Bill Gates applied to Harvard, Princeton and Yale using three different 'personas' and got into every one
Bill Gates applied to Harvard, Princeton and Yale using three different ‘personas’ and shockingly got into every single one.
The revelation came about in his new memoir titled Source Code: My Beginnings.
The Microsoft co-founder dropped out before graduating Harvard and in his book, Gates recalled what applying to colleges was like for him.
Advert
The tech mogul revealed that he ‘experimented with my persona’ when filling out the applications.
Gates said: “As I learned in drama class, each was a performance — one actor, three characters.”
For each university, he detailed a different area that he wanted to study.
For Princeton, Gates said that he wanted to be a software engineer and for Yale, he explained that he either wanted to work for the government or to become a lawyer, which he shares in the book was actually his ‘backup plan’.
Gates told Harvard that he didn’t have aspirations of continuing in computer work.
Instead, he told them: “Work with the computer has proved to be a great opportunity to have a lot of fun, earn some money, and learn a lot.
“However, I do not plan to continue concentrating in this field. Right now I am most interested in business or law.”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is known for being an exclusively science, technology and engineering university, but Gates didn’t see his future there either.
In fact, he was given a summer interview at the prestigious university and didn’t turn up, saying that he didn’t want to be ‘a math nerd surrounded by other math nerds’.
In his memoir, Gates shares that he played pinball instead of turning up for the interview.
While the billionaire did get into Harvard, Yale and Princeton, the first of which he chose to study at, he ended up dropping out in order to focus on getting Microsoft off the ground.
Now, he is one of the richest men in the world and donates part of his wealth to philanthropic causes.
The causes close to his heart is something Gates revealed that he had discussed with President Donald Trump just weeks before his inauguration.
Appearing for an interview on The View, Gates said: “My priorities in talking to President Trump were the global health issues, particularly HIV and polio.
“The voters have a lot to be proud of, you know, we’ve saved tens of millions of lives. The number of children who died at the turn of the century is over 10 million a year, now down below five million and things like HIV medicines are responsible for that and vaccines, so I would encourage him to drive more innovation in those spaces.
“We’re still missing some vaccines and I felt we had a very good conversation.”