Newest College Application Essays

Sophomore year: I had just returned from a home football game. There, I had shouted and cheered, but the vibe changed once I arrived at my house, hearing chaos behind my parents’ doors. There was tension within my family. I had just conducted my...

Sometimes, kids don’t want to go home.

“It’s okay,” I assure one of them. “This is a safe place for you; we’ll both be here tomorrow.”

I give them a hug and hand them their bag. It means everything to me to mean something to the kids at the...

My father treats wrong turns on road trips as opportunities for new experiences. Sometimes, I think he’d take an early exit on purpose, just to receive Mom’s famous glare. Nonetheless, he’d always look back at me as we both exclaimed, “It’ll be an...

The shrill sound of the rushing ambulance pierced the summer air. I hugged the blanket in my arms, stretching to see if the patient has arrived. The glass doors swished open and an entourage of paramedics rushed in. This time, it was an...

In photography, "aperture" is one of three settings that dictates the quality of a photo. It determines how much light to let into the camera and can be adjusted to optimize a photo’s brightness, focus, and depth. It’s a fun word to say, but was...

The egg-sized bruise on my leg glowed black and purple, but to me, it was shinier and more valuable than any other medal of honor. All day long I carried it around like a trophy, proudly presenting it to others around me. I had received many...

My community can be seen through a window on a bus ride from my school back home. Safely tucked away in an air-conditioned bus, I glance out the window to see the world for what it really is.

The world beyond that window has shown me more than...

If I had the opportunity to paint whatever I wanted on the Beta Bridge, I would paint eleven numbers in navy blue contrasted by an orange background. I would paint the suicide hotline, 1-800-273-8255.

I didn’t realize to what extent conversation...

As a child, I viewed my city as an intertwining jungle, so varied in its inhabitants and artifacts, and so rich in culture and history. The twists and turns of each road were cluttered with children and their parents and the elderly and...

Three young children scrambled into the room— Amy, Sam, and Kevin. They were orphans soon to be adopted by families in Europe, so my job was to teach them English. Easy, I thought, all I have to do is make a lesson plan and give them worksheets....

Every superhero has an origin story, but the one I stumbled across wasn’t in any ordinary comic book or Marvel movie. It was in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

My tenth-grade biology teacher loved to squeeze in tidbits of information...

There I stood in my basement during spring break of my freshman year, just a few feet away from my old acoustic guitar which had been collecting dust for years. I can’t explain what had drawn me back to that neglected instrument, but I suddenly...

“I’m so excited! Tomorrow is Eid!”

“Eid? What are you talking about?”

I was flabbergasted. Eid was my whole life, what I eagerly anticipated all year long, and yet my classmate didn’t even know what it was! My 7-year-old mind couldn’t comprehend...

When I first stumbled across machine learning in 11th grade, I had no idea the challenges that lay before me in seeking to conquer it. To begin developing my understanding, I scoured the internet, read textbooks from my school, and sought help...

As I finished up my time in grade school, I had a long conversation with my band director. Bluntly, he stated that when I was in 4th grade, I was “the worst drummer this band program has ever seen.” To this day, I still take this as my greatest...

Everyone stops moving. No one breathes. The clock halts. For a split second time stops in its tracks. The air carries a serene joy. This moment of calm stands enveloped in chaos. A new baby has entered the world. No feeling can compare to the...

Metal. Glass. A camera is made up of a few simple elements, but photographers can use it to stir a large emotional response. I wind the film and look through the lens. I’ve carefully composed my shot. I envision the finished photo in my mind, the...

It was a brisk summer day in the park next to my house. I had just finished my Eagle Scout project I had been working on for the past week and I was preparing for a quick jog to unload all of the stress and grogginess of the past couple of days....

Falling asleep in class is never a good idea, especially when the teacher is your 86-year-old grandfather and the classroom is his bedroom. How did I get roped into giving up my limited, beautiful summer days for a fluorescent monitor and fourteen...

“Can’t you make it 40? I come here every day!” my grandma smirked at the vendor’s defeated face. She looked at me with a victorious smile as she claimed her trophy from the vendor. The vibrant color of the freshest produce, the unforgettable aroma...

There is nothing quite as extraordinary as witnessing a Haitian sunset. Watching as the sky folds itself to form a dichotomy of colors that bleed into the horizon. If I climb a roof high enough, or stand on a hill tall enough, it looks like the...

I walked up to the first of many homes to visit during our missionary trip to Montana. At first glance, the house looked dusted and worn, as though the paint had worn off and nature decided to take matters into its own hands. A bronze, rusted...

My first vivid memories are of me, in a diaper, swinging a golf club on the 5-hole golf course my father created on our family farm. At six years old, I played my first competitive tournament and was the youngest player in a field of...

Blistering aluminum pans flying through the air. The head chef yelling orders at the sous chef, who would then relay them back to the line cooks. I pushed through the swinging doors to the back area, dropping off dirty dishes and yelling “corner”...