Booneville High School senior Dax Bowman is having a unique week.
This afternoon Bowman will be subject of his second interview as a prospective student at an Ivy League institution.
Today it is Princeton. On Tuesday it was Harvard.
If that were not enough, he has one with Duke next Saturday.
The interviews are conducted via Zoom after an invitation via email.
“The first one was Harvard. I wish I would have had some practice,” said Bowman.
While the interview procedure is of course completely personal, Bowman has had help navigating the entry process from Lucas Deltedesco, a 2023 BHS graduate.
“I talked to him when I was a sophomore and he was a senior because he had all the ACT and all that stuff figured out and he was going to Northwestern,” said Bowman.
Yes, the Northwestern in Cook County, Illinois.
Bowman said the Zoom interviews are largely one-on-one though alumni of the respective schools will also be involved and submit a report about candidates.
Bowman drew the attention of Ivy League members and others – he has already gotten an acceptance letter from Florida State University, the University of Arkansas Honors College, and another one in California – through the Common App tool.
“It was a lot easier (than multiple applications) because you just write one essay and it sends it to all the schools with my ACT, GPA and those things,” said Bowman.
Then there were five to seven specific questions requiring short answers – 100-word essay type responses – from the schools, and some like the University of Chicago require a second essay, Bowman said.
There is also the of course navigating any scholarship opportunities associated with those schools.
The aforementioned GPA, by the way, is 4.13.
“I’ve taken the most AP (advanced placement) courses of anyone,” said Bowman before adding, “I’ve got a few Bs in ninth grade that haunt me.”
Because he arrived in March of his eighth grade year, that freshman year was Bowman's first full year in the Booneville School District.
Since then Bowman has immersed himself into all things Booneville. He played football and tennis and plans to run track this season. He is into almost everything of an extracurricular nature including being president of three organizations – BETA, Student Council, and FBLA.
Bowman, who also started a tutoring program at the school as a junior, will be competing at FBLA state with a presentation.
“I’m kind of excited about that,” he said.
Regardless of where he is accepted and ultimately chooses to go – he actually applied to 23 schools from Tallahassee to California to Chicago to New York, and most of the Ivy League, the course of study will be pre-medicine.
“Then go to medical school, but I also plan to have a minor in neuroscience or something like that. I took AP Psych and I liked it. I like more of the biological factor,” said Bowman.
Among the AP classes Bowman’s transcript features are five he is taking as a second semester senior, a rarity. Those are AP Chemistry, Literature, Calculus, History, and Environmental Science
If that weren’t enough Bowman is also a Spanish II student.