An 18-year-old gifted teenager from Florida is the talk of the town. He has been accepted to 27 colleges and universities and received $4 million in scholarship offers.
Jonathan Walker is an 18-year-old Rutherford Senior High School student in Panama City. He now has to choose between 27 colleges for secondary education, including Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The gifted teenager expressed amazement at receiving admission letters from 27 schools.
“It’s so crazy to think that I applied to all these colleges, and I got in. That’s such a rare thing to occur, but the fact that it did happen, I’m so excited about it,” he told CBS Miami.
Walker has been earning college credits through the International Baccalaureate Program. When asked about how he got accepted at 27 schools, he said his essays helped him get the acceptance letters
“Every campus has something special about it and so, I found something that I loved within all of them,” Walker told the Panama City News-Herald.
“And I really tried to write about that and show that in my applications,” said the 18-year-old student.
The International Baccalaureate Program includes all disciplines. Hence, Walker was able to take college-level studies during his junior and senior years of high school.
It also awards college credits to students who complete examinations.
Walker is well-known for more than his academic abilities. He also plays soccer for his high school and designed a device that aids the deaf and blind.
He provided some advice for students interested in applying to colleges and universities for higher education.
“It’s really just like writing a set of essays for one college and then from there like tweaking them specifically for the colleges,” said Walker.