Newest College Application Essays

The final notes of Tchaikovsky’s overture fade. The curtain creeps upward, revealing rows of watching eyes—toddlers in tutus and married couples on date night—all gathered for the same purpose. I begin shaking fake presents and twirling across the...

Live musicians yell into their mics while the crowd jumps and sings along to their music. I’m out of breath, my chest hurts, and I know my voice will be gone, but I’ve accepted it. An older man stands up on one of the picnic tables, dancing and...

I wasn’t happy about the puzzled faces across the auditorium. The pensive frowns weren't exactly pensive. They were looking at the questions with absolute perplexity. I was standing in front of the projection screen, confident that my problems had...

Despite it being four o'clock in the afternoon on a warm day in May, I was still lying in bed, attempting to fall asleep to relieve the fever. The school day just ended for my middle school friends, and they were free to absorb the sun’s rays and...

A dark, stuffy band closet: a bizarre habitat for rusted brass, violin scraps, and a small preteen girl. It was a forgotten cubbyhole to many, but to me, it was a living, breathing creature that accepted me and my violin and listened to my every...

I woke up to the sound of sergeant instructors yelling to the top of their lungs at 4:30 in the morning - myself bloused in desert camis, and covered in blisters from the six mile hike the night before. Marine Corp Training is not a place to be...

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that I'm a two-backpack kind of girl. Let me explain.

The bag on my right struggles to swallow every last sheet from my heft of papers with its gaping jaws and its straps bite sharply into my shoulder,...

It’s the mystery of the shining lights and the sense of adventure in the air. It’s the vibrant feeling at night as if electricity is running through your veins. It’s the desire to find yourself, and the way the city inspires you no matter what...

As I sauntered with my father through the pine forest, I strained my neck to gaze at his face. I was only six, and my father hadn’t visited Mirgorod in a year. As the forest ended, we entered a meadow, full of wildflowers and butterflies....

Smooth Strathmore bristol board, Prismacolor colored pencils and brush tip markers, and most importantly, a Sakura Pen-Touch white paint marker. These are some of the materials that were scattered around my bed as I was creating what was bound to...

My mom doesn’t deserve all the credit for ensuring I completed my first race. Three million checklists, a royal guard and a savage bloodhound were among the influencers. They hadn’t featured in my vision of a perfect marathon though—the wind...

I was waiting at the dinner table for the right moment and decided to serve it just before dessert, “I need 10,000 rupees to start a venture.” As my parents lost their appetite, their faces flashed curious amusement at a 15-year-old’s odd request....

One hundred degrees, one hundred dollars raised. True leadership takes sweat, especially under the blazing afternoon sun smack dab in the middle of downtown. However, it was under these temperatures that I demonstrated my own leadership...

“Where are you from?” The girl, seated to my left, looks my way intently.

I barely look up, refusing to make eye contact, allowing the pronounced seconds to tick by awkwardly. The question hangs heavy in the air.

“Texas....” I finally mutter,...

4:30 pm. The senior citizens at the communal garden are depending on me to fight off the pesky weeds encroaching on their potato fields. My thighs burn as I furiously pedal, and my hoodie flaps wildly behind me like a cape-- a superhero racing to...

I am an artist, and this title manifests itself in the proud paint splotches on my denim Bob Ross-esque button up. Beyond the frequent color stains on my hands and clothing, this title is backed by 10 years of apprenticeship spent beside my dad’s...

The pothole-filled roads after a point were too narrow for my cab but just wide enough for me and a few other pedestrians. Laptop bag in tow, I reached the unplastered structure housing the underserved school. I had spent weeks preparing to train...

“How did you fix it akka?” asked Bhavani. I had spent the last three afternoons inside a small room at their school with Bhavani and eleven other underserved students. We had spent hours debugging a section of the code to no avail. Four mugs of...

I wish someone had been recording the moment we pitched the idea to my physics teacher, Mr. Heese. His forehead crinkled and his brow arched, completing his puzzled complexion as he sat at his desk.

“So you want to start a club… that grills meat?”...

History is a bad driver. It rarely ever indicates when it’s about to take a turn. But on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, I saw it shift gears. “Can I get the afternoon off, ma’am?” our housekeeper Kavita asked my mom. Despite my offer of a Netflix...

Most new couples dream of one day hearing the pitter-patter of little feet running through the hallways of their home—my parents had no idea that this pitter-patter would be quite so loud and destructive. From as early as the age of six, I led my...

Ten bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder huddled around a laptop screen. Our giddy excitement all fell to a hush with the click of a play button. Suddenly, children’s laughter and thick Tanzanian accents filled the room, soon echoed by our own...

“Sit still!” my mom shouted at me in Igbo, as she continued to press the scalding flat iron to my scalp. I hung my head, watching as the puddle of tears in my lap grew larger, each additional tear rolling off my chubby ten-year-old cheek,...

Reverberating voices. Flying spit. Clinking shot glasses. A gaggle of grandpas in furry trapper hats, perched on potato crates, pontificating about Soviet politics in a farm shed. They agreed, yet still managed to yell. As a routine observer of...