Getting admitted to an Ivy League school is a momentous feat for any high school student in the United States. Ashley Adirika decided to apply to all eight of the prestigious schools last fall to test her chances of being an Ivy Leaguer.
Acceptance letters kept piling in, and now the 17-year-old Florida teen has openings at Harvard, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, and Dartmouth universities - every single Ivy League school. The odds of that happening were surreal, considering Harvard accepted just 3.2 percent of its applicants, Columbia took only 3.7 percent of applicants, and Yale 4.5 percent.
Adirika talked to CNN in an interview about her incredible achievement, saying, "I just decided to shoot my shot at all of them and see if it would land, and I had no idea that I would get accepted into all of them. On Ivy Day, I remember crying a lot and just being extremely surprised."
Adirika joins exclusive list of teens
Adirika, who graduated earlier this month from Miami Beach Senior High School, now joins an exclusive club of teenagers who garnered the acceptance of all eight Ivy League schools. Adirika, whose mother emigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria three decades ago, was also accepted to seven upper-echelon universities, including Vanderbilt, Emory, and Stanford. Adirika credited her work ethic to her mom's example in raising five kids.
Adirika said the family celebrated when she got into all eight Ivy League schools. She expounded on the celebrations when talking to Good Morning America in an interview, saying, "My siblings and I were just really excited, like screaming, jumping around. It was crazy. The tears just started to come out."
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Adirika picks Harvard to be her next school
Ashley eventually picked Harvard as her university, where she plans to major in government this fall. Ashley said she was conflicted between Yale and Harvard, but it all came down to her career aspirations. Her main goal is to learn how government works and how policies can help fix economic disparities in communities.
She said Yale was her top choice before the college application process, but when she did further research for what she wanted to do specifically, which is explorations in policy and social policy and things of that nature, Harvard just had a better program.
Ashley's choice is not a complete surprise for Bess Rodriguez, her debate coach at nearby Carol City Middle School. She said the teenager has always been curious about how the world works. Rodriguez, who recruited Adirika for the team when she was in the eighth grade, said that she was such an immediate force on the debate team, and she was brilliant and articulate.
Adirika founded "Our Story Our Worth" at her high school in Miami, Florida. It is an organization that provides confidence-building, sisterhood, and mentorship to girls and young women of color, according to USA Today.
