University of California - San Diego Undergraduate College Application Essays

The barbed wire fence was still wet from the morning dew. I peered across the broad fields and felt the pang of sadness, thinking about the countless souls buried before me. I stood within the haunting gas chambers and touched the scratch marks...

“I used to work for Johnny Adams,But he has abused the States!Taken away all their rights,Oh, he did abuse the States!He was a real nasty guy,That can only mean one thing…He wants to declare war on FranceA Quasi-War don’t make no sense!”

Picture...

The first beats of the tabla played, and my body relaxed. I closed my eyes to absorb the rhythm, then I started to sing. The interweaving of melodies and micro-tunes required deep focus; I needed to block out all distractions. The tensions from my...

Biology. Cellular research. Diagnosing neurological diseases. These are my passions. I was eight years-old when my mother gave me a small but very real microscope. I first used it to examine the cellular structure of my father’s hair. A field...

I attempted my first back handspring during Cheer tryouts my freshman year. My legs clumsily guided me across the mat, the momentum of the trick promptly knocking me off-center and, by extension, onto the ground.

When I received a congratulatory...

The pointe shoes on my feet carry me across the floor with restrained urgency, the movement of my arms in alignment to the syncopation of the music. Ideas flow through my fingertips, and manifest themselves in the form of choreography.

From a...

Raised as a figure skater, and indoctrinated into believing that thinner thighs produced higher jumps and faster rotations, I started my first diet as a ten-year-old. Meals were replaced with protein shakes, and childlike innocence devolved into...

My eyes glistened as I watched a documentary on Korean Pop Stardom. The trainees were subject to strict diets, inflexible rules, and practice from morning to midnight. The video intended to reveal the supposed horrors of the industry. Yet, as a...

My mom loves to tell the story of when I was a baby, and I would pull the biggest book I could find off the shelf and into my lap, tracing my fingers over the words and pretending I knew what I was reading. Since the night I came home from the...

For as long as I can remember, my parents have always been insistent on taking photos whenever they got the chance. I used to find it annoying, always having to look at the camera, smile, and pose on demand, but now I realize the value of those...

For most of my life I’ve felt that I’m good at almost everything, but not great at one single thing. I can write an essay just fine. My five-minute sprint is decent. I’m a good public speaker. But I couldn’t find that one thing, my one niche,...

When my family first moved to our new home, our yard was gorgeous. Lush green grass, nice bushes, pretty ground cover---then the California drought hit. My parents, being the responsible environmentalists that they are, stopped watering the yards....

Thump Thump. No sound had ever sounded better to my ears, although through a balloon encased in a beaker, it resembled more closely to "woosh woosh". For the past five months, I had been working on the model of an artificial heart for my...

At my first karate class, unimaginably intimated, I picked up my big black burly uniform and my inflexible white belt and attempted unsuccessfully to put it on myself. An older girl graciously helped me. I stood in the very back of the class, and...

"That's art?" my seating neighbor exclaimed in the crisp air of our busy art classroom.

I had to admit, staring at Russian modernist Kazimir Malevich's Black Square painting, I didn't particularly see the esthetic appeal or even the intellectual...

While our teacher was explaining the impact of COVID-19 on international trade, I was creating a fairytale: finding a savior amidst warring global economies. When the textbook spoke of symbiotic relationships, I was weaving a fable on luminescent...

In Biology, acronyms make learning easier. I took the liberty to create my own, CELL, allowing exploration both inside and outside the classroom.C: Cleveland & ClinicsI talked to the Head of the Department of Ocular Oncology at Cleveland...

At Hogwarts, House Cup rivalries & petty squabbles are more often than not, the norm. Although our community is large and diverse, its existence is threatened by dark forces - the ever-present danger of plastic pollution, unequal opportunities...

How does one prepare for a test with no correct answer? There aren't flashcards to flip through, past practice tests to predict similar problems, or a study guide to fill out. How would a test like this even be administered? The answer - a...

Crystals fell from the sky, images of a never-seen winter wonderland falling into place. Snow flurries drifted through the air; a faded yellow fluorescent light from the rundown Chinese restaurant radiated through each flake, reflecting the...

Grasping the air bulb in my hand, I squeeze till the arm cuff is snug around the nurse. Methodically, I turn the valve on the bulb, letting out a faint stream of air, still pressing my stethoscope firmly upon the brachial artery, listening for the...

When you listen to a podcast, it sounds smooth and fluid like the people are having a fun conversation in their living rooms. At least, if it is a semi-decent production. Basically, if things are done well, you don’t even think about what goes...

When I look back at the videos of my so-called dance performances as a 5-year old, I feel my soul cringe. Little 5-year-old Tara had herself convinced that even Beyonce couldn’t hold a candle to her dance moves. Why did my mother allow me to make...

“Pass me a new toothbrush please!” I heard my father shout. As I opened the bathroom drawer, I was taken aback- why does it look like my family owns a toiletry business? Our drawer was stacked with a range of toothbrushes, soaps in different...