Woman accidentally finds out she missed $104,000 scholarship offer letter. Then the college reached out

A woman went viral after she stumbled upon an unopened scholarship letter from one of her chosen top colleges while cleaning her closet. Madi, who goes by the username @luvlyymadiii on TikTok, shared a video diary for April 29. She sat on the floor and was going through her mail when she saw an unopened letter from Maryville College in Tennessee. “Going through my unopened college acceptance letters from October after cleaning out the closet,” she wrote in the clip. According to the Independent, Madi was shocked to read the offer letter that provided her with a $104,000 scholarship from the university. 

In the video, Madi looked at the camera with "shock and anger" and continued to film herself reading the letter while explaining why she did not plan on going to "one of her top three schools." She said she decided to study in a community college because she would be in too much debt. "I'm disappointed I never opened this letter, and college decision day is Monday," she wrote. The 18-second video ended with Madi holding up the letter as she turned her head to the side and looked disappointed. The background music of the clip included the Taylor Swift song "High Infidelity" from her album "Midnights." Madi referred to one of the lyrics in the caption, saying, "Do you want to know where I was on April 29?"

Later, in a follow-up video, she revealed that the admissions office at Maryville College had called her after watching the now-viral video. She disclosed that the university still offered her the scholarship and wanted her to attend classes. "They said that they were going to make my dreams come true," she said. "They’re going to send me, like, an official award offer letter to my Gmail. I don’t know how they found me, but they did. So, now I’m going to college, and I’m just so excited!" Speaking to the Independent, Madi explained that it was much easier for her to switch schools after choosing a community college.

"This was a mature decision I had to make regarding my future finances and my plan for my career, so I must admit I was scared to make a decision and mess up the entire trajectory of my life!" she shared. "Making such a decision is a lot of pressure for 18-year-olds. I am very aware that I am still young, so I didn’t want to act on such a decision immaturely." Dr. Alayne Bowman, Vice President for Admissions and Financial Aid at Maryville, shared how she found Madi through Instagram after the viral video. She said she put Madi’s full name in the college’s information system and got in touch. "It was exciting to make that call because, as a college, we knew it wasn’t too late for her to enroll," Bowman said.

She said, "Maryville College is intentional about making college affordable, and we knew we could make this dream of hers come true. She was so sweet and excited when we spoke, and our entire office was thrilled that we were able to reach her and hopefully make Maryville College her home for the next four years." Madi explained she forgot to open the letter as she had "over 300 letters come in" at the time and it was "impossible" for her to open each one. "I was still doing a ton of school work, and I had a job," she said. "So, I just figured I was going to keep all of those letters for my children so that whenever they were in high school, I’d be like, ‘Your mom was a genius, and you should be working like a genius.'"