Newest College Application Essays

The smell of burning metal tickled my nose as I stared intently at the oscilloscope on my messy desk. I looked back at the breadboard, and quickly realized what I had done. I hurried to rip the IC chip out of the circuit, burning my finger in the...

Some seventh graders look forward to driving or dating or getting their own cell phone, but I looked forward to drinking cans of soda from a moldy refrigerator. The day I gained that privilege would be the day I joined the youth group. After years...

My brother stands frozen in time, trapped in eternal wonderment as the gray horse sculpture rears above his head. An open-air church service is being held behind him, underneath the shade of another great, restless beast. A preacher dressed in a...

'Iman!' My mother called me to the living room in a tone that promised nothing. She inhaled sharply and I knew even before she parted her lips to speak. Here was the single suitcase that contained the essential items I would need. Here was the...

I grew up attending a segregated school - a place that shouldn't exist in our era, but does. A school that had separate lunch tables, separate bleachers at football games, and separate ballots. My seven-year old brain could not comprehend why my...

I just cannot help it -- I see the world around me like I am looking through a camera lens. Everywhere I go I see perfect photo opportunities. Whenever I stumble upon beautiful lighting, contrast, shape, color or texture, I am compelled to take a...

“There’s no shortage of female applicants, but we have trouble finding ones who are skilled enough,” said the female engineer guiding us at Adobe Headquarters, where my robotics team had the privilege of visiting. Her words stuck with me. I,...

Some say that the most important piece of a journey is the first step. My first step is into thick, saturated fog. At other times, this fog would create a sense of isolation, but here, it is a being which has enveloped thousands of sojourners...

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...