Newest College Application Essays

I remember the first Tuesday I stepped into the hall of the church. The raucous noise of children playing was quickly quieted by Jake, our youth group leader, as he led fifty teenagers in solemn prayer. As everyone bowed their heads to pray, I...

For more than three generations, my family has answered the call of elected public office. My father served in the State Legislature, my Grandfather and Great Grandfather as locally elected officials. Most teenagers my age have a passion for...

Each of our plates was piled high with crab legs, easily the best part of the buffet, our taste buds descended from the seafood rich island that had raised us. We passed around the poor quality plastic crackers, at first, patience feeding off of...

I will not stop dancing until each of my toes fall off. I am currently waiting on the sixth toe to take a turn for the worse.

I have an intense relationship with dance. I have been dancing on a competitive team since I was twelve— meaning that I...

To many, it may seem farfetched to associate the feeling of being perfectly content with a sport as salty as fishing, but not to me. The way the cork grip of a fishing rod gingerly held between my fingers instills the feeling of being so...

There was one playground not too far from my grandparents' apartment in Cairo (the summer home of my childhood) where I wasn't treated like the quirky, abnormal kid that I was used to being. It wasn't your ideal picture of a playground, though....

Chabela sits across from me with a nearly finished cigarette pursed between her wrinkled lips. As she watches me, I pour myself a cup of coffee and butter the one slice of white sandwich bread I’m allowed to consume each morning. My head is foggy...

Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.

--Hippocrates

I am fortunate to have grown up in a medical family: my grandfather and his brothers are traditional Chinese medical doctors. In fact, since my parents took...

One hundred and forty-eight years ago, in the midst of exile on the island of Guernsey, Victor Hugo narrated these words – “Whatever the goal may be, in earth or in heaven, the whole secret lies in proceeding to that goal” – in his novel The...

My first love affair was longer than thirty pages; it had no thirty-point font; it did not include any colorful illustrations. In the summer of third grade I read Matilda, by Roald Dahl. I was awed at the size of the thing; I mean, I could barely...

When I sit in my studio (as I am now), I like to leave the window open. The screen strains the breeze, and I fancy the air to be more pure, as if the world were left outside. The air is the same, I imagine, as anywhere else I've ever been, in all...

When I think of heroes in my life, there are so many options to consider: who I am most like, who I have tried to emulate, who I aspire to be. Many could and would answer their parents, an older family member, or even a standout teacher. I...

Above the clouds, on the peak of the mountain, I stand, overlooking the vast silhouette of slopes and trees, contemplating the infinite possibilities of routes to take.

I watch other skiers play “follow the leader” down the groomed trails,...

$10 million villas in gated compounds rest side-by-side with $10,000 brick village houses. On the streets leading to these communities are BMWs and Porsches, and also rusty bicycles and decades-old Chinese cars. Farther down the street is the...

Whispered book titles and authors' names fill the air, full of ancient information and endless imagination. The smell of my coffee fills the tiny corner in which I curl myself up and open a book to the pleasure of a thousand word combinations to...

When I was in the eighth grade, I took the infamous Gifted and Talented class taught by the even more infamous Mr. Mann. Picture my first day in this classroom: the four walls were absolutely plastered with nonsensical posters and paintings and a...

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before...

People sit on their couches awaiting the first-ever episode...

The animated clip flashes by and for a few seconds she rises, facing a creature several times her size that she has no chance of defeating. But still she stands. Something about her position tells the viewer that, despite her fear, she will win....

He had a complete poker face when I asked for $250,000. This man was on the panel of investors to whom I presented my entrepreneurial venture as part of a scenario analysis project during The Fullbridge Program, a rigorous business boot camp for...

With as much grace as I can summon, I'd begin a conversation with Augusta Savage by thanking her. I’d tell her, “Thank you. Thank you for being a warrior in the Civil Rights Movement, for following your passion and being a great educator, artist,...

I work in one of the most loved, yet most hated industries in the world. Criticism comes from all angles in the fast food business – whether the guests' food is not prepared to their liking, their table isn’t as clean as they would like it to be,...

When I was thirteen, my grandparents took my cousin and me on a trip to the mountains of North Carolina to celebrate our thirteenth birthdays. My grandparents wanted to give us an opportunity to step outside our comfort zones and try new things;...