RIVER HILLS — It's the season of college acceptances for high schoolers around the country. And one student from Milwaukee got an acceptance that will maybe change the rest of his life.
“I’m going to Princeton University, which I’m really excited about," Saul Flores, a senior at the University School of Milwaukee, said with a huge smile.
In fact, 'excited' is probably an understatement. Flores, a first-generation college student, got a full ride to the Ivy League school.
“The scholarship includes basically everything, so it covers tuition, boarding, and transportation, and any miscellaneous costs I might have attending the school," Flores said.
The assistance also covers food for all four years. It's almost like the school wrote him a blank check to attend. Flores' financial aid basically covers everything outside of his own non-school-related purchases.
The financial aid amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars in assistance. According to the Princeton website, tuition is about $90,718 for housing, books, cost of classes, food, and fees. Flores said he wouldn't have been able to attend without this generous scholarship.
“It’s taken off a huge financial burden from my family, which I’m really appreciative about," he said.
Many students apply to out-of-state or private colleges through the Common App, but not Flores. He used QuestBridge, which is specifically for students from low-income families. QuestBridge generally considers a family of four making around $65,000 as low income. Flores also received tuition assistance from USM to attend high school.
“I worked really hard to get here, so it’s just nice seeing it all pay off," he said.
As a first-generation college student, he didn’t have as much parental support since his parents never went through that process.
“My parents, they aren’t fluent in English. I had to look at other places for that support and for that help," Flores said.
Watch Saul Flores' inspiring story here...
That’s where his USM college guidance counselor was able to help.
“He was one of those students who had the grades, had the scores, had the extracurriculars where he was going to be competitive," Brian Hendricks, the Associate Director of College Guidance at USM, said.
Flores is a two-sport athlete, has top grades, and has done multiple internships. That made him an easy student to pick for Princeton.
“I mean, I’m excited. I’m just so proud of everything he’s accomplished and what he’s going to accomplish now, being able to go to a school like Princeton," Flores said.
Flores hasn't decided his major yet, but he has a few ideas: computer science, economics, or operations research and financial engineering.
“I’m interested in those topics just because I really love math," he said.
But before Flores steps onto the Ivy League campus, the second-semester senior still has one last thing to do in high school: finish finals.
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