Harvard University receives 45 thousand applicants every year, but Austin Siebold not only got accepted but essentially a full ride to the Ivy League school.

Not only that, but statistics find that out of 2,804 people who are admitted every year, only 34 tend to be Canadian.

Siebold says she’s been dreaming of this day ever since she was twelve after watching Legally Blonde and deciding her goal was to have a career like Elle Woods and make a well-deserved name for herself.

Growing up, she says school came fairly easy, and she actually graduated almost two years early.

 “Academically I found it really easy especially before high school,” she explains “I was definitely looking for more of a challenge.”

She is originally from Hanna, Alberta and moved to Bentley with her family around 4 years ago. Their family plans to stay here but she had other plans that included working as hard as she needed to, to reach her goal.

“Moving up a grade I was challenging myself a bit more and had to sort of work for the grades I have now, through my grade eleven year I took a double course load.”

Acceptance brought not only tears but also confusion for those in the room with her at her workplace, Cilantro and Chive.

“I screamed and collapsed to the floor and everyone was so confused and ran over to me and I couldn’t say anything, I just handed my phone to someone and they all read it and it was just hugs and high fives all around.”

Siebold says although she was accepted, she knew not to get too excited because it was very possible she wouldn’t be able to go because of financial reasons.

After applying for financial aid and giving it some time to sink in, she found out that she would be going on almost a full ride.

“It was unreasonable for me to be paying $78,000 a year to cover everything so they said they would cover that,” she explains, “all I owe the university is $700, so they aren’t actually giving me any cash, they are just taking it off of what I would otherwise owe them.”

She says this is something they do for people who are worth the education but may not be able to afford it, that will also most likely attend more schooling afterwards.

Siebold is going to be studying math at first, and after her bachelor degree will look into law school. But, she says she will keep an open mind and will study as much as she can.

The end goal for her, is to become a criminal prosecutor and although it will take quite some time to get there, she says the journey is well worth it.

“You can do it; it just takes a lot of work.”