Mid-way through her HSC exams, Year 12 Meriden student, Lucy Levenberg-Penklis received an offer to attend the prestigious Harvard University, commencing in 2025.
Harvard is renowned for its academic excellence and is extremely selective, with an overall acceptance rate of between 3-4% of applicants.
“Going to Harvard was always my dream,” Lucy said. “I am hoping to study neuroscience at Harvard then to pursue medicine at the University of Sydney.”
“I would like to study neuroscience because I love science, particularly biochemistry, and I am fascinated by the human brain and how it works. This is motivated, at least in part, because two of my grandparents suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and a third from mental illness later on in life.”
Although Lucy received an early offer from Harvard, this didn’t change the way she approached the rest of her exams.
“It was nice to be accepted and have some pressure off the remaining exams, but I was still striving to achieve the best ATAR I could,” she said.
“I’d encourage anyone who is dreaming about studying overseas to go all out in pursuing that dream,” Lucy said. “You may surprise yourself! Remember, your grades from Year 9 upwards count.”
The application process
For her application, Lucy submitted a personal statement, responded to multiple short essay-based questions and travelled to Queensland to sit the SAT examination, where her result needed to be within the top 10 percentile.
In addition to academic accomplishment, Harvard also considers an applicant’s community involvement, leadership and distinction in extracurricular activities, and personal qualities and character.
“Never underestimate the value of hard work and dedication to your cocurricular activities,” said Lucy, whose achievements in Water Polo also complemented her application.
She has been championed by the Coach of the Women’s Water Polo team at Harvard, and will be playing for the Crimsons, Harvard’s women’s Water Polo team.
Meriden’s history of Harvard Water Polo players
Lucy will be the third Meriden student to attend Harvard University, following in the footsteps of alumnae, Inde Halligan (Class of 2017) and Daniela Zapata Rincon (Class of 2019).
Both Inde and Daniela played water polo for Harvard, including one year together during Inde’s senior year.
When Lucy begins her freshman year, she will have the opportunity to compete with Daniela, who will be in her senior year.
Meriden will have had an alumnae playing on Harvard’s water polo team for ten consecutive years.
