College Supplement — Short Answers
Eleven short-answer supplemental responses from college applications.
What is your favorite subject to study, and why? (35 words)
Most who watched the Animal Farm movie don’t know the CIA changed the ending to invert Orwell’s thesis. My favorite history lessons come from psy-op videos on YouTube as I eat dinner.
What are your favorite books and/or movies?
Mastery by Robert Greene. A venture capital firm founder recommended it, and I still read my highlights on how powerlessness only feels palatable when we convince ourselves that we aren’t responsible for our fate.
What is your favorite source of inspiration?
My father’s habit of turning on NPR as we drive to my summer job gave me new ideas for funding childcare that would address the wealth gap, and one very confused economics teacher.
How do you spend a typical weekend?
30 minutes staring at the wall to reset dopamine before work, followed by making spontaneous protein meals and a chest/arm session at the gym. Then, an Asian dating show to unwind before bed.
What compliment are you most proud of receiving and who gave it to you?
“People like you prove that this generation won’t have to wait its turn like the ones before it,” Kyle Matthys, CEO of TRIIBE, said to me on our first call.
After a challenging experience, how do you rejuvenate?
Eating competitions at Shabu all-you-can-eat hotpot with friends from Calc class, followed by slow digestion walks to be alone with my thoughts. It’s my metabolically necessary adaptation of Obama’s thinking walks.
What would you contribute to your future college campus community?
Growing up where steakhouses shared parking lots with dumpling houses, I cook for both cultures: Tonkatsu Ramen one night and fried chicken the next. I’d use that range to promote culinary arts on campus.
What is the most significant challenge that society faces today? (3–50 words)
11 PM: students scurry as they finish the Algebra homework due in 59 minutes. 5:30 AM: REM sleep assassinated by the ruthless radial ringtone. 7:20 AM, first period: the inverse function test, proving that recall is impossible through pure might. Schools pit learning against comfort and function.
How did you spend your last two summers? (3–50 words)
2025: Took Sociology at Houston Community College; discovered my favorite workplace lunch (avocado sandwiches) while working 9–5 at the City of Houston; left 7 reviews on Goodreads. 2026: Proposed a bill to Representative Dr. Lalani at the state capitol; replaced cardio sessions with badminton; committed Drake’s new albums to memory.
What historical moment or event do you wish you could have witnessed? (3–50 words)
September 1840: Republic of Texas President Mirabeau Lamar has fever dreams of imperializing his country. Debt is skyrocketing. What does he do? He rapidly mints more Redback notes, the official currency. Inflation becomes rampant, with currency barely worth its materials. Was he empowering his people, or the other way around?
List five things that are important to you. (3–50 words)
House music: homework soundtrack, gym anthem. Thrifted jeans: still has a pay stub from Beyoncé’s ‘09 tour. Dumplings with spicy soy sauce: personal recipe of a Northerner by blood, Southerner by birth Chinese. Vaporeon plushie: a trophy won in front of a begrudging arcade crowd. My friends’ unsolicited life updates.