Newest College Application Essays

For my seventh birthday, my grandma gave me a "Grow Your Own Crystals" kit. I was instantly obsessed. I set out to discover every different type of crystal I could create. It was breathtaking to watch powders transform into beautiful crystalline...

A big part of my who I am is my racial identity. All of my life, I have dealt with unwarranted phrases directed towards me like "you look nothing like your family" and "are you sure you're not adopted?". It has been an occurrence during all 18...

I am quadrilingual. Sure, it sounds fancy, but as a biracial child of two immigrants, being quadrilingual feels natural to me. English. My mother tongue. No explanation required. As an infant my mom would teach me words by holding up a ball and...

The girl with a locker next to mine begins to ask about the math homework, and then stops herself.

“Oh wait. You’re a PRISM kid.”

PRISM. Synonymous with over-achievement, arrogance, seclusion, perfectionism, but above all: expectations.

I’m...

If there are two things in this world that I cherish, they are my best friend, Manuel, and my driver’s license.

Being able to drive has allowed me to go beyond the bounds of the South Floridian suburb in which I currently reside, where the most...

Eight years ago, I was a plastic surgeon – then again, anyone could say that after watching an entire season of Dr. 90210.

My mother was my main patient, with the tummy tuck being her favorite procedure. Instead of a scalpel, my most faithful tool...

When a converter fails to transform its digital signals to analog commands for the effectors, the robot is as good as immobile. Similarly, without leadership and effective communication, even a group of capable engineers can be ineffectual. With...

Vigorously shaking the two milliliter eppendorf tube, the bubbles sprawled out from the bottom, captivating the threads into a structure that engulfed me in a trance. Then the trance was broken. I looked at the scratch left on my hand when I...

Blazing lights appear suspended above the stage, like shimmering fireflies in the night caught in midflight. I hear the nervous chatter of my friends around me as we all try to peek out from behind the heavy wings that separate us from the...

Zipping through the tiled halls, I glance back and grin. I grab her hand, and we soar through an arch of fluorescent-lit stores, gliding past stands selling cheap accessories in our clunky rollerblades. We stop, resting our feet, and scope out our...

I can’t feel my legs.

That was my first thought when I woke up in a hospital room alone. I saw red when I opened my eyes; maybe it was the memory of my blood splattered on the car ceiling. Or maybe it was the memory of seeing that bright crimson...

“GET DOWN! THE GRENADES ARE COMING!” bellowed the commander off to my right. I ducked into the trench and shut my eyes tightly, pressing myself against the wall of the trench and waiting for the impending explosion which would hit any moment now....

A few years ago, I discovered that Columbia University was having a small crisis. Students were stealing large quantities of Nutella, which Columbia had just begun offering in John Jay. Surveys attempting to solve the problem were largely useless,...

This was it, the moment of truth. All that was going through my head was, “Please don’t forget your lines, please don’t sing a wrong note, please don’t mess up; so many people are watching you.” I felt like my heart was going to pop out of my...

At my home, it sometimes feels like “angle of refraction”, “thin films”, and “escape velocity” are as common as “hello”, “thank you”, and “go to sleep”. That's what you get when your parents are both professors in engineering. When I ask a single...

I dip my upper body to form an acute angle with my lap, unsticking my shirt from the sweat on my chest. My throat burns almost as if I had eaten an entire ghost pepper. I knew this was going to happen—I had run with my students yesterday as well.

“Oh d-d-d-d-dear, dear!”

Among the lush trees of the Hundred Acre Woods, a little stuffed pig named Piglet searches for his friends. Despite being a tiny ball of anxiety, he displays remarkable amounts of compassion and fortitude whenever his...

Is she moody... or just broody? An obstacle course game should do the trick. Let’s also add some dried mealworms to the mix!

Every day, my pet chickens surprise me with their unique personalities and quirky behaviors, whether they are gracefully...

I have learned to never take myself too seriously; after all, it's hard to keep a straight face when I tell someone I lead my school's vegetarian club. Yet the vegetarian club has allowed me to raise awareness about topics I genuinely care about—...

“This weekend we’ll be travelling to Auburn. Please make sure you sign up on the spreadsheet if you wish to compete!”

Click.

“If the U.S. were to crack down on the grey market for software vulnerabilities, it would decrease IP theft of military...

There it is in front of me: a box, its edges carefully encased in a glossy white wrapping paper. The exterior is plain and simple—she loves things minimalistic. Inside, an ambient light in the shape of a mystical creature glows her favorite color....

ASSIGNMENT: Simulate a disaster victim. My home was destroyed by a hurricane. We hurry into a disaster relief shelter set up by the Red Cross. We are handed a care package with a meal and a toothbrush. My mind races as I try to understand the...

Rolling a suitcase through the Morning Heights gates with a backpack slung over my shoulder, the view ahead of me is bright. Through College Walk, undergraduate students pace past me to catch the subway on 116th St. The breeze from their stride,...

The world would have us believe that there is nothing inherently significant about Legos. The simple fact that millions of people grew up with Legos as a part of their childhood does not devalue or minimize my own experience. Rather, I think my...