Samuels said he initially applied to only five colleges because he was confused about his choice of college. However, he ended up applying to more in order to avoid underestimating himself.

“I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go at first. After I applied to the first five, I decided to keep going. I didn’t want to undervalue myself; wanted to have as many choices as I could,” he said.

Samuel mentioned that he struggled with managing his time during his first application, which led to him not having any expectations.

“It was very time-consuming, I had to manage my time while applying to so many schools and doing virtual learning. I didn’t really know what to expect since it was my first time applying to colleges. I didn’t expect to get offered so much in scholarship money,” he said.

The Guidance Counselor at Franklin High School, Ale Massenburg shared that there is a possibility for him to still get more acceptance and scholarships as the admission process in schools is still ongoing and he is yet to get a reply from all the schools he applied to.