Dec. 22—Dartmouth was knocking on Isaac Ahn’s door.
Columbia, too.
In fact, nearly every Ivy League university took an interest in Ahn the student (a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist, hoping to advance as a finalist); Ahn the person (he’s the co-captain of Mayo’s chess team, among other interests) and Ahn the athlete (a two-time Minnesota Class 3A high school state meet qualifier).
Ahn said he was impressed with what Dartmouth, Columbia and others offer athletically, academically and socially. But the longer he thought about it, the more the Rochester Mayo High School senior kept coming back to one conclusion.
“Harvard was my top choice. I was able to visit all these different schools on recruiting visits and I loved everything about Harvard,” said Ahn, who has a 4.0 unweighted GPA, a 4.93 weighted GPA and scored 1570 on his SAT (the median SAT score for students admitted to Harvard is approximately 1520). “I can really thrive there as a student and an athlete.”
Ahn will get that chance, beginning in the fall of 2025.
After going through the lengthy and comprehensive admission process — including writing multiple essays, answering hundreds of other questions, submitting high school transcripts and recommendation letters from at least two teachers — Ahn learned on Dec. 12 that he has been accepted to the prestigious university in Cambridge, Mass.
More good news followed quickly for Ahn, on a call with Fred Schernecker, the Director of Harvard Golf, and Kevin Rhoads, the Crimson’s head coach. They are ready to welcome Ahn into the Harvard men’s golf program with open arms.
“It’s definitely a relief to be done with” the recruiting process, Ahn said. “At the beginning it was exciting — it started in June 2023, when I could start talking to coaches. Even before that, I was sending out e-mails.
“It’s exciting at first. Then I realized it’s a very competitive environment in terms of, coaches only have so many spots and are looking at a lot of other kids. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Ahn is a two-time Class 3A state meet qualifier.
As a freshman in 2022, Ahn tied for 10th place, with a 36-hole total of 3-over-par 147.
In 2023, he helped the Mayo boys reach state as a team for the first time in more than 20 years. He tied with teammate and classmate Tim Sexton that season for 17th place at state (both shooting 4-over-par for the 36-hole meet), while the Spartans finished fifth in the team standings.
Ahn, who plays nearly non-stop in the summer, in American Junior Golf Association and other prestigious junior events, said he is looking forward to one more spring season with his Mayo teammates and a chance to chase a state team championship and individual medalist honors.
The high school season begins on March 17. The state meet concludes on June 11. Then it’s a summer of junior tournaments before heading to Cambridge to begin a new life academically and athletically.
Ahn expects to be one of three freshmen on the men’s golf team in the fall. He is equally excited, he said, to dig into the academic part of his college career. Ahn is a math fanatic who intends to major in applied mathematics. He has spent a good amount of time studying Google’s PageRank algorithm — which measures the number and quality of links to a webpage, to determine how important the website is — and would like to work on something similar upon his college graduation.
When he toured Harvard, with two of his future golf teammates, he was able to observe a number of classrooms, including a small-group setting.
“The students there are incredible,” Ahn said. “Each and every one is different and on a whole other level of communication skills and intellectual abilities. The entire student body, represented by that golf team, is something I want to be part of.
“They’re all really good role models.”
This past summer, Ahn had been thinking for some time about how he could give back to the local golf community and to the AJGA community, both of which had supported him immensely and helped him grow into the golfer and person he is today.
While in Illinois for a junior tournament, Ahn was at a laundromat when he struck up a conversation with a fellow golfer who was doing his laundry at the same time. Ahn learned that his peer was only able to travel to play in that particular tournament because of support from the AJGA Liberty National Ace Grant, which provides financial support to young men and women who aspire to earn a college golf scholarship through playing competitive junior golf.
That’s when the idea came together in Ahn’s mind.
On Sept. 22, he held a Swing For Kids charity golf tournament at Eastwood Golf Course in Rochester, the home course of the Mayo Spartans.
The event drew dozens of golfers from Rochester and surrounding communities and Ahn raised nearly $11,000 for Liberty National Ace Grant and for the First Tee of Rochester, which helps youth golfers of all ages with greens fees at local courses and helps to provide them with access to practice facilities.
“I thought it would be an amazing way for be to bring the Rochester golf community together and and an opportunity to give back to them,” Ahn said. “(In Illinois) I saw the amazing things the Ace Grant is doing and I saw that it’s (benefitting) kids with good hearts who are fired up for competition and to play golf.”
The fundraiser was a highlight of an impressive year for Ahn. He was named a National Merit Scholar semifinalist, and hopes to advance to the finalist stage. He was selected as one of 28 boys golfers on the AJGA Tour as a Rolex Scholastic All-American (an honor that takes into account high-school GPA, test scores and golf accomplishments). Closer to home, he also won the 2024 Rochester All-City Championship, besting a talented field of local golfers of all ages.
All of this, including his recent acceptance into Harvard, wouldn’t have been possible, Ahn said, without his faith and the support of his parents, Sharon and Edward.
“My parents and my faith have been there with me every step of the way,” Isaac said. “It’s been such a wild ride … and they have fully supported my decisions.”
