Wang told Business Insider that growing up in a middle-class family in the suburbs of Cheshire, Connecticut, he felt he had nothing extraordinary to write about.
“I have never spent a single summer abroad, nor have I completed any unusual programs,” he said.
He wanted to show his personality
He read Harry Bauld’s book On Writing the College Application Essay and realized that college admissions officers would not have time to carefully read each essay.
“In most cases, they’re just looking for character traits,” Wang said. He decided to write about his studies at McDonald’s.
He told BI that he thought it might pique an admissions officer’s interest and illustrate his character: someone who does well in school but also likes to hang out at McDonald’s.
Wang said he also wanted to use his essay to challenge admissions officers’ assumptions. “I’m an Asian-American with a perfect SAT score. Maybe on paper, that looks pretty normal,” he said.
Authenticity is the key
The essay summarizes how Wang discovered that his local McDonald’s was an ideal place to study and meditate. He mentioned that he enjoyed the interaction with different community members and that it was a more efficient and affordable place to study than other options. The underlying message is to find joy or peace in unusual places.
“Overall, it was a pretty authentic essay,” Wang said, adding that he included some “intellectual references” like a novel and a physics major to show the admissions officer he was smart. He said if he were writing it today, he would leave out the big words and references.
His parents worried the subject was too risky, but Wang said he felt safe and if an admissions officer didn’t like it, the school wasn’t right for him.
He was accepted into Yale, Harvard and Princeton
As a child, Wang dreamed of attending Yale University in his home state of Connecticut. He applied early with his essay about McDonald’s.
Wang received an offer of financial aid from Yale, but told BI he wanted to see if he could get more from other schools.
He used the same essay to apply to Harvard, Duke, Princeton, MIT, and other universities. He was accepted to both Princeton and Harvard and received offers of financial aid from both. Business Insider verified these offers using documents.
Wang decided to study computer science at Harvard in 2015 because he believed it was the best program 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 would recognize his personality in it. It shows his “fighting” attitude to life, he said.
After graduating from Harvard in 2019, he started working as a software developer for a technology company in San Francisco. He quit in 2022 and founded his startup Exa, a search engine for AI, in 2023.
Wang believes his success since college has been helped by his emphasis on authenticity. “When you do things that you feel are authentic or right, you will be rewarded for it,” he says.
