Newest College Application Essays

Floccinaucinihilipilification [flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-key-shuh n] (noun) - The action or habit of estimating something as worthless.

As long as written languages have existed, curious words have been nestled in the pages of...

With my parents beside me, I stepped through the door and onto the flight deck of the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier. Immediately, I was surrounded. Military aircraft from all through history glistened in the sunshine, just waiting for me. Each...

From the time of dispatch, an EMT has approximately 120 seconds to get to the patient before life expectancy begins to drop. A fire engine has the luxury of 600 seconds before the number of alarms doubles and triples. These estimates do not...

Darkness permeates the early hours of a weekday morning as sleep wraps a blanket around New York City. The beaming moonlight penetrates the nighttime sky but steadily loses its strength as the first flickers of light appear. The color of the sky...

If you were asked to name five famous living female scientists or engineers off the top of your head, could you do it? The majority of people would probably not be able to name more than one, if that.

There are thirty-five members on my FIRST...

My interest in film began with my first movie—or my first love: Monsters Inc. Engrossed in the magic of animated movies, I became an elementary school animation aficionado. As I was immersed in Disney 24/7, in films that taught me that stories are...

As a child, I was obsessed with 80’s movies. I admired Ferris Bueller’s infectious charisma and fearless confidence. I dreamed of having my own Jake Ryan waiting outside the church, grinning an impish smile while standing by his cool red Porsche....

The sunlight collapses lazily against the windows of our tall, stately house today, yet the gracefully arching pathways and crisp white paint job hold steadfast against the lackluster attack. To some it may be a palace, while others see only a...

The University of Florida's butterfly and moth exhibit houses more than 10 million variations of 10 million species! When I read that fact I couldn’t believe it. Each critter displayed in those glass cases is completely unique; now multiply that...

The age-old question. Where is Waldo?

As a young child, I too struggled to find the ever infamous character with the bold yet ridiculously camouflaged striped shirt and mocking grin. I would pore over a page of my Where’s Waldo book for hours of...

It is Friday night and I am wondering how Frida Kahlo was associated with Leon Trotsky. Naturally this leads me to Lenin, who led the October Revolution, which brings me to the Russian Empire, which is very overwhelming and full of details about...

For four dollars, anyone can buy a bag of heroin in a town five minutes from my school. Prescription cousins of heroin, like Oxycontin and Vicodin, have been over-prescribed for decades. But as the war on drugs has progressed, a crackdown on...

Daniel's viola rings across the stage, and I tap my foot lightly to the beautiful melody. I feel myself exhale when he completes his solo, and in one motion, I lift my violin and join him with the rest of the orchestra.

The passion for music and...

The snow crunched underneath my feet as I walked, and I wondered how it must have felt to step on the moon. I had decided to make the most of the cloudy day by exploring and taking pictures at a local state park. Was the view from the moon...

Grind the spices in the molcajete. Taste the gritty texture on your tongue.

"No, mija," my grandmother says as she shows me how to mash the cumin, garlic, onions, and tomatillo. She is in Michigan for the summer, and I think she is homesick. After...

Whenever my grandparents visit, they take me to Barnes & Noble. My grandmother, Shasha, a strong believer in self-education through voracious reading, passed on that trait to me. On this particular trip, I spied the book “C++ for Dummies”. I...

Jessie trotted, dust plumes lifting around his hooves. I gripped the saddle’s hold bar, securing Jaidyn to the saddle with my forearm and keeping her feet in the stirrups. She flailed her arms, hurling the plastic red cup from her hand. It landed...

"Ugly," my grandfather blatantly declared.

The eight-year-old me looked down in confusion and shame, having just committed the greatest crime of the century: breaking and entering a makeup bag.

"You must get rid of that," he continued.

Following...

"Mr. Grove, you can come back in the room now." Wiping pints of sweat off my forehead, my heart racing, I reenter the room containing four people: the four people whose sole job is to challenge everything I have done for the past six years. Maybe...

Under the covers, past bedtime, my eyes gleamed, reflecting tiny pixellated flames from the video of a Saturn V launch. The low quality video from the 70’s didn’t do justice to the sheer power and scale of this magnificent rocket, but it didn't...

One night, my dad taught me about the Indian celestial sphere. Pointing out my "Orion" he showed me his "Kalpurush." The Greek and Indian constellations both use the same stars, represent humanoids, and have a weapon in the right hand. I was...

My brother knocks down a glass from the kitchen table and it shatters; my sister makes a joke, teasing my Dad; I receive a bad test grade in my math class. As different as these situations are, my family reacts to each with just two simple words:...

I discovered a trick to manipulation, one that gives me the power to compel friends, family, and customers to make the decisions I want them to. My freshman year psychology experiment produced a significant p-value while I was testing whether...

I was five years old when I first had my hair "burned" at a beauty salon. There I was, not even knowing how to properly spell "hairdresser" and I probably knew more about the process than a thirty year old white woman. You're probably wondering...