Whiz Kids: Dearborn Student Headed to MIT

Name: Hussein Abdallah

Age: 18

School:

Accomplishment: Hussein Abdallah knew he was taking a big chance when he applied for admission to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and he tried not to get excited about the prospect of attending the nation’s most prestigious engineering and technology universities–but that was until he received notification that he was accepted.

“I tried not to get my hopes up; I know it’s very competitive,” he said. “I was extremely happy to get the news. I had pondered (rejection), but I tried not to dwell on it.

Abdallah, who will graduate from Dearborn High this June, applied through the school’s “early action” process, which measures a student’s performance based on second semester results and notifies applicants in December.

MIT, located in Cambridge, Mass., accepts only the best and brightest students; the university admitted 10.9 percent of applicants for the 2012 school year, according to a measurement conducted by Hernandez College Consulting, which collects admissions data.

Key to awesomeness: Abdallah said getting to MIT acceptance has been a journey–and a challenge.

He said his acceptance is due to hard work, and the support of his parents and teachers.

“My teachers at Dearborn High were great,” he said. “My math and science teachers always worked hard to challenge me so that I could continue meet higher expectations.”

He also said getting accepted meant not being complacent.

“I learned to never accept the normal curriculum,” he said. “I just tried to keep thinking out of the box.”

Abdallah plans to major in computer science at MIT, and in Dearborn, he’s already had a great start.

He works part-time at Active Solutions Group, a Dearborn information technology firm. Frank Kadaf, Abdallah’s supervisor, said he’s beyond impressed with the high school student’s skills.

“He’s a brilliant, brilliant young man,” said Kadaf. “He knows how to break down problems to their simplest form, and then solve them in a way I’ve never seen before.”

At school, Abdallah is involved in many activities. He is the vice president of both Dearborn High’s Business Professionals Association and its National Honor Society chapter, and does website work and newsletter writing for the key club. He’s earned a cumulative GPA of 3.9.

As he finishes up his senior year, Abdallah is excited about what the future holds.

“It’s going to be a great experience going to a school that has so many outstanding opportunities for research and learning,” he said.

Abdallah is a resident of Dearborn. His parents are Mohammad and Salwa Abdallah.

Know of a student who is doing great things–inside or out of the classroom? Email your Whiz Kid nominations to Editor Jessica Carreras at Jessica.carreras@patch.com. Please include the name, age, school, achievement and key to awesomeness, as well as a photo. Then come back every week for our Whiz Kid spotlight. You never know who may be smiling at you from the computer screen.