University of Connecticut Undergraduate College Application Essays

I wake up occasionally to the sound of a rooster crowing. I live in Hartford, the only real city in Connecticut and I wake to the sound of a rooster crowing. I am alone when I wake up and there is sunlight pouring into the room. I know when I go...

There simply was no solution. With tears of frustration in my eyes I went through the options for the hundredth time. I had come face to face with one of life’s many brutal truths: no one can build a sand-castle by herself. About to give up in...

Two years ago at summer camp, I hiked the better part of the Northville-Lake Placid Trail.

No one from camp had gone on this trip since some time in the seventies, so we had a certain air of bravado. We were a group of 14 and 15 year olds...

“I think we’re lost,” I said to my parents as I stood on the corner of 114th Street and Broadway carrying a large bag of luggage. I stopped confused as to where I was going. I knew I was close; I could tell by the number of people wearing Columbia...

I have encountered a fork. Should I again submit to my father’s demands as I am sent to the kitchen to serve or should I refuse and risk tainting my role as the ideal Vietnamese daughter? I succumb, and fetch a repulsive-smelling platter of duck,...

I stood in front of a fourth grade classroom, all eyes fixed on me. For some reason, I felt nervous, as if I were bare, exposing all my past secrets to the world of susceptible minds. I held up the book The Colors of Freedom, explaining that it...

There was something about the feeling of that squishy muck squirting through my toes after a heavy rainfall that simply made me feel alive. Or to feel the gritty road pushing against every inch of my sole and the rough gravel digging into my...

I had a dream last night that my most revered mentors came together to weave their unique threads into the fabric that ultimately became my Common Application essay.

Kurt Vonnegut, my favorite novelist, was in charge of the introduction to this...

I woke up that morning with a feeling of dread. As I raced down to the bus stop through the twilight of the early morning, I felt my heart palpitating with anticipation and worry. Every second that the bus brought me closer to New Haven, my fear...

I often find myself momentarily stunned by small, jewel-like moments that make up this life. For this I must thank books.

I always loved to read, for reading allowed me to contemplate life in a way that reality never did. The novelty lay, I think,...

I don’t believe in failure. I don’t believe that it is possible to mess something up so entirely that nothing good can come of it. If I make a mistake, I learn from it. If I'm not as good as I want to be at something, I work that much harder at...

I round the corner into my cubicle and toss my coat on my chair. I chat with April as my computer starts up, and then check my Threads calendar, which is riddled with deadlines. My day could be filled with writing blog posts, driving over to help...

Today there is a common misconception that gender inequality no longer exists. Yet Stephanie Coontz of the New York Times has analyzed the data and, for me at least, put this misconception to rest in her article “The Myth of Male Decline.” She...

As I walked through the door there she stood, staring into oblivion with a dazed look on her face. Alice was my first Adaptive student, and the only discernible sound that she emitted was "ribbit." I was intrigued, but not surprised, because the...

I guarantee I can make you the perfect cake. Not just a delicious cake, or an overly expensive looking cake – I'll make one you'll have to love because it will reflect you as an individual. It's a pretty rare talent, the skills for which took me...

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth”. - Quote from The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Addicted to detective fiction, I’m a fan of Sherlock Holmes, deeply absorbed in Sherlock’s...

His skin detached from its threadlike bindings to unveil a unique color palette. Excess blood flooded the area, only to be extracted by a contraption of assorted tubes. Muscle tissue, each fiber visible, danced around bones and ligaments to the...

Salmon Point beach and campground in Bridgton, Maine on that early summer morning was idyllic, with maroon picnic tables staggered along the lake’s edge and sand bridging the distance. A simplistic playground with a swing set and some monkey bars...

I still remember the smell: hand sanitizer and plastic. The room looked gloomy being flooded with dim fluorescent lights. As I was waiting in the room for my mother and doctor to come back, I took a sip of my fruit punch in an attempt to stop...

The best way to learn is through blood, sweat, and a little bit of vomit. Prior to my relatively new experiences in EMS I always believed that the classroom was where you learned and the real world is where you apply your skills. 150 hours of...

“A girl walked along the beach tossing marooned starfish back into the sea. How could she possibly save them all? Why try when the act seemed futile? A man discouraged her from her task but she ignored his opposition.”

I heard this story at one of...

One day, they finally let me see an X-ray machine. The week after, they told me about the anatomy of the body as they treated a patient. Every week, I would see my mother work as a doctor at her workplace. All her coworkers knew me. Every time I...

This is a part of me. I have to win, I thought to myself as Ms. Jessica announced the soon-to-be poetry slam. Composing poems was simple enough in my mind because, in order to win, you had to make the judges laugh or cry, while holding a steady...

The Chevron was always my favorite. A basic V-shaped design, it is one of the first patterns that a novice would learn. Most beginners are quick to move on from the Chevron upon its mastery and proceed to designs that are more complex. But even...