Newest College Application Essays

I feel the sweat drip down my neck and soak into the fabric of my bedazzled gown. I clench my fists and inhale deeply, closing my eyes to see the reassuring grin of my choreographer in my mind. Here I stay, tucked securely behind the stage curtain...

“Hi, my name is Upasana. I’m six and half years old, and my favorite color is purple,” I said as I introduced myself to my new first grade class. As usual, I was greeted back with thirty confused faces. Apparently, my name was too complex for my...

I recall lying in bed stiffly, apprehension of the day's imminent duties further strengthening the cords of sleep. It was a Thursday morning. The door of the bedroom I shared with my younger brother swung open in a silent arc and my mother...

With all the commotion I heard, I thought someone had set a batch of chocolate chip cookies on fire again. But the world of a high school dorm is seldom that predictable. No, nothing was burning. The sophomore girls running into my room sweated...

I am a citizen of another world. This land is not one everyone ventures into, and even fewer make a home within it. It is a world with mystery and magic, unimaginable creatures and portals that lead to the stuff of dreams. Some call us divers,...

My sweat glistened as I biked through the narrow alley of my neighborhood, constantly searching for an adventure. I could feel the sun, scorching its heat upon my sweat-dampened shirt and burning my feet through the sole of my sandals. But I didn’...

Aggravating traffic, lack of communal traditions, and rarely going somewhere where everybody knows each other, for better or for worse, are all hallmarks of living in a big city. Growing up in a large suburb of Los Angeles, I have had my fair...

“What’s the safest thing to do?”

I found myself asking this question freshmen year when I was trying to come up with an idea for Project Echo, a high school entrepreneurs’ business plan competition. I wanted an idea with the highest guarantee for...

I was twelve years old when I was told I could no longer attend school. My mother called me to the living room and, for perhaps the first time, I sensed fragility in the woman who devoted her resources unequivocally to the care of her two...

For me, the summer months used to possess a certain emptiness. The warm weather and freedom to explore personal projects were always welcome, but the absence of school’s daily scheduling and assignments sometimes left me feeling generally aimless...

As a child, I did not engage in painstaking searches for perfectly symmetric four-leaf clovers in the garden. I watched pepper shakers topple over with seething delight and I chased black cats into forests eerily illumined by incandescent shades....

I plugged in my earbuds, carefully looking to both sides of me as I ambled down the narrow hallway of Corona del Sol. Upon realizing that I was alone, I burst into singing — completely forgetting my world as I giddily cavorted my way to class.

I...

Despite what he meant to me, I won’t tell you his name; that privilege was signed away as part of camp counselor protocol.

I moved myself under the rock wall. The dense heat rising from the tire pieces covering the floor paired with the green...

“Objection!” I demand, rising from my chair. The judge looks up at me. “Basis?” he questions. I look him in the eye and put on my best Law and Order lawyer face before confidently responding, “Leading the witness.”

“Hmmm,” he says, “Sustained.” I...

Some girls might find it intimidating being the only girl among fifty male high schoolers. Other girls might see it as a dream come true. For me it doesn’t matter: I just want to play football.

My sophomore year it was announced that we would have...

Silver saris and raging reds of glamorously decorated individuals beamed with faces masked with makeup and jewelry. Twinkling yellow lights hung above her head like shimmering stars and breathed pure radiance over her. Standing before the myriad...

Some parents have to take their kids for a drive before they can fall asleep, and others have to sing to them. Mine had to tell me a story — or two, or three, or ten — before I went to bed every night.

Storytime was my favorite part of the day —...

I look down and stare at my child-sized hands resting awkwardly on the keys and see a puzzled face staring back at me in the shiny black reflection. I squint at the music, deciphering the notes, and press what I presume to be a C chord: the piano’...

This is how my nightmare begins.

I’m standing in the heart of a pristine university campus, surrounded by hundreds of teenage girls fidgeting with their luggage. Damp hair sticks to the backs of our necks; we can taste the heat and the salt and...

Picture me: the morose toddler, hands balled into fists as my mother pulled a wide-toothed comb through my full, coarse hair. Tears stung my eyes but I did not cry even when my mother held a ball of knotted hair in her palm, a triumphant grunt...

“Click.”

The sharp, decisive sound of the chess clock suddenly snapped me out of my concentration. My opponent had made his move.

Deadlock — At that moment, it wasn’t just about victory; my faith and integrity were challenged. Winning meant...

Under the shadow of a magnificent mango tree at the heart of communist Cuba was the place where I learned to appreciate the beauty of the art of chess. When I was five years old, my father taught me the theory of chess, how the pieces moved and...

The sound turned the very marrow in my bones to ice: a six pound bag of olotun beans trickling onto a shallow plastic tray. I did not wait for my mother to instruct me to perform the ensuing task. I made reluctant haste to the kitchen where the...

He never rang the doorbell, never knocked, just walked right in. Jackson never needed to knock; he was just “family.” He eats his meals with us, watches sports with us, and if it weren’t for the human eye, you’d think he was one of my siblings....