Gaby Munoz
Gaby Munoz almost didn’t apply to Harvard, she didn’t think she’d get in to the exclusive Ivy League.
“I actually was never planning on applying,” she says. “But it was my mom who told me, ‘Why not? The worst they can do is say you didn’t get in.’”
Munoz’s resume was packed with strong grades and test scores, of course, along with extra-curricular activities like soccer, Sweetheart Drill Team, National Honor Society president and loads of volunteer hours. But she’s also had a compelling life — born in Santiago, Chile, her family brought her to Texas when she was 3 to find a better life. She had a story to tell, so she applied, asking for an early decision.
Munoz was coming out of soccer practice one December day when she decided to check the status of her application. Instead, she saw a congratulatory note.
“It was so surreal,” she says, immediately correcting herself. “It was actually so overwhelming.”
She called her mom, Sandra Munoz, immediately. “She said, ‘I knew you’d get in.’ I said, ‘Mom, it doesn’t work that way, you don’t just get into Harvard.’”
Gaby Munoz (center) with her teammates on the Woodrow Wilson girls soccer team.
But she did, one of six students in all of Dallas ISD to be accepted at the lauded university this year. That’s a record for the district, according to a Dallas Morning News article. But three of those accepted came from Townview’s Science and Engineering Magnet, while two are graduates of Townview’s Talented and Gifted Magnet, both schools that have been named the No. 1 public school in the country in recent years. Munoz is the only student who came up through a traditional public high school, where she thrived in the International Baccalaureate program.
“It develops you into an intellectual,” she says of the program. “It teaches you how to interact with the world.”
She also attended Victor H. Hexter Elementary and William B. Travis Academy for middle school. That’s one thing she worries about, having an “educational gap” with her classmates at Harvard, many of whom will come from the most elite private schools around the world. But she’s pragmatic for her age. “If you get in, it’s for a reason,” she says. “They picked you for a reason.”
Even though she was accepted, she wasn’t immediately sure she could go. With tuition right around $70,000, including room and board, it is one of the most expensive universities in the country. Munoz’s mom is a nurse at Parkland Hospital and her father, Guillermo Munoz is retired from UPS, there was no way they could afford it. About a week after she was accepted, she found out she earned merit-based financial aid, which would cover almost everything.
“I think my parents have to pay, like, $2,000 a year,” she says. “We couldn’t believe it, we were so excited.”
Munoz will study human development and regenerative biology with plans to go on to medical school after she graduates a university with one of the lowest acceptance rates in the country.
“I want to be a surgeon, and I really like kids. So possibly a pediatric surgeon, that would be amazing,” she says. “The world needs more doctors, there can never be enough.”
