- Cofounder of AI company Exa Jeffrey Wang wrote his college application essay about McDonald's.
- The Harvard graduate said he wanted to make his essay authentic and entertaining.
- Wang said he got into Yale, Harvard, and Princeton using the same essay.
When Jeffrey Wang was a high-school senior in Connecticut in 2014, he wasn't sure what to write about for his college application essay.
He thought about writing his essay on a subject he enjoyed at school or a project he'd worked on. But he knew others would have the same idea.
Wang told Business Insider he grew up in a middle-class family in the suburbs of Cheshire, CT. He felt he didn't have anything extraordinary to write about.
"I hadn't spent any summers abroad, and I hadn't done any fancy programs," he said.
He wanted to show his personality
He read Harry Bauld's book, 'On Writing the College Application Essay,' which made him realize college admissions officers wouldn't have time to read each essay diligently.
He said he realized his primary objective should be to entertain the admissions officer reading his essay.
"For the most part, they're just looking for character," Wang said. He decided to write about studying at McDonald's.
He told BI he thought it might pique an admissions officer's interest and illustrate his character: someone who did well at school but also hangs out at a McDonald's.
Wang said he also wanted to use his essay to challenge assumptions admissions officers might have. "I'm an Asian-American with a perfect SAT score. Maybe that looks pretty cookie-cutter on paper," he said.
Authenticity is key
The essay summarizes how Wang discovered his local McDonald's was an ideal place to study and meditate. He mentioned he liked interacting with different community members and how it was a more efficient and affordable study space than other options. The underpinning message is finding joy or peace in unusual places.
"For the most part, it was a pretty authentic essay," Wang said, adding that he included a few "intellectual references," such as a novel and a physicist, to show the admissions officer he was smart. He said if he were to write it now, he'd leave out the big words and references.
His parents were worried the topic was too risky, but Wang said he felt confident, and if an admissions officer didn't like it — the school wasn't the right fit.
He got into Yale, Harvard, and Princeton
Growing up, Wang dreamed of attending Yale in his home state of Connecticut. He applied to Yale under early decision, using his essay about McDonald's.
He got in.
Wang received an offer of financial aid from Yale, but he told BI he wanted to see if he could get more from other colleges.
He applied to Harvard, Duke, Princeton, MIT, and others with the same essay. He got into both Princeton and Harvard, and received offers of financial aid from them both. Business Insider has verified these offers with documentation.
Wang chose to study computer science at Harvard in 2015 because he said it was the best for STEM subjects, and he wanted to be further away from home.
He still tries to live authentically
Wang said if his friends read his essay now, 10 years after he submitted it, they'd recognize his personality in it. It shows his "scrappy" attitude to life, he said.
After graduating from Harvard in 2019, he started working as a software engineer for a tech company in San Francisco. He then quit in 2023 to cofounded his startup Exa, a search engine for AI.
Wang believes that prioritizing authenticity helped his success since college. "If you do things that you feel are authentic or that are right, you'll be rewarded for it," he said.
Do you have a college admissions success story? Email Ella Hopkins at [email protected].