Many teens love pizza but one brainy Tennessee student was able to use her love of delivery pies to score admission to one of the country’s top universities.
Carolina Williams Class of 2017 at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, Tenn., was accepted to Yale University in March with an admissions officer noting her standout answer to a short-essay prompt to write about something she loves to do: order pizza from Papa John’s.
According to The Tennesseean, Williams says her answer was the first thing that came to mind—but it probably didn’t hurt that she also ranked in the top 10 of her graduating class and participated in several extracurricular activities including English Honors Society, National Honors Society, Model UN and Youth in Government.
“Honestly, I thought I should go with the first thing that popped in my head,” Williams told the paper. “It was completely genuine.”
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
The Yale admissions officer reviewing Williams’s application was tickled by the response. “As a fellow lover of pizza, I laughed out loud (then ordered pizza) after reading your application,” her acceptance note said. Williams will also be the first in her family to attend college.
Despite her acceptance to the Ivy League institution, the pizza-loving scholar has actually decided to attend Auburn University in Alabama to pursue business, noting that the college seemed like a better fit and she had better scholarships opportunities.
Still, Papa John’s was thrilled with Williams’ news and even send her congratulatory tweet:
CONGRATS, CAROLINA!! We’re so honored that you wrote about us in your essay! Send us a DM, please @AskPapaJohns
— Papa John’s Pizza (@PapaJohns) May 9, 2017
Many of us love pizza but what exactly did Williams say to catch the eye of the prestigious Yale admissions committee?
Her genuine love of saucy, cheesy goodness shone through with carefully crafted prose like, “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.”
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