University of California - Santa Cruz Undergraduate College Application Essays

As a kid, I loved traffic jams, since they meant playing ‘The License Plate Game’ with my dad. The rules are simple: chose a license plate on a car and find a meaning or a pattern in those numbers and letters. For example, if a woman in her mid...

Wherever the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love of humanity.

--Hippocrates

I am fortunate to have grown up in a medical family: my grandfather and his brothers are traditional Chinese medical doctors. In fact, since my parents took...

When I sit in my studio (as I am now), I like to leave the window open. The screen strains the breeze, and I fancy the air to be more pure, as if the world were left outside. The air is the same, I imagine, as anywhere else I've ever been, in all...

As I walk into the kitchen, bleary-eyed, I can hear the television anchor announcing the latest news. I suddenly perk up upon hearing Maria Bartiromo's rapid reports on the latest stock market ups and downs, and I listen attentively as she...

“The only reason I want to come here is because of you.” I heard Jennifer's words as I looked down into her dark brown eyes; what she had said sounded almost like a confession. Seven years old, Jennifer came to Fei Xiang Bilingual School for the...

I sat there staring at it. The so called “blob” of the food world. That infamously taboo food with a worse reputation than Lindsey Lohan. Its unpleasant corners, soft texture, and initial lack of flavor strike fear into the hearts of its...

This is the balcony that extends into infinite dimensions. Inside: paintings and the smell of dusk. Lined against the tiled walls are canvases both void and filled. A soft light overhead. There is something extremely calming about occupying this...

I was born with moderate hemophilia which is a genetic blood clotting disorder. Even the slightest injury can cause debilitating internal bleeds leading to days of bed rest and urgent trips to the hospital. Unfamiliar with the condition, my...

Towards the end of second semester, [Name of my high school] takes pride in hosting its annual Pep Week: a week dedicated to showcasing each class's school spirit and creativity. A great benefit of Pep Week is that it increases school involvement...

Having started out small, I began by helping students through the Afterschool Academic Program, an organization of teachers and students devoted to assisting those that are struggling in classes at school. I managed to help many students by...

While many other candidates applying to the University of California perform volunteer work, I feel my volunteerism in economically deprived neighborhoods as a devout Catholic provides me with insight on life that is only available through...

One of the most difficult challenges I faced was overcoming the loss of my friendship with Ana—a friend who had crawled into my life in the seventh grade and disappeared in my freshman year. Her disappearance had certainly not been the most...

At 16, I was on a train to San Diego and deep in my biology notes when alarms began to sound and we were evacuated. Armed police urged us to run; as a fellow passenger told me, there was a gunman on the train who was threatening to shoot. Within...

As high school graduation inches closer, I find myself contemplating the word legacy. When I joined Dos Pueblos High School’s journalism team, the class was fading. The stories did not matter to the writers, and therefore, did not matter to the...

The clock strikes midnight, signaling we are into our tenth hour in the room. Hunched over computers, we work tirelessly on the school magazine, The Scribe. My creative journey to this moment began by writing for the features section, where I...

Each summer, I work as a high ropes counselor for middle school students. My goal: to push campers out of their comfort zones and into the “growth” zone. Yet that goal isn't always easy to reach. I had one camper named Aldo who was absolutely...

I joined Theater freshmen year out of curiosity for its technical aspects. As a person of science and logic, I was, at first, skeptical about the artistic club and shy to interact with the boisterous Theater community. But the club was full of...

Up down, up down - my left leg bounced vertically in anticipation. My heartbeat accelerated. All I could hear was the announcement of the top teams in the state, who would then qualify to represent CA DECA at the International level competition. “...

Last summer, one of the service events that I helped to organize was a Special Olympics showcase. I was paired up with a fifty-six year old lady named Anne, who has autism and a leg injury. In basketball, Anne kept missing the hoop. Every time she...

I squint through tall, streaming light, trying to peer up at the towering stage. Sunbeams seem to pierce the very core of my head so I look down at my toes wriggling under the buttery, tan leather fabric of my tiny dance slip-ons. The fabric is...

My weekend excursions in Korea were not of baseball games or people watching along the Han river but of trips to my father's fish farm. This was where my interest in environmental science and marine biology first started. My father oversaw...

I sleep in on Sunday, I stay home on Wednesday nights; I don’t belong to any youth groups, and if you walk into my house there’s not a single cross to be found. Instead a big blue candle bearing the star of David is perched on the mantle, and two...

At the end my junior year, in my AP United States History class, I was assigned a group film project in which I learned several important life skills. With this project, I took creative leadership to create a satirical film about Dorothea Dix and...

Teaching myself how to play music has illuminated my greatest skills: being a didactic learner and a divergent thinker. I have been involved in music my whole life, fiddling with any instrument I could get my hands on. I currently own three...