Newest College Application Essays

During my weekends spent placing used books back on dusty shelves at Queens Village Community Library, I realized that Queens made the most of what it had. The dilemmas of my community fester in the book return bin. Teenagers stressed from the...

“Welcome to Newspaper! I’m passing the sign in sheet around.” A bustling classroom of half familiar faces stood before me. Posters of hunter gatherer societies and Mesopotamian Civilization were plastered to the walls. I fiddled with an Expo...

"Next month, we will decide whether or not to ratify our church's newest bylaw: banning gay people from being members. This is to protect ourselves from being sued if a same-sex couple asks to get married in our church." As I sat in the same pew I...

I observed Nam’s darting eyes across the canteen hall. After being shooed from table to table, Nam finally arrived at mine. “Uhhh is this seat t-t-taken”, he stammered.

Nam was new at school and had trouble fitting in. His stuttering did not help...

The inner truth hidden beneath the outer layers of a mandala - the profound, rooted love represented by astronomical symbols, the vitality and fertility expressed through leaves and paisleys. As a child I excitedly sat to have my hands decorated...

The Chevron was always my favorite. A basic V-shaped design, it is one of the first patterns that a novice would learn. Most beginners are quick to move on from the Chevron upon its mastery and proceed to designs that are more complex. But even...

“It’s a sultry and sweltering day in Rajasthan, India.”

A young woman aged 19 years gives birth to an unimpeachable little girl that smiles her way into the world, suddenly a young man bombards into the room and pulls out a gun. The last thing the...

This is a part of me. I have to win, I thought to myself as Ms. Jessica announced the soon-to-be poetry slam. Composing poems was simple enough in my mind because, in order to win, you had to make the judges laugh or cry, while holding a steady...

“What even are you supposed to be, Mary Poppins?”

My class was having a Halloween party and everyone was invited to display their favorite characters by wearing overpriced costumes. I was beyond overwhelmed with excitement and was eager to pick...

Standing knee-deep in clear water, I peer at the minnows swimming lazily around my toes.

“Help, Daddy, there’s a Mexican!” wails a curly-haired girl from the security of a bright pink inflatable ring. Her pointed finger indicates to all the target...

My computer crashed for the 6th time in a week. I had accidentally created an infinite loop in Python, and my glitchy four-year-old laptop could not handle the overload of data. I sighed and looked over at my coworker, Sophia--a college student,...

When asked who is responsible for the death of Alexander Hamilton, the answer seems simple: Aaron Burr. What’s more likely is Hamilton’s fatal flaw: his arrogance. That answer, however, is exactly what Burr would suggest. We can only imagine the...

“Don’t you feel oppressed living in Singapore?"

As a teenager, I avidly consume social media. Initially, however, I was extremely disoriented reading comments by other users such as the one given above. The rest of the world seemed to be speaking...

It was but another Saturday morning – famished and alone in a house of quiet. The family, while knowing that their attempts to prevent me from cooking are futile, creates obstacles such as hiding cooking oil or disabling the stove. I have as a...

Hands shaking, I lifted the cover of my makeshift steamer.

All families have their own “thing.” Some have game nights; others have movie nights. My family has a time-honored tradition of cook-offs. These competitions are not like the casual and...

The sky was the baby blue of my new tricycle with streaks of mandarin orange peels highlighting the end of another innocent day. He stood beside my 5 year old self, with clothes smelling of Chinese take-out and the sweat of yesterday’s hot sun....

Summer begins with skin made of ants. The months between school years were designed for sitting on the border of the sandpit at the Jewish Community Center with ants crawling over my hands.

“Sugar ants don’t bite people,” my friend assures me...

anacrusis

A basic C major chord followed by an equally basic G major chord, arpeggiated: use your left hand to hit C-E-G… that sounds accurate. Now, slide your hand down a bit further and hit G-B-D. Good. Hit the first chord three times, do the...

Why aren’t there campaigns for male plus sized models? I had no one to tell me I’m beautiful when I weighed 185 pounds in eleventh grade; all I got were offensive slurs and derogatory nicknames. I had shielded out the remarks, without retorting,...

The high-rise steel buildings and skyscrapers were replaced with vast greenery and blue, cloudy skies. The familiar symphony of sirens, honking, and indistinct chatter was suddenly replaced with oppressive silence. People I had known for my whole...

There have been two instances in my life in which I felt as if I completely did not belong.

The first time was my first day at Primrose School in Cary, North Carolina, where I realized with discomfort that I could not understand a thing my peers...

March 22nd, 1934. I arrive to the course, designed by Bobby Jones, in a 1933 silver Studebaker Dictator at 8am sharp. The wheels squeal in the hot gravel. The grass, still glazed with morning dew, smells fresher and more fragrant than a bouquet of...

In middle school, my favorite song wasn’t Imagine Dragon’s Radioactive, but Matthew West’s 10,000 Reasons. I didn’t know who celebrities like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie were, but I knew who Jeroboam and Rahab were. I didn’t have a phone or iPod,...

Two cars collide. Shattered glass flies everywhere. As much as you want to turn away, you stand transfixed by the chaos. That’s what it was like hearing my friend Sara’s life story.

The first day, it was her emergency room visits for the holes in...