By Nicole Coleman

Steven Lin’s story is nothing short of inspirational.

A Medina High School senior who managed the billing for his parents’ restaurant, Great Wall, over the past four years, he will head to Harvard University this September to study economics and international relations.

It is the opportunity of a lifetime, and one he has worked tirelessly to achieve.

At the age of 10, Lin moved to New York City from his hometown of Fuzhou, China with his parents, Shanchai Lin and Hongzhen Chen, knowing very little English. He was enrolled in public schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn where he was forced to pick it up in the classroom.

Determined to become fluent, he rose at 5:30 a.m. every morning to practice English words, missing a day only once. The process was more difficult for his older siblings, Dennis and Qi Lin, as well as his parents, who have had to rely on their children to communicate with individuals outside of the family.

The summer after Lin completed eighth grade, his parents took over his uncle’s Chinese restaurant in Medina. They moved into the second floor apartment and began to enjoy the benefits of small town living.

Although the high school offered less than the larger schools he had attended, Lin jumped on every opportunity Medina offered, relishing in the personal attention afforded by his teachers, he said. He joined the spring tennis team, helping them win a league championship his sophomore year, and Lockport’s WLVL 1340 Scholastic Bowl, an academic quiz show pitting him against the brightest from the area’s high schools.

Well liked by his classmates, he served as a class officer his first three years of high school and was elected Student Association vice president as a senior. He also participated in Mock Trial, the JV basketball team and the American Legion’s Oratorical Contest, winning at the county and district level two years in a row.

His course load as an upperclassman included AP European History, AP Calculus I and II, AP Chemistry, AP U.S. History and AP Government.

Sometime during his junior year, he sat down in school counselor Linda Knipe’s office with high ambitions to attend an Ivy League school. His grades were good — he will finish fourth in a class of 147 students — so she helped guide him through the process.

Knipe, history teacher Todd Bensley and science teacher Calvin Sands wrote him letters of recommendation, and English teachers Elizabeth Dickhut and Karen Jones proof read his college and scholarship essays multiple times.

Like a true businessman, Lin did his research before applying to 10 reputable schools, including the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, the University of Southern California, New York University, Emory University, Georgetown University and the University of Rochester. His top choice was always the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania.

He told only his family and teachers that he had applied to Harvard out of fear he wouldn’t get in, he said. The entrance interview was conducted in Buffalo with alumnus Greg Stevens, CEO of River Wright LLC, sometime in February.

“He didn’t know what his chances were,” Knipe said. “It was just so much fun when acceptances would come, to see who was offering what.”

April 1, when Harvard released its candidates accepted, was the longest day of Lin’s life, he said. He rushed home from tennis practice at 6 p.m., an hour after the list had been released, to check his e-mail.

There, he found the fruit of his labors.

“I wasn’t really thinking that I’d get in,” Lin said. “I just couldn’t believe it. I was living a dream.”

“It was April Fool’s day, so a lot of people thought it was a joke.”

Lin ran to tell his parents working in the restaurant. He was jumping around, yelling in excitement, and they were soon doing the same, he said. His father, a man who works every day of the week and completed only some of middle school, shed tears of happiness.

His brother, an accounting student at Syracuse University, was still in China studying abroad and was blown away by the news when Lin woke him with a 6 a.m. phone call. His sister, Qi Lin, a pre-medical science major at SUNY Buffalo, was equally pleased, he said.

A formal admittance document arrived in the mail a few days later.

“I made my decision when I got the letter,” he said.

Knipe said Lin’s academic achievements — he scored a 2120 out of 2400 on the SATs, the equivalent to 1430 by the old scale — put him in the running for a number of scholarships. He received funding through the school, as well as from outside agencies. Worthy of note is the competitive Gates Millennium Scholarship from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; only 1,000 are awarded to graduating seniors across the country, she said.

The bulk of Lin’s tuition expenses will be paid for with a scholarship from Harvard. Once he is on campus, there are a number of additional work and volunteer programs in place to help him earn spending money, he said.

Less than a month after being accepted, Harvard flew Lin to the campus for a three-day visit. He stayed with a host student in the dorms, soaked in the historic campus, and began to wrap his mind around his new reality.

He found the people to be friendly and the atmosphere inviting. Now he is looking forward to the intellectual climate — unable to fathom what it will be like.

The fuss his classmates and teachers have made over his accomplishment is overwhelming, he said.

“I try to down play it a little bit. I don’t like people thinking I’m different,” he said. “I’m still Steve, I haven’t changed a bit.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1352486&forum_id=1#15371049)

The quetion always left like an aftertaste is why Harvard isn't even more productive given the school (empirically) can get the very best the world can produce.

When concrete statistics are presented, Harvard does well always, but the quality of Harvard graduate achievement (however impressive) does not match the quality of matriculants to Harvard College.

Does Harvard College fail in its mission? Or are admissions officers just middle managers instead of the visionaries the school needs?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1352486&forum_id=1#15371379)