Teen accepted to every Ivy League school credits ‘helicopter parents’

He soared to the top, thanks to his “helicopter parents.”

The Long Island teenager who got accepted into all eight Ivy League colleges was whipped into shape by his strict mom and dad — who hovered nearby, encouraging him to push himself, he told The Post.

“They were helicopter parents. They monitored everything. They said, ‘You have a mind, and you can do it. Always do your best,’ ” said Kwasi Enin, 17, a senior at William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach.

He added, “They taught me 95 percent isn’t good enough . . . I’m proud, honored, appreciative.”

The whiz kid’s parents — who are both nurses and immigrants from Ghana — also never let him forget he’s lucky to be in the United States, said his dad, Ebenezer Enin, 54, of Shirley.

“I say, ‘You have all the resources in the world. Whatever you need, you have it here. You don’t know how lucky you are to be in America. You have no idea how blessed you are. I’m telling you,’ ” Ebenezer Enin said.

“I tell him academically, performance-wise, school-wise, you’ve got to stay at the top of the game. He’s been disciplined; he’s been trained; he’s been guided. We’ve motivated him,” he said.

The hardworking teen — who plays viola, sings in the school orchestra and competes as a shot-putter — applied to a total of 12 colleges because he feared he wouldn’t get into a single one, he said.

“That was the logic, because you know how hard they are to get into . . . It was the biggest surprise,” said Enin, who ended up getting into all 12 schools.

To apply, he sent out an application essay about the role of music in his life.

“Music has become the spark of my intellectual curiosity,” he wrote.

The essay, with his straight-A grades and 2,250-out-of-2,400 SAT score were enough to ace the applications.

Now he must choose from the eight Ivies — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton and Yale — schools that boast acceptance rates of 14 percent to 5.9 percent.

He was also accepted into all of his non-Ivy schools: Duke, Stony Brook University, SUNY Geneseo and Binghamton University.

Yale is his first choice, but he may pick the school that offers him the most financial aid, he said.

He hopes to become a doctor — and was thrilled when he learned he may be able to study at the country’s top schools.

“I read the Brown [application letter] first. I checked Columbia after that. I was like, ‘Whoa, this is really cool!’ ’’ he said.

“[Next was] Yale — that’s like my goal. My heart was beating for that one and I was, like, ‘This is too wonderful,’ ” he said.

But students who apply to so many schools can be a pain for college admissions offices, university officials said.

“These people have made plenty of trouble for college admissions offices. Knowing that many applicants have sent out 10 or more applications, the admissions people have to offer positions to very large numbers,” said statistician Gary Simon, who is a retired NYU professor.

He added, “I’m blown away by the fact that one person would actually apply to all eight Ivy League schools . . . Some people who do this want — for bragging rights, I suppose — to be able to say that they were accepted at many places.”

But that’s not the case with Enin, some of his fellow students said.

“He’s cool and he’s blessed. He’s definitely a hard worker. He was always in class earlier than everyone else. He’s kind and considerate — the kind of person that everyone likes,” said Marcus Mingo, 16, a junior at William Floyd.

Added Devin Robinson, 15, “He’s really ambitious. He inspires people because he makes you think you can do whatever you want to do. It makes me want to work a lot harder and get into a good school.”

Enin also volunteers at Stonybrook Hospital and sings at a church.

But it’s not all work, all the time.

“He plays a little video games with his friends, to relax. He does it for maybe an hour or two because he has other things he has to do,” Ebenezer Enin said.

“We’re really overjoyed. This was really a big surprise. Really, really good news,” he said.

He and his wife chose to be strict because they simply want the best for their son, he said.

“We’ve directed him to be a high achiever. And he knows this is what’s expected of him. No two ways,” he said.

“He has no choice. The choice is to do well, and it’s ingrained in his head that he’s going to perform and be a leader . . . So he knows what he has to do . . . He’s coming from a smart family. We are motivating him to do well,” he said.

“I tell [him] you’re not going to see the rewards now. You’re going to see them in the future. Be patient, and sacrifice. A lot of kids say, ‘Oh, come on, Dad, I don’t want to do that,’ ” he said.

He added, “Every kid is special, but if they do the right things, they can get to where he is.”