Teenager Dennis Barnes is already breaking multi-million-dollar records and attracting attention from colleges and universities around the country.
At 16, Barnes, who goes by his middle name Maliq, is a senior at International High School in New Orleans and has earned more than $9 million in scholarship money throughout the college application process, breaking the previous record of $8.7 million. Barnes applied to 200 schools and has been accepted to 170.
Despite the record-breaking achievement, that wasn’t his original goal when he started his applications back in the fall.
“I started to apply to schools, and as I’ve gone through the process, the numbers just started increasing,” Barnes told NBC. “... I was getting acceptances, I was getting money and it was growing exponentially.”
Once Barnes became aware that he was on the verge of breaking the record of $8.7 million, he and school counselor Denise James set out to pass that threshold.
One of the most impressive aspects of this record is that there are no third-party scholarships. Rather, the offers all came directly from the schools.
U.S. & World
Barnes initially cast a wide net, trying to spend several hours each applying to different types of schools all over the country. He’s still a teenager, however, and said the normal demands of school and extracurriculars took priority to this quest.
“I was still doing other things,” he said. “I did incorporate it into my schedule one way or another, but I just did it whenever I had time.”
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Those extracurriculars, which include track, basketball and serving as executive president of the National Honors Society, all contributed to making him a well-rounded applicant. Additionally, Barnes boasts a 4.98 grade point average and is bilingual, having learned Spanish through an immersion school.
That primary school foundation played an imperative role in his decision to attend International High School.
“That school was very, very important for me and my journey,” he said. “...They set a strong foundation for me going into high school, and I think that that’s a big reason that I could say I am where I am today.”
Founded in 2009, International High School was still relatively new by the time Barnes matriculated from middle school. While many of his classmates went directly to International, Barnes attended Riverdale, a public high school just outside the city.
After one year at Riverdale, he reunited with many of his childhood friends at International. He said the school’s strong language department, which offers a number of languages, including French, Spanish, Arabic and Mandarin, was a huge draw as he looked to continue to practice his Spanish.
“There are plenty of options at the school that I could have chosen from to continue with my languages and being able to strengthen them and continue to learn,” Barnes said.
Despite condensing his sophomore and junior year into one, Barnes made an immediate impact in his two years at the charter school. He also started dual enrollment at Southern University in New Orleans.
While he may not have set out to break the record initially, International High School’s strong academic profile was well known to Barnes.
“They are known for putting out million dollar scholars, so whenever the idea was presented to me by my counselor, I hopped on board,” he said.
When asked about what advice he'd give to future students applying to college, Barnes emphasized the power of education, particularly for Black and African-American students like himself.
"There's always something on the news for athletics. And I think that there's a stigma that's put on African Americans -- probably others, too," he said about academic success. "...I think that doing well in school and understanding the importance of education is something that could break that stigma."
Barnes credits his parents’ consistent support and James’ guidance for getting him to this point. He said James has been there for every step of the way -- applying to colleges, ensuring his college readiness, dual enrollment.
“She has guided me and instructed me in a way to my best interest that’s going to move me forward,” he said. “... I would say that [James] has been instrumental in where I am today.”
While Barnes is grateful and excited for all scholarships and acceptances, he said he takes particular pride in those from well-known schools, such as Xavier and LSU, and schools that don’t typically offer many scholarships.
But he’s still not done.
Barnes said he anticipates more scholarships and acceptances in the coming days and hopes to surpass $10 million.
As for where Barnes will end up? He’s keeping that tight lipped for now. But with 170 acceptances, he now has to be more selective about which schools to seriously consider.
He’s expected to make a decision by May 2.
