Cornell University Undergraduate College Application Essays

"This is a nightmare," I thought. Sean was on the ground wincing in pain and blood was slowly leaking through his spandex. A million things raced through my mind but I stopped, took a deep breath, collected my thoughts and got to work. Sean had...

“So you want to go to med school. Is it for the money or to appease your parents?” Neither, because money isn’t worth the sacrifice of dealing with insanity and I have only one parent, who cannot be appeased by my attending med school. This was...

With bright tangerine walls, meticulously hung alphabet charts, and “remember to wash your hands” posters, Kumon Learning Center is not the place I would have expected to find my maturity. As I stand in the Center now, though, I look back and see...

Riding the elevator down into the aquarium, with the azure shadows refracting off my body, I had never been so alive. Immersed in the aura of the thousands upon millions species of fish, I felt like I was staring right into my own soul and beyond...

This is the balcony that extends into infinite dimensions. Inside: paintings and the smell of dusk. Lined against the tiled walls are canvases both void and filled. A soft light overhead. There is something extremely calming about occupying this...

It’s been three years. The edges of the photo are soft now, and the colors have dimmed. It has been worn thin and fragile, and there is a deepening crease down its center from the years it spent folded between my fingers. I don't usually keep...

If at any given moment there is not at least one child screaming, one dog barking, any variation of an alarm sounding and/or someone "practicing" an instrument they don't actually know how to play, something is awry in my house. Generally, any...

When I was ten months old, I grabbed onto the coffee table and hauled myself up, arms shaking, fists clenched, knees wobbling; ten minutes later, much to my parents’ dismay, I was sprinting around the house, choppy bangs flapping in the wind like...

For decades, the classic dispute of “nature vs. nurture” in regards to our maturation has dominated the debate about how children develop. Does a specific gene passed on from your parents predispose you to a life of crime? Are children more likely...

“It is your turn” were the four words that I, at age 12, feared would be uttered from my mother’s lips. I knew that is was only a matter of time until my mother would send me off to the Dome Market, my local market in Ghana, to purchase the “...

A scrawny boy in beat-up velcro sneakers ran past. Our tour guide Mohammed sighed heavily, “Angel Park is probably the only place where a young boy could be young. Outside, he's probably the head of the family, working three jobs to secure meals...

"Wealth without virtue is no harmless neighbor." -Sappho

How businesses and corporations balance the virtue of giving back and profit-seeking is one of my greatest fascinations. For example, the American company Tom's donates a pair of shoes for...

I grabbed my first camera in sixth grade. I would grasp the handle of the silver Sony camcorder like slipping on a comfortable glove, and glide my thumb over the intricate aluminum buttons, finally putting it to rest on top of the big red dot...

"My six year old could do that," a woman behind me remarks. I feel a twinge of irritation, but I don't blame her; a few years ago, I would’ve agreed. To the average eye, Grace Hartigan's work of Abstract Expressionism, The Gallow Ball, appears to...

“Please rise for the national anthem and the presentation of the colors.” Immediately, the thousands of people attending this Memorial Day program rise in reverent silence. It’s 9:30 in morning, the sun illuminates the Star-Spangled Banner, and...

I want to change the cynical, bitter stigma attached to politics. Many only see corruption and greedy lobbying, but politics is my outlet to solve the growing problems of our modern world. Nothing else has the potential to affect the lives of...

Consumed by exhaustion, agony, and stress, my dad silently plods toward his old recliner and sinks into it. His delivery route had seen five extensions in the past year, and the USPS management was attempting to enforce a sixth. Severe gout and...

Throughout high school, I pursued endeavors to alleviate suffering and fulfill my Catholic calling, volunteering in nursing homes, hospitals and clinics for chronically ill patients. However, working in these places made me notice the inherent...

I am quadrilingual. Sure, it sounds fancy, but as a biracial child of two immigrants, being quadrilingual feels natural to me. English. My mother tongue. No explanation required. As an infant my mom would teach me words by holding up a ball and...

Four years of Latin have taught me several truths: the great Julius Caesar’s writings are unexpectedly boring; almost all novels derive from The Aeneid; and most people see no value in a ‘dead’ language. Despite these apparent drawbacks, Latin has...

“Do not touch” signs are probably my biggest temptation. The simple statement of a rule makes the action it advises against almost irresistible to me. There is no better way to ensure that something is done than to tell me I can’t or shouldn’t do...

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

These words have always held a spiritual quality to me. Something sacred, like a marble statue. And in the gym, when we repeat them, I feel that even with all the sweaty air...

“And that,” said my allergist, pricking my back before moving a couple inches, selecting a new vial of food particle and repeating, “is why you react to nuts so strongly. We’re trying to see now if you’re allergic to anything else.” My back itched...

At the perfect time for a girl fresh into high school to receive a cringe-inducing nickname destined to stick, I acquired the moniker “potato.” When I picked up a picture of myself as a five-year-old and nonchalantly commented that I looked like a...