17-year-old Nigerian Gets 19 Scholarship Offers Worth $5m From US, Canadian Universities


A Nigerian teenager has gotten 19 scholarship offers from universities in the United States and Canada.

17-year-old Victory Yinka-Banjo was offered more than $5 million worth of scholarship money for an undergraduate program of study.

Yinka Banjo first made headlines in December 2020 when she aced A1 in her WASSCE subjects. She also had A’s in her Cambridge results.

Exclusive Interview With Victory Yinka-Banjo, The 17-Year-Old Genius Who Broke Many Records With Her WAEC, Cambridge, IELTS, And SAT Results

She was also declared the World Best Candidate in English as a Second Language (Speaking Component) by the University of Cambridge International Examination (CIE).

“It still feels pretty unbelievable. I applied to so many schools because I didn’t even think any school would accept me,” Victory told CNN.


Victory was given potential full scholarships from the Ivy League schools, Yale College, Princeton University, Harvard College, and Brown University.

Other US scholarship offers included those from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia.

In Canada, Victory was offered the Lester B. Pearson scholarship from the University of Toronto and the Karen McKellin International Leader of Tomorrow (KMILOT) scholarship from the University of British Columbia.

“Their admissions processes are extremely selective,” Victory added.

“They only accept the best of the best. So, you can imagine how, on a daily basis, I have to remind myself that I actually got into these schools. It is surreal!”

Victory told CNN her remarkable achievements are borne out of hard work.





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