Newest College Application Essays

I heard the crack before I hit the mat. It happened in a flash. One second I was sizing up the other wrestler—115 pounds tops, breathing heavy through his mouthguard, someone I could outlast on points if I didn’t pin him fast—the next I was...

There was no way around it. I’d ruined the robot.

I knew it from the first bend in the aluminum. My teammates hadn’t noticed yet. When you’re in the middle of a robotics competition, there’s a lot to think about. Do the wire connections need...

Sarah - with her floral, lilac shirts, bluish, clairvoyant gaze and bass-y Southern accent - is a remarkable woman. I met her whilst serving in the Chelsea House Ministry, several years after she was rehabilitated by the program. Inspired by the...

Jimi is dead. My cousin has succumbed to the interplay of factors beyond his awareness or control. I am eleven years old. I lie on the hard wooden floor of my bedroom and gaze listlessly out the window. I think of my cousin's killer. Why did a...

Several weeks ago, I was made aware of my sisters’ excursions into my bedroom with measuring tapes and note pads in preparation for my departure to college (which, mind you, is still one year away; their level of excitement is extraordinary). My...

If you’ve never heard of the word Anatidaephobia, you’re going to think I made it up. It’s the fear that you are being watched by a duck. No, really.

I don’t have Anatidaephobia. I don’t know anybody with Anatidaephobia. I don’t hunt or fish. The...

In the summer of 2016, I met Dimitria, an eight-year-old native of southeast Atlanta, at Park Avenue Baptist Church’s literacy camp, an effort to reduce the local high school’s 68% drop out rate. On the surface, she seemed like the other...

‘And voilá my amigos! All four beautiful queens.’ I reveal the top four cards of the deck with a thin smirk. The kids simultaneously call out ‘Show us more! Show us more please.’ Regardless of age or gender or culture, everyone loves a...

Raised in China, I did not follow the mold of a “traditional” Chinese girl. I never liked to sit down and practice calligraphy or stand still to play the flute, or be told that I should not major in anything related to business and politics, since...

A couple of my friends and I found ourselves on a side of Missoula we hadn't ever been to. We stood outside of a square-shaped gray building made of cement on the outside. I had already accepted that we were about to discover a new level of the...

Inside a concrete church filled with stacks of children and thick, humid air, an old fan in the corner was my only source of comfort. I watched as a microphone was being passed around, frightfully heading my way like a pistol in a game of Russian...

Ever since I was a child, I fantasized on going on an adventure right out of Indiana Jones. If I were given a golden ticket heading anywhere, I would unquestionably opt for an expedition. Right now, my definition of a place that embodies that...

“I think I can’t go on,” a male student around 15 years old told his colleagues. When he untied his shoelaces and took off his socks, he found blisters on each of his sore feet. After walking for miles in sweaty sneakers, he shouldn’t have been...

As I pulled the handle, the drawer gave way, allowing year’s worth of junk to spill out onto the floor. I rushed to put everything back into the neatly arranged disorder that I found it before my parents walk in to see the snooping I’d been...

As I plug in the radio and balance the camera on a few shoeboxes, I yell for everyone to get in their spot, then hit record. We dance around the room and jump on the bed shouting the lyrics of the new Hannah Montana CD. I don’t have a worry in the...

All I ever had to define myself, all I know, is that I am part French. Warm French summers in the countryside, full of laughter, good food, family time, and my French education, that was what I considered my culture. Knowing not of the severity of...

My legs are dotted with faded scars left behind by mosquito bites.

Sitting in a stuffy classroom in early September, I look down at them nostalgically. In June, my feelings towards mosquito bites were less cordial. I had just begun a 45-day...

I know for a fact that my grandfather picked up every single piece of trash he saw. It didn’t matter where he was (in town, at church, on the beach), or what it was (a receipt, a broken beer bottle, a plastic fork); he was going to pick it up. It...

Dear roommate,

Fair warning: when you walk into our room, you’ll smell an odd, sweet tanginess. Yet, before you have the chance to investigate, I’ll be jumping off the bed and pouring you a mug of my signature orange oolong tea — the source of the...

I wrote for my first newspaper in 4th grade, the Fourth Grade Weekly. I was the owner, editor in chief, and lead writer. The Weekly contained hard-hitting pieces - by 4th-grade standards - such as Joke of the Week, Restaurant Reviews, and Sports...

I stand alone in the middle of an empty square, looking at the period Chinese pavilion that was built less than a month ago. The park is new. The smell of paint is still fresh in the air, the carved characters still sharp on the edge, the cement...

I hadn’t seen Empire of the Sun in years.

It was the last film I ever watched with my father--him, sick, lying on a hospital bed; me, 11, completely unaware that this would be the final thing we’d ever share.

Before, I’d often complain: “Dad, you’...

The world stops when my fingers make contact with my piano’s black-and-white keys. Music modeled after the Romantic style makes me feel truly alive—brimming with enough raw emotion to make my breath catch. Von Goethe’s statement is most relevant...

2007: “Are y’all comin’?” I yell to the kids on the playground as I run over to the swings. They look at each other and laugh, clearly making fun of the way I speak. I put my head down, embarrassed, and walk to the swings alone. I wish I hadn’t...