Soon, Madison Cowell will make the decision where she wants to go to college.

For now, the Liberty County High School senior has a number of unique distinctions – no student has ever been accepted into more colleges or been offered more money in scholarships. Not just at LCHS and not just in Georgia, but in the U.S.

Crowell has been offered more than $11 million in scholarships and has been accepted to more than 200 colleges and universities – numbers that top any accumulated by any student not just in Liberty County or in Georgia but across the nation, her family said.

Crowell made that announcement Thursday morning at LCHS. She will make her official college announcement May 1.

“I’m so thankful to have everybody here today,” she said. “Even the people who aren’t here have contributed greatly to my success.”

Crowell estimates she’s visited a quarter to half of the schools that have offered her scholarships. Some of the tours are official, with a representative of the school leading Crowell and her family around. Some they have done on their own.

“Sometimes there are organized tours and we do road trips throughout the year and we’ll kind of veer off and go to these schools,” she said.

Crowell wasn’t planning on applying to that many schools. But her own track record caught the attention of many of those institutions of higher learning.

“But as I applied to schools, more schools started reaching out because they saw my grades on different platforms. So they invited me to apply,” she said.

Filling out applications to colleges can be laborious – and costly. For instance, it costs $70 just to apply to the University of Georgia. It’s $95 to apply to Georgia Tech.

“Some of the schools that invited me gave me a fee waiver,” Crowell said. “Those fee waivers came in handy.”

Crowell, who is a member of the National Honor Society and has participated in chorus, cheerleading and Student Council, plans to major in exercise science. She’s checked out the details of the schools making her final cut, from location to how the food is to the dorms.

“We weren’t planning on applying to all these schools. I’ve kind of narrowed it down a little bit, but I still have some more thinking to do before May 1,” she said.

Her mother, Melissa Langley, even went so far as to tell her she might wind up with as much as $1 million in scholarships offered once she started applying to schools. Crowell admits she dismissed that notion.

“And now, this is for real,” she said.

Her accolades and achievements have school and school system leaders in awe too.

“We know this is just the beginning of what you’re going to do,” Liberty County Schools Superintendent Dr. Franklin Perry said. “Thank you for exemplifying excellence in everything. She has carved out her own way in our school system. There’s nothing like being number one, number one and number one.”

“We are so very proud of you,” LCHS Principal Debra Frazier said to Crowell.

Crowell said she’ll spend her summer with family and also sharing her knowledge, helping her peers be equipped to succeed as she is.

“Madison couldn’t be more deserving of this,” said Deputy Superintendent Dr. Zheadric Barbra. “(She) has a willingness to help others, a willingness to help not only yourself but your school and other students.”

In the meantime, there is still one very big decision left for her to make.

“It’s been an amazing process and the support has been overwhelming,” Crowell said. “I appreciate everybody who has supported me so far.”