Westminster teen accepted to 16 universities, including Ivy League schools

WESTMINSTER, Calif. - For 18-year-old Julia Do, of Westminster, the good news kept coming.

One prestigious university after another sent her letters of acceptance. Names like Princeton, Stanford and Brown were among the academic institutions sending her the good news.

How many in total? A sweet 16! And with good reason.

The senior at La Quinta High in Westminster earned a weighted GPA of 4.3 and scored 1530 on the SAT, making her a highly sought-after student.

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As we sat in a classroom, the high school senior read from a novel by Sandra Cisneros called The House on Mango Street. It’s poetic in its prose. And young Julia seemed to enjoy the oral interpretation. 

But then, you remember she’s still a teenager when she refers to herself as a "literature nerd."

And says, "I was comfortable being an A-minus student."

FOX 11 was given a wonderfully intimate look by the family when they shared their cell phone video of the very moment Julia found out she had been accepted to Dream School — Harvard University.

There was screaming, hugging and tears by Julia, her parents and her siblings. You see this family has traveled a long way to get here. Mom and dad immigrated from Vietnam. One of Julia’s grandmothers was illiterate. So the unbridled joy of this family as Julia was accepted into this renowned university was very moving.

Julia grew up in the Little Saigon section of Westminster.  At Harvard, she will major in Sociology and Comparative Literature.

She hopes her example will inspire other students who come from working-class neighborhoods

"The big lesson I’ve learned is to believe in yourself, good things will happen," Julia said.