Sichuan University asked prospective students, "If you could travel back in time to any Chinese dynasty to show off your talents, where would you go and why?"
Sina Weibo users responded with answers that despite getting lots of likes, would unlikely impress any admissions officer.
"I'd go back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) so I could publish all of Li Bai's poems before he did," wrote "Yanmei Chen."
Nanjing University in East China's Jiangsu Province asked students to shoot for the stars by imagining an alien attack.
"Aliens come to attack the Earth. Viewed from the ground, their mothership is 400 meters long by 500 meters wide. How big should their parking space be?" read the question.
"Whoever offers hostile aliens a parking space must be a traitor," wrote "Photographer Yiteng" on Weibo.
At East China's Shandong University, candidates were left scratching their heads over questions like "why are manhole covers round?"
Another from the school, "what is the relationship between a black board and toilet?" prompted "Chatujun" to give an answer we can only assume reflects most people's takes on these questions — "I choose giving up."
This article was first published in the Global Times.