Sparta student accepted to Harvard, Yale and Princeton (to name a few)

Sparta - Isabel Ramirez, a senior at Sparta High School, was accepted to Harvard, Yale and Princeton, as well as to Dartmouth, Williams, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke, and The College of New Jersey. Ramirez, the daughter of Javier and Melinda Ramirez of Sparta, received acceptances to all of the colleges she applied to. Ramirez is a Principal’s Scholar, a member of the Top Ten seniors at Sparta High School and was named a National Hispanic Scholar by the College Board. She also received a National Merit Letter of Commendation. She scored 2,240 on the SAT, receiving a perfect 800 on the critical reading section. She is a member of the National Honor Society, the World Language National Honor Society in Spanish, and the Tri-M Music Honor Society. She recently was awarded first prize in the N.J. Chemistry Olympics, a competition open to all North Jersey exceptional high school students, sponsored by the N.J. Institute of Technology and the American Chemical Society. An accomplished musician, Ramirez is privately studying three instruments. She was a member of the Sparta High marching band for all four years of high school. As a junior, she was selected to participate in a “mini-medical school” six-week program at UMDNJ (Robert Wood Johnson Medical School). She is active in community service as an officer of the Key Club at Sparta High, a junior volunteer at Newton Memorial Hospital, a volunteer for Pass-It-Along, and as a volunteer musician for various local church performances. She has also earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Ramirez attended the overnight visitation programs in April for accepted students at Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Wellesley to find the “right fit.” She has decided to matriculate at Princeton in the fall based on its rigorous academic focus for undergraduates. She intends to major in Spanish with a concentration in Latin American studies and also to pursue pre-medical studies. She would eventually like to attend Harvard or Yale Medical School. Ramirez wrote her personal essay on troubles faced by many teenagers today, a poignant essay which her English teacher described as “superlative.” Ramirez attributes the majority of her success to her teachers at Sparta High School, especially her senior year instructors, Antonia Adamiak, Deborah Gianuzzi, James Jarrell, Frank Sanchez, Carol Scheese and Elsa Schock, as well as Andrew Lowery and Angela Trzcinski, who were both invaluable in the college application process, Elana Franklin, marching band director, and Sam Roseman, her guidance counselor, who recently retired. She also acknowledges Scott Meeker, her private SAT coach, and Krista Verill, her best friend, who wrote her peer evaluation.