Tufts University Undergraduate College Application Essays

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...

I stood there holding my stethoscope, listening to a five year-old child’s back, nervously searching for any abnormality, trying to control my nerves and focus on my work. I shifted my stethoscope to another spot, the sweat on my back now beading...

This morning, day seventeen, my blueish lips burned in the freezing wind and my soaked hair clung to my face. In what seemed like moments, however, I was in the canoe, watching the sun begin to rise above the calm Canadian river. Cicadas serenaded...

On a sweltering July day, five other teenagers and I, varying in age from fourteen to eighteen, were sprinting across the fields of Horsham Park, hoping to catch a level 897 Nidoking or maybe even the elusive Dratini. We would take down infamous...

While I was on vacation several years ago, a girl about my age approached me while I was splashing around in the pool. She, like me, was probably an only child on a vacation with two lame parents who wanted to unwind and rest, not rush down slides...

Everything happens in the Miller family kitchen. It’s here that we celebrate birthdays, cram 40 Thanksgiving guests (even though there’s plenty of room to spread out), endlessly listen to the Eagles, and most importantly have the serious family...

Ice cream machine to my left, plate of pasta perilously balanced in the palm of my hand, I glanced at Russell Jens ‘18, inquiring, “tell me Tufts has an unlimited meal plan,” to which he responded with a resounding “yes”. Over our meal Russell...

184,000 miles. This is the number glowing green on the dashboard of my 2008 gold Prius. Although most people might interpret this number as a sign my car has been on the road for far too long, I see it as a badge of honor. Despite the strange...

One Way Out of Gym, the mystery of a murdered gym teacher, is not a timeless classic. It’s a novel that spent zero weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List. There’s only one copy—I published it myself. Few care about Detective Charley or the...

On the 23rd floor, in the midst of darkness and a sea of repetitive buildings, I breathed freely through the footage I was editing. I was inhaling fear and exhaling joy as I trimmed through the videos in symphony with the emotions of the scene....

The three most important words in my mother’s vocabulary are not “I love you”, but “make your bed.” She adores those words, repeating them over and over again like a broken record player. But did I listen? Rarely. I didn’t understand the point....

My sweat glistened as I biked through the narrow alley of my neighborhood, constantly searching for an adventure. I could feel the sun, scorching its heat upon my sweat-dampened shirt and burning my feet through the sole of my sandals. But I didn’...

My daily commute is the old woman who fries akara cakes near the bus stop; the strident calls of bus conductors calling out their various destinations; an antiquated bus radio stuttering with Igbo folk songs.

Two years ago, I would have refused...

I remember the large, looping curves in her handwriting. I remember them well because they are now characteristic of my own penmanship. When I attempt to draw human figures, I recall the bulbous eyes she often gave her cartoon characters when we...

When the credits are over and most of the audience is gone, I am still stuck in my seat waiting for something to happen. Then the projector starts buzzing again and the screen lights up with a final bonus-scene the director has decided to bless us...

His name was Tiger. He was a 13-year-old Yorkshire Terrier with eyes that were too big for his face. He was nervous, understandably, having been displaced after his family had to give him up. Tiger was one of 3.9 million dogs that enter shelters...

Moshing - the arm flailing, leg kicking dancing that happens at hardcore concerts. And I mosh with my parents, of all people. As you can imagine, they weren’t too keen on the idea of their 13-year-old daughter “turning emo”. I developed a love for...

In The Office series finale, Andy Bernard remarks that he wished there was a “way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve left them.” I know in my own life, there have been days where I ached for my childhood, the time when my days were...

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...

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...

“I want to die.” is the alarming message that appears in my chat-requests at exactly 12:29 AM. The blue-bubble floats on my computer screen, a dialogue waiting to happen. It’s getting late, but I don’t waste time. I click ‘Accept’. The person...

My mom doesn’t deserve all the credit for ensuring I completed my first race. Three million checklists, a royal guard and a savage bloodhound were among the influencers. They hadn’t featured in my vision of a perfect marathon though—the wind...

Six years ago, outfitted in an ill-fitting yellow polo and plaid kilt, eyes meekly downcast, I boarded CT Transit bus 328 for the first time. My hands trembled as I fumbled in my backpack pockets for the blue-and-white plastic ticket which seemed...

The pungent smell of durian, balanced by the sweet, tantalizing scent of xiao long bao greets me when I step into the brightly-lit supermarket. My mother’s voice rings out behind me– “Remember, no candy!”– as I swiftly traverse the colorful...