Newest College Application Essays

“You save BIG money, you save BIG money, you save BIG money at Menards!”

The songs that I sang as a child were never the opening themes of Clifford or Arthur. Instead, I would sing the jingles of the commercials I saw on television: Luna, State...

The first thing I learned in sophomore-year chemistry is that when two atoms or molecules hit each other with enough force while oriented in the correct manner, magic can happen. Well, “magic” isn’t exactly the word that the textbook uses, but...

Both heels of my four-year-old, worn out, hand-me-down tennis shoes were propped up on the tree branch in front of me. In my lap, I held the seventh book in the Series of Unfortunate Events, and a half-empty bottle of water was buried in the...

There’s something about falling. That feeling of weightlessness, those butterflies tickling the insides of my stomach, the uncertainty that comes with willingly letting go… I crave it. There is nothing in the world that excites me as much as...

My interest in economics and finance sprouted during my childhood. Back then, I followed my mom while she explored real estate for her business and visited her financial advisor. However, it wasn’t until I started Cosh(ex), my calculator...

Striking parallels between language and law exist: Both require analysis, precise diction, and the suspension of one’s own worldview to comprehend a different perspective. Chi ku (吃苦) is an idiom, directly translated as “eating bitterness,”...

Two days after leaving home this past June, I stood alone amidst thousands of people, not knowing a single one. I heard no English, saw no familiar sights, and was caught up in a dusty, polluted, hectic metropolitan whirlwind. I was in Kathmandu,...

Every bus ride is marked with either utter serenity or galling racket. At eight years old, I found both equally unbearable. "The world," my mother would often say, "isn't always going to be the way you want it to be." Innumerable repetitions of...

With bright tangerine walls, meticulously hung alphabet charts, and “remember to wash your hands” posters, Kumon Learning Center is not the place I would have expected to find my maturity. As I stand in the Center now, though, I look back and see...

The creak of the curtains as they fly out of sight. The first notes of music beginning to play. The sight of a silent audience sitting, waiting.

These are the moments a dancer lives for.

Performing is both exhilarating and peaceful. Offstage...

With forested hills open to exploration and a lake for boating and fishing, Spring Lake Park has become a second home to me. I come here regularly for a run, a bike ride, or a walk with my family. I have participated in community work days and...

I rushed from the greenroom to backstage. As I waited for my cue, I chanted and repeated the words in my head.

Finally, the lights dimmed, and I moved to center stage, clenching my fists and willing myself to stop shaking. As the spotlight...

It was my second trip to Emory. Sitting in a lecture room in White Hall, I only experienced a single doubt: hesitation about voicing a few of my opinions and, perhaps, interrupting Professor Robins’ Metaphysics class.

Speaking, eating, and being...

I remember when the flowers stopped blooming.

All throughout my childhood there was always one thing that would instantly make me happy. I had a beautiful backyard in my childhood home. The smell of the ripe red mango trees and the chirping of the...

It was 10:30 PM on another Thursday night at summer camp in Freedom, New Hampshire. However, it wasn’t just another night. The head photographer, a professional for many years, had suddenly decided to quit. He left me, a 16-year old Counselor in...

Wedding bells were ringing in the background, and my fingers were deftly picking their way through the Rubik's Cube concealed under my blazer. The last wedding I had attended was in fourth grade -- a bubble boy in a lavender suit. Today, my only...

I wake up to the pleasant sound of The Flaming Lips flowing from my alarm clock. As I sit up and rub my eyes, I bask in the familiar comfort of my favorite piece of rented art. After dressing, I gather my belongings, walk out the door, check to...

“It focuses 201 precise beams of radiation directly on the tumor. Scary isn’t it?” As I deliver my prepared presentation about the Gamma Knife during the TSA National Conference, I can't help but wonder if I have really done justice to the power...

"Call off the priest. We have a live birth." Moments before I took my first breath, doctors were sure that I wouldn't make it out of the ICU alive. I was born three months premature and weighed two pounds, eleven ounces. Doctors officially...

I am a child of the city. My summer afternoons were spent baking under the tyranny of the sun, whose heat bounced unforgivingly off of the blacktop streets and the harsh, cement sidewalks. Blaring hip hop mixes and soulful R&B ballads filled...

Even in the very Southwest corner of the continental United States, 2301 miles away and weather patterns worlds away from Ann Arbor, it seems that ever since I began the process of college exploration, I cannot escape the presence of UMichigan....

The banging on the door suddenly stops and, to my surprise, I am awakened not by the noise but by the silence. It was the debtors again, bent on extracting money from an immigrant family barely able to put food on the table. Soon after my mother...