TOWN OF NEWBURGH – Inside her home on a recent Saturday, Newburgh Free Academy senior Kaila Helm disappears to her room and returns with a box filled with 13 folders, one for each of the colleges to which she applied.

One for each agonizing decision.

Princeton: Not satisfied with the pre-med culture.

Dartmouth: Loved the school and its students, but too rural.

Brown: Eclectic, but …

“You have no idea,” the NFA North student said when asked how hard it was to choose.

Choosing THE college is difficult for any high school senior, but Helm’s decision to study pre-med at the University of Pennsylvania proved more challenging because of the choices she had.

Six of the eight Ivy League schools received applications from the award-winning student and accomplished dancer. And then the acceptance letters began arriving: first Brown, Cornell and Dartmouth; then Penn and Princeton.

While Harvard said no, Helm’s haul – getting accepted to five of the ultra-selective Ivies – represented an impressive feat, especially since each school receives tens of thousands of applications each year from top students.

“I was shocked,” said Helm, 17. “You usually get accepted at one or two Ivies, and then you might get wait-listed on others. Usually you don’t get accepted into that many.”

Newly released acceptance rates show how stingy the Ivies can be.

Brown accepted 9 percent of students who applied for the class of 2020 and Princeton 6.46 percent. Harvard and Penn announced record-low acceptance rates of 5.2 percent and 9.4 percent, respectively.

Total applications ranged from 20,675 at Dartmouth to 38,918 at Penn and 39,044 at Harvard.

In Helm, five Ivies chose a longtime Newburgh Performing Arts Academy dancer with a list of community-service accomplishments, a Boys & Girls Club “Youth of the Year” award and an interest in sign language that grew into a prize-winning research project.

As a member of NFA’s Science Research in the High School program, Helm completed an independent project testing the effectiveness of sign language on language development. Her project earned awards at regional and upstate science competitions.

“This program is such a distinguishing feature for students on their college resume,” said Kristen Oberle, NFA North’s science research instructor. “And what she has done with her research throughout her high school career has really defined her as a student.”

While it is not uncommon for NFA students to get accepted to Ivy League schools, north campus co-Principal Matteo Doddo cannot recall a student gaining admission to five.

What sets Helm apart is not just her smarts, according to her parents, Carol Flood-Helm and Thomas Helm. It is her work ethic, they said.

“She buys into working hard, she buys into being persevering, she buys into doing good things,” Thomas Helm said.

-lsparks@th-record.com