Only the best of the best get into the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University — no more than five of approximately 200 applicants each year, according to the Kennedy School website. Kadeem Noray ’15 is one of the five.
In early March, Noray — a triple major in economics, math, and physics — received his acceptance letter from the Kennedy School, after the only reason he applied to Harvard was because a professor told him he had a “non-zero chance” of being accepted, Noray said. He said he is almost certain he will attend this coming year.
“It’s fun for me to say that I earned acceptance,” Noray said. “But once you meet the basic requirements, there are still so many qualified applicants that getting in is like the flip of a coin…so I just see it as a blessing.”
His professors, including Assistant Professor of Mathematics William Abram, said they are proud that he was accepted to the prestigious institution.
“It’s a real honor to get selected to go there,” Abram said. “Kadeem’s interests have always been policy-oriented…He wants to be influential in the world, and the Kennedy School is a great way to do that.”
Abram and Noray recently published a joint paper in January titled “Political Corruption and Public Activism: An Evolutionary Game Theoretic Analysis” in which they examined if it is possible for people in society who advocate for fixing political corruption to be effective. The paper was an extension of one of Noray’s two senior theses at Hillsdale.
Noray said he originally thought he would pursue a career in physics, but after taking a microeconomics course with Professor of Economics Ivan Pongracic during his sophomore year, he changed his mind.
“I realized that was the discipline that made me the most excited,” he said. “I just kept taking classes, and then junior year, I decided I could definitely do all three majors.”
Noray said eventually teaching at a liberal arts school is of interest to him, but he said he would prefer to continue researching and publishing his own articles.
“He is clearly an ambitious young man and has great potential,” Pongracic said. “I can’t wait to see what research he comes up with. We need more good people doing good research.”
Noray visited Harvard last week and will make his final decision by mid-April.