African American

Derek Onserio knew it was college decision day, but he put it in the back of his mind, not wanting to ruin his Thursday night plans. He would check later, he told himself, as he watched the Minnesota Timberwolves play the Los Angeles Lakers on March 30.

So the high school senior waited until 10:30 p.m. to check his computer. Opening the websites to each of the Ivy League schools he applied to, he prepared himself for the bad news.

But the bad news didn’t come.

One by one, he opened each tab to find out that he was accepted at all eight schools: Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth.