ARP, Texas — An East Texas high school student has become one of the few applicants accepted into the prestigious Harvard University.
Maddie Poole is Arp High School's 2024 salutatorian and she's also one of the 1,937 students who were accepted into the Ivy League institution out of 54,008 applicants. Those numbers show the university only has a 3.59% acceptance rate.
Arp ISD confirms that she does plan on attending. Poole has applied for multiple scholarships from across different platforms.
She hasn't received her financial aid/scholarship package from Harvard yet. Most scholarships will be announcing their awards in early May, Arp ISD said.
In addition to this major accomplishment, Poole has a lengthy list of achievements on her high school and professional resume already, including serving as the high school band's drum major for the last two years.
She advanced from being clarinet section leader, where she taught 25 students, to becoming the solo drum major teaching and directing all 100 members of her high school band.
Poole also has played piano and clarinet for the Arp High School Jazz Band at concerts and festivals throughout the year. She is secretary for Arp High School's chapter of the National Honor Society. She is the yearbook publisher and index editor, creating pages and maintaining proper spelling.
She served as a project leader and library volunteer at the Gunter Library and Museum Community Resource Center.
Outside of school, she has worked as a carhop at the Sonic Drive-In and a restaurant hostess at Don Benito’s Mexican Café.