Cornell University Undergraduate College Application Essays

My first love was food—a love I hold in common with all the women in my family. When my mom started a catering company, I discovered that not only was I obsessed with the preparation and transformation of ingredients, I was freakishly good at it....

“No excuses;” the motto of Isaiah Bird, a nine-year-old fifth grader from my hometown. Isaiah was born without legs, and even with this impairment, he plays soccer, football, swims, runs track, surfs, and skateboards. However, the wrestling mat is...

Ithaca, New York is a long way away from Mississippi with its innate Southern values, sweltering summers, and a culture with an aversion to diversity and change. I’ve learned from my upbringing in a rural Southern town, though, that education and...

Miles: Zero

The distance from Meridian to Hot Coffee, Mississippi spans 80 miles. By the end of May, the boys in my family and I squeeze into dad’s 1983 Toyota Pickup, and we speed away to a grimy race track wedged in the midst a ghost town. As we...

My brain is in a superposition between string and music theory.

At any given moment, I am dedicating my full self to the growing popularity of cosmic rays…

When I visited Cornell over the summer, the first thing I noticed was that Cornell does not...

2007: “Are y’all comin’?” I yell to the kids on the playground as I run over to the swings. They look at each other and laugh, clearly making fun of the way I speak. I put my head down, embarrassed, and walk to the swings alone. I wish I hadn’t...

One day I was playing piano, lost in own musical universe, when I was interrupted by a faint tapping sound not of my own making, accompanied by a superficial fragrance. Tap, after tap, after tap. I stopped playing, turned around, and saw my mother...

All I ever had to define myself, all I know, is that I am part French. Warm French summers in the countryside, full of laughter, good food, family time, and my French education, that was what I considered my culture. Knowing not of the severity of...

My clammy hands trembled as I prepared to meet my camper for my very first day as a volunteer at Muscular Dystrophy Association summer camp. I had no idea how to instantly connect with him, but as Sebastian raced towards me in his Formula red...

While taking care of a young boy afflicted by muscular dystrophy, I was fascinated by his Permobil C300 wheelchair - the awe-inspiring drivetrain that pitted sheer torque against disheveled terrain, the intuitive and maneuverable joystick driving...

On Thursday, July 10th, I learned an essential lesson about ambition.

I walked optimistically through the grand Springer Opera House entranceway, ready for a day of captivating classes and wild theatre kids. I saw my friends and migrated downstage...

The rain pelted the windows outside and steam gently rose from my coffee cup on a cold November night. It was ten o’clock and I was the last person left in the Museum of American Finance. I was almost finished with my culminating research project...

From the time I was able to grasp the basic concepts of the body’s organ systems in elementary school, to my study of the laws of Isaac Newton and the applications of Le Châtelier's Principle, I have always been enraptured by the sciences. Even...

My left foot takes a daring step, leading my body into the foreign environment, darkness enveloping me as an air of forbidden exhilaration rushes through my veins. The creatures of the night chirp vigorously and the dew-filled grass wraps itself...

I never imagined that a game of handball could become a proxy battle for who was right about the China-Taiwan conflict, but here I was, my first time in Nepal, and the game was nothing short of savage. Getting into a conflict with my students...

When he fell off a cliff, Harold drew a hot air balloon to catch himself. When he fell in love with an apple tree, he created a dragon to guard its jewels[WU1] . When he created too many pies for himself, he drew hungry animals to prevent waste....

I’ve always seen the world through a comedic lens. Even when I’m immersed in something serious, like writing college essays, I can’t help but consider the situation’s ridiculous extremes, such as: How would accomplished historical figures...

It makes me angry that grape flavored medicine doesn't really taste anything like grape. It tastes more like some tonic that evil witches in fairy-tales would give to some person to poison them. I don't know who thought those medicines tasted like...

I was at a loss for words.

Before we traveled back to New York, my dad insisted that we visit a nearby plantation. As I walked across the Carolina cotton field, I pictured myself in my ancestors' shoes. Imagining the verbal, physical and mental...

"Come quick!” At six-years old, I struggle to Velcro my shoes on as I peer out the window to see where my father had gone. Eyes twinkling, he showed me a bright, green caterpillar chewing on a leaf, high in the branches. Hand in hand, we explored...

It was a brisk summer day in the park next to my house. I had just finished my Eagle Scout project I had been working on for the past week and I was preparing for a quick jog to unload all of the stress and grogginess of the past couple of days....

Three young children scrambled into the room— Amy, Sam, and Kevin. They were orphans soon to be adopted by families in Europe, so my job was to teach them English. Easy, I thought, all I have to do is make a lesson plan and give them worksheets....

This Saturday morning was unlike any other. All of us dressed in lab coats, wearing protective goggles, and holding test tubes in our gloved hands…. it was impossible not to feel like professional researchers (for me, at least). The tranquility of...

It felt like performing dental work on an apprehensive clam without any gloves; the ridges of the Dragon’s bony mouth scraped combatively against my knuckles as it swallowed its treasure. “I cannot imagine the faces of the horrified crowd behind...