If you haven't heard about Dennis Barnes, listen up. The Louisiana teenager is already breaking multi-million-dollar records and attracting attention from colleges and universities around the country.
At 16, Barnes, who goes by his middle name Maliq, is a senior at International High School in New Orleans and has earned more than $10 million in scholarship money throughout the college application process, breaking the previous record of $8.7 million. Barnes applied to 200 schools and has been accepted to 170.
He credits a strong Christian religious faith as part of his success. 'Keep God first, not everybody is religious but one thing that I would definitely encourage is to keep God in the midst. I know that's something that has always worked for me,' he said. He also gives a lot of credit to Denise James, the school's college admissions counselor. By the way,
Barnes, who has a 4.98 GPA and is graduating two years early, said last month he wanted to pursue computer science and then go to law school. He started applying to schools in August 2022 and said that he didn't initially intend to set any records.
'As I applied to more schools, as my numbers went up, with the financial aid and acceptances into universities, I became intrigued,' Barnes said, adding that when he was told he was close to the record, he 'just went for it.'
On Friday, he said that from a young age he has always known what he wanted to do and that he chose Cornell University, located in Ithaca, New York, because the university is the 'best Ivy League for engineering.' He said he wanted to attend a school that would 'set me up for success, that would give me a quality education.'
This video tells even more. Way to go young man!