University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill Undergraduate College Application Essays

“You’re too stupid to go to college!” my mother screams at me as I help my two sisters with their homework. I have already made dinner for my whole family and cleaned the mess my mom left in the kitchen. She is finally home after sneaking off to...

The year is 2025, and you are standing in the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden. You hear the lyrics “come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be,” blaring through the stadium and Kurt Cobain is standing 5 feet away from you. He...

“I hate coming to this school.” I vividly remember overhearing during the first week at my new school. I couldn't believe someone would say such a thing in America. Back in Japan, students certainly complained about school but never with such...

My love for math came about through a sort of associative learning. I didn’t start loving math because it was math, but because it was the class I always had with my best friend Krystyna. It began in third grade when our class was separated into...

"We won't miss you anyway.” -My drama teacher’s response after I told him that I wasn’t going to audition for his next superior musical.

When I got home, I cried—not just from embarrassment—but because his words validated something I had known for...

It started with a question.

Every day before the bell rang, I ranted about my broken friendships to the only person who was willing to listen, my “Spanish buddy.” Instead of tuning me out or rolling her eyes, Peyton listened. She gradually fixed...

“Beard Papa to stage right, I repeat, Beard Papa to stage right.” Although it seems strange, this is one phrase I got used to very quickly. Hearing it hours a day for weeks at a time, it became less strange and more of an entertaining inside joke....

My vessel was a single-sail dinghy called an Optimist, designed for young sailors like me. At age 13, I was in my very first solo race, propelled through the brackish water of the Caloosahatchee River by what felt like a gale but which in...

I wrote for my first newspaper in 4th grade, the Fourth Grade Weekly. I was the owner, editor in chief, and lead writer. The Weekly contained hard-hitting pieces - by 4th-grade standards - such as Joke of the Week, Restaurant Reviews, and Sports...

Some seventh graders look forward to driving or dating or getting their own cell phone, but I looked forward to drinking cans of soda from a moldy refrigerator. The day I gained that privilege would be the day I joined the youth group. After years...

For me, the summer months used to possess a certain emptiness. The warm weather and freedom to explore personal projects were always welcome, but the absence of school’s daily scheduling and assignments sometimes left me feeling generally aimless...

Aggravating traffic, lack of communal traditions, and rarely going somewhere where everybody knows each other, for better or for worse, are all hallmarks of living in a big city. Growing up in a large suburb of Los Angeles, I have had my fair...

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...

I thought I was going to faint. I was a junior sitting in Senior Chorus, the most prestigious choir at my high school. Sitting among piano prodigies and future opera singers, I could not help but feel out of place among my virtuosic peers. We...

“You’re not easy to figure out,” they say. I tell them I am the strength of Hancock, the wit of Tony Stark, the brain of Dr. Brown and the mystery of Anton Chigurh.

People find friends in novels, but I found myself in movies. Everything I do,...

Indonesian-ness is hardly quantifiable, but per my parents, mine was a five out of ten. This poor rating stems mainly from my parents’ belief that second-generation immigrants, like myself, were diluted versions of an original product. Though I...

Arriving three hours early to the venue before the scheduled start of a performance can mean many things. Perhaps you are a member of the performance or you may be determined to secure a great place or seat. You could even be tailgating! However,...

Two cars collide. Shattered glass flies everywhere. As much as you want to turn away, you stand transfixed by the chaos. That’s what it was like hearing my friend Sara’s life story.

The first day, it was her emergency room visits for the holes in...

Elm Park is a five-minute drive down Pleasant Street from my house. Growing up, my parents took me to the park’s playground, which I frequented until I tumbled off a swing and chipped my tooth. I boycotted Elm for years, until I became old enough...

For most people, singing is an expression of unabashed freedom usually reserved for either car rides with friends or solo dance parties. While I frequently belt the lyrics to my favorite tunes, for me, singing represents something more sacred. I...

“Does Mr. Fishy go up, up, up or down, down, down?”

I ask my class as I lay a plastic toy fish on top of the water.

“Up, up, up!” a little boy named John exclaims.

“That’s right! Mr. Fishy goes up, up, up like we do!” I tell my class.

A plastic...

On December 3, 2019, a 20-year-old ballerina was murdered in front of her house. In 2019, more than 400 women were murdered in Turkey even though some of them requested an order of protection. When I heard the news, I was devastated. I was scared,...

I clock my final break on a brutally hot June Thursday. Stepping outside for a phone call, I have one thing on my mind: what is Saturday’s verdict? Dave, my Eagle Project counselor, has been corresponding with Portland Parks and Recreation (PPAR)...