A resident of Gainesville, Ga., Gaur is currently studying public health and economics at Brown.
Indian American Dhruv Gaur was announced the winner of this year’s Jeopardy! College Championship quiz competition Friday, fetching him a grand prize money of $100,000.
By winning the competition, Gaur earned a berth in the next edition of the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.
Gaur, who is a freshman at Ivy League Brown University, was declared as the champion of the quiz competition that saw two-day long final round to decide the winner.
Jeopardy is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin where contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers and must phrase their responses in the form of questions.
One of the most widely watched TV shows in the US, Gaur won the championship in the college edition of the show – Jeopardy! College Championship.
Interestingly, it was another Indian American, Rishab Jain who put a tough fight against the winner in the semi-final round, which was held on Wednesday.
This year’s Jeopardy! College Championship was the 34th season of the competition that began in 1988. Contestants of the show should be full-time undergraduate college students with no prior degrees.
“Nobody can really walk into a competition like this with 14 other incredibly talented and brilliant students and immediately expect to win it all, I know I certainly didn’t,†Gaur said after his win. “The idea of winning the whole tournament didn’t even cross my mind until somewhere during the first game of the finals. I was really just trying to take it one step at a time.â€
A resident of Gainesville, Ga., Gaur is currently studying public health and economics at Brown. Speaking after winning the grand prize money, Gaur said he is not yet sure about what to do with it.
“It’s kind of boring, but since I’m not entirely sure what the future holds, I’m just going to save it until I need it for grad school or to pursue an opportunity I might really want in the future,†Gaur said. “My little brother is really interested in investing, so I’ll give him some so he can give the stock market a go, and I promised my friends I’d take them out to dinner, but the vast majority is being saved for later.â€
William Scott, a freshman at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., finished in second place and took home $50,000, while Hannah Sage, a sophomore at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., came in third and collected $25,000.