Arianna Alexander, a Chicago high school senior, got accepted at 26 colleges—including nearly all of the Ivy Leagues—and has decided to attend the University of Pennsylvania come the fall, WLS-TV reports.
Alexander is the valedictorian at Kenwood Academy, where she earned a 5.1 GPA on the traditional 4.0 scale.
Alexander racked up more than $3 million in scholarship offers and described what that means for her.
"I feel like it means I can afford college and I don't have to worry about it. I feel like that's an issue for a lot of people my age," Alexander said.
Alexander's dad described how he encouraged his daughter to excel and told her to apply for scholarships when he saw that another Kenwood student was offered more than $1 million in scholarships a few years ago. "I planted the seed in Arianna's mind that you can do the same thing," said Pierre Alexander. "So when the process got started and a million was achieved, let's go for two. I said let's go for three and she did it."
A part of Arianna Alexander's decision to attend Penn is the allure of its business school, the Wharton School of Business. Alexander has plans to learn all the ins and outs of business so that she can open four restaurants.
Read more at WLS-TV.