“It’s one of the top universities in the world, a place where you can come into contact with genius, where people develop ideas and make decisions that change the world,” says Austin Jung.  In just a few short months he’ll be one of those people.  The CWA senior has been accepted to Yale.  He applied for restricted early action, meaning he could apply early to only one college but wasn’t obligated to accept the offer if one came.  Austin, who always knew he wanted to travel and live in places far beyond the Northwest, is about 99% sure he’ll go to Yale now that he’s in.

According to the Yale Daily News, more than 25,800 students applied to Yale this fall, including 5,621 who applied for restricted early action, as Austin did.  The school admitted him and 729 other applicants early and expects to admit a total of 1,900 to 2,000 by April.  That’s an acceptance rate of about 7.5 percent and one of the reasons Yale has a well earned reputation as one of the most selective schools in the country.

According to the student newspaper, “Over the past decade, the number of applicants to Yale College has doubled — an unprecedented change… (administrators) attributed to financial aid reforms abolishing parental contribution for families earning less than $60,000 annually, the renovation and expansion of campus facilities, and investments in science and engineering.”

Austin came to CWA his freshman year.  He grew up in Gig Harbor and attended a public middle school there.  His twin sister is a senior at Gig Harbor High School.  At CWA, Austin joined the state championship Knowledge Bowl team, helped created the Lit Mag all four years of high school, dabbled in student government, played soccer, ran cross country, and got involved in the drama program’s One Acts festival.  He went to Italy on Winterim last year.  He volunteers with the Pierce County AIDS Foundation, too, but mostly he reads a lot.

“I’m not a math and science kid,” he explains.  “Foreign languages are my thing.  I love linguistics and the classics.”  He has excelled in Spanish at Charles Wright, taking the Advanced Placement Spanish exam as a junior, a year earlier than most students, and scoring a perfect 5.  He also independently studied Latin classics, a real passion, and passed that AP exam as well.  Last summer he took a summer course in Ancient Greek at the University of Chicago.

He may not consider himself a math and science kid, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t very good at those subjects as well.  “Austin is more than a good student, he’s a real intellect,” says Kevin Kane, his Spanish teacher and advisor.  “He learns for the joy of learning.  He’s truly passionate about education and has excelled in every area of study at Charles Wright.  Austin also has a wicked sense of humor, with a touch of sarcasm, and he is genuinely respected and admired by his classmates for his unique gifts.”

Austin was named an AP Scholar with Distinction at the end of his junior year after earning a 3 or better on at least five AP tests.   When more than 3.5 million high school students took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last year, Austin was one of three CWA students who scored in the top one percent of test takers.  He was named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist.  He’ll find out next month if he’s a finalist.

At 6:30am every weekday, Austin wakes up.  He leave home around 7:20 and gets to campus by 7:45.  He spends his free period relaxing, decompressing and occasionally finishing an assignment.  You can often find him reading or working on a jigsaw puzzle in the library.  After school, if he doesn’t have sports practice or a school activity planned, he gets a jump on his homework back in the library while he waits for his dad to get off work and give him a ride home. He estimates he spends about two hours on homework most evenings.

According to his teachers, Austin is the type of student who probably would have excelled academically at any school.  What he found at Charles Wright were greater academic challenges and a community that felt like home.   “I love Charles Wright,” he says.  “It was a big change coming from a public middle school but I’ve really enjoyed the community here and I hope to find some of the same in the residential college system at Yale.”

In fact, the residential college system was one of the things that really sold Austin on Yale.  He visited the campus last fall, sat in on a few classes, and stayed on campus.  “The residential college system is the focus of the social community.  Each house is a diverse microcosm of the greater university,” he explains. Each house has its own character but students are randomly assigned so the houses don’t follow the structure of the Greek system.  Oh, and the food, was, according to Austin, “the best ever.”

Another reason he loves Yale: “The dizzying variety of both classes and extracurriculars.” The course catalog alone offers over 2,000 courses.  He’s also looking forward to exploring the old campus itself, something he did while at the University of Chicago last summer.  He’s hoping to join the Society of Exploration and learn a few of the campus’ secrets – hidden passages and that sort of thing.

But before all of that begins, Austin still has four months left at CWA.  He’s enjoying no longer being stressed out by the college application process – “the relief of not having to fill out any more apps is the best part of early admission,” he explains – and he’s trying not to succumb to senioritis.  He’s working on the 2010 Lit Mag and planning to participate in the One Act festival.  He also plans to help the Tarriers win another state Knowledge Bowl championship.

The highlight of his spring, however, will be another trip to New Haven.  “I’m dying to revisit the campus,” he says.  Bulldog Days is a three-day event in April in which admitted students are invited to the Yale campus. The school promises that “We’ve got a range of activities planned for Bulldog Days: campus tours, welcome receptions, student performances, opportunities to visits classes and meet with undergraduate organizations, academic and extracurricular fairs, and plenty of downtime to absorb Yale College on your own. We’ll pair you with a student host who will introduce you to residential life at Yale and welcome you into his or her residential college community. Maybe most significant will be your chance to meet over 1000 other Yalies admitted to the class of 2014, many of whom will someday be your classmates.”