Meet the record-breaking high school senior with more than $9M in scholarship offers

Marquise Francis and Sam Matthews
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Dennis Barnes, a New Orleans high school senior, has broken the record for most college scholarships received by any other college-bound senior in U.S. history, after receiving more than $9 million in combined scholarship offers from more than 170 colleges and universities. Barnes joins Yahoo News National Reporter Marquise Francis to discuss how he hopes his success will inspire those who follow him.

Video Transcript

- It is time for the "Best News You'll Hear All Day." And one high school senior broke a world record with $9 million in scholarship offers.

- He applied to more than 200 colleges and got offers from 125 of them?

- Wow.

MARQUISE FRANCIS: I remember applying to five, six schools. And you applied to over 200. And so what was the thought process going into it? Were you setting out to make a record?

DENNIS BARNES: No, I was not initially when I first started applying to the schools. I was just applying to schools that I knew the name, things that drew interest to me. And then I just kind of kept applying. It started out as a select few, and I just kept venturing out and venturing out. And the more schools I applied to, I realized my numbers was going up.

I'm getting more acceptances I'm getting more offers, and my number's going up. And that was something that really-- it captivated me, and I kept going. And as I got farther and farther, it got to a point where it was brought to my attention, OK, I'm on the verge of breaking the world record. I'm on the "Guinness Book of World Records." I'm close to it. I might as well just see it through.

And that's what I did. So it wasn't necessarily, OK, I'm starting this process. I'm going to have a goal. I'm going to break a record. No, that was never my intention.

MARQUISE FRANCIS: So what does this mean to you, even especially as a young Black man, to have all these scholarship, all these schools that really want you?

DENNIS BARNES: I feel pretty good about it. Like you said, just being a Black man, it's not something that we find too often in our community. So to be able to set the trend-- to be able to set the standard and raise the bar to say, OK, as a Black man, I could do more than dribble a ball. I can do a football or run the fastest.

To say that we are mentally and academically capable of surpassing expectations is something that I feel good to be leading there right now. It seems that I have broken a record. That's what I've been hearing from the "Guinness Book." So that's something big. That's something big that's never been done before.

So to say that I hold that record, it feels really good. And I would like to use that influence to encourage other people in the Black community and just upcoming juniors that are going to be seniors next year to just keep pushing forward. Just if I have that ability to do it, then I definitely will. I will take advantage of that.