Newest College Application Essays

When I was in ninth grade, my sister ran into my room and threw a book at me. “Read this,” she demanded. “You’ll like it.” She had no idea what she had just started.

That fateful book was Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky, which...

Truth be told, I have never been an animal person: never the type to visit zoos or plea with my parents for a pet. When my cousin’s dog had seven French bulldog puppies this year, I was not excited. I begrudgingly offered to help her feed the...

Every birthday of mine there is one specific thing I look forward to: my friend Tamara's handmade card. Every year she makes me a homemade card and every year, I'm warmed by her thoughtfulness, love, and care. It's the small yet thoughtful...

In tenth grade, I had a wild idea: a reusable cosmetics container made from plastic recovered from the ocean. I would negotiate a deal with an ocean cleanup organization, build prototypes out of the acquired plastic, pitch my product and my vision...

When I was 12, I found a book on global poverty at the local bookstore. For weeks my grandpa and I sat at a coffee table and read the analysis of foreign aid. I stayed up past bedtime, hiding under the covers, leafing through the debate about...

We left for Illinois with pitch black darkness to guide the way, caravaning in spacious minivans. The next few hours, a blur of sleeping, truck drivers responding to the “Jesus loves truckers” painted on the van, and bonding games, passed fairly...

Of all markings that can grace the human body -- above moles, freckles, or even tattoos -- scars hold the most meaningful anecdotes. They display proudly won battles and mistakes on the individual who bears them. I have a few scars myself, the...

My harness was tightened. My sweaty hands clutched onto the bar. My toes dangled off the edge of the platform. Every horrible outcome to this scenario raced through my mind. “Whenever you’re ready, Gabby.” All I had to do was lift my feet and I’d...

“Beard Papa to stage right, I repeat, Beard Papa to stage right.” Although it seems strange, this is one phrase I got used to very quickly. Hearing it hours a day for weeks at a time, it became less strange and more of an entertaining inside joke....

Silence stretched across the room as twenty-two nervous bodies shared timid smiles and curious glances. Name tags adorning the large U-shaped table announced our name and high school to the group, and for an uncomfortable time frame were the only...

I never thought that, at 17 years old, I’d make a decision to spend $50,000. Last summer, I had a paid internship at Fresca Foods, a small manufacturing company. For six weeks, I worked in the Engineering, Technology and Continuous Improvement...

She can’t read; she can’t count; she doesn’t even know her own age. But she is caring, creative, inspirational, and extraordinarily gifted in the art of listening. In the novel “Momo,” Michael Ende’s unconventional character, Momo, is a little...

“Test does not exist! We only think she exists!”

The pale pink room was filled with too-bright morning light. High up on the Himalayan mountainside, the monastery had a sweeping view of the fog-covered village below.

The portly monk continued, in...

I watched Dion walk slowly into my classroom for her first tutoring session. She held her hands clamped tightly over her mouth, dropping them only to introduce herself, and then immediately bringing them back up to cover her face as before.

If I...

"We won't miss you anyway.” -My drama teacher’s response after I told him that I wasn’t going to audition for his next superior musical.

When I got home, I cried—not just from embarrassment—but because his words validated something I had known for...

Miles: Zero

The distance from Meridian to Hot Coffee, Mississippi spans 80 miles. By the end of May, the boys in my family and I squeeze into dad’s 1983 Toyota Pickup, and we speed away to a grimy race track wedged in the midst a ghost town. As we...

“No excuses;” the motto of Isaiah Bird, a nine-year-old fifth grader from my hometown. Isaiah was born without legs, and even with this impairment, he plays soccer, football, swims, runs track, surfs, and skateboards. However, the wrestling mat is...

Ithaca, New York is a long way away from Mississippi with its innate Southern values, sweltering summers, and a culture with an aversion to diversity and change. I’ve learned from my upbringing in a rural Southern town, though, that education and...

Although I was just playing with Barbie Dolls, I managed to apply rudimentary math skills at the age of four. “How many pairs of Barbie shoes did you just put away?” I attentively counted by twos and shouted out, “Six pairs, mom!” The utilization...

On a rainy October afternoon, I crouched before a pile of twigs, anxiously trying to start a fire. As I blew on the small flame, the words of Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” filled my ears. I was in English class at Conserve School, a semester...

Stuffy rooms, stinking washrooms, cracked desks and torn books. There was a strange feeling, walking down the corridor as I entered the premises. It was totally unexpected, especially from a place like this - right after a long break for summer.

What qualities or unique characteristics do you possess that would allow you to contribute to the UCF community? At first, I didn’t know how it could be done. Transforming six sheets of white foam board into a ‘Warhol-esque’ abstract version of a...

If you had walked into my freshman history class, you might have seen two girls arguing vehemently over a controversial topic - contemporary politics, world religion, you name it. You would have likely thought there was no possible way the two...