Newest College Application Essays

More than anything, the past three years of my life have taught me that the journey, not the destination, matters most. Three years ago, I was frantically trying to conjure up a college essay that would make me stand out from other applicants –...

Cowardice surged through me as Emma sneered down at me. Her eyes pierced my own, seemingly oblivious to the glints of sunlight through the boughs of the shadowy trees.

“Apologize!” Emma demanded, and I trembled. Raising my hand to shield my eyes...

I walk into the darkened nave of the church, ascend the steep incline between the pews, and stop at the vacant and quiet sanctuary. At the top of my climb is an illuminated room full of lively preschool children chattering with one another and...

“Hey fat kid, get the ball!” That’s a comment I heard a lot at my old elementary school, along with comments like “Nice earring, dork,” or “Go play with someone else.” But after all the insults and name calling, today I still know and talk to the...

My mother often reminded me that nothing good would ever come from playing video games. As a young child, I dismissed her words as baseless propaganda to coerce me into doing more chores. After all, I was having plenty of fun catching Pokemon on...

Although I do not affiliate myself with any particular religion, I have been a Buddhist nun at temples and an altar server at Christian churches. I can chant the meditations of Buddha in Thai and Sanskrit and recite Catholic prayers in English and...

The cordial bustle that perpetually flowed through the diner no longer flowed. Conversations stopped. Waitresses stood still, and the clinks and clanks of silverware could no longer be heard. All that I could hear were the dismal tones of “Taps,”...

During the summer of 2007, I worked at a swimming pool, coaching the swim team, giving swim lessons, and lifeguarding. Early on, I realized that this summer job would demand more from me, and in turn give back a lot more, than I had initially...

Nonchalantly browsing through family photos, I hastily flip through the pages when I suddenly get a paper cut. Blood slowly flows from a small slit on my finger and onto the plastic film. The blood lands on a particularly bland picture--but it...

“Hey Sheldon, did you clean the horse pens yet?” Few people hear this question on an average basis. For me, however, it's something I hear very often--but, at the same time, it is only one aspect of my life. Many people think of me more as a city...

I used to run rampant in bicycle gangs of five or six, tearing up the streets lined with quaint suburban duplexes. I can still feel the chilly air tainted with the smell of pine trees flowing through my untamable hair. Our fleets of first-graders...

June 4th 2006

5:50am

The volunteers in the red shirts direct us to enter our corrals. It's race time. Twenty-three thousand of us cram into our assigned areas and stand shoulder-to-shoulder, no room to move. I know what lies in wait—fifty-four...

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the United Nations committed to eradicating poverty by the year 2025. Many foreign nations were skeptical at first and believed that such an ambitious goal was unattainable. But over the past twenty-five...

Del Kon tee. Everything takes time.

Whispered and spoken to me in hundreds of instances, it took me seventeen years to comprehend the essence and purpose of this phrase. Surrounded by sounds that many children my age have only heard in war movies,...

Attendance at Simon’s Rock would give me extraordinary opportunities that my current educational and social context lacks. Its challenging academics, small size, artistic and athletic opportunities, and cultural diversity make Simon’s Rock a place...

For most of high school, I felt lost. While I was the brain in my elementary school classes, I no longer did well in school. My thoughts and self-image faded away, I lacked all ambition, and everything felt like a burden. I couldn’t stand the...

“Lower your lids!”

Gilad, my drama instructor, paced back and forth on the stage, arms folded over his belly, Israeli impatience rising in his voice. His eyes narrowed, scanned me through bushy slits, and he barked new commands.

“Let your smile...

The freezing water lapped against the plexi-glass walls. Ripples appeared on the surface, and the water glittered in the fading rays of the sun. The seven million gallon home was coming alive--for just under the surface, the water was bustling...

Ping! The elevator doors opened on Floor Nine, and I was in another world. Leaving the chaos of panicking patients and bustling doctors in the floors below, I found myself walking down a deserted hallway.

This was my first day volunteering at the...

In one hand you have a beaker filled with a diluted solution of hydrochloric acid, which is one of the strongest acids you can concoct. In the other, you have another beaker filled with one of the strongest bases, sodium hydroxide. If anyone would...

It was a crisp, clear January day in Park Ridge, New Jersey, a few miles from the middle of nowhere. Before me stood an imposing sight: Schubert’s Impromptu. With a length of fourteen pages and a required foundation of meticulous technical skills,...

The long and tiring battle over the Plan B pregnancy pill has finally been ended by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the results are very positive. The FDA recently decided – against much opposition – to allow the over-the-counter sale...

Unlike most students, I enjoy both writing essays and reading about the amazingly broad history of the world. I believe that an education in the area of Pre-Law will fulfill my desire to learn more about the English language and history, as well...

While most of my friends were deciding how to spend their first Saturday of summer vacation, I was packing up my belongings for a week of hard work that seemed to have little reward. I was headed to Ripon College for the 66th annual Badger Boys...