McGill University Undergraduate College Application Essays

For the first time, I was an outcast. The minority. The one who didn’t fit in. I was a speck of white in a sea of black, and everyone around me made sure that I realized that. I was in an unfamiliar country, across the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded...

It’s 107 degrees and the sun’s hot rays are beating down on a family trekking through the busy streets of Dhaka. People, rickshaws, and goats alike are all rushing off to reach their respective destinations. As the parents of the family encourage...

I had a dream last night that my most revered mentors came together to weave their unique threads into the fabric that ultimately became my Common Application essay.

Kurt Vonnegut, my favorite novelist, was in charge of the introduction to this...

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...

The movements are lucid in my mind: Lunge - contre de sixte - paré en cédant - feinte de riposte. Right on the arm to finally lunge and touch the foot. Green light. I got her. 13-13; only two more touches to win. I can hear her breathing through...

For three days, after a heavy equatorial rain, the main road to my village remained impassable. This implied that some families had to subsist without their normal meals, since their breadwinners could not work. Transportation of goods using...

I waited patiently by the bench in what all Jomo Kenyatta University chemistry majors call the "Super Lab," staring for what seemed to be hours at a small flask bubbling with something that looked like a cross between Pepto-Bismol and whipped...

I often travel through a land of backpacks, ironed silk suits, Hawaiian slippers, colorful shirts, low-waist jeans and outfits that do not even have a name. This is a land where shoes are worn and pants are stained with adhesive, where tie knots...

The humid morning breeze pulls me down 7th Avenue, the anticipation gnawing at my stomach. Glaring billboards advertising Calvin Klein Jeans, Disney Movies, and Starbucks Coffee surround me; however, only one sign truly catches my eye with its...