Ronald Nelson has colleges knocking at his front door. With a GPA of 4.58, a 2260 out of 2400 on his SATS, a 34 out of 36 on his ACT, and 15 completed AP courses, it’s no wonder why he was accepted into all eight Ivy League Schools and received offers from prestigious schools such as Stanford, Johns Hopkins, New York University, Vanderbilt, and Washington University in St. Louis. But, he turned them all down so he could attend the University of Alabama next fall because they offered him a full scholarship and admittance into their selective honors program.
Nelson didn’t receive any academic scholarships from either of the schools.
The teen felt it was simply to expensive to attend these brand name schools and he has plans to go to medical school. The average annual tuition for the Ivys from A to Z: Brown, $59,428; Columbia, $63,440; Cornell, $47,286; Dartmouth, $60,201; Harvard, $68,050; Princeton, $58,965; University of Pennsylvania, $66,800 and Yale, $63,250.
His parents would have to make a big sacrifice. Nelson’s father Ronald Sr. works as an engineer at the Federal Aviation Society. His mother Sandra works in Management at FedEx headquarters.
Nelson told the Today show he has plans to go to medical school and needs to save money to pay for it.
