Bill Gates’ Unique College Applications: “One Actor, Three Characters”

In his memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings, Bill Gates shared how he took an unconventional approach to his college applications, experimenting with different personas for each university. Unsure of his career path as a teenager, he tailored his applications to highlight different interests, backed by his real experiences.

For Princeton, Gates presented himself as an aspiring software engineer, emphasizing his coding background and strong math grades. In contrast, his Yale application focused on a potential career in law or government, drawing on his experience as a page for the House of Representatives. Harvard received an essay that centered on his expertise in computers, but in a surprising twist, he concluded by stating that his true interests lay in business or law.

Gates credited his time in drama club for giving him the confidence to explore different versions of himself in his applications. He viewed the process as a performance, one actor, three characters, demonstrating his adaptability and wide-ranging interests long before he became a tech icon.