Newest College Application Essays

I'm not usually one to disrupt a class.

It was a Monday morning in my first-period freshman health seminar. The lights were low, half the class was already asleep, and the 20-year-old television was slowly gearing up to play some low-budget video...

As the Chinese saying goes, “he who stays near vermilion gets stained red; he who stays near ink gets stained black.” If one were to take that literally, I would practically be a rainbow. It is widely held that the environment that one grows up in...

I have been led to believe that for most, the airport is compulsory misery, a means to an end, on par with a visit to the DMV. But for me, alone in the airport, amidst the chaos of mankind, I am entranced. Perhaps it’s my desire for independence,...

Even at 6:30 in the morning, with blurry eyes, wet hair and a to-go mug of tea, I always find that my breath is taken away by the sight of my bus stop. It faces the Chesapeake Bay, looking over a stretch of grass that slopes down to the water. On...

I have weak eyes, strained but experienced; they peer through windows of thick, -11.75 prescription lenses.

They have curiously looked outside during countless road trips, widening in awe at the giant redwoods of Yosemite; marveling at the...

There was a gleam and bright blue spark in my teacher’s eyes as she taught piano. The young student looked at her in excited amazement, a smile spreading across her face, like the smile of a mother seeing her newborn baby for the first time. This...

When I used to fall asleep as a toddler, my mother would put on old Punjabi songs. Apparently, I always woke up doing bhangra. That’s where it all started, my passion for all things dance. My first stage performance came when I was seven. I...

He brutally murdered his sister. Driving intoxicated in the waning hours of the night, he recklessly swerves in and out of lanes until he finally loses control and rams his car into a tree. Save for a few cuts and bruises, he escapes unscathed....

“I believe as many as [three] impossible things before breakfast.” – Alice in Wonderland

One: I can save the world.

Converting tattered t-shirts into headbands, I am already looking ahead to “upcycling” tires. Additionally, I give as much time as...

The dazzling stage lights blocked out the members of the audience, momentarily blinding me. With sweaty palms, I bowed deeply towards the crowd, symbolically expressing my gratitude. I walked slowly off the wooden stage, my long, white gown...

Picture the scene. I, a young high school girl, walk into a reputable college's biomathematics laboratory. I have high hopes of finding several successful women walking around the lab, women I would be able to call my mentors for the summer. After...

They call it free falling for a reason. There’s something liberating that comes with taking the plunge, but that sense of freedom didn’t come easily for me.

My sophomore year of high school, I joined the Durango High School’s dive team. Our...

Here you find a wild Kirby in her natural habitat.

~ My hair still damp and smelling of chlorine, a product of summer’s first swim, I settle into the armchair’s cool leather embrace. Sipping iced coffee and gazing out the window I mentally prepare...

Why does the Northeast have a reputation for an uptight, academic attitude, and why is the Midwest considered one of the most relaxed places in the US? What are the origins of so-called "Southern Hospitality," and is this concept even close to the...

“Would you like fries with that?” Very few, if any, aspire to say that phrase at any age, but I’ve been lucky enough to have been saying it since I turned fourteen. Almost every teenager loathes getting a first job, but for me working at McDonald’...

Comparing unlike objects usually comes down to using a scoring system of sorts. So it is that teachers in school grade essays, adjudicators in jazz festivals evaluate performances, and judges in Iron Chef America score dishes. For my part, I will...

As a kid, I loved traffic jams, since they meant playing ‘The License Plate Game’ with my dad. The rules are simple: chose a license plate on a car and find a meaning or a pattern in those numbers and letters. For example, if a woman in her mid...

My mother’s rehearsed speech about how “Tiffany became interested in business because I took her along to see my financial advisor” is not entirely true. Although I found my mother’s financial consultation sessions interesting and felt flattered...

I select Grace Lee Boggs to delve with me into the origins and implications of radical activism. As a self-identified writer, activist, and philosopher, Boggs embodies the character and tenacity I hope to evolve in myself and in my investigations...

As American journalist Sydney J. Harris once said, “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.” When asked why I want to study journalism at Ohio University, my answer is just that: I want to turn mirrors into windows.

It took...

I don't know what possessed her to do it, but at the of end sophomore year, after we read Julius Caesar, Mrs. Freda decided to assign her classes a video project. At the time, Andin was also in this class, so it just seemed natural to work...

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...