Carolina Williams is a normal American teenager. She’s also kind of a genius. Growing up in Tennessee, she loved that most American of foods: pizza. Instead of writing her college essay about hardship and volunteer work or something, Williams decided to write about Papa John’s.
You can see that she’s a smart cookie from her writing style.
“Accepting those warm cardboard boxes at my front door is second nature to me, 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.”
That’s some college admissions gold right there. Well-structured sentences, a true story, and evocative imagery. A+ Carolina.
Less acceptable was the reaction from the Yale admissions officer. He reportedly responded, “As a fellow lover of pizza, I laughed out loud (then ordered pizza) after reading your application.”
Loving Papa John’s in a small town in Tennessee is one thing. There’s not a lot of pizza choice, and Papa John’s has reliable quality. But Yale is in New Haven, Connecticut, and famous for their pizza. You’ve got Sally’s Apizza, which was favored by Frank Sinatra. There’s also the famous Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, who makes one of the best white clam pies in town; a New Haven delicacy. One would hope that a Yale employee is not ordering from Papa John’s.
Williams ultimately decided not to go to Yale. She was offered an enticing scholarship from Auburn University in Alabama. She will be the first in her family to go to college. Power to Williams who seems like a cool kid, but hopefully she’ll visit New Haven sometime and teach this Yale admissions guy a thing or two about eating good pizza.
I just want @PapaJohns to know that I wrote a college essay about how much I love to order their pizza and it got me into Yale 🍕👌 pic.twitter.com/lDlzEErHCn
— Carolina Williams (@justcarolina22) May 9, 2017