RICHMOND, Ky. (FOX 56) – We’ve reached that point in the calendar where high school seniors across the county are either about to make or already have made their decision on what they’ll do after graduation.

One senior at Model Laboratory School in Richmond decided to take her decision process to the next level.

“I applied to a total of 188 and I got into 186,” said Serena F. (who asked to have her last name left out of this story)

Now let’s address the elephant in the room — why apply to so many schools?

“I kind of put off the college admissions process until September and when I finally came to terms that to apply to college, I just applied like UK, UofL, just near the county schools,” Serena explained. “But then on CommonApp, I found that a lot of schools had like free application fees. So, I was like, well, I might as well try.”

Serena’s teachers were not as surprised when they found out how many schools she was applying to.

“She’s a go-getter,” said Laura Dedic. “I mean, she would come in and sit down if I already had something posted. She was on it before class even started. She will do whatever she sets her mind to in life.”

High schoolers across the country work extremely hard to get to where they want to go after graduation.

For Serena, seeing her hard work pay off meant a lot.

“It definitely built confidence because I have worked really hard all four years of high school, so it kind of felt like it was all worth something, and those acceptances kind of validated, like all my hard work,” Serena detailed.

Despite having her pick of the litter, she ultimately decided to stay close to home, becoming a member of the class of 2027 at the University of Kentucky.

“The biggest factor for me is always family and friends and the most important people to me are here right now,” Serena said. “So maybe for graduate school I’ll go somewhere else because I’d love to be by the beach, but I feel like right now it makes more sense for me to just stay close to the people I love.”

Serena said she isn’t fully set on what she is going to study at UK, but is thinking along the lines of double majoring in marketing and integrated strategic communications, with a possible minor in chemistry, but she’s open to anything.

One other cool nugget in Serena’s college application process, she received more than $13 million in scholarships from all the schools she was accepted to.