17-year-old Jasmine Harrison has much to celebrate. Not only is she graduating high school with an impressive 4.0 grade point average, she’s been accepted to 113 colleges. And earned $4.5 million in scholarships.
The Greensboro, North Carolina resident was able to apply to numerous colleges with the assistance of her mother and on the advice of teachers at her school. She also used the College Foundation of North Carolina College Application Week – which enables students to apply to colleges within their vicinity for free and the Common Black College Application; it enables the applicant to apply to 53 Historically Black Colleges and Universities all at once.
After using the above-mentioned strategies, she only paid $135 out of pocket.
“On those late nights when I was filling out those applications with my mom and we just felt like we cannot do this, we just ended up singing gospel songs together to get through the night,” Harrison explained.
Ultimately, Harrison decided to attend Bennett College, a historically black liberal arts college for women. It’s housed in her hometown.
Harrison will be majoring in Biology; she one day hopes to become a neo-natal intensive care unit nurse.