Newest College Application Essays

We have a saying at work: “Dealing with an angry mom is like dealing with a burglar; just give her what she wants, and no one gets hurt.”

I see it almost every day at the pool - a mother’s desperate desire to have everyone acknowledge her son as...

Off the wall.

That's how I'd describe my family. My sister just took a semester off from studying financial economics in New York to attend the Cordon Bleu, a pastry school in Tokyo. My brother is a reserved, taciturn character with an interest in...

Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 has been revered since its 1961 release, serving as a landmark of American literature. The infamous phrase “catch-22” -- indicating a paradoxical, irresolvable situation -- has traditionally held a negative connotation....

I felt an unequivocal sense of community when I gazed at my dinner plate one night at Chewonki and acknowledged that the beets, potatoes, and lettuce on my plate were plucked from the earth by me and my best friends. The hours that we expended on...

“You all know your neighbors, right?” James asked my science class. We all nodded, wondering where our teacher could be going with this. “Well, the trees outside are your neighbors too. Don’t you think you should know them as well as you know your...

One afternoon I received a letter from a friend, a current student at Lehigh. Nestled inside the letter was a newspaper article regarding initiatives undertaken by a group of Lehigh students to provide fresh, organic food to those living in the...

I took another sip of coffee, contemplating the road ahead. At that point – midnight –the coffee was less for taste than for me to stay awake behind the wheel. My mother dozed in the seat next to me, while my younger brother and sister slept...

I gasped when I peeked into Christine’s sketchbook, a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors and eye-popping characters. Hoping to see more of her drawings, I eagerly tried to befriend her. Although Christine covered her sketchbook at first, she slowly...

“Hello, can I have a medium long-sleeved shirt? I don’t mind the color.”

These words were the same I’d been hearing all night. I was in charge of distributing t-shirts to those that came to my side of the van, and all night I’d had trouble keeping...

I sat quietly at my desk on the morning of September 4th, 2005, steeling myself for my first day of second grade. Thus far, I had managed to deflect my classmates’ earnest conversation attempts, and my seeming indifference made them wonder about...

I am a quantitative entity. Throughout my entire life, I have been defined by a set of numbers. From the number on my birth certificate to the grade I got on a math test this week, they have always represented me…well, a watered-down, inhuman...

Amidst the monotonous stroll of daily life, it is easy to forget what happened. People never inquired, so I never remembered. Friendly conversations seldom reached that socially awkward barrier. After all, the “Great East Japan Earthquake,” was...

Since I was three, I have enjoyed the most tedious activity known to man. If one were to peruse old family photos, one would likely find me standing atop a stool—favorite Scotch-Brite sponge in hand—washing dishes.

While my parents have allowed...

“Jonathan, sit down!”

When my coach blatantly refused my request to allow me to play, my prior confidence and enthusiastic spark were replaced by a deflating sense of hopelessness as I recognized my role as a benchwarmer during my first...

When I was fifteen, I considered a theory: it is possible to assign a numerical value to two people in order to measure how much they care about one another. In total, the two numbers would add up to a percentage of one hundred. The more effort,...

"One dollar." I smiled with satisfaction as I handed my friend a can of soda and hid the money he gave me in my shoe. It was at summer camp, when I was thirteen years old, that I discovered the "Law of Supply and Demand" and created a system that...

In the crowded waiting room of a medical facility, the tension was palpable. The few doctors rushed around, overwhelmed by the number of sick children. The kids’ cries and screams filled the air, while mothers competed for the staff’s attention....

As a child, I worried about everything. Things that most kids enjoyed like school, roller coasters and junk food made me nervous and uncomfortable. I became used to having a persistent stomach ache; I was always anxious and reluctant to try...

Having been born and raised in the multicultural hub that is Miami, I was always in the midst of so much diversity. Growing up, I was immersed in my hispanic roots. Arroz con pollo y frijoles, rice with chicken and beans, was a staple in my...

New York–the city that never sleeps, the concrete jungle–is home to the Empire State Building, Strawberry Fields, and bustling Wall Street. It is a city that rose in the awe of American pioneers, and was built on the backs of immigrants. New York...

I cannon-balled into reading in first grade and have not emerged to catch my breath yet. Reading is the medium through which I grow. Books have swept me light years and alternate realties away, but have always returned me with more understanding...

As I savor the rich chocolate and caramel found in my Magnum ice cream bar, I am suddenly brought back to the cobblestoned streets of Luxembourg, just one of the few places I remember eating the same delectable treat. I hear the festive Christmas...

I stir fried the noodles, steamed the broccoli, pulled pie out of the oven, and set the table. My younger brother Roy put down the forks. We both sat down, and Roy took the first bite. He chewed for a few seconds, looked up at me, and gave me a...