Immigrant's son has to pick among four of nation's elite schools

BY STEVE KEMME | SKEMME@ENQUIRER.COM

ANDERSON TWP. - Which will it be? Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Columbia?

That's the choice that faces Turpin High School senior Brandon Ortiz.

It's a little like a gourmand being asked to select which five-star restaurant to dine in.

"It's really tough," said Brandon, the son of a Mexican immigrant who didn't attend college because his family couldn't afford it.

"They're all so great in their own way."

He returned last weekend from a weeklong trip that included a three-day stay at Harvard and a three-day stay at Yale.

He must choose by Thursday, the acceptance deadline for all four universities.

Brandon wore a Harvard sweat shirt Monday afternoon as he sat next to his mother, Laura, on the sofa in their Anderson Township house. But he insisted that didn't necessarily indicate he was favoring Harvard.

"I bought apparel for all the schools," he said.

He said Harvard and Yale admissions officers told him he's the only student in Greater Cincinnati to be accepted at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia.

Gila Reinstein, a spokeswoman for Yale, said a student must be exceptional to be accepted into just one Ivy League school, let alone four of them.

"I'm sure that for a high school kid to get in any one of those schools indicates the student is academically outstanding and multitalented," she said. "To get into more than one - what a wonderful thing! All of those schools are very competitive."

Brandon's achievement also occurs in a year when Harvard's acceptance rate for applicants for its freshman class reached a record low of 7.1 percent.

Harvard's 27,462 freshman applicants and Princeton's 21,369 are record highs for each school.

The cost to attend any of the four universities is steep. Harvard's annual tuition is $32,557; Yale's, $35,300; Princeton's, $33,000; and Columbia's, $35,516.

Annual room and board at each of those schools costs $10,000 to $11,000.

All four schools have offered Brandon financial aid that would reduce his annual tuition to between $10,000 and $15,000.

Brandon's mother said that, because he has such a sterling academic record, she and her husband, Francisco "Al" Ortiz, told him to go ahead and apply to the four Ivy League universities.

"We really didn't know what his chances were," she said. "It's overwhelming."

A MOTHER'S PRIDE

She began reeling off Brandon's many accomplishments as he grinned sheepishly and groaned, "Mom. Please."

His achievements at Turpin include: a 4.0 grade-point average; National Merit finalist, National Merit Hispanic finalist, and summa cum laude status on his National Latin Exam.

He co-founded a group promoting diversity, Diverse Individuals Seeking Community Oneness.

"We have Mix-It-Up days, where everybody is assigned randomly to a seat at lunch," Brandon said. "That way, you have lunch with people you never interacted with."

One of Brandon's biggest passions is school theater. A talented singer, dancer and actor, he has performed the lead or a major role in every school drama since he was a freshman.

He works 16 hours a week as a singing and dancing server at a Johnny Rocket's restaurant.

Gerald Gunning, a guidance counselor at Turpin, said Brandon's personal qualities are every bit as outstanding as his academic record and theatrical talents.

"He's an exceptional young man," Gunning said. "He's real down to earth. I don't find him to be a braggart. He's really just a solid kid."

Brandon credits his parents with emphasizing the importance of education. His sister Jennifer is in graduate school; his brother David will graduate from Ohio State University this spring; and his younger sister Nikki is a sophomore at Turpin.

A FATHER'S EMPHASIS

Brandon's mother graduated from Boston University with a journalism degree.

His father is a facilities engineer at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Sharonville. He began working for Ford 41 years ago as a welder and worked his way up.

Francisco Ortiz moved to the United States when he was 8, with his father, a migrant worker. He became a naturalized citizen in 1985.

"He always told us he would have been able to do more if he had a college education," Brandon said. "That's why education is so important to us."

Brandon wants to major in the Romance languages - his father has taught all the children Spanish - and eventually study international law. His goal is to become a diplomat or ambassador.

But his immediate goal is to decide whether to enroll at Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Columbia.

"It's terrible," Brandon said. "I go back and forth between them so many times."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=806145&forum_id=1#9704308)

BY STEVE KEMME | SKEMME@ENQUIRER.COM

ANDERSON TWP. – After weeks of being courted by four Ivy League colleges, Turpin High School senior Brandon Ortiz has decided he will spend his next four years at Harvard.

Brandon, the unassuming 18-year-old son of a Mexican immigrant, had the enviable but difficult task of choosing between Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia.

Because of his sterling academic record, his theatrical talents and community-minded projects, all four of the elite institutions offered him enticing financial packages in addition to their vast academic resources.

Brandon made his choice Tuesday night, two days before the deadline for committing to one of the four.

“I’m pretty relieved,” he said. “I worried about this decision so much. I just wanted to be finished with it and get on with my life.”

The tipping point for Brandon was Harvard’s Romance Languages and Literatures Department.

During his visit to Harvard last week, he spent more than two hours talking with five of the department’s professors.

Brandon conversed with them in Spanish, French, Italian – which he taught himself – and even Latin. He doesn’t speak Portuguese, but he understood what the Portuguese professor said to him and answered him in Spanish.

“They were thrilled to have a student speak to them in so many languages,” said Brandon’s mother, Laura.

“They have a great program,” said Brandon, who plans to major in Romance languages. “Since I already have a knowledge of those languages, I’ll be studying their literature and will get to travel abroad to those countries where those languages are spoken.”

He learned Spanish from his father, Francisco Ortiz, who came to the United States when he was 8 and became a naturalized citizen in 1985. He works as a facilities engineer at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Sharonville. He and his wife, Laura, have four children.

Harvard’s annual tuition and room and board runs more than $40,000. Under the financial package offered to Brandon, the Ortiz family will pay a much more affordable $10,000 to $15,000 a year.

When Brandon sent his e-mail on Tuesday night accepting of Harvard’s offer of admission, Brandon and his parents felt a twinge of pain in rejecting Yale, Princeton and Columbia.

“All the schools were so wonderful to him and had so many things to offer,” Laura Ortiz said. “But it was Brandon’s choice. He was the one who had to be happy there.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=806145&forum_id=1#9711213)