Newest College Application Essays

My eyes were greeted by the luminous glow of fluorescent lights and sterile white walls of Rumah Sakit Bunda (Bunda Hospital). This was a stark contrast to the escalating chaos and barbarity in the dilapidated Indonesian streets. In due time, the...

As dawn broke and the rays of sunlight shined through the tiny cracks in the cabin walls, I woke up to the sound of creaking doors and the smell of urine.With one eye open, I peeked below me, where my beautiful 27-year old Sarah was wide awake...

I had never before seen a sleeping bee. Yet there it was, nestled among lavender petals. I could see the yellow pollen dusting the bee’s delicate wings. As I looked around, I could see other life in the garden settling down as well. The constant...

I was invincible until I found myself in a dimly lit, white-walled hospital room in the endocrinology department of Children's Hospital Los Angeles. February 19, 2013 will be engraved in the deepest part of my brain forever; I underwent a...

As the new student in my sixth grade English class, I was asked where I was from. "Where is your home?" a classmate inquired. As I opened my mouth to answer, I was struck by the sudden realization that there was no particular place that I was able...

My teenage life in Darien, Connecticut has been defined considerably by my involvement as a state certified EMT in Post 53, the only known ambulance service in America staffed and governed entirely by volunteer high school students. Through four...

As I stood at the end of the ledge watching my older brother prepare to attach to the zip line deep underground in New Zealand's Waitomo Caves, I couldn't help but think about the seemingly endless darkness that filled the cave ahead of us. The...

“Millions long for immortality but do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon,” sharing her views on life, Susan Ertz describes the force that has the ability to unify all of humanity. Life, the cool summer dew forming on...

When I was trying to pitch my first business, I learned the hard way that getting in front of the right people is not easy. A stacked rolodex can make a world of difference when trying to secure funding or landing that dream job. Because of this,...

My mother and I -- weary with travel, drained from a day of sightseeing, and armed with only a butter knife -- once dismantled a bathroom door in a Paris apartment. We were exhausted, having, in true Schultz family vacation style, walked about 10...

“Surrealism is embedded in the everyday, in the daily experience” -- Katharine Conley

It seems fitting for me to transform every moment or thought into a film screened inside my head. Cinema is my life, and guides me beyond my life. I rise from...

“If I were you, I’d take the white ones. They’d look nice with your purple trucks.”

Chris, the sales assistant at the skate shop, was helping me choose some wheels for my new skateboard. As he set to work assembling it, I plopped down next to my...

When I was fourteen I became an arms dealer, of sorts.

While other kids played video games, I inadvertently started a business. It began when my overprotective mother refused to let me and my brother have the Nerf guns that were so popular at the...

At the age of twelve, I wasn't much of an ornithologist, but even I could tell that there was something wrong with the Okhla Bird Sanctuary. The park itself was beautiful, with artistically carved bushes, an overflowing lake, and rolling grasses...

"S-P-H-E-R-I-C-A-L," I declared. Flashing a grin to the 600-person audience, I glanced at the ink stains dotting my clasped hands. These hands had suffered for months practicing obscure words from the dictionary. One person away from winning the...

In fourth grade, I was forced to choose a profession for Career Day. I remember being overwhelmed by the vocations available to me. I could be a doctor, an engineer, a public accountant, or even a pilot. How could a nine-year old choose? Since...

The most important part of my life began nearly a hundred years ago, in a city I have never visited, with a woman I have never met.

Picture 1920s New York City: the prime era of renewal, jazz, and the beginning of the 20th century feminist...

Grasping the knife, I made deliberate cuts. Mumbling, I couldn't focus on what I was doing. Looking outside at the bleak clouds and parched grass, I felt groggy. Gray cinderblock-like bags tugged on my haggard eyes. The leaky kitchen faucet's "ka...

"You're ugly, and you have no friends."

We were settling in our seats for the annual career day assembly, and Eleni Pappas turned and spat the words out at me. I blushed while she laughed, pulling her hair off her lace-trimmed shirt (which, for...

The Furnace

My lungs heaved as though filled with old ash as I made my way up the cliff, arms' length by arms' length. It's a tradition at my school for the seniors to take a four-day excursion into the wilderness on the Outward Bound program. Day...

I didn’t have much to say when I was very young.

In fact, according to family legend, I didn’t utter so much as a single word for the first three years of my life.

Naturally, my mom and dad began frantically seeking the expertise of speech...

“I HATE science.”

Poor, unsuspecting Mrs. Lato. When she cheerily asked us to jot down our interests in science, I penned my sentence of outright rejection. This eleven-year-old clearly did not share the passion of my new science teacher.

Now, had...

The wind whipped across my face, grabbing the hair I had attempted to coax into a ponytail, pushing it into my mouth, and tangling it around my neck. Water splashed with unrelenting ferocity off the blade spinning desperately in my hands. My...