Newest College Application Essays

We read Paradise Lost my sophomore year, and ever since then English class has seemed little better than a waste of time. No school-assigned book has been able to compare: Paradise Lost is the only book I’ve ever read that I can honestly say...

When I was eleven, I lived in a trailer park full of kids. I preferred reading and writing to playing with them, so pretty often, when they knocked on the door, I would pretend I was doing chores. Then I would resume reading Harry Potter and...

Here is Burma in the spotlight’s glare: cheap Chinese products, bad roads, on-and-off electricity, censored internet, starving people, useless education, brain drain, corrupt government, no freedom of expression, and hopelessness. This is what it’...

The medical field has always fascinated me. This curiosity stemmed from my interest in watching medical dramas. One such drama which keenly appealed to me was the television show House. A typical episode consists of Dr. House solving a mysterious...

GPA. SAT. ACT. AP. In our society these acronyms essentially define a student. I wish to go beyond these objective criteria in evaluating who I really am. Far too often, students focus merely on the grade; nonetheless, this grade is worth...

“All we have to do is use a straight razor to shave off the hair, and then use a 15-blade to cut off the epidermis,” said Carrie. She picked up a dead mouse by its tail and laid it on the table, then picked up the straight razor and started...

Maturation is a long, tedious process, as thrilling as it is challenging. Each stage of a young life poses its own set of unique challenges: the toddler taking his first clumsy steps, slowly progressing towards two-limbed balance; the first grader...

I am a traveler, continually guided and inspired by the Homeric hero Odysseus while leading a life marked by departures and subsequent beginnings. The first journey began on November 9th, 2000, when my family and I left China in pursuit of...

1. At four, her dad left a pot of coffee on the counter (a pot meaning twelve cups) while he went upstairs to take a shower. She climbed on the counter, took out a mug and drank the entire thing by herself. When her father came back downstairs he...

Adolescent boys hurl Molotov cocktails at uniformed soldiers. Sniper fire silently slaughters innocent travelers on deserted highways. Mangled corpses sag from the windowsills of totaled buses. These macabre scenes characterize media portrayals of...

I stepped out of the train. People pushing and shoving, back and forth, loud noises echoing down the narrow walls into the abyss. Searching for a way to the street, I too pushed my way through the barrage of people searching for the streets above:...

“Komm Herr Jesus,” she invokes, “sei du unser Gast, und segne, was du uns bescheret hast. Amen,” and we all join in on the cross. “Vater, Sohn, und Heiliger Geist. Amen.”

I always fumbled the words.

My grandmother would lift her head and throw a...

As a young student, I always struggled to finish simple class work activities on time, mostly because they involved coloring. I was nitpicky on which colors I selected because each choice would uniquely contribute to the overall picture. I knew...

Running and I have a complex relationship. Despite the exquisite torture of sprinting two miles around and around in a circle, feeling as if both lungs have collapsed and death by dehydration is imminent, it is unlikely we’ll ever break up: I had...

I always thought Peter Pan was mad. While he and his fellow Neverlanders were enjoying their eternal childhood, I was desperately awaiting my "grown-up" days. I just wanted to rush through life; I wanted to close my eyes and wake up a responsible,...

When I joined my high school basketball team as a freshman, I had no idea the kinds of perseverance I would need to make it through even a couple weeks of practice. As the practices went by, I started to really listen to what the coach had to say,...

It was a cool, sunny October day, no different than most. A soccer game was scheduled for that afternoon, and I was getting ready. Rummaging through my room searching for my shin guards, I was the first person in my house to hear the screaming...

I remember, when I was barely old enough to remember, my cousin and I racing up a hill to the very, very top and collapsing on the prickly, weathered bench. The adults were far behind us, discussing adult-like things that had no place in our...

I watch people. I don’t mean to say I watch out for them. I do that too, but I always mean what I say. I watch them. It’s always been a game of mine, watching them. When I was a little girl and still eagerly awaited my father’s flights home, I...

Three months into my exchange year in Germany, my friend called me, a little dejected. She wanted to go downtown, and it was clear why. There was still something incredibly rousing, mysterious, and exciting about the European city that had...

It was hours before dawn when I awoke, but I was not tired. There was an almost palpable sense of apprehension and excitement spreading throughout the country, and I felt a wave of it hit me as I stepped out the door. It was dark, but the...

When I was fifteen I borrowed $200 from my father, bought a broken Sidekick phone on eBay, watched YouTube videos to learn how to repair it, and re-sold it for an $80 profit. That was the start of David Wolkoff’s Store, an eBay business, which has...

Being of Norwegian ancestry and a New England breeding, I could not have appeared more out of place in this squalid, rain-ravaged corner of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Laden with sagging boxes and garbage bags brimming with children’s pajamas, I felt...

Nerves shook through my body as I prepared to introduce Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to 400 people in my town. I closed my eyes, drawing in a deep breath. Senator Sanders cleared his throat, and I looked up with concern. “Your shoes are...