Connecticut senior accepted into 5 Ivy League schools

MONROE, Connecticut — At Masuk High School in Monroe, Conn., one senior has such a bright future that five Ivy League schools want her as their next freshman.  

Sienna Jones applied to 28 schools, including all eight Ivy League schools, and got accepted into Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Brown and the University of Pennsylvania.

Not only did she get into those prestigious schools, she also got into other very competitive schools like Georgetown and Stanford. 

In order to get here, Jones stayed busy all four years, immersing herself in extracurriculars.

“My swim team, so I joined that freshman year, I had never swum before,” she said. “And then I was on varsity all four years, actually, and then I was captain this year.”

She’s also a piano player, president of her school psychology club, leads the honors society, and somehow, still finds time to be a lifeguard on top of that.

“It’s definitely been rough, like just last night I had to work and then I had to still do like an hour and a half of homework,” Jones said.

Any senior will tell you, it’s hard juggling classes with planning a future. For Jones, what’s made it easier has been her support system at home and school, like history teacher Susan Clark, who taught Jones for two years.

“If it’s in a collaborative setting, she’s always working with her group, making the group better,” Clark said. “And that just speaks to her work ethic, and how hard of a worker that she is.”

Penny Ploski has been her guidance counselor all four years and said she’s watched Jones grow her leadership qualities a lot over her high school career. 

“Finding her voice has been lovely to watch, accepting her amazingness has been, I would say, her biggest growth, still there,” Ploski said. “Learning to be, to be proud of her accomplishments.”

Jones couldn’t be more humble about her accomplishments, but all her hard work led her to finishing up high school, while getting ready for her next adventure.

“I committed to Harvard,” Jones said.

Harvard is a school with a 4.2% acceptance rate this year, and according to the Ivy Institute, only 0.3% of students get accepted into any of the Ivy League schools.

“I ended up applying to 28 schools in total, just cause I was super nervous, that I wasn’t gonna get the results I wanted, so yeah it was definitely a surprise to get into the schools I did,” Jones said.

Jones said she’s excited to use her time at Harvard to begin her studies as a future lawyer. She’s also excited to meet more people with similar school interests as her. 

“I’ve never lived in a city, like I’ve lived here my whole life so I haven’t experienced living somewhere like Boston, so I’m excited for that,” Jones said. 

Jones is planning her first trip to Harvard this weekend, where she’ll spend time getting to know her future home.