Newest College Application Essays

I spent much of the summer in the basement of a Dublin Castle, jaws clenched and synapses firing as the identity of the murderer continued to evade my grasp of reason. The first surprise was not really a surprise but the fact remained astounding...

The wind billows through the eaves and tractors bide their time along country roads. Apples are ready for plucking and cider is brewing at the Rinker farm. The smell of manure during spring and mountains of leaves during autumn—that’s home, every...

Out in the country, past the city limit sign there’s a girl wandering the woods and creeping along the creek traveling down the county line. Her friends are giggling as they boogie in step with radio tunes.

"Boogie" paints a picture of complete...

In June of 1982, with the harsh sun beating down on their small, rural city, my mother’s community danced throughout the streets in her honor, making music with makeshift instruments as they moved. The quiet town, on the outskirts of Bishoftu,...

“Watashi no namae wa Hung Nguyen desu.”

My voice trembled as I nervously introduced myself to my Japanese class.

At first, Japanese was just a bunch of random noises in the anime that I occasionally watched. But as I started to watch more anime...

Sweat dripped from my brow as I carefully set my roll of tape onto the granite kitchen counter in front of me. My masterpiece was finally complete. As I slid down from my stool, I was careful to not let my knobby ten-year-old knees topple into the...

In our increasingly madcap age, the great American pastime has shifted from baseball to pranking. I concur by aspiring to place staplers in jello, just like Jim Halpert from The Office. My creativity isn’t expressed through art but through the...

One day, while browsing through my mail, I came across a pamphlet and large deck of Harvey-Mudd-customized cards, piquing my interest. In many ways, HMC is unique like its advertising tactic of a deck of cards with information about Harvey Mudd on...

I sleep in on Sunday, I stay home on Wednesday nights; I don’t belong to any youth groups, and if you walk into my house there’s not a single cross to be found. Instead a big blue candle bearing the star of David is perched on the mantle, and two...

“Don’t tell me there’s no hope at all” are the very words that Roger Waters from Pink Floyd sang in the internationally famous, “Hey You”. Growing up, my father and I used to always take road trips through our sunny California redwoods, jamming...

I caress the hot mug and take a sip, letting the creamy liquid linger on my tongue. I slowly lower the mug and inhale, allowing the exotic aroma to invade my body. My overstimulated senses beg for more coffee, and intoxicating joy pulses through...

I always thought of living life through the saying “quality over quantity”, but when dealing with problems like child poverty, or teen suicide, you need quality and quantity. This was what got me into running the Kids in Action Network Non-Profit...

“Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real.” ―Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

There is a crescent that runs across my thigh, then down my knee, pauses, and continues in an uninterrupted path across my calf. It is...

“E is for EMILY!”

To most, this statement is obvious. But to a two-year-old learning her letters using colorful wooden blocks lined up in a shoebox, the realization that her first name starts with a specific vowel is extraordinary.

Several studies...

At 6 AM, March 2nd, 2014, I woke up glimmering with hope. However, at 1 PM that fateful, unforgettable day, I came in second place in the Orange County Spelling Bee, lost my chance to compete at nationals. I breezed through almost every word....

Pomelo, pamplemousse, trai buoi, grapefruit - Spanish, French, Vietnamese, and English. My ability to connect languages has enhanced my understanding of every subject I learn and has led me to cherish language as a bridge between different...

The headline “20 Worst Places to live in the US” flashes on my laptop. I curiously click it, disappointed to see my community, San Bernardino County, top the charts in crime, education, and pollution-induced high temperatures and air quality.

As...

A psychedelic haze of multicolored swirls and delicate little braids gyrates to the sound of rhythmic music. Tie-dyed shirts and dreadlocks have become the customary attire of every festival in Ithaca, New York, from the Apple Harvest Festival to...

My weekend excursions in Korea were not of baseball games or people watching along the Han river but of trips to my father's fish farm. This was where my interest in environmental science and marine biology first started. My father oversaw...

It was 2:00 AM local time in a continent where I had never been. There were 18 of us rumbling down a poorly paved road, in an old bus that could not have been meant for more than 15. The seats were uncomfortable, and a horribly made music video of...

Ekwensu ụmụaka; devil children.

How can it be? As I watch the ordinarily restless brothers, David and Alex, glance thoughtfully around the freshly painted classroom my insides lurch. Every fibre of my being fights against the stigma that Nigerian...

My hesitations fell away as I rose to speak, a singular voice of dissent in a plane of stony silence. I spoke of the Oedipus Complex, but I can hardly recall how the words I spoke were related to the ongoing English lesson. When I sank into my...

Our vice-principal was leaving the institution after 15 years of dedicated service. Unfortunately, the last incident he had to deal with in this capacity involved a student who had released private pictures of another student online without her...

My earliest memories take place in airports; in these recollections, I blink sleep out of my eyes as the hypnotic conveyor belt spins round and round. It is hard to remember where I was in those jet-lagged moments—America, where I went to school,...