In her application to Yale, Carolina Williams was asked to write a short essay on what she loves to do. So the teen went with something genuine: ordering a pizza from Papa John’s. And it got her into the Ivy League school!
“Accepting those warm cardboard boxes at my front door is second nature to me,” Williams writes in her essay, “but I will always love ordering pizza because of the way eight slices of something so ordinary are able to evoke feelings of independence, consolation, and joy.”
Williams got a friendly note from the Yale admissions officer, who wrote, “As a fellow lover of pizza, I laughed out loud (then ordered pizza) after reading your application.” But of course, it wasn’t just her pizza essay that earned her a spot at one of the best colleges in the U.S. She also graduated in the top 10 of her class, took difficult classes, and volunteered.
But as pleased as she is with her acceptance to the prestigious school, Williams has decided to attend Auburn University instead. She liked the scholarships they offered and plans to study business.