Hispanic teenager from a ‘first-gen low-income’ family finds out she got into Yale: ‘represent us first generations girl!!’
TikTok is relishing one teen’s emotional and victorious acceptance to one of the world’s top universities — and it’s incredibly well-deserved.
Karla Cortes (@k.cortes25) is a first-generation Hispanic teenager who comes from a low-income family. The hardworking 17-year-old student recently shared her live reaction to finding out the status of her application to Yale University.
The video opens with Kayla presumably sitting at a desk with her laptop.
“opening my yale decision as a first-gen low-income hispanic,” she writes, noting Yale was the last college she was waiting to hear from.
“OK, this one, if a black screen, like, comes up when I open my decision, that’s how I know because the video is gonna play,” Karla explains. “So, OK, log in. OK, update.”
As a black screen reflects against her glasses, Kayla smiles big and then covers her mouth as she begins to cry.
“Oh my god. I got into Yale,” she says to the camera.
“My FYP is FULL of black, brown, indigenous THOUGHT LEADERS being accepted to the Ivy League and I love that! Congratulations”
With more than 634,100 views and 115,200 likes in five days of posting, Karla’s video has reached a wide, proud audience on the platform. Even Rosie O’Donnell offered her congratulations.
“From one first gen low income person to another, CONGRATULATIONS!! We broke the cycle,” one user said.
“represent us first generations girl!!” another wrote.
“My FYP is FULL of black, brown, indigenous THOUGHT LEADERS being accepted to the Ivy League and I love that! Congratulations,” someone replied.
Karla also posted a follow-up video in which she candidly revealed the results of all 25 colleges she applied to, in order of highest to lowest acceptance rate. Additional colleges Karla received acceptances from include Colgate University, Middlebury College, Northwestern University and Stanford University.
As a first-generation, low-income woman of color, Karla has inspired other students like herself to work hard and dream big. Her success story serves as an imperative reminder that even those who don’t necessarily come from wealth or privilege are worthy and undeniably well-deserving of attending a top-tier institution.
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