Newest College Application Essays

I feel that I have had many advantages as a result of being raised in North Carolina. The weather is moderate, there are beautiful coastal areas, but most importantly, being in North Carolina means being close to Duke. As a born and bred North...

The finely milled sand was white-hot, almost as if a billion microscopic pieces of the sun had rained down and settled beneath the soles of my feet. As I scanned the beach, I took a deep breath of the muggy air, letting the dampness settle in my...

I’m not one of those universally recognized teenagers that most people talk about, the super-student who is academically ingenious and involved in numerous extracurricular activities. I’m more humble about what I’ve achieved, but I take pride in...

“You’re in the wrong line, Melody!” my former classmate shouted across the blacktop. Heads turned and people stared, and my blushing cheeks complemented my hot pink shirt. I felt embarrassed and proud at the same time. On a hot September day in...

Annie’s face is as vivid in my mind now as it was four years ago. I can see the passion for life that sparkled in her eyes and the crazy, intense grin that stretched across her face like a bridge across the sea. Although my experience with Annie...

I often think of my home country, Vietnam, as a coin factory. At this factory, day in and day out, coins march in assembly lines out of metal strips in perfect conformity. I am just such a coin, minted in 1993, rimmed, polished, annealed, and...

Two flamboyant characters sat in the center of the first row; I saw their hands dancing wildly in the air while I tiptoed quietly into the theatre so as not to pop their bubble of eccentricity. However, the heavy door’s loud click as it closed...

“Clunk.”

“Home run!” my teammate yelled, laughing.

I winced, trying to hide my embarrassment; a home run would have been great if I had been playing baseball, but I was at my first high school tennis practice, and instead of the ball ending up on...

When I first flipped open the art guide for our Academic Decathalon materials last year, a single painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze immediately caught my eye, unknowingly igniting the flame of an idea in my intrigued mind. It was a simple piece...

Throughout my younger years, wearing a blazer, collared shirt, and nice pants to preschool always set me apart from my classmates. As I got older, selling pencils to kids who needed them right before a test sparked my business interest. That...

Oprah never read me bedtime stories. Dr. Phil never advised me on my inspirations and aspirations, suggested careers that were seemingly tailored all too well to my strengths and weaknesses, gave me practical insight into the enigmatic minds of...

It’s been a while since I curled up in my closet and carefully pried open the lid of my Blue Box: 5 X-Acto knives with 10 interchangeable blades and an array of 5 different handles. A cutter’s dream. Mom would always warn me when I borrowed that...

When people say that they are inspired by a piece of artwork, they are often referring to the finished piece rather than the process that created what they are viewing. This is definitely not the case when I say that I am inspired by a picture of...

High school is a time of confusion for almost everyone. At times it seems that nothing is clear or simple. There is confusion about who you are, what your personal moral code should be, why life can sometimes be so hard, and what your future could...

Art and mathematics -- two very different subjects and paths to take in life -- are my two passions. I have loved art and the process of creating it my whole life, and I know that I want to make it part of my future career. I also enjoy the...

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.”

--Leonardo da Vinci

There are only a small number of people who can claim to be the best in their field. The world is not overflowing with virtuosos, experts, and masters in any...

Everyone questions; everyone wonders and ponders the question of life,

Answering why life and why to an occurrence, why to existence.

Science answers questions, science tells us why,

Or does it?

Can science answer everything?

Can logic determine...

Where can you find the best French onion soup? Answering that question has been my quest for the last ten years of my life. I was first introduced to French onion soup when I was a young boy at a restaurant located a block from my house in Basking...

From a young age, I knew the career path I wanted to pursue. During the tenth grade, my mother mentioned working on the F-15 for Northrop as part of the team that was redesigning electronic countermeasure hardware. She told me about another team...

My world is multidimensional. Diverse. Eclectic. My “inay” (mother) is Filipina. My “otosan” (father) is Japanese. My “sabase accha dosta” (best friends) are Indians. My school is international.

After over 400 years of rule by various colonial...

I watched my mother raise the hand that held the knife to wipe the tears falling down her cheek. “It’s just the onions,” she said, and then she continued chopping. Though I was only at the tender age of seven, I already knew better.

I am a hybrid...

I arranged the bottles in front of me: 30% acrylamide, TEMED solution, ammonium persulfate, Tris buffer, and distilled water -- all of the materials I needed to run electrophoresis on the protein samples I had isolated earlier that morning. Oh,...

I was a master of my hometown, of its shortcuts, playgrounds, and potholes. I knew all of the secrets of Cary, North Carolina -- admittedly not difficult in our traditional, white, conservative community. The houses were, by law, as beige as their...

Dear Future Roommate,

I have never told my sister that I love her.

Growing up, it was not part of our culture -- in our traditional Chinese family, my mother still believes that women belong in the home. There are no hugs or kisses. We respect each...