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High school student accepted to 31 colleges, inspirational photo goes viral

Posted at 8:48 AM, Feb 28, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-28 08:48:22-05

SOUTH FULTON, Ga. – A Georgia high school senior has gained national attention after being accepted to 31 colleges and sharing the news on social media.

Kayla Willis’ acceptances were posted on the wall in the senior hall at her high school, according to WXIA. Beneath a photo of Willis was a long list of schools, including information regarding scholarships she was offered.

“They’re missing a few but I’m not going to complain or brag because I still have a lot underneath there,” she said.

After reportedly being encouraged by friends and family to share the photo on Twitter, Willis went viral.

Her picture has over 147,000 likes and more than 32,000 retweets.

WXIA reports that Willis had a 3.95 GPA and an 1160 SAT score.  She allegedly applied to 50 colleges at all levels and received over $900,000 in scholarships from the universities that have already responded.

Willis asked many of the colleges to waive their application fees and most of them actually did.  She reportedly only applied to schools that would waive their fees and ended up just paying for postage.

The principal of her school shared the following Tweet, praising Willis for her accomplishments:

Meanwhile, Willis said she is also very proud of her accomplishments and hopes they can inspire others.

“I wanted to inspire people and show them that you can actually dream big and get to where you want to go,” she told 11 Alive News.

Willis has accepted an offer to study at Fisk University on a full scholarship.  She allegedly plans to major in International Business and Spanish.