University of California - Berkeley Undergraduate College Application Essays

The piercing sound of a siren startled me as I stared blankly at the TV. I struggled to make out the rapid muttering coming from the police radio, “KEP 364 Montville Township First Aid Squad request for ambulance: elderly female with trouble...

When I'm using scissors, I cut with my right hand. But when I'm using a knife, I cut with my left, unless I'm eating with a fork and knife, in which case the fork goes in my left hand and the knife goes in my right. I am a righty thrower but a...

The girl with a locker next to mine begins to ask about the math homework, and then stops herself.

“Oh wait. You’re a PRISM kid.”

PRISM. Synonymous with over-achievement, arrogance, seclusion, perfectionism, but above all: expectations.

I’m...

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...

I recently spent two mornings in a row sorting through old paperwork, filing and refiling old receipts, invoices, and timesheets. I labeled and alphabetized nearly 100 folders, plunking them into small file cabinets one by one. The day before, I...

The incessant, monotone beeping of the heart monitor was Public Enemy #1.

It alone was not the problem. Rather, it meant that I had found myself in a hospital room again. First it was my grandma, then my dad, then my grandma again. Each time was...

In eleventh grade, I remember sitting in Physics baffled that there were formulas to make sense of the world. Before this course, I had simply accepted that gravity made things fall to the ground and pushing objects would make them move. However,...

I’m one of the most clumsy people in the world.

This may seem like an exaggeration at first, but it’s spot on. From early childhood, I was called “Ms. Falls a lot” by my parents. I seemed cursed, as every single time I wore a dress to preschool, I...

For an airline that describes its seating as “cozy,” Spirit Airlines had remarkably good legroom. After stowing my overhead luggage, I fished out the latest edition of The Economist and buckled up for the (hopefully comfortable) flight to the...

184,000 miles. This is the number glowing green on the dashboard of my 2008 gold Prius. Although most people might interpret this number as a sign my car has been on the road for far too long, I see it as a badge of honor. Despite the strange...

At 16, I was on a train to San Diego and deep in my biology notes when alarms began to sound and we were evacuated. Armed police urged us to run; as a fellow passenger told me, there was a gunman on the train who was threatening to shoot. Within...

As high school graduation inches closer, I find myself contemplating the word legacy. When I joined Dos Pueblos High School’s journalism team, the class was fading. The stories did not matter to the writers, and therefore, did not matter to the...

Having explored the myths from ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt, my curiosity was piqued in eighth grade by a simple legend from Japanese lore. If you fold one thousand paper cranes, the gods will grant you one wish. I took it as a challenge. My...

The streets of Kunming, China are crooked and filled with potholes, and the ‘school’ was more of an abandoned building than a learning facility for children of full-time workers. Yet the children that sat on the dusty floor of my classroom were...

The clock strikes midnight, signaling we are into our tenth hour in the room. Hunched over computers, we work tirelessly on the school magazine, The Scribe. My creative journey to this moment began by writing for the features section, where I...

Home-schooled. For the longest time, I assumed that all children, like me, were homeschooled by their mothers. I attended Chinese school and art classes, but my mother delivered my first history lesson around our kitchen table––with an Odyssey...

It was uncomfortably hot, when we climbed the last bend of the mountain; another 25 minutes added to the 2 hour drive from base camp- an excruciating journey. I was leading an expedition in Almora, a rugged terrain known for its dangerous, steep...

On a typical, busy summer day, I stand at one of the Save the Bay's Aquarium’s touch tanks, spitting out facts (did you know that horseshoe crabs have been around since before the dinosaurs?!) and making sure that all children uphold the...

Acting has always been one of my passions. Upon entering high school, I was excited to continue the acting I came to love in middle school. Unfortunately, I quickly hit a roadblock.As a freshman, I auditioned for the first play of the year, but I...

I express my creative side through theatre. The entire rehearsal process leading up to a production is exciting to be involved in, and I love to watch the show come together bit by bit. It’s fascinating to see how many different aspects have to...

Presenting in the Kentucky senate chamber as a twelve-year old can be intimidating, but also relieving. You have been told for a dozen years that you are too young to influence your state’s government, yet you stand at a podium with a microphone...

When I was in seventh grade, my biological mother—who was then living in Luxembourg—was involved in a serious car accident and had to be put into a medically induced coma. After somewhat recovering from the physical and mental trauma she...

From down here, buildings seem taller. The top shelf of the cabinet is a mystery, and the shelf under is a balancing act. Being 4’10’’ has given me a different perspective, in multiple ways.

The insecurity within being inches shorter than the...

My hand on the bar holds all my weight as my foot clumsily finds fifth position from fourth, while transitioning from relevé to plié. I struggle to remember tendu from bourree, then fall behind, as the rest of the class is executing the sequence...