TJHSST Senior Pooja Chandrashekar Chooses Harvard

It’s off to Cambridge, Mass. for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) senior Pooja Chandrashekar.

Chandrashekar earned notoriety a few weeks ago when it was announced in The Washington Post that she’d gained admission to all 14 schools she’d applied to — including all eight of the Ivies — in addition to Stanford, MIT, Duke, the University of Virginia, the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech.

“I think Pooja couldn’t go wrong with an array of excellent options,” TJHSST Principal Dr. Evan Glazer said. “I am sure she will take full advantage of research opportunities at Harvard, as well as embrace the Cambridge community through her continued leadership and service. Pooja has a lot to offer, and I look forward to learning about her pursuits in the coming years.”

Chandrashekar earned a 4.57 grade-point average, scored a 2390 (out of 2400) on the SAT, aced all 13 of her Advanced Placement exams and developed a mobile app that analyzes speech patterns to predict with 96 percent accuracy if a person has Parkinson’s disease. She had an internship at Mitre and founded a national nonprofit organization that encourages middle-school girls to participate in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs.

She also served as a panel speaker at the 2015 K-12 STEM Symposium on the topic of “Positive Messaging: Making STEM Cool for K-12 Kids.”

The WashingtonExec STEM Council will host a “Meet and Greet” with Chandrashekar on June 10 at Nysmith School where she will speak about ProjectCSGirls, the nonprofit she founded to encourage young girls around the world to pursue careers in the STEM fields and to discuss the future of “ProjectCSGirls.” A Q&A session will follow.