Newest College Application Essays

Eggs, flour, milk, sugar (vanilla optional) - these are the ingredients for happiness. On average, I make Pfannkuchen about once a week. These are German pancakes; traditionally they’re thicker than a crepe, but thinner than the ideal fluffy...

The clickety-clack of shoes hitting marble floor is a wonderfully chaotic symphony. I can imagine offering up the squeak on my Converse shoes to the cacophony of high heels, polished business oxfords, and fashionable flats inside Grand Central...

“Hey now, hey noowwwowww.” A Hilary Duff Song set to the tone of a grieving walrus. That is basically what I sound like. All the time. Why all the time? Because I sing all the time. Why a grieving walrus? Well you probably haven’t heard me sing....

She runs so gracefully, her arms swinging back and forth, her legs flying, barely even touching the ground as she laps the girl in front of her. I am that girl—not the graceful one but the slow one who runs like a beanbag chair, hunched over and...

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 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...

Terminalia bentzoe, known as ‘benjoin’ in my local vernacular, is a plant endemic to Mauritius. In the past, local people would use its leaves to make decoctions against the common cold but unfortunately, this subspecies is today vulnerable in its...

The clock reads 11:09 PM as I sit alone, eyes barely open, surrounded only by the photo-covered walls of my dorm room, completely overcome by exhaustion. 11:10 PM, only a minute more until I can fall asleep. After what seems like an eternity,...

As the website designer, photographer, and social media manager for four small businesses I’ve had to be very detail-oriented and creative regarding new ways to advertise. In order to meet all my deadlines, I set a calendar, breaking up my...

“Hey!” I say cheerfully as I lace my basketball shoes. Three girls look at me and snicker. As I leave my teammate Milica says, “Don’t let them get to you. They’re Albanian, so they’re rude to all Serbians.” My eyes widen in shock. Of course there...

Growing up being raised by a single mom enabled me and my mom to have a very special relationship. I cherish this close bond; however, it has also led to many challenges. I have had to step up and take much more responsibility than most kids my...

When my Spanish teacher introduced conjugation, most of my peers could not comprehend the concept. For me, however, having been raised bilingual in Russian and having studied its verbs, conjugation made perfect sense. While explaining to baffled...

In fourth grade, I learned how to fold “fortune tellers”-- square, pointy origami creations. My class crowded together as one of our peers patiently explained the process, and we followed attentively, eagerly grasping our pieces of hastily torn...

The van was parked on the third floor of the parking garage, meaning the team had to walk almost 15 minutes together in near silence. Mark was raving, twirling his fingers and vitriolically murmuring something to himself. Devon and Tristan moved...

Before I had even entered kindergarten, I would sit on the floor of my father's study room every Saturday morning, both of us bent over a large artist’s sketch pad that was covered in numbers and equations instead of paint or charcoal. From a...

Routine is the enemy of relationships, spontaneous workers, and thrillseekers, gradually lessening excitement and draining the life out of the things we enjoy. However, through my own experiences, I have come to realize that routines, commonly...

"I think I'm ready to go home now," I inform my roommate Patrick, yet again, as we mix cement and shovel rocks for hours upon hours under the beating Mexican sun. It is Tuesday of our week-long mission trip to Nuevo Durango, and I already feel...

1,2,3,2…1,1,2,5…1,6,5,3…at first you have to remember each combination, which move is next, but after a while it becomes instinctive: in a bout you don’t have time to think. Despite boxing’s bad rap for being barbaric, it’s long been known as the...

I learned about Vassar the way I grew up - independently. I stumbled upon the school online one lonely night while my single mother traveled for business. Upon visiting Vassar, I remember having goosebumps. The college was Phoebe incarnate, from...

Most people do not realize how much work making sandwiches really involves. Slicing tomatoes, spreading the toppings, positioning the lettuce just right, and selecting the meat to put on requires a delicate touch. Of course you could just slop it...

“There aren’t any more chairs. Just pull one up!”

It was a crowded lunch hour as usual at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital. I volunteered there during the summers and each day encountered the same problem – finding enough space to eat....

Sitting in the Templeton Campus Center, I looked out through the square, geometric windows at the trees beyond. The simply shaped white metal frames of the window contrast with the trees hugged by moss. Lewis and Clark in itself is a contrast....

Doors open, then close. Signs in bright colors pop out at every corner. Floors begin to move on their own accord. People bump into one another, pushing and shoving, making a turbulence of their own. A light flashes, a buzzer dings, an engine roars...

Before I started diving, I yearned for a special place with an amazing view reachable only by a chosen few: the top of Everest, or a view of Earth from a porthole of a space shuttle. However, from the first moment I put on a mask and a pair of...