Newest College Application Essays

My 13-year-old self slumped in the passenger's seat. The drive home was tense enough already, fueled by disappointment after I walked in the winning run of my baseball game. My dad and I barely exchanged a glance. I pushed the radio buttons in...

To fully comprehend me, one must comprehend the people I care about. Cross, a cheerful, flamboyant coworker of mine, puts nearly 100% of his $9.00/hr earnings toward supporting his unemployed grandmother and younger brother. I drive Cross to and...

The plane slowly descended from the clouds. In my hand was a letter entitled, “Open on the Plane over to Germany.” It was from my sister, the first of a series of ten letters that I was to open throughout the next eleven months. I slowly opened...

When faced with daunting writing tasks--including this one--that call upon me to convey uniqueness and summon eloquence, I have sought the assistance of a higher source: Intelligent Life. They beckoned to me from neon-bordered pages: Leaders whose...

In an odd twist of fate, the health preoccupations of my elementary school years - oddball hypochondriac tendencies included - proved to be the unlikely catalyst to my deep interest in microbiology and contagious disease. Perhaps it was simply a...

Presenting in the Kentucky senate chamber as a twelve-year old can be intimidating, but also relieving. You have been told for a dozen years that you are too young to influence your state’s government, yet you stand at a podium with a microphone...

My vessel was a single-sail dinghy called an Optimist, designed for young sailors like me. At age 13, I was in my very first solo race, propelled through the brackish water of the Caloosahatchee River by what felt like a gale but which in...

Most people are surprised to hear that I head from the suburbs to the city to ride a horse.. Just off a busy city avenue in Buffalo, tucked among white stucco apartment buildings sits The Buffalo Equestrian Center, a turn of the century polo arena...

Ever since I was young, I have shared my mother’s love and admiration for Audrey Hepburn. She was a popular actress, remembered primarily for her beauty and grace. However, she was much more than that. In World War II, when Hepburn was a teenager,...

In Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime”, an autistic boy named Christopher flees to London to live with his mother after discovering that his father has murdered a dog. Christopher, who has never travelled before, is...

Last summer, I had a 10 week paid internship working for American Traffic Solutions, a toll and ticket processing company. Naturally, I was nervous about working as part of a team of Ph.D.’s in math and computer vision. I learned to deal with the...

Compared to the stereotypical beach packed with tourists and surfers, New Hampshire’s Hampton beach seemed rather unremarkable. It was like any other New England Beach: cold, empty, and cloudy – just two miles of sand wedged between the road,...

My hand on the bar holds all my weight as my foot clumsily finds fifth position from fourth, while transitioning from relevé to plié. I struggle to remember tendu from bourree, then fall behind, as the rest of the class is executing the sequence...

My brain is in a superposition between string and music theory.

At any given moment, I am dedicating my full self to the growing popularity of cosmic rays…

When I visited Cornell over the summer, the first thing I noticed was that Cornell does not...

“Passionate people put pens to paper to produce poetry.”

While a third grade teacher may gush over this sentence, most others would find it appalling. Nevertheless, the truth behind it is undeniable; poetry rises from the fires in people’s eyes...

It started with a question.

Every day before the bell rang, I ranted about my broken friendships to the only person who was willing to listen, my “Spanish buddy.” Instead of tuning me out or rolling her eyes, Peyton listened. She gradually fixed...

The world had no flaws as long as I had markers and crayons in hand. My mother was newly divorced when we moved to the United States from Russia. Upon our arrival to America, my family, consisting of her and my brother, was penniless. I was...

Two hours later, even with my cart stockpiled with an assortment of possible parts, I strode aisle-to-aisle scrutinizing each item, and mentally assembling the bits I had selected to generate the ideal model. It was hard to avoid the weird looks...

A middle school girl walked quietly through the halls, pieces of hair covering her face as she watched the floor pass beneath her feet. Books clutched to her chest acted as armor to protect her from the afflictive glares and tormenting words that...

I met Hugo last summer while backpacking in Alaska. He was a small Inuit man who lived north of the Arctic Circle in the Nunamiut village of Anaktuvuk Pass, which is accessible only by foot or plane. We entered the small museum where Hugo worked...

Throwing knives are for hot summer days and for dull Sunday afternoons – for when even the blood in my head has seemingly gone stagnant. This spin on the martial arts pulls me from these doldrums, forcing my mind into discipline. I must estimate...

Would you ever drop everything - your time, your friends, and your family - to serve other people? To be completely honest, I never thought I would. But somehow I found myself on the beach in Samos, Greece. I unlaced my high tops and placed them...

When I was younger, my mother told me I needed bubble wrap; between broken bones, oral injuries, and gastrointestinal issues, I was always at the hospital or doctor's office. As a kid, hospitals can be a scary place. They are a sterile, clinical...