TIME Magazine Features Student’s Praise of UC

An incoming freshman who says he turned down the Ivies is quoted in a recent TIME Magazine article, titled, “Who Needs Harvard?”

Date: 9/12/2006 12:00:00 AM
By: Dawn Fuller
Phone: (513) 556-1823

Photos By: Andrew Higley

Mostafa Ibrahim

The University of Cincinnati is one of a handful of universities around the nation that’s praised in a TIME Magazine article that states, “Competition for the Ivies is as fierce as ever, but kids who look beyond the famous schools may be the smartest applicants of all.” The article, titled, “Who Needs Harvard?” is featured in the Aug. 21 issue of TIME Magazine and includes a photograph and remarks from incoming UC freshman Mostafa Ibrahim of Indian Hill.

Ibrahim, a graduate of Indian Hill High School, is an incoming UC Honors Scholar and chemistry major who was awarded a University level Cincinnatus Scholarship of $14,000 (or $3,500 per year), along with a McMicken Scholarship and an award from the Darwin T. Turner Scholarship program. The Turner Scholarship, one of the nation’s oldest scholarship programs to recruit ethnically diverse, academically talented students, celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

A UC pennant is featured in the background of the TIME Magazine photograph of Ibrahim on pages 38-39 of the Aug. 21 issue. The magazine reports Ibrahim got accepted to “Yale, Columbia and a gaggle of other top schools. TIME also reports that for Ibrahim, “Yale offered serious aid, but none could match the University of Cincinnati’s bid to cover his tuition and pay his books, board and room too.”

“I’m about 95 percent sure I want to go to med school, and I don’t want to be in debt the rest of my life,” Ibrahim says. “Plus, UC has a great chemistry and premed program.

“I also think UC offers considerably more undergraduate research opportunities compared with Yale or Columbia, because it’s a public school and a big research institution. I’m already searching UC’s Web site and finding opportunities for undergraduates to do research,” he says.

“It’s increasingly clear that strong students like Mostafa are looking for the total package as they make their college choices. Competitive financial packages, enriching experiences beyond the classroom – like undergraduate research – and a broad array of student life opportunities are all important. And clearly, that total package is here at UC,” says Caroline Miller, UC associate vice president of Enrollment Management.

Ibrahim adds that his brother Omar, a senior chemistry/premed major at UC, also turned down the University of Pennsylvania because he was offered better financial aid opportunities at UC, and his sister, Rania, enters UC’s graduate school this year to pursue a doctoral degree in cosmetic science. Another sister, Nisreen, is a third-year medical student at UC.

TIME is not the first popular national publication to hold high praise for a University of Cincinnati quality education at an affordable price. To name a few, U.S. News & World Report ranks UC among the top 100 public universities in the nation; Money Magazine ranked UC as 62nd among Money’s 100 “elite values” in higher education; and the 2005 Princeton Review ranked UC among the top schools in the Midwest. Rankings released last month by Washington Monthly place the University of Cincinnati – 118 out of 245 – among the nation’s best schools promoting social mobility and an ethic of research along with scientific and humanistic research.

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