Kow Simpson, a member of the class of 2022 at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland, will be attending Harvard University this fall.
Heather Nadolny, the director of development and communications at Bishop McNamara, and Herman Frazier, Simpson's counselor at the school, listed a few of his accomplishments that got him into Harvard – he ran on McNamara’s track team, played cornet in the wind ensemble, took advanced classes (his favorite is math), received a top 1% SAT score, and is in the top 5% of his grade.
“Kow is very humble, and it’s not fake humble, he’s literally really humble, he doesn’t want to tell people things (about himself),” Frazier said.
In an interview, Simpson said he is excited to purse a degree in biomedical engineering at Harvard.
“I actually looked forward to my math classes, which is really crazy to say, because the math classes I took were so challenging for me, but I liked the way I was able to learn to think through stuff and take notes and apply it, everything made sense more than other subjects did,” Simpson said.
Simpson grew up in Maryland as the youngest of three siblings. His parents emigrated from Ghana to the United States.
He explained that his career decision was influenced by his enjoyment of math classes as well as his mother’s encouragement for him to become a doctor. However, he is not letting any decisions tie him down right now – Simpson admits that plans may change as time passes and he gains experience.
“When I started applying to schools, I realized that I can really become who I want to be, so I don’t have to go into college knowing exactly who I want to be when I come out,” Simpson said. “Biomedical engineering, that’s something I think is cool, but I’m down to change if I find something I’m really passionate about.”
Harvard’s decision envelope was the last one Simpson opened. He said the decisions came out in early April, but he decided to wait a couple of days to check on his status with the company of friends, “so if I had to cry, I wouldn’t have to cry alone,” Simpson said.
Simpson started with Honors Algebra II his freshman year at Bishop McNamara, then he took classes in Honors Geometry/Trigonometry, Honors Pre-Calculus, and finally AP Calculus.
Simpson hopes to bring one of his extracurricular interests, playing the cornet, to Harvard. The cornet is a shorter trumpet-like brass instrument. Simpson said he began playing the cornet when he was 6 years old, thanks to the Salvation Army.
“As I grew up and became better at my instrument, I was like, let me give back what I receive,” Simpson said. He volunteered at the Prince George’s County Salvation Army Corps throughout high school, helping out with their music program and Camp Happyland.
In his Common Application essay, Simpson went into detail about how his cornet playing improved one summer.
“I was really bad, I didn’t really know what I was doing until I was 13,” Simpson said. A mentor at the camp told Simpson they would tackle what was holding Simpson’s playing back – his embouchure.
The embouchure is how a musician buzzes his or her lips to the mouthpiece of an instrument.
“It was literally one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, because it’s like rewriting how I thought about my instrument before,” Simpson said, adding that in his essay, “I applied it to how, in college, I can attack things head on, difficult problems…I think my essay reflected that I am able to not be afraid to change how I think and to constantly be out to better myself.”
In Massachusetts, he aspires to continue playing the cornet, whether in the school marching band or with another Salvation Army unit.
Simpson was quick to respond when asked how his family had assisted him during the application process, crediting the help of his brother, Nana, and his mother.
Simpson’s brother is 10 years older than him and was the first person in their family to go to college, studying at the University of Maryland. Simpson said he would often email his brother materials to look over before submitting, such as the essays included in applications.
“We’re first [generation]…we always look up to him, because we act like he knows everything, and we put that pressure on him,” Simpson said. “I kept sending stuff to him asking, ‘Yo, Nana, is this good?’”
Simpson recalled his mother keeping the energy upbeat during a time of uncertainty after he submitted his applications in December.
“She thought I wasn’t going to get into any schools for a while,” Simpson said. “Then I got into UMD, so she was like ‘Yay, we’re going to UMD!’”
He remembers getting rejected from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and his mom saying “Okay, we’re still going to UMD!”
After that, he got into Harvard, and that was the end of it. Simpson turned down full-ride offers from Northwestern University, as well as acceptances from Brown, Duke, and Emory University/Oxford College. Simpson is the first student from Bishop McNamara to be accepted into Harvard since 2009.
Herman Frazier, his counselor, wrote Simpson’s letter of recommendation.
“I wasn’t surprised,” Frazier said about Simpson’s acceptance into the Ivy League school. Frazier said in his line of work, when observing students, he can spot the students who have the “Ivy League cache.”
“Kow definitely exhibited the work habits, the characteristics, the personality for such a competitive academic environment,” Frazier said. “So much so – he didn’t mention this so I’m going to mention it – I recommended him for a competitive internship.”
Simpson participated in the Leadership Initiatives internship during the summer before his senior year. He was accepted into the Advanced Medicine and Public Health portion of the program. Simpson collaborated with public health experts from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the National Institutes of Health, and diagnosed a real patient from the Nagari Medical Clinic & Maternity Ward in Nigeria. Simpson explained how the virtual internship worked.
“It was really, really cool. The main objective was to create a plan to combat a certain type of disease, which they gave us in groups, to effectively combat and prevent it in Bauchi State, Nigeria,” Simpson said. “When they actually brought people from Nigeria on the webinar, I was like, that’s crazy, we’re really helping them.”
Simpson’s team was assigned nutritional anemia, and they had to devise a strategy that encompassed marketing and financing to address the problem.
“We created a nice infographic that showed healthy ways to get all of your nutritional values in food was available to them on a budget,” Simpson said. He was also taught how to suture, classes on persuasive writing, and public speaking.
Simpson prevailed despite the pandemic disrupting his high school experience, which saw him and his classmates miss in-person learning for almost one-half of sophomore year and all of their junior year.
“Junior year, I was struggling so bad, that was the first year I got two Bs,” he said.
Simpson found resources through the school’s social media page on how to handle the demands of online school. That resulted in Simpson organizing his time, sometimes including naps between classes.
“I made a Google Doc[ument] with all my links, I set timers on my phone so that, at least for the class period I was able to lock in and then I would just fall asleep, wake up again when my alarm rings, and go to my next class,” Simpson said. “I really had to do it class by class.”
As far as Harvard next year, Simpson is excited for the change in scenery and plans to take advantage of what the area has to offer, although he is concerned about the winter.
“All the way in New England…I’m going to get one of the biggest coats ever,” Simpson said, laughing.
For those who may be interested in applying to Harvard, Simpson has some advice on how to navigate high school.
“Try to find your passion, be genuine about it, try to help others, it’s not a race, it’s a process. If you can help someone go on with you, why leave them behind? Make lots of friends, try to help out, be serious about something, you can’t just go through the motions in high school, I don’t think that’s making the best of your time,” Simpson said.
