California Institute of Technology Undergraduate College Application Essays

"Can you photocopy money?" my teacher asked. I shook my head, slowly reddening. No, I was not involved in some illegal money laundering scheme. But at that moment, my teacher accused me of a crime to the same punishable degree.

My junior English...

While my classmates conversed in hushed tones about philosophy, I stood alone in the back corner of the room—hula hooping.

My Humanities teacher had asked me to hula hoop for the entire class period to prove my claim that I was the "best hula...

My mom stood in front of the cash register, waiting for the cashier to scan her credit card. Employees walked back and forth, shouting requests for price-checks or scanning items at lightning speed. But today, I didn’t notice these things. I didn’...

According to English folklore, a woman with a widow's peak will outlive her husband. Well tell that to a self-conscious fifth-grader and tell me how she responds.

In 5th grade, a girl in my class sidled up to me, grinning, and informed me, "You...

My legs dangled high above the ground as I sat next to my mom on the train. As I fidgeted the way little children do, my mother spoke to me. “You have plump fingers, not thin and bony like mine.” I frowned at her as she held my then tiny hands in...

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,...

“It focuses 201 precise beams of radiation directly on the tumor. Scary isn’t it?” As I deliver my prepared presentation about the Gamma Knife during the TSA National Conference, I can't help but wonder if I have really done justice to the power...

I feel myself jump as the ground shakes, and Horace Vandergelder storms out. My heart beats, and all I can think is to wait for it, wait for it—dialogue, more dialogue, finally singing… “And now that we’re dancing who cares if we ever stop!” That’...

Book 1: Jurassic Park

This was the first book I read that combined math with action and portrayed the mathematician as a hero, which made me hopeful about my professional future—but did give me unusual, dinosaur-infested nightmares.

Book 2: Der...

Is she moody... or just broody? An obstacle course game should do the trick. Let’s also add some dried mealworms to the mix!

Every day, my pet chickens surprise me with their unique personalities and quirky behaviors, whether they are gracefully...

“Oh d-d-d-d-dear, dear!”

Among the lush trees of the Hundred Acre Woods, a little stuffed pig named Piglet searches for his friends. Despite being a tiny ball of anxiety, he displays remarkable amounts of compassion and fortitude whenever his...