UPDATED 5/5, 5:20 p.m. ET: Dennis Barnes has decided to attend Cornell University.
“Today is an exciting day for me and my family, and I look forward to working with Cornell’s College of Engineering over the course of my undergraduate education,” Barnes said, per the Associated Press. He is slated to study computer science at Cornell and is also thinking about law school.
In the end, he was accepted to 186 universities and was reportedly given $10 million from 149 of them.
See original story below.
A 16-year-old New Orleans high school student has reportedly been given the most college scholarship money ever, earning a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for his remarkable achievement.
According to WWL-TV, 125 universities gave Dennis Barnes $9 million in scholarships. Barnes, a senior at International High School of New Orleans, applied to more than 200 schools in the U.S. and said his goal is to get to $10 million by the end of April.
“I submitted college applications in August, with an eye on raising the bar high for college admissions. Decision letters were an overflow in my mailbox and hundreds of scholarship offers,” Barnes told the outlet.
Barnes is still fielding decision letters from schools so it’s possible that his total scholarship amount will increase. The teen is looking to earn a dual undergraduate degree in computer science and criminal justice. He has a cumulative grade point average of 4.98, a leadership position in the National Honor Society, and is fluent in Spanish. He was also previously awarded the Jose Luis Baños Award for Excellence in Spanish Language by the Honorary Consul of Spain in New Orleans.
Barnes has also already been stacking up his college credits. For the last two years, he’s taken classes at Southern University of New Orleans.
“The road to a successful future is to plan ahead, network with the collegiate partners, and know that if you can see your vision, you can achieve your goal,” he told WWL-TV, when asked for his college application advice.
The student who previously held the record was Normadie Cormier, who attended Lafayette High School in Lafayette, Louisiana. She was given $8.7 million in scholarships from over 130 universities in 2019.
Barnes is set to select his college by May 2 and will graduate high school on May 24.
