St. John's University Undergraduate College Application Essays

Sweat poured down my face as I struggled to breathe. I was dehydrated and exhausted, and I was trying as hard as I could not to give up. From the bleachers and the sidelines, the eyes of every member of the crowd were focused intently on me. One...

Ping! The elevator doors opened on Floor Nine, and I was in another world. Leaving the chaos of panicking patients and bustling doctors in the floors below, I found myself walking down a deserted hallway.

This was my first day volunteering at the...

On Being a Middle Child

As our annual family picture day approaches, disputes about matching attire, scenery, or whether or not our pets will be included continue to dominate our dinnertime discussions. I’m not keen on, nor do I oppose, this...

I remember, when I was barely old enough to remember, my cousin and I racing up a hill to the very, very top and collapsing on the prickly, weathered bench. The adults were far behind us, discussing adult-like things that had no place in our...

Thank goodness apartments don’t have emotions. If my one bedroom apartment did, I can guarantee that its paint would be chipping off as rapidly as the layers of my sanity. Every morning, I'd wake up to the sound of my alarm clock simultaneously...

Before I started diving, I yearned for a special place with an amazing view reachable only by a chosen few: the top of Everest, or a view of Earth from a porthole of a space shuttle. However, from the first moment I put on a mask and a pair of...

Do you know what your hair type is? Probably not, I have natural 3c-4a hair. Beyond interesting trivial, I honestly care less as to what my hair texture is, but at one point in my life I felt as if my hair texture would either make me or break me....

It was in my freshman year of high school when my father gave me the gift of a desk for my new room in our new house. A small black desk from Ikea. A desk that went unused for the first year I owned it. It saw no work. Housed no books. It sat...

I sat in the ornate home of my teammate’s mom, an established Palestinian surgeon, when she said, “I wish someone had killed them all.” I just finished asking this woman how the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict impacted her life, and was shocked at...

Saturdays were the days I followed my mom to work. Her boss would pick us up from our home in Brooklyn to the store that was miles away in Long Island. The hour-long ride felt like a trip across the country; forests and wheat fields greeted us as...

“Shayna and Dominique, you can come see her now”.

The nurse’s grey scrubs complemented the calming atmosphere of the waiting room. My mom had just finished her surgery. My sister and I were finally allowed to see her after two hours of eating...

Tossed into the wild, alone I was to fend for myself against the ravenous beasts. A rustling, no the clanking of Jenga bricks upon the floor, startled me. His imposing 4-foot figure stood before me as a sudden shadow flickered before my eyes. A...

Wake up, shots fired.

Go out, be kidnapped.

Buy food… there’s none.

A rich country that evolved into a third world country in the blink of an eye. Venezuela, that’s where I lost my childhood innocence. Forced to grow up, forced to take actions....