Georgetown University Undergraduate College Application Essays

1:16AM.

The taxi system in Shanghai is active all around the clock, so I’m in no rush. My eyes scan the luggage conveyor belt and, soon enough, I have my suitcase and make my way onto the taxi platform. I hail a blue cab, tell the driver my...

For the past three years, I have been the diversity. Seventy-five percent of the students around me share in the Roman Catholic faith, while I am a devout Presbyterian. However, attending a Catholic school has not diverted me from my Presbyterian...

Out of breath and hurting all over, I drip with sweat in the midst of a six-minute wrestling bout with my friend, James. While fighting on the bottom and gasping for air, I am reminded of Einstein’s words: “When you are courting a nice girl an...

I wake up an hour before the stampede towards the shower begins in my summer camp residence hall. Quietly, I close my dorm door so as to not startle my week-long roommate awake--I had to be alone. My clothes and towel hang on the stall as I brace...

He brutally murdered his sister. Driving intoxicated in the waning hours of the night, he recklessly swerves in and out of lanes until he finally loses control and rams his car into a tree. Save for a few cuts and bruises, he escapes unscathed....

I changed my name in preschool.

I’d always thought that being an Indian in America was about being the least Indian I could possibly be. I exchanged dosas and coconut chutney for the cafeteria’s coveted French bread pizza. I hid the six-armed...

“Understand the meaning of MC. The power to Move the Crowd like Moses splits the seas.” Remembering the lyrics of Talib Kweli, my favorite rapper, I rapped, surrounded by a small crowd on the streets. As I stole glimpses of teens in their...

The sun warms my frozen skin, and the granite flecked with pine needles and ants is rough under my beach towel. Gratefully I accept an apple and a piece of baguette with cheese from my father, and reluctantly pass the bag of trail mix resplendent...

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you stab us do we not die?

I cry out in pain, despair and anger, every nerve of my upper torso tensed up. The flood lights trip. The spotlight - amidst the darkness - illuminates my presence as Shylock, in The...

The age-old question. Where is Waldo?

As a young child, I too struggled to find the ever infamous character with the bold yet ridiculously camouflaged striped shirt and mocking grin. I would pore over a page of my Where’s Waldo book for hours of...

As a child, I was obsessed with 80’s movies. I admired Ferris Bueller’s infectious charisma and fearless confidence. I dreamed of having my own Jake Ryan waiting outside the church, grinning an impish smile while standing by his cool red Porsche....

For four dollars, anyone can buy a bag of heroin in a town five minutes from my school. Prescription cousins of heroin, like Oxycontin and Vicodin, have been over-prescribed for decades. But as the war on drugs has progressed, a crackdown on...

The political documentary category on Netflix is one of my favorite sections. I love learning about the components of our governmental system, from logrolling to voting. As a social studies enthusiast, I see the world as constantly changing, as...

Growing up as a lefty, you soon realize the many disadvantages of living in a right-hand oriented world. A dull pain rubs against your hand when you try to use scissors. You painstakingly learn how to jerk around a keyboard mouse with your right...

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...

My mother was born and raised in Vietnam. My father is a fifth-generation Californian whose family journeyed across Death Valley in the 19th century. My aunts are Taiwanese and Singaporean, and my cousin is Italian. With this mixed background, I...

A little over half a year ago, I refreshed my email for the hundredth time and caught my breath when I finally found what I was looking for. My heart pounded as I scanned the list of students who had been accepted into my school’s “We The People”...

1,2,3,2…1,1,2,5…1,6,5,3…at first you have to remember each combination, which move is next, but after a while it becomes instinctive: in a bout you don’t have time to think. Despite boxing’s bad rap for being barbaric, it’s long been known as the...

I was up to my ears in water, fighting to stay afloat. I was more concerned about not drowning than wondering if I would ever be good enough to lead my team to a championship. Four years later, I can elevate out of the water above my waist and...

The screech of my alarm heralds a new day. As darkness melts into cobalt streaks over the Oniru neighbourhood of Lagos, Nigeria, I prepare breakfast for my younger relatives. By dawn, I'm on the bus hurtling towards the red-brick compound of...

When I ventured out onto the rural homestead occupied by Tambudzai and her family in colonial Rhodesia, I never returned. My mother's worn copy of Nervous Conditions, the book that tells of their adventures, was surreptitiously slipped back into...

“Hi, my name is Upasana. I’m six and half years old, and my favorite color is purple,” I said as I introduced myself to my new first grade class. As usual, I was greeted back with thirty confused faces. Apparently, my name was too complex for my...

The summer before my junior year, I watched my grandparents working on the far side of the lawn, shoveling compost and mounds of grayish soil over freshly seeded patches. It was a strangely perceptive moment: glistening beads of sweat ran over...

The alarm heralding the dawn becomes redundant as a mix of dread and excitement has kept me up all night. It’s 5 am. Today I will compete in my third Junior National Equestrian Championship in Pune at the National Defence Academy.

I’ve determined...