Newest College Application Essays

(Note: This was for an undergraduate transfer application.)

My musical journey began innocently enough, in my infancy, with a toy keyboard placed in my crib as a diversion. Though I would not begin formal instruction on an instrument for several...

Walking towards Asia House from south campus with Joe, my host whom I had met about an hour prior, we talked about the little idiosyncrasies of Oberlin as we prepared to eat the co-op made pizza. There was an indie rock-jazz fusion band performing...

The excitement, first felt in my stomach, is building within me. We’ve almost reached the place that will enable me to begin every day of the next two weeks happy and satisfied. I’ve been craving what awaits me inside this place for the last ten...

If the English language were a playground, the word “education” would definitely be a bully. Big and scary sounding, education grabs unsuspecting pronouns by the collar and throws them up against the wall with their untied shoes kicking above the...

I firmly believe that antidrug campaigns whose values instill the “just say no” attitude in elementary school children should be extended to encompass the wretched habit of knuckle cracking. I have done it since I was a young tot, I am told, which...

Smack! Within a fraction of a second, my life was changed forever. A homemade slingshot snapped and launched a funnel and water balloon at an unimaginable speed directly into my left ear. Once I’d been hit, an incredibly loud whistling screamed...

“The slut! How could she be so stupid as to get “knocked up” at the age of 15?” “ That’s a real predicament for that young girl.” “ I hope the best for her but fear the worst.”

Those were just some of the judgments cast upon me secretly by some...

At the age of five, when most of my peers aspired to be astronauts, princesses or cowboys, I had already decided to become a musician. It was not until almost fifteen years later, however, that I settled upon not only the specific aspects of music...

I was an antagonist. But please do not get me wrong. It was only in our role play. Actually I never imagined myself acting on a stage. This may be the most challenging experience I have ever faced, and I am delighted that I attained a deep insight...

I could hear the rhythmic pitter patter of rain on the window pane as I drifted in and out of consciousness. I stared intently at my notes, desperately trying to absorb the convoluted lines of graphite lead on my paper. After concentrating for an...

Two years ago at summer camp, I hiked the better part of the Northville-Lake Placid Trail.

No one from camp had gone on this trip since some time in the seventies, so we had a certain air of bravado. We were a group of 14 and 15 year olds...

How can a high school student serve a community greater than not only feeding the masses, but providing it with the softest, yet most absorbent toilet paper as well? Pshh, saving third world countries from natural disasters can wait, especially...

I shop at the local thrift store often. I know its six sections of racks and shelves as if they were in my own closet. I don’t shop there for financial reasons, nor do I shop there for trendy fashion finds. I shop there for the stories the...

I thought I had it all figured out when I began high school. My future, I was convinced, was in psychology—a field that has always fascinated me and seemed to be a promising career choice. Before specializing in psychology in college, I planned to...

I squinted when the bright light pierced my eyes as I talked to the stony-faced manager of the Siberian airline. I was translating as quickly and accurately as I could, while both parties’ faces became steadily redder and their voices louder. The...

Getting up early simply hurts. Getting up early in the summer hurts even worse, and getting up early in the summer to do work is close to torture. This past summer I had to do just this. Every morning, except for Sundays when I was lucky enough to...

As a result of my father’s business, my family moved to France in May of 1995. From France, we moved to Singapore, back to France, to Spain in 2001, and finally to our current location on a farm in rural Upstate New York in late 2002. Over the...

Acceptance is a rare thing in today’s society. Growing up I have always been taught not only tolerance but also acceptance. One of the biggest things that sets me apart from many of the other students on the CU-Boulder campus is that my mother is...

I’m a starting linebacker, but my mother is way tougher than I am. She runs the legislative, executive and judicial branches of discipline in our house, takes care of all of our taxes, and single-handedly manages my father’s law firm. She also...

In my naïve middle schools days, I did not think highly of English class. My love was math, with its logical equations, universal numbers, and challenging problems. English was my second language, something that surrounded and engulfed me the...

Wow, have I really been away for only 48 hours? No, that's simply not possible; you must have been abducted by aliens and traveled near the speed of light to have lost such sense of the time, puppy dear! I've doubled my chips at Casino night, read...

“Samantha Nicole!” my mother began. The deliberate usage of my middle name indicated she was preparing to reprimand me. I instantly knew I had been caught peering underneath my neon pink Barbie bandage. As do most young children, I chose to...

When my dad first began working in Mexico, I nonchalantly changed my schedule to include seventh grade “Intro to Spanish.” Naturally, I didn’t think twice about what would later prove a crucial decision—few seventh graders realize how such simple...

When I found out I had been cast as Emile de Becque in the musical South Pacific, I was excited but confused, and even a little scared. Why had I been picked as the lead, even though I was a sophomore with no experience singing in the operatic...