Newest College Application Essays

I walked past a building labeled “prayer room” and knew I did not fit in. A Buddhist boy playing basketball in a Christian basketball league, I found myself walking through a parochial school on a Saturday in search of a gym.

I ambled through two...

During my summers, I passionately pursued humanitarian endeavors to alleviate suffering, learn about the medical field and fortify my Catholic values. In the summer of 2015, I began devoting more time to working in low-income ophthalmic clinics,...

In my temporary home in Edison, I often witness and must mitigate the tension that arises between my Hindu and Catholic relatives.

Whenever there is conflict, my mother and father, two people who I love the most and hold to the highest moral...

While learning a new language is extremely difficult, its benefits outweigh the numerous hours that must be devoted to it. Throughout my high school career, a decent ability to converse in -broken- Spanish has been vital to my volunteerism.

Many...

Having been surrounded by numerous physicians and surgeons in my family, I have been enamored by the prospect of becoming a doctor since childhood. My father, seeing this, allowed me to spend a couple of my weekends shadowing him at his clinic in...

As a devout Catholic, I have passionately embraced my spirituality by reading and adhering to the moralities outlined in Theology and Philosophy which I hold so close to my identity. Taking thirty minutes out of my daily routine, I always find...

Throughout life, we are constantly learning and applying our knowledge to our world. In second grade, we matured from sneakers with Velcro to laces and learned the lifelong skill of tying our shoes. In seventh grade, we devoutly began pursuing our...

Music has always been something that interested me. As a kid, I adored the piano and took every moment I could to play the ivory keys with the very fibers of my being. However, as I became older and listened to different kinds of music, the genre...

While many other candidates applying to the University of California perform volunteer work, I feel my volunteerism in economically deprived neighborhoods as a devout Catholic provides me with insight on life that is only available through...

Having started out small, I began by helping students through the Afterschool Academic Program, an organization of teachers and students devoted to assisting those that are struggling in classes at school. I managed to help many students by...

Throughout high school, I pursued endeavors to alleviate suffering and fulfill my Catholic calling, volunteering in nursing homes, hospitals and clinics for chronically ill patients. However, working in these places made me notice the inherent...

Throughout my life, I embraced my Catholic calling to alleviate suffering, desiring to obtain a PhD in Immunology so I may work in laboratories on furthering Immunotherapy and its oncological applications. However, realizing these treatments come...

“…Thus I advocate for the global suicide of humanity as a solution to anthropocentrism…” I dropped my pen, frozen in shock and hilarity. Surely this was a joke; although I had only attended a few debate tournaments, I had never encountered...

“One shark fin soup, please,” he said, avoiding my glare and grinning back at my two brothers, too young to know any better.

I’ve protested, debated, and shared article after article with my dad about the consequences of shark finning, but Chinese...

In his inspiring work of philosophical allegory, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche proposes the concept of the "Übermensch", or Superman, a human who is completely autonomous and self-directed. When I first stumbled across this concept...

Everyone associates something different with each day of the week. Mondays are lethargic and painful, Tuesdays are not much different, and generally, as the week progresses, our outlook steadily improves. Because of this progression, some people...

My knees and shins are coated with a layer of damp sand as I roll out of the pit. Standing up, I can feel my heart banging in my chest, the blood pulsating loudly in my head. Gingerly, I put pressure on my right foot and feel the familiar shock of...

What was it about Claudia’s brain that made her forget our entire conversation? Is her inability to remember my response affected by a specific part of her brain? I pondered as she asked me, “What is your favorite subject in school, darling?” for...

A vivacious and carefree four-year-old, I dropped my paintbrush, splattering globs of blue paint all over my t-shirt and classmates nearby. Immediately, my thin lips transformed into an enormous grin. My grandpa, or as we say in Russian, my ...

It was the start of something new. There I was, a freshman bouncing on the beanbags in the debate room, ready to embark on a new journey called Extemporaneous Speaking. I decided to try this event defined by its rapid-fire intensity to prepare...

There are many places in Des Moines that I call home - Java Joe’s Coffeehouse, The Continental, Turner Jazz Center - and the one thing they have in common? The people. These are jazz musician joints. Walking into a room and spotting fellow...

My hands were sweating, tightly grasping the note cards with my presentation carefully written out. I stood with four other teammates in front of teachers, parents, mentors, and students who eagerly waited for our opening arguments. The audience...

The second high school play I acted in was a curiosity, a documentary production written and rehearsed at the same time. The OMI Project was an attempt to document the history and culture of the combined district of the Ocean View, Merced Heights,...

When my mother caught the flu last winter, I researched the developmental process of Tamiflu, the medicine she was prescribed, and how it operated to prevent the disease from progressing. I learned how researchers identified a specific protein...