HARD work definitely does pay off, or at least it does for one high school student, from Lynn Haven, Florida. Mimi Mallory, a senior at Mosley High School, was offered more than US$1 million in merit-based college scholarships.

    “It was crazy,” Mallory, 18, told ABC News. “I just didn’t know what to think.”

    As one college acceptance after another came in, they were also paired with a lot of cash. Mallory was awarded a combined total of US$1,052,400 from the 11 schools where she was accepted.

    The highest scholarship Mallory was offered came from Mercer University, totaling US$212,000. She also received a full tuition scholarship from the University of Alabama.

    Mallory decided to accept the offer from her dream school, Southern Methodist University, in Dallas, Texas. “It’s crazy to think I can go to SMU,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting to because of how expensive it was.”

    SMU awarded Mallory US$166,000 in scholarship money, so she will only have to pay a few thousand dollars each year out of pocket.

    Though Mallory was shocked to receive such substantial scholarship awards, she has worked hard in preparation for the college admissions process, maintaining a high GPA and participating in several extracurricular activities.

    She is vice president of the senior class, secretary of her honors society, president of the productions team that runs the high school announcements, and still maintains a 4.625 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Her weighted GPA comes from Mosley’s Advanced Placement Program for Success, which offers 21 Advanced Placement classes and 19 Dual-Enrollment classes — a rigorous curriculum she credits as one of the main reasons she earned so many scholarships.

    Mallory has also been an equestrian rider since she was in fifth grade. She started as a jumping equestrian but, after breaking her femur in freshman year, she quickly picked up dressage — when the rider and horse perform a series of memorized movements — and even placed second in the nation for a national award.(SD-Agencies)