A New Orleans high school senior received $10M in scholarship offers. Here’s the college he chose

New Orleans Studemt
Dennis "Maliq" Barnes, 16, announces that he will be attending Cornell University during a news conference at International High School of New Orleans Friday, May 5, 2023. (David Grunfeld, NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A 16-year-old high school senior in New Orleans who received scholarship offers from 149 colleges and universities totaling $10 million said Friday that he has chosen to attend Cornell University.

Dennis “Maliq” Barnes will graduate on May 24 from the International High School of New Orleans, where he earned a 4.98 grade point average. He also has 27 college credits through a dual enrollment program with Southern University of New Orleans.

He plans to study computer science at Cornell, an Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York. He has also said he is considering law school.

“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.

He is a senior at 16. His grade point average is 4.98. Even before graduating from high school, he has earned 27 college credits and, perhaps the most impressive numbers of all, he has scholarship offers from around 130 colleges and universities that, as of Thursday, totaled more than $9 million.
In an interview last week, Barnes said that a major reason he cranked out applications to close to 200 schools was his desire to have numerous educational and financial options. He ultimately was accepted at 186 colleges and universities. The school said it believes the $10 million in scholarship offers from 149 of them to be a record for U.S. college-bound seniors.
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