Newest College Application Essays

I stood on the platform above Corey Lake at Camp Eberhart, goosebumps slowly forming as my teeth chattered from the cold wind’s touch on my bare skin. My eyes fixated on the dark blue hues and the ripples forming in the water below me. My hands...

There are times when I gaze out of the windows of the South Shore Train and see nothing more than the softened edges of verdant forests and the blurred outlines of monotonous buildings. I watch as the clouds move, change shape, and reform yet...

Up down, up down - my left leg bounced vertically in anticipation. My heartbeat accelerated. All I could hear was the announcement of the top teams in the state, who would then qualify to represent CA DECA at the International level competition. “...

“You may choose your partner now,” my teacher said after explaining the guidelines on the energy-machine project. As I scanned the room, I noticed numerous empty seats and many sleeping students. Why was no one paying attention? Student...

I slowed my car outside of the soup kitchen and looked at the parking lot. There was one space left, and the only way I could park was to back up into it, which I was terrible at. My heart dropped into my stomach.

Nervously, I put my car in...

“Pack! Pack! Pack!”

The unrelenting sounds of ping pong exchanges sing a song to my ears as my mind calms down after my game. The clubroom is filled with people eagerly waiting to have the chance to show off their skills and compete with their...

It’s half past one in the morning, and I've progressed in an indistinctive direction. My cold fingers guide the soft vine charcoal across the matte, welcoming surface of smooth paper. My lines are gestural, strokes varied and abstract. Your first...

The night air is just cold enough to see my breath through my facemask as the familiar “clacking” of our cleats on the pavement continues to the luminescent stadium that is our haven. The once low rumble of the crowd becomes a roar as we draw...

“At 6.00 in the morning she begins her morning cleaning. After preparing breakfast and clearing the table, she cleans up all the rooms.” This is a brief translation of a short passage secondary school students are given in Turkey. The passage...

Sitting on the chair, waiting for my dentist, I turned towards the scream next door, noticing a little girl cowering in fear because she didn’t want to have her teeth removed. I observed with admiration as the dentist soothed her fears and pains...

I squint through tall, streaming light, trying to peer up at the towering stage. Sunbeams seem to pierce the very core of my head so I look down at my toes wriggling under the buttery, tan leather fabric of my tiny dance slip-ons. The fabric is...

The smell of delicious, warm, chocolatey cookies filled the car, and four pairs of hands rushed for the first of these decadent desserts. My family is usually not aggressive, but with cookies around, it’s each person for himself. This memorable...

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...