University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Undergraduate College Application Essays

I never knew when I was speaking Farsi, Chinese, or English. After all, I would flit back and forth from my Taiwanese mother to my Persian father, rapidly translating words between them. Then, I'd settle into bed for my regular Dr. Seuss bedtime...

Things are not looking good for the Griffins. They have just lost the slight lead they had over their opponent and they seem extremely fatigued. To make matters worse, there are only a few minutes left in the game. My legs feel weak and tell me...

It's October. The air is cool and invigorating, hitting my lungs with a sting. The newly transformed trees of Horn Pond provide the perfect backdrop: a wash of rich gold, red, and orange. They are just enough to make the whole world seem a little...

I see it in the eyes of my friend Jill, the true Red Sox fan. Every game, she's there with her eyes transfixed to the glow of the television. She doesn't just want to believe it; she knows that this is the year her beloved team will win the World...

I wish I didn't have to turn on the news every morning to be enlightened by a perpetually worsening inventory of the events of our civilized world's current catastrophic plight. In fact, I wish I could watch the news and witness, just once, a...

It was a dark and stormy night, and my plan was hastily falling apart. The rain fell in sheets upon my black BMW, wherein I remained pensively. I held it in my hands, carefully weighing my options. I had waited for so long; almost too long it...

I was finally there. After months of anticipation, the stucco buildings, green lawns, and Spanish moss of the Magic Square came into sight. Excited students and nervous parents (there were so many!) were already in the parking lot, unloading the...

"Ma'am, I just don't have the money." I heard a click, and the phone went dead. In middle school, my parents began investing in rental properties, and over time, I became the manager, dealing with the rent, repairs, and complaints for six duplexes...

If you looked into our senior hall, you wouldn't think that we once had a reputation for being the most socially divided grade. During morning break, we gather in a buzzing, ever-shifting, conglomeration, laughing and talking with everyone around...

After nine years in the public school system, I was used to locking everything away knowing that what I left in the open would be gone when I got back. When I changed schools, I encountered a new environment and a set of rules based on honor...

I eat ten apples a day, cores and all. My love for apples is an integral part of my identity, just like my passion for living, learning, and laughing. My teachers and peers have always recognized my drive; one math teacher even remarked in his...

The day was bitterly cold for April in Athens, Georgia. I stopped watching the music on-stage to count the number of people on the field. A sizeable crowd had turned up to the first annual Battle Against Poverty Concert, which I had spent months...

What do Walt Whitman, Howard Roark, and I have in common? Passion. Passion for life, for architecture, and for viruses. When I read The Cobra Event in eighth grade, I had a cinematic picture of viruses. I imagined there were millions of deadly...

"What's honor?" The student's voice was careless and lazy, punctuated with a shrug of his shoulder. He asked the question without expecting a response, dismissing the very idea. "That doesn't exist here anymore."

It hurt me to hear one of my...

My eyes slowly closed to the last chords of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” fading from Mr. Connell’s guitar. It was the first night, and the day had been hectic, but things were going as planned. I looked around the cozy room and saw my classmates...

In high school, college is often made to seem like an end-all, be-all experience - the pinnacle of one's life. I know that is not true. In college we prepare for life beyond it, in my case for a lifetime of global citizenship.

I was born in China...

In Norton Juster's novel, The Phantom Tollbooth, the protagonist, Milo, undertakes a journey much like the one many high school seniors find themselves facing today. He isn't sure of where he is going, and like many of us, he is carried by a sense...

Last summer when I was sulking in the banal tedium of the suburbs, I challenged my friends to visiting the ten top-ranked coffee houses in Denver. With my proximity to the city, I take every chance I can to experience the movement on the streets...

French romantic painter Eugene Delacroix once said, “What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” Delacroix’s quote epitomizes who I...

As an individual fascinated with the universe and the potential questions it poses, I would quickly jump at the opportunity to spend a semester researching theoretical astrophysics. In this capacity, I have long considered academic study as...

It seemed as if it was just yesterday when I anxiously fidgeted around in the airplane seat, awaiting unexpected surprises in my new home. This, however, was ten years ago when I emigrated from China to the United States. My parents had warned me...

Growing up a vegetarian with hippy parents, reading feminist and pacifist literature, and listening to Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles has shaped me into a very politically charged person. Thus, while I admit that the Great Pyramids are amazing and...

Describe your dream internship and what it would entail.

When I walk into a room of real human corpses dissected and put on display, my initial response is not to shudder in horror as others might, but to inquire how it was possible to take an...

I squinted when the bright light pierced my eyes as I talked to the stony-faced manager of the Siberian airline. I was translating as quickly and accurately as I could, while both parties’ faces became steadily redder and their voices louder. The...