A Louisiana high school student has been offered millions of dollars in scholarships after she was accepted into 115 colleges across the United States. Antoinette Love, a senior at the International High School of New Orleans, was unanimously accepted into each of the schools she applied to and has been presented with a total of $3.7 million in scholarships, her school said on Facebook.
Love, in an interview with the CNN, said she lost count of how many schools she ended up applying to as “she just kept applying” to see how many she could get into.
Getting accepted by that astonishing number of colleges, however, came as a shock to the New Orleans teenager.
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“At first I didn’t think I was going to get this many, but then they just kept coming and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” Love said.
Faced with a huge decision to make as to which college to attend, Love said she will visit a few schools and make her final decision by May 1.
She told CNN that she is, however, considering the following colleges: Louisiana State University, Valparaiso University, University of North Texas, Fisk University, Randolph University, Brandeis University and Mississippi State University.
Love, who works a part-time job after school selling ties, cuff links and socks at the Riverwalk, is a “hard-working scholar” and a gifted painter, International High School of New Orleans Head of School Sean Wilson told NOLA.com.
She is always willing to help her classmates, he adds. With a 3.7 GPA, Love also enjoys extracurricular activities and is involved in several organisations in her school, such as the video game club, the anime club, national honour society, the English honour society and Rho Kappa social studies honour society.
Born premature at 4.4 pounds to two teenage parents, Love helps to care for her four younger siblings and would want to set a good example for them, her mother, Yolanda Love, said.
She also wants to become a teacher and would, therefore, study elementary education after she finally decides which college to attend.
“I like influencing others to be good and be their best,” she said.
The New Orleans senior advises high school students who are applying to colleges to do so through the Common Application as well as the Common Black Application. They should also seek waivers and submit applications to schools that don’t charge a fee, she added.
The cost of applying to colleges has prevented many low-income families from sending their children to universities because they basically can’t afford it. Some families apply to charities to get their kids into college, but that option is not always reliable.
Some low-income students have, nevertheless, made it in the news in recent times for being accepted into dozens of colleges and awarded as much as $1 million in scholarships.
The “secret” helper for most of these students has been the streamlined college application process called Common Black College Application that helps black and low-income students to apply to nearly half of America’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) with a one-time fee of $35.
Founded by education consultant, Robert Mason, who has worked for years in admissions, the application solves the problems faced by low-income families who can’t afford the cost of applying to multiple colleges and HBCUs who can’t find qualified students.
Common Black College Application allows students to apply to up to 52 colleges and universities at the same time with the one-time fee and the schools that accept the application do not charge anything extra.
Unlike the traditional college application process of filling out one application per school, this does away with the repetitiveness and allows you to also apply for financial aid, housing, among others to schools such as the Fisk University of Tennessee, Morgan State University of Maryland, Norfolk State University of Virginia, Tuskegee University of Alabama and Voorhees College of South Carolina.
The Common Black College Application boasts of a 97% success rate with most applicants being accepted in at least one school and the website states that more than 100,000 students from the U.S., Africa, South America and the Caribbean have completed their application.
