Newest College Application Essays

Beep.

Beeep. My mind begrudgingly detached itself from the safe nothingness of the subconscious, wondering, as any sane entity would, why it was waking up at 6:00 on a crisp Friday morning. A few confusing seconds later, as usual, I remembered: I...

One year ago, on a muggy summer morning, I boarded a plane with some of my classmates and teachers, headed for Ecuador. The trip was intended to reveal a different world to us, as well as aid a local elementary school in a state of disrepair. A...

I was practically born on the river. Both of my parents were extreme whitewater raft guides, and they passed on their love of the river and nature in general to me. From a young age, my parents took me rafting on rivers like the San Juan, the...

Eye color was evenly divided in my family before I was born: two sets of blue eyes and two sets of green eyes. My birth would have traditionally tipped the scales, but I was born with one blue eye and one green. This anomaly was originally...

"Darcy, why do we have to read this book?" I complained after school. "This book isn’t just stupid, it has no relevance in my life at all." Because she was used to me asking questions like this, her only response was, "Because I told you. And I'm...

And there I was: sitting in front of a school computer on a cheap plastic chair, my hands resting on a desk stained to look like wood. It was early in the morning and in the middle of my second semester of my freshman year of high school. Little...

My yearning for the highest caliber of learning has taken me to Design and Architecture Senior High; it has been the driving force that wakes me up in the morning to prepare for an eight hour day as well as two hours of travel time, it has defined...

“Where did you go to college, Ms. Jennifer?” is a question I get often at lunch mentoring. The kids I work with are less focused at times with why I’m there and instead want to know everything about me. Instead of giving them a long spiel about...

“Dinner is ready!” Every Sunday a member of our family takes a turn choosing what we’re having for dinner, and today was my turn. My mother had prepared all of my favorite food, from foie gras to sea urchin sushi to satay. As we began eating, my...

"Can I touch you there?" As an 8-year-old, I didn't know what to say. I was obedient. I was shy. I was afraid of speaking up and being judged. So instead of answering the question, I stayed silent and was sexually abused by a family member. He...

The future is made with vestiges of the past. This lesson was driven into me one day as I was reading about President of Taiwan Ma Ying-Jeou’s strategy of “No reunification, no independence and no war”. What impressed me about President’ Ma’s...

It was the McCarthy era. Attorney General Tom Clark had just announced a list of fifty-six “subversive” organizations that were supposedly part of the communist crusade. My grandfather, vice president of the History Society at Tilden Senior High...

My childhood dreams were built beside a bookshelf. Sitting cross-legged on the library floor immersed in science fiction, I dreamt of time-traveling tesseracts, of machines intelligent enough to raise families, of lunar colonies equipped with...

Shark Day 2011. 100 miles from the ocean, but the fate of the top predator of the oceans, key to the health of marine ecosystems, would be decided right here in Sacramento. The role I got to play on Shark Day was cutting off the tags that said “...

The air was humid and the room was wild with the excitement of children on summer vacation. There were board games, drawings, Lego creations, and a radio with the local station on. I was seated at the table with my head resting on my arm and a...

I am Kate: poised, smart, rude. I come first because I deserve it. For this hour, I will kick, scream and protest as I please, and the feelings will be very real. There have been many Kates before, but the challenge lies in making this one unique....

To the foreigner’s eye it was war, but to any Lozano family member it was a Socratic discussion. As I sat with cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts and great uncles, answers to the questions of the afterlife, the importance of living, the health of...

In the middle of the blazing heat of summer in Nürnberg, I sat with stiff muscles and frozen hands with the family that up to this moment had always been so welcoming to my company. My eyes wandered the living room to find a niche that would...

One hundred sixty-two days ago I was counting the days I had left to live. “Impression: Large right ovarian mass with cystic appearance periphery and solid tumor in the center…” I trembled as I heard every word of the MRI report that my mom had...

Some of the most heroic people are those who aren’t tremendously famous. In 1941, after three prisoners had escaped a work camp, the SS selected ten men to die of starvation in an underground bunker in order to discourage escape attempts. Among...

As I walk down the bustling streets, merchants are shouting for me to buy their various goods and children zoom by me as they play with one another. I attempt crossing the busy street to be confronted by the incessant honking of horns. I smile...

Abhik Basu Jolly…Abhik B. Jolly…A—

When I repeat a word over and over again, it detaches from its meaning—especially if the word is unusual. Like “kangaroo.” Or like “fork.” When I say fork over and over again, I start wondering, why is this called...

Mothers often have an important, unbreakable bond with their children. This is especially true for me. My mom has had the biggest influence on who I am today. She has given me the upbringing that is necessary for me to continue to succeed in life....

Most kids in the world dream of becoming an extremely successful adult in a career when they are older. But what most of these kids do not know is how to get there. This is not the case with me. I know how I plan to become a successful member of...