'It's my dream school': Ontario teen earns early acceptance to Harvard University

CTV Toronto: Niagara teen accepted to Harvard A Niagara-area teen has achieved her lifelong dream of being accepted into the prestigious Harvard University. Scott Lightfoot reports.

Emily Hunter wrote three essays, secured four reference letters, completed an in-person interview and scored in the 99th percentile in the SATs.

And those were just the final steps in a years-long journey that began when Hunter was 15-years-old and touring the hallowed halls of Harvard University during a family trip to Boston. It was there on the campus grounds of America’s oldest university that Hunter set her sights on the prestigious Ivy League school.

“It’s my dream school,” she told CTV Toronto on Tuesday.

That dream came true this week when the Niagara Falls, Ont. teenager received early acceptance to attend Harvard University next fall.

“I was in shock because it’s so hard,” Hunter said. “This year was a 5.2 per cent acceptance rate.”

Nonetheless, Hunter was able to stay focused on reaching her goal despite the rigorous application process and intense competition for a spot – more than 40,000 students applied to the university this year.

And she wasn’t just studying all of the time either. The Grade 12 student participated in numerous extracurricular activities, most of which involved helping others.

Hunter tutored other students in math and science, worked on the mayor’s youth advisory committee, sat on the student and athletics’ councils at her high school and conducted lung cancer research at Brock University. She also volunteered at a local hospital and her church.

“Emily was always willing to do the work,” Sarah Hunter, the teenager’s mother, said. “It’s easy to see the end goal, but she was willing to do the work to get to that goal.”

One of Hunter’s high school teachers, Francesca Caruso-Leitch, agreed with Hunter’s mother that her work ethic really set her apart from her peers.

“Lots of them are very bright, lots of them are very active in school, but very few can show that level of maturity, that sort of makes them pop out as a standout kid,” Caruso-Leitch said.

All of that hard work paid off for the dedicated student who plans on becoming the first member in her family to earn a post-secondary degree. Hunter said she’s considering a career in medicine one day.

“You want your child to go to school and then you want them to get the education, the job and the career, but chances are this is going to open up a lot of doors for her,” her father Jarrod Hunter said.

Although Harvard University has a reputation for charging prohibitive tuition fees, the school offers “need-based” aid and financing plans so that any student accepted to the university will be able to attend, regardless of their financial situation.

Hunter said she’s looking forward to the future and her upcoming classes inside Harvard University’s ivy-covered buildings.

“I’m excited to meet everyone and be in a totally different environment from what I have been in high school so it’ll be interesting,” she said.

With a report from CTV Toronto’s Scott Lightfoot