As prospective Trojans make their way through the laborious USC admissions process, they eventually come across a series of lighthearted short-answer questions regarding their favorite snacks, television shows and what fictional character would make the best roommate.

According to Interim Dean of Admissions Kirk Brennan, students’ acceptances don’t hinge on the questions, known as Quick Takes. Instead, they provide valuable insight into the unique personalities of the students who could form the incoming freshman class.

“Those answers — and you can imagine reading dozens of these in a day — they give almost a flash imprint of the personality behind the transcript and the recommendations,” Brennan said. “We want to bring a variety of perspectives to the classroom, and that’s one way that we can get a sense of the people that we’ll be inviting into the community.”

Brennan said when USC was a young university, the comparatively low number of applicants meant admissions didn’t need too many questions to decide who to admit; in 1994, only 11,711 students applied, compared to the 82,027 hopefuls in 2024. As USC became a nationally acclaimed university, the admissions team realized they needed to develop new ways to learn about applicants. As a result, Quick Takes made their debut in 2003.

“I still think of that process as one of the accomplishments I’m most proud of that this office has undertaken,” Brennan said. “We felt we started getting to know our students much better right around that time and that the central framework that we built has remained in place.” 

Brooke Ikemura, a junior majoring in environmental studies, said she was initially taken aback by the Quick Take questions and even took time to confirm it was a genuine part of the application. However, she quickly came to appreciate the break from answering high-stakes admissions questions that the Quick Takes provided.

“I was a little bit confused, because I’ve never seen that, and I applied to a bunch of different colleges. I was like, ‘Am I on the right site?’” Ikemura said. “I wanted to put just basic answers and not think, but then I was like, ‘I want to do it so that they really can get to know me and not just know a surface level version of me.’”

Celene Agahi, a senior majoring in journalism, said they sought out advice on how to answer the Quick Takes and heard that putting down Hermione Granger as one’s fictional roommate is risky.

“I had asked a friend who had gotten into USC how she went about [the Quick Takes]. And she’s like, ‘Yeah, they’re just for fun, but try to answer them as intellectual[ly] as you can,’” Agahi said. “So, I was a little more stressed about it, but I don’t think they made or broke my acceptance.”

Brennan said prospective students should list “whatever suits them best” as their preferred roommate. According to admissions data provided to the Daily Trojan, Hermione Granger remains an overwhelmingly popular roommate for the incoming freshman class while other popular choices were Baymax, Tony Stark, Jennifer Lawrence and Snoopy.

As for favorite songs, Billy Joel’s “Vienna” was a popular choice for the Class of ’29. Other notable entries from the freshman class include Gerber Yogurt Melts as a preferred snack, Mars as a dream travel destination and Pokémon trainer for one’s future job of choice. 

Joaquin Angelo Ilagan, a sophomore majoring in accounting, said he was also surprised to encounter the Quick Takes on his application but took them as an opportunity to deliver unique and original answers to the USC Admissions team.

“I thought the admissions process would be more serious. But after seeing [the Quick Takes], it took off a lot of the stress of applying, especially here at USC,” Ilagan said. “I still wanted to show my personality through them, so I did take a considerable amount of time.”

Jessica Toliao, a sophomore majoring in business administration, said she used the Quick Take question about her favorite movie to discuss her and her dad’s shared love of Star Wars.

“For [my] favorite movie, I put ‘Star Wars,’ and then I found a way to incorporate how I got my dad a Star Wars T-shirt that said ‘I am your father,’ and he wore that everywhere,” Toliao said. “We didn’t have a lot of words, but I found ways to incorporate little explanations in each of my answers.” 

As a film student when he was in college, Brennan said he pays extra attention to what students submit as their favorite movie. Learning about students’ favorite snacks is another highlight of reading applications for him, for the opportunity to learn more about their cultures and a fun topic of conversation with prospective students at events such as Explore USC.

“Very often, students will write [about] … a special treat that grandma always brings to a holiday celebration, or a snack that reminds them of a family member’s dish that they get once a year, things like that,” Brennan said. “It helps remind me that people and history and culture [are] reflected in food.”