An exceptional 18-year-old Lady named Daya Brown has set an outstanding personal record after earning admission into 50 top universities in the United States and winning scholarship awards worth over $1.5 million.
The Atlanta native who attended Westlake High School narrated that she tackled the college process by starting small and working gradually, with just a few hours every day dedicated to applying to each school.
According to her, the ultimate goal was to ensure parents are not in debt on student loans. “It really wasn’t about the number of schools I applied to, it was really about making sure that I had options for my parents to really sit back and relax.”
“Student loans are something that I do not want. So this is kind of a gift, both to myself and to them,” Daya Brown to GMA.
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Speaking further on how she was able to achieve the exceptional feat, Brown said she started her application process in quarantine during her sophomore year.
“I started to curate a list of schools that had certain majors or were great in what I wanted to study which was mass communications or film,” she stated.
Brown added that after compiling the schools of interest, she began to take more extracurriculars. “So once I had that list, it all came down to doing those extracurricular activities, because I think a lot of the times students don’t understand that you have to be more than just a student,” she said.
“That was my chance to showcase who I was as a person and who I was as a scholar. I think a lot of people think that if you’re smart, you can’t be cool. So I found a way to showcase brilliance [and] still have fun while you’re doing it,” she explained.
Out of the many choices she has from the 50 Universities including Duke, Spelman, FAMU, Hampton amongst others, Brown said she plans on studying visual media studies with a minor in journalism at Duke University.
She admitted that it did not come easy. She worked hard to overcome struggles and sought financial aid wherever she could.
“No, it wasn’t easy. Yes, you have to stay up many nights to get the work done if you want the GPA, but at the same time, it wouldn’t feel like such a burden, if it’s your passion. I wake up every day, happy about what I do,” she said.
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