Texas High School Senior Receives Full-Ride Scholarships at 20 Top Colleges
A 17-year-old student from Houston who applied to 20 of the best colleges in the United States has received acceptance letters and offers of full-ride scholarships from all of them.
KSWB-TV reports that Michael Brown, a senior at Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, now has to decide between his top picks: Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt. He's also had offers of over $200,000 in additional scholarships.
Brown told KSWB he's been obsessed with academics since the sixth grade, and was inspired by the election of former president Barack Obama. Brown has participated in his school's debate and mock trial teams, as well as student government. He's also volunteered with political campaigns, and says he'll likely pursue a degree in political science with a minor in economics.
Brown's mom, Berthinia, works two jobs as a chemical dependency counselor, and says her son took the reigns of his academic career soon after the sixth grade. He's only received one B, which was devastating to him.
It didn't seem to slow him down, though!
Aside from obsessing over academics, Brown also networked through QuestBridge, Emerge Fellowship, and Breakthrough Collaborative - organizations that help students from low-income communities explore higher education opportunities. He now has at least one friend on each of his top picks' campuses, which is sure to come in handy.
Michael says he'll have made a decision by May 1. Until then, he'll be touring schools and planning the next steps in his academic journey.