Highlighting Ronald Nelson's prospective colleges were Stanford, Johns Hopkins, NYU and all eight Ivy League institutions, but opted for none of the above.
Instead, he chose the option that would get him to medical school as debt-free as possible.
Speaking with Business Insider, Nelson said he chose the University of Alabama (UA) because they offered him a full scholarship and accepted him into their honors college. At Houston High School in Memphis, Tenn., he carries a 4.58 weighted GPA, registered a 2260 on his SAT, a 34 on his ACT and is a state-acclaimed saxophone player.
"It took a lot of soul searching for me to push that first 'accept' button for Alabama," he said. "Of course there's a bit of uncertainty."
Gaining acceptance to all eight Ivies may be a rare feat, but none offered Nelson the kind of scholarship UA did. He told MSNBC's Today he plans to attend medical school and will save the money he would have spent on his undergrad tuition for that.
"I originally applied to some of these schools because I didn't want to close any of my doors," he said. "They're going to give me invaluable experience working with the dean and the assistant dean of the honors college there, working with so many likeminded and progressive students there."
Nelson told Business Insider he examined financial aid packages at the Ivies and determined the help he would get would actually decrease in his sophomore year, when his older sister graduates. At Harvard, for example, the schools take all sorts of factors into consideration for financial aid.
"With people being in debt for years and years, it wasn't a burden that Ronald wanted to take on and it wasn't a burden that we wanted to deal with for a number of years after undergraduate," Ronald Nelson Sr. told Business Insider. "We can put that money away and spend it on his medical school, or any other graduate school."
