of them: Harvard, Yale and Brown. Princeton University, which has a higher acceptance rate than Harvard and Yale, was the only one not to admit her.
Getting accepted to an Ivy League school is no small feat, especially for a student coming from a small district such as Carlisle, school officials said. Harvard had the lowest acceptance rate (meaning it is tougher to get in) of the eight Ivy League schools for the Class of 2018, according to The Ivy Coach, a website that tracks Ivy League statistics, including admissions. More than 34,000 students applied to Harvard this year and just over 2,000 were accepted, or roughly 5.9 percent of all applicants.
Brad Potter, a first-year principal at Carlisle High School, said officials poured over decades of school records to verify that Alcorn is the first Carlisle student to be accepted to an Ivy League school.
“I’ve never seen a student as outstanding as her in my 17 years in education,” Potter said, adding that Alcorn is well-respected and liked by her peers and school faculty.
Alcorn, who will turn 18 in July, earned a 4.30 GPA and scored a 34 (a perfect score is 36) on the American College Test or ACT. She said she is always focused on challenges and once she sets her sights on a goal, she won’t stop until she reaches it.
“I feel if I am not being challenged, it’s not very fun or exciting,” Alcorn said. “If you are challenged, you’ll do your best.”
As if Harvard wasn’t impressive enough, Alcorn also got accepted to Notre Dame, Georgetown (in Washington, D.C.), Miami, Xavier, Morehead State, Northern Kentucky, Ohio and Bellarmine universities. She turned down more than $1.38 million in scholarships — more than the combined total of scholarships accepted by the rest of Carlisle’s 2014 senior class, according to her father, Fred Alcorn.
Alcorn said she chose Harvard because she liked the atmosphere, it was in an urban setting and was fast-paced, but it wasn’t overwhelming.
“I liked the research and internship opportunities that it offers, and I liked how diverse the student population was,” she said. “Many come from different countries and speak different languages … It was so interesting.”
Fred Alcorn said Harvard representatives and area alums had always stayed in touch with Kariss, offering help or other guidance from their experiences.
“They recruited her real hard,” he said.
Her mother, Judy, said Kariss is planning to major in chemistry and pre-med with a goal to be admitted into the Harvard Medical School.
Alcorn said she has always loved school.
“She got upset when there was a snow day,” Fred Alcorn joked.
Her sister Katelynn was the salutatorian of her class and is a pre-med student at Wright State University in Dayton, while her younger sister, Kiley, will be a freshman this fall at Carlisle High School and is a straight-A student, according to her parents.
Judy Alcorn said Kariss taught herself to read at age 4 and was already reading when she started kindergarten. Kariss also took difficult courses, such as Advanced Placement calculus and history last school year, and this school year, she had to teach herself in an online AP chemistry course.
“The AP chemistry was the most challenging course for me,” Alcorn said.
In addition to her academic studies, Alcorn played soccer all four year at Carlisle and was team captain this year. She also played basketball her freshman, sophomore and junior years, participated in the Drama Club, the Quiz Team and the Science Olympiad. She was on Student Council for three years and a counselor at Camp Joy for two years.
With all those activities, Alcorn still finds time to tutor a girl in the fourth grade, volunteer at Atrium Medical Center and work part-time at the McDonald’s in Germantown. For fun, she said she enjoys reading, especially if it’s a well-written book, and riding roller coasters at Kings Island.
Alcorn said that she’s anxious and nervous about going away to college.
“Going to Harvard is an opportunity of a lifetime,” she said.
About the Author
