From MSNBC:

New York teenager Lukasz Zbylut, who emigrated from Poland only five years ago, applied to seven Ivy League schools — and was accepted by every one of them.

Now he’s thrilled to further his education at his “dream school” of choice — Harvard. What, Yale wasn’t good enough for him? How about Princeton?
 

“I do feel sorry, and I feel awful for turning down such great institutions,” Zbylut told TODAY co-hosts Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira. “But it’s Harvard.”

Among the other schools he declined were Columbia, Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell, Georgetown, Stanford and New York University.

There were also letters from Middlebury, Amherst, Occidental, Richmond, Ohio Wesleyan, DePauw, Carnegie Mellon and CUNY Hunter, but the ever-smiling 18-year-old. But he knew he could only pick one.

“It’s a great feeling to have,” Zbylut added. “And it’s very exciting — and confusing, to an extent.”

Lukasz Zbylut (pronounced Loo-KASH Zbeh-LOOT) was in seventh grade when he came to the United States. At that point, he admits, he had only a limited grasp of the English language.

“It’s quite amazing that the first words you learn in any language are the curses,” Zbylut said with a laugh. “It’s ‘thank you’ and the curses. Someone should study that at some point. But I’ve come a long way since then.”

Zbylut said the transition to attending school in the U.S. was “easier than expected.”

“Schools in Poland are very rigorous, as you can imagine,” he said. “When taking my first exam, I was constantly turning to the girl next to me because in Poland, [testing] is very collaborative. Here, it’s the opposite.”

In addition to holding such high grades, Zbylut is co-captain of his school’s United Nations team; founder of its debate team; president of its mock-trial team and editor of the school newspaper. And, just for kicks, he plays soccer.

With such credentials, Lauer asked, why did Zbylut apply to so many schools when he knew he’d be accepted to so many of them?

“That isn’t really true, especially the last decade,” Zbylut explained. “[It’s] very competitive. We’re into the single digits when it comes to acceptance rates.

“I thought of myself as a great candidate, but I was never certain of getting into a single one college.”

Zbylut plans to study politics, law and philosophy at Harvard. But there was one school that actually did turn him down — the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Zbylut said he didn’t mind the snub.

“I really don’t regret it, because I would never be as passionate as a student they potentially could have given the spot to,” he said. “I’m hoping that the spot they gave would have been to someone who is very passionate about politics and everything.”

The details on Lukasz Zbylut:

-- Born in Poland and moved to the United States when he was 13 years old.
-- During the first six months in New York, he taught himself English and went to a public school in Brooklyn.
-- Now at 18 years old, he graduating as the valedictorian from Utrecht High School next week
-- In high school, he was part of Model UN, and created and headed the debate team. He was also part of a soccer team in his community.
-- He applied to 21 universities, including 7 Ivy League schools.
-- Out of the 21, Lukasz withdrew from 2, and was only denied by 1, MIT.
-- Lukasz was accepted to: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania, Cornell, Columbia, Georgetown, NYU, Middlebury, Amherst, Occidental, Richmond, Ohio Wesleyan, DePauw, Carnegie Mellon and CUNY HunterH
-- He does not use social networking sites, instant messaging or watch entertainment television. He considers all of it a waste of time. He does, though, watch network news channels.
-- While he was in high school he took 12 Advance Placement courses and received perfect scores on all his final A.P. tests. This gave him full credit towards college and a final count of 45 college credits at the end of it all. BUT according to Harvard rules, they are only accepting 6 of those 45 credits. (30 credits=1 year of college)
-- Lukasz plans on going to Harvard Law after his undergrad and pursuing a career in politics from there.
-- He is the only student from his graduating class to be accepted to an Ivy League school. (575 students graduating next week)