Newest College Application Essays

As a member of a military family and a resident of a military community in Hampton Roads, Virginia, I found a passion for a problem that not many people acknowledge: the high rate of veteran suicide. Tragically, an average of 22 United States...

I grew up hating history classes. They were always the same—read, remember, regurgitate, repeat—and I stubbornly insisted that no teacher could ever make the subject appealing to me. Freshman year of high school proved me wrong. With a focus on...

The movements are lucid in my mind: Lunge - contre de sixte - paré en cédant - feinte de riposte. Right on the arm to finally lunge and touch the foot. Green light. I got her. 13-13; only two more touches to win. I can hear her breathing through...

For decades, the classic dispute of “nature vs. nurture” in regards to our maturation has dominated the debate about how children develop. Does a specific gene passed on from your parents predispose you to a life of crime? Are children more likely...

When I was ten months old, I grabbed onto the coffee table and hauled myself up, arms shaking, fists clenched, knees wobbling; ten minutes later, much to my parents’ dismay, I was sprinting around the house, choppy bangs flapping in the wind like...

What was the common factor that linked visiting the Indian hill state of Tripura, researching rural development programs, studying forest agriculture, crossing of a river in spate of rain on a single bamboo pole bridge—and being aquaphobic? Me. I...

It’s the intangible aspects of blogging that I find fascinating: one becomes a better writer, a critical reader, and thinker; one learns to leads a life with more intention, to develop healthful habits—and gets to meet people well outside one’s...

The stage lights burst open, blinding and white. I trembled. I was at the citywide poetry slam, Verselandia, about to perform in front of hundreds.

Earlier in the month, I had qualified through my high school’s contest, which I had signed up for...

Recently, I attempted the ultimate in mailed communication; I mailed a potato to a friend at college. Another friend and I covered it in sticky postage stamps, attached an address label, and waited for the surprise to be discovered in the...

I dreamt of the crowd in the darkness, a single spotlight shining down on me as I graced the stage with my movement, a sparkling array of costumes, and the feeling of soothing, crisp air. From the moment I stepped into my first dance class, I knew...

In checkers, players must strategize and plan in order to make their moves and win the game. This is what my dad taught me when we played, almost every day after school. After I learned the basics, it was up to me to figure out how to beat him. He...

Throughout my short lifetime of difficulties and discouragements, education has

been the one constant and one motivation that helped me stay positive. When my life

seemed to be falling apart, I knew I could get on the bus, go to school, and enter...

This past summer, I tutored two summer school math classes for incoming freshmen in

my district. I've tutored dozens of students in my high school career, so when I was working with

these students, I wasn't expecting anything to be different....

When I was seven years old, I used to think my floor was made of hot lava or occasionally under siege by a pack of angry anacondas. So, at night when it was time for me to go to bed, I would have to take one giant leap to make it to the massive...

I remember the first time, for better or worse, that I ever visited New York City. My parents decided it would be a great idea to road trip there (creating the basis of my hatred for long car rides). After two long, exhausting days of torturous...

The athlete-to-captain relationship is the lifeblood of any functioning sports team. After all, the team captain essentially acts as a mediator between the other players and the coach. Some other jobs of a team captain include, but are not limited...

Diving in a pool is an experience like no other. It’s like immersing yourself in a world with no sound and no communication. Underwater you can do things that would be so much more difficult to do on land, for example: a backflip or a handstand....

We have a saying at work: “Dealing with an angry mom is like dealing with a burglar; just give her what she wants, and no one gets hurt.”

I see it almost every day at the pool - a mother’s desperate desire to have everyone acknowledge her son as...

Off the wall.

That's how I'd describe my family. My sister just took a semester off from studying financial economics in New York to attend the Cordon Bleu, a pastry school in Tokyo. My brother is a reserved, taciturn character with an interest in...

Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 has been revered since its 1961 release, serving as a landmark of American literature. The infamous phrase “catch-22” -- indicating a paradoxical, irresolvable situation -- has traditionally held a negative connotation....

I felt an unequivocal sense of community when I gazed at my dinner plate one night at Chewonki and acknowledged that the beets, potatoes, and lettuce on my plate were plucked from the earth by me and my best friends. The hours that we expended on...

“You all know your neighbors, right?” James asked my science class. We all nodded, wondering where our teacher could be going with this. “Well, the trees outside are your neighbors too. Don’t you think you should know them as well as you know your...

One afternoon I received a letter from a friend, a current student at Lehigh. Nestled inside the letter was a newspaper article regarding initiatives undertaken by a group of Lehigh students to provide fresh, organic food to those living in the...

I took another sip of coffee, contemplating the road ahead. At that point – midnight –the coffee was less for taste than for me to stay awake behind the wheel. My mother dozed in the seat next to me, while my younger brother and sister slept...