Brockton High School Senior Accepted To 7 Of 8 Ivy League Schools
BROCKTON (CBS) – A Brockton High School senior has a big decision to make - which Ivy League school will he attend this fall?
Obinna Igbokwe, 17, applied to more than 20 colleges, including all eight Ivy League schools. Of those eight, he was accepted into seven of them. Only Yale University rejected him.
Yale's letter was the first one he received.
"That was the first letter that I opened and I was expecting mostly rejections, so it didn't really phase me. What got my hopes up was the acceptances," he told WBZ NewsRadio 1030 Wednesday.
Igbokwe's parents are originally from Nigeria. He credits his family for putting him on the right path.
"I had a lot of support from the home, especially during my younger years because that is when most of the discipline happened," he said. "Later on, because they had things they needed to do and they couldn't take care of me like I was a child, I had to take responsibility for myself."
One of his sisters is a lawyer, another is in med school. His brother is a computer scientist. He credits his mother's unfailing work ethic as an inspiration. She worked several jobs a day to put her kids through school.
Igbokwe plays the baritone horn and volunteers in the community.
Brockton High principal Sharon Wolder said the attention has been exciting.
"It is a great experience for all of us. This is the thing that we hope for our students," she told WBZ. "All of us have intelligence and abilities and it is a matter of hard work and dedication to it."
"I'm not going to say that I'm smart. I'm just going to say that I worked hard," Igbokwe said.
He has narrowed his choices to Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. He needs to make a decision by Sunday.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Ben Parker reports
WBZ-TV's David Robichaud contributed to this report.