Newest College Application Essays

I collect rocks.

I promise it isn’t as lame as it sounds.

On a winter afternoon, the wet mulch crunched under my feet as I walked towards the school bus after my third-grade field trip to the Boston Science Museum. My small, calloused hands held...

I once believed my extraordinary skill with numbers would take me to great heights and greater happiness. I was wrong.

Numbers- quantitative indicators, widely believed to factor the quality of one’s life - galvanized significant achievements, but...

The American Ballet Theater (ABT) Gillespie School parent/student meeting back in March started off with nothing exciting, nothing new. New drop off and pickup procedures. The June showcase. Spring evaluations. Yawn. But then the school’s artistic...

What if you were eighty-one years old when you saw a photo of yourself for the first time? Elma was.

We sounded joyless as we warbled, “Take me out to the balllllgame, take me out to the crowwdd, buy me some peanuts and crackerjacks…” our voices...

I possess superpowers that I inherited from my namesake, Geraldine, my dad’s late mother. Grandma Jeri was the daughter of Portuguese immigrants who worked on the pineapple plantations of Hawaii and the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard (during the 1941...

As kids living in Colorado suburbs, most of my friends and I rarely disagree with each other on politics. Fortunately, in my high school, my teachers come from a variety of different locations. And I love their different perspectives. In my AP...

Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han; Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han; Sui Tang Song, Sui Tang -

Suddenly, while I was singing the names of the ancient Chinese dynasties in preparation for my early morning Chinese class, I was interrupted by a flash of red and a blast of...

"Why are you so quiet?"

"Do you speak?"

Those few words would make the color of my pale cheeks turn to the brightest shade of red because they always sounded so judgemental. To many, it's only a simple question. Steaming curiosity formed from the...

“Shayna and Dominique, you can come see her now”.

The nurse’s grey scrubs complemented the calming atmosphere of the waiting room. My mom had just finished her surgery. My sister and I were finally allowed to see her after two hours of eating...

It took two hours to get home, a three mile drive that should have taken a few minutes. A drive we’d made countless times without thinking. But things were different now. Everything was different now. Dad presented his license to the National...

My mother is a high school dropout with a daughter at 16.

Sitting alone surrounded by grey-toned seats on my number five elementary school bus, my eyes are stuck to a large, bold letter “B” stamped onto a stark white piece of paper. I look up out...

I find it humorous when my family debates who looks more Asian versus White, me or my twin brother. My parents also joke that Brandon and I would be even taller or better at math had it not been for the “shortcomings” each contributed to our...

My stomach started itching uncontrollably when I was ten years old and in the middle of Mr. John’s fourth-grade class. I remember asking myself whether I had been bitten by a bug. The itching became unbearable and I sought permission from Mr. John...

Most people hope to never step foot into a mental hospital, much less spend their summers in one. But for me, the opportunity to volunteer in a Chinese mental hospital was one I seized upon with interest (and only slight trepidation). I’m glad I...

The pungent smell of durian, balanced by the sweet, tantalizing scent of xiao long bao samples, greet me when I step into the brightly-lit supermarket. My mother’s voice rings out behind me– “Remember, no candy!”– as I traverse the colorful...

“We’re so close... We can just talk on and on,” the Barnard tour-guide said to our group, laughing. To my surprise, she wasn’t talking about a relationship with a faculty member, as was customary on college tours. She was actually talking about...

The first day of a Minecraft game is crucial to survival. Huddled in the living-room, iPhones and iPads in-hand, the seven of us carefully formulate our plan. First, we lay down ground rules: no killing each other’s avatars, no lazing around. He...

The pungent smell of durian, balanced by the sweet, tantalizing scent of xiao long bao greets me when I step into the brightly-lit supermarket. My mother’s voice rings out behind me– “Remember, no candy!”– as I swiftly traverse the colorful...

My parents grew up in the shadow of Maoist China, a country fraught with censorship, crackdowns, and conformity. I’ve always been curious about their childhoods, so starkly different to my life in America. So, last summer, I picked up the book ...

Six years ago, outfitted in an ill-fitting yellow polo and plaid kilt, eyes meekly downcast, I boarded CT Transit bus 328 for the first time. My hands trembled as I fumbled in my backpack pockets for the blue-and-white plastic ticket which seemed...

In fourth grade, I invented the “Swiss Army Cook” for the Invention Convention. In fifth grade, I hand wrote and drew entire magazine issues, scanned them, and sent them to all my friends and relatives for 50 with the hope of becoming the next...

Everyone in Darte Hall knew my set of house rules. Number tokens are applied to the board randomly, twos and twelves are equal, and your turn is forfeited if you roll the die outside of the box lid. The game The Settlers of Catan has become a...

As I deliberately draw back the taut string of my recurve bow, a faint groan from the strained wooden limbs manages to drown out the commotion of the hundreds of spectators and competing archers. I have attained a state of consummate mental...

"You know Yume, you're the only black girl that I like, the rest are so ratchet," he let out.

What... did he just say?

I let the words sink... because, well, I genuinely liked him. He'd helped me study for almost every computer science test and...