Harvard Grad Shares The College Essay About McDonalds That Got Him Into Almost Every University He Applied To
"Keep in mind that the admissions officer is some dude lying on a couch reading your essay at 10 PM."
pixelfit | Canva Pro As high school seniors prepare their college essays, they are often pressured to compose a story about their monumental, life-altering experiences — the more dramatic, the better!
However, the reality is that you don’t have to climb Everest to write an effective essay.
One man proved this with his brief college essay about studying in a local McDonald's, which he credits getting him into nearly every institution he applied to, including Harvard.
A Harvard graduate shared the genius McDonald’s essay that got him into nearly every college he applied to.
Jeffrey Wang, a Harvard alum who graduated as Valedictorian from his high school class in 2015, is assuring modern-day high schoolers that they do not have to craft a masterpiece about how they wrote a symphony while balancing a full course load of honors classes in order to get into college.
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He should know — his entire essay was centered around a local McDonald’s restaurant he studied at throughout high school. However, it had quite an unexpected takeaway and humanized him beyond the average applicant attempting to impress recruiters.
Wang shared a screenshot of his essay on X (formerly known as Twitter), and it has since been viewed over 2 million times.
“Some people study best at the library. Others occupy a corner in a coffee shop where inspiration and creativity flow with a cappuccino. Personally, I do some of my best work while sipping a one dollar plus tax McIced Tea at a plastic table on which my laptop and a book rest,” his essay began.
“The subtle scent of grease fills my nose, and the shouting of order numbers rings in my ears. I’ve found an unconventional place of contentment beneath the Golden Arches.”
Wang goes on to tell a story about one summer night when he stumbled across his local McDonald’s restaurant and decided to order a meal and sit down for a bit.
As he was eating, he found serenity in all of the hustle and bustle, the aroma of hamburgers and fries, and the sound of children begging their parents for a McFlurry.
“I realize that there is nothing on my mind but my surroundings and my stomach. I’m completely at ease; no pretension exists in this global franchise that has more stores in the world than people in my town,” he wrote.
After finishing up his meal, Wang went to his car, retrieved his books, and went back inside to study at the same table. It was hours later, when he lifted his head up from his books, that he realized it was the most productive he’d been in months.
Since that summer night, Wang made the McDonald's his go-to study nook.
While the Harvard grad recognized that McDonald's may not be the ideal place for others to get their work done, he claimed that it was the perfect place for him.
“While attention-catching sights and sounds sometimes divert my attention, they’ve helped me to work by forcing me to focus harder,” Wang wrote.
“Better yet, I’ve found meaningful the array of diversions I’ve experienced, from a conversation with my quirky, retired seventh-grade English teacher about how fast (not quick, he had taught me) life passes by, to companionship with employees here like Milly, who works the cash register, and Maureen, the manager.”
For Wang, McDonald’s became a crucial place for him to escape and study — and it certainly helped that he had some delicious options from the dollar menu!
“For this, McDonald’s speaks to me,” he wrote. “Sometimes, I put my pencil down or stop typing into a Google Doc just to appreciate the simple utility of the location in a sort of wistful way. I see my life as a sort of quest to find ultimate authenticities, and while I know that there will be more truths to discover and that they will most certainly be more difficult to find, my being content at McDonald’s is one conclusive victory.”
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The takeaway from the Harvard graduate's essay was simply that contentment can be found in the most unexpected places — like a McDonalds restaurant.
Wang concluded his essay by declaring that in the chaos of everyday life, many people have difficulty focusing and being content exactly where they are.
“I’ve learned that contentment can exist in imperfect and unforeseen places when you simply observe your surroundings, adapt, and maybe even eat a french fry,” he wrote.
Wang claimed that some college admissions officers took the time to write him personal handwritten letters praising him for his work and sharing how much they enjoyed it.
He also had a message to high school seniors stressing out about composing a masterpiece essay.
“To any frantic high school senior, the best advice I got was — keep in mind that the admissions officer is some dude lying on a couch reading your essay at 10 p.m.,” he revealed.
“Make sure that this person is entertained and thinks that you're an authentic human being.”
Teenagers should focus on the profound beauty of ordinary life when composing college entrance essays.
Most 16 or 17-year-olds have never experienced anything earth-shattering, and that's OK.
Wang illustrated beautifully that college essays do not have to be extraordinary tales to make an impact. They can be as simple as how your morning cup of coffee is your favorite part of the day.
“The truth is that most of us don’t live in a superhero movie where one event just changes the course of our lives,” Pratik Vengal, who offers advice to incoming college students, said in a video.
Vangal explained, “The most common fallacy that I see online is that you need to have experienced some major disturbance, or grief to write a good college essay, and that’s simply not true.”
“The most successful college essays that I’ve read take a small moment, something even as modest as waiting at the bus stop in the morning, and transform it into an essay that truly shows colleges who you are. Your goal is not to prove your intelligence, they know you’re smart! Colleges want to hear an authentic and genuine story written in your voice.”
When you think about it, college admissions officers have to read over endless paperwork from thousands of applicants. They are more than likely sick of having to read the same essays that deal with fabricated themes of teenagers saving an entire population or curing a mystery illness just to impress them.
They want to read something that is simple, to the point and depicts you as a human being and not an applicant number or a superhero.
As Wang, who is now the co-founder of his very own company, has proven to us, you do not have to have extraordinary experiences to receive extraordinary opportunities.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.