WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Thousands of students apply to Ivy League schools, but very few are accepted. Wilmington, N.C. native Patrick Peoples has the distinct honor of getting into seven of them.
Peoples is a senior at the Lyceum Academy of New Hanover High School and said he is thrilled to have been accepted to Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania.
"No one ever expects to get in," Peoples admitted.
With acceptance rates as low as six percent, just getting into one Ivy League is a huge accomplishment.
"I just wanted to apply," Peoples explained. "Maybe I'll get into one, maybe just maybe."
Patrick's AP English teacher Catherine Edmonds says Peoples has earned his spot.
"He's personable, he's responsible, he has a complete and utter interest of what happens in the world, and he's bound to make changes," Edmonds said.
Change is what Peoples hopes to achieve with a degree in public policy and economics.
"I have a big passion for social justice," Peoples said. "So when I see things that can be fixed or when I see people that don't have the opportunity that I've had, it really makes me want to go up as far as I can and reach back and help people."
Peoples is also editor in chief of his yearbook and heavily involved in Boy Scouts, student government and the Young Democrats.
In addition to the Ivy league schools, Peoples was also accepted to Duke University, Davidson College, the University of Chicago and was one of two New Hanover High School students to receive the Morehead-Cain Scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Peoples is finishing up his college visits and will have to decide where he will study by May 1.