Victor Agbafe is a Nigerian immigrant who enjoyed the rare feat of being accepted into all eight Ivy League schools. He accomplished the coveted feat in 2015 after he was accepted into 14 prestigious universities in the U.S., among them, the eight Ivy League schools.
The straight A student and basketball player at Cape Fear Academy in Wilmington, North Carolina, went on to pursue his undergraduate studies at Harvard University. After seven years, Agbafe has not only completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University but he is now also two years into medical school at the University of Michigan. At the same time, the Wilmington native is also enrolled in law school at Yale University.
“What happens is it’s like a staggered structure for me. Last year during my M1 year in med school, I applied to law school. I was lucky to have some options and chose Yale and I decided to defer the beginning of it for two years. So, after my third year of med school, I’ll head over to New Haven — do those three years — and then I’ll come back for my last year of med school,” the brilliant African student told WBTV.
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Agbafe knew early on that he wanted to be in medical school and do complicated surgeries including catering to patients with colon or pancreatic cancer. But what also got him interested in law school was policymaking in terms of healthcare.
“There seems to be a gap between them (physicians) and sometimes I think people who create the policy or you know who even run our hospital systems where it takes a lot more like a legal framework, right, when you’re thinking about how you’re going to pay for care.
“What does the pipeline process look like for developing a lot of the drugs that people have. So my theory is if I can understand the language of medicine and how it works and I can understand the language of law, I hope that I can sort of work at that intersection,” he said.
Being in medical school and law school is tough as one must study a lot. All the same, Agbafe finds time to hang out with his friends and family.
“Recently, it’s become a weekly habit where we’ll try a different ice cream place,” Agbafe said. “So just little things like that will help keep you grounded.”
“And as often as possible, I try to make it back home to Wilmington to spend time with my family because for me I think especially as I get older I think it’s just really rejuvenating and refreshing to be with my siblings, mom and dad,” he said. “That time you spend with them, I think it sort of reorients you to like what this journey is all about.”
