Drexel University Undergraduate College Application Essays

“Samantha Nicole!” my mother began. The deliberate usage of my middle name indicated she was preparing to reprimand me. I instantly knew I had been caught peering underneath my neon pink Barbie bandage. As do most young children, I chose to...

After years of constant nagging, I finally gave in to my family's relentless pressure to try cooked pig intestines, or chitlins. Their smell, both sickening and overbearing, has made me steer clear from them every year. But, honoring a strong...

As we rode down the hill toward Henley Island and I caught my first glimpse of the boats, the food tents, and the hundreds of rowers, I realized that I now knew what it meant to have a life-changing experience. Over the last six weeks, I had been...

Throughout my younger years, wearing a blazer, collared shirt, and nice pants to preschool always set me apart from my classmates. As I got older, selling pencils to kids who needed them right before a test sparked my business interest. That...

Annie’s face is as vivid in my mind now as it was four years ago. I can see the passion for life that sparkled in her eyes and the crazy, intense grin that stretched across her face like a bridge across the sea. Although my experience with Annie...

The finely milled sand was white-hot, almost as if a billion microscopic pieces of the sun had rained down and settled beneath the soles of my feet. As I scanned the beach, I took a deep breath of the muggy air, letting the dampness settle in my...

The soccer ball is coming right at my face, I flinch momentarily and it bounces off me into my own goal. What have I done? In short, I have most likely just caused my team to lose the game, and all because I moved a bit to the right. In the...

The transition between childhood and adulthood is not denoted by a fine line, but sometimes there is a definitive moment that rearranges everything that has gone before and shapes everything that comes after. For me, that moment was the first day...

It was three o’clock in the afternoon. My first race was full of middle-aged men, and the decals on their cars weren’t all stickers like mine. They had been painted professionally. But paint jobs don’t impact speed and, to my advantage, I had the...

Stuffy rooms, stinking washrooms, cracked desks and torn books. There was a strange feeling, walking down the corridor as I entered the premises. It was totally unexpected, especially from a place like this - right after a long break for summer.

The first ride I had on Gnocchi was awful. He was a project horse who didn’t “listen” to my leg, seat, or hand; aids that help me communicate with a horse. He wouldn’t stand still for me to tack him up or mount him. When I actually rode him, he...

I was tired of being that "fat kid.” I’ve struggled with my weight since…. well, the name calling started to sting. My weight, and its effect on my attitude, prevented me from feeling comfortable socially. It became more worse when I changed...

My dad taught me my first science lesson. He knew it did not have to start at school, but rather the minute a mind starts asking questions. That is what science has always consisted of—a curiosity forming into a question and a question being...

“Ladies please stop throwing tampons around the locker room!”

These words bounced off the dimly lit walls like the fluorescent lights above us. Thirty seventh graders paused the weekly ritual of cramming their Ugg boots into chipped maroon lockers...

I wasn’t going home with my mom that night. She was waiting outside the clinic to pick me up just like she did every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday night, and I heard my phone buzz with the predictable “I’m here” text. But instead, I told her to...

Live musicians yell into their mics while the crowd jumps and sings along to their music. I’m out of breath, my chest hurts, and I know my voice will be gone, but I’ve accepted it. An older man stands up on one of the picnic tables, dancing and...

My heavy breathing was the only sound echoing within the room. This was it. The moment where all of our hours of research and practice were being evaluated in a 10 minute documentary followed by an intense Q&A. "My documentary has to be...

The inner truth hidden beneath the outer layers of a mandala - the profound, rooted love represented by astronomical symbols, the vitality and fertility expressed through leaves and paisleys. As a child I excitedly sat to have my hands decorated...

“Let’s get out of here, just you and me.”

This is what Molly, my friend, whispered to me one afternoon as she awoke from an “in-and-out” nap, as she likes to call it. Molly is a 90-something year old hospice patient who is wrapped in dementia and...

I have fallen in love with Thursdays. Why? Because I volunteer in the ER at Cleveland Clinic in Weston, Florida, constantly madcap organization, a symphony of coughing and wheezing, as well as electric energy. Whether it is consoling patients or...

As a careless child with no worries besides what my Barbie was wearing to our next tea party, I never cared enough about appearance or culture to be bothered by the clear difference between me most of my classmates. Despite the various lessons we...

As I sit in psychology class and learn about Social Identity Theory, I reflect on my cultural identity. I moved from California to Karnataka when I was six. My Abba decided we had to go back to our home, hence my parents started filling suitcases...

Vision blurry, fastened heartbeat, confused & humid head. There’s an excruciating pain all over my body and fear has engulfed my heart. The sun aggressively embraces my eyes. I raise my right hand to block the light, simultaneously bringing my...