Arianna Alexander, Kenwood Academy valedictorian, accepted to college – 26 times

CHICAGO — For many high school students, deciding on a college comes down to one or two schools.

For Arianna Alexander of Chicago, it came down to 26 — including pretty much the whole Ivy League.

Chicago’s WLS-TV reports that the Kenwood Academy’s valedictorian has picked the University of Pennsylvania after the kind of collegiate competition that’s typically reserved for students who excel at shooting basketballs or throwing footballs.

But schools offered a total of more than $3 million in scholarships to Alexander because of her academic record. Her grade point average is 5.1 — or 1.1 points higher than she would have achieved had she merely achieved straight A’s.

Alexander says she wants to be an entrepreneur and open four restaurants after graduating from Penn’s Wharton School of Business.

“I planted the seed in Arianna’s mind that you can do the same thing. So when the process got started and a million was achieved, let’s go for two. I said let’s go for three and she did it,” said Pierre Alexander, Arianna’s father, told ABC.