In the long, storied history of Steinert High School, only one student had ever been accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). With an acceptance rate of only 6% of its applicants, it is one of the hardest colleges to get into. All of that information is why it is such a big deal that Senior Fadi Farag has been accepted into MIT, and intends on pursuing his education there next year.

During Fadi’s junior year of high school, he was nominated and selected for a program called the NJ Governer's School. In this program, students “wrote a research paper” and later on were given the opportunity to present them at MIT. While Fadi was there, he was able to meet students and get a tour of the campus. His experience there and what he learned about the culture made him decide that he really liked it.

For his major, he will be looking to study Computer Science. Some of the classes that had helped Fadi on this path to excellence were AP Computer Science, and AP Computer Science Principles. Outside of school, he did extracurriculars that helped him on this path as well. These  included the robotics club and the math club. In the robotics club, he “got to explore programming more.” 

Although Fadi is not 100% on which career path he wants to take, he has a few in mind that he would like to pursue. Careers he is interested in include being a professor in Computer Science Research, a programmer at a high-end software company, or a cyber security analyst for either a private company or a government agency.

Fadi had been inspired to apply to MIT by two people in his life. One of these people was his mentor. The thing that she did that inspired him was that she went to MIT and he looked up to her. The other person was a graduate of Steinert about 4 years ago. Her name is Sam Woolf and she now attends Harvard University. 

For people who might want to apply to MIT, Fadi has some advice. He says that for applying to any college, you should “try your best in school, try to get the best grades, and study hard for the SATs.” 

Outside of all of the work that you would have to do to achieve a goal like this, Fadi also says that it is important to “explore whatever you’re interested in and don’t be afraid to try new things and try new projects while you are still in high school.”