Alizeh Yahya, a Dubai-based Pakistani student outshone her peers by securing 16 acceptance letters from some of the leading universities in the UK and US, including five Ivy League schools. Alizeh, 13, a student at Dubai College, who wishes to pursue her higher education in politics, law and public policy, was flabbergasted by the response.
Alizeh Yahya secured 13 A stars in the UK’s General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and topped two subjects internationally in 2017. She was honored by the UAE Ministry of Education last year for securing first position in the International Student Assessment (PISA), conducted by the world-renowned Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
“I always wanted to get into a top university. But I never expected I would be in a situation like this,” she said in her interview to the Gulf News.
Talking about her achievement she said, “I have received acceptance letters from Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Dartmouth, Cornell (Ivy League schools), Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Barnard College of Columbia and UCLA in the US and Cambridge, London School of Economics, Kings College, Durham and UCL in the UK.”
She said the admission office of two leading universities also sent her hand-written notes, stating how impressed they were from the ways she articulated her ideas related to subjectivity, collective memory and identity.
“I have worked hard throughout my school life and being in Dubai has helped as it is a very international place with people from so many nationalities,” she added. She also thanked her school and parents for their support.
Dubai College Headmaster Michael Lambert said, “Alizeh Yahya is a staggeringly talented girl and has done us proud. In fact, she tops 19 of our US applicants who have been accepted in the top one per cent universities this year. Twenty-two of our students received UK medical school offers, out of whom seven hold two offers each and one holds three. Seven students received acceptances from Oxford and Cambridge, 14 from Imperial College London, 11 from London School of Economics and 26 from UCL. This has been a record year for us.”
Lambert said the school’s preparatory program, known as “Top UP or University Preparation program” helped students in their higher education endeavors. Moreover, Graduway assisted alumni to get connected with over 1,500 alumni from all across the globe through social media platforms.