Newest College Application Essays

Few among us can report an encounter with Bigfoot, or really with any cryptid of equal reputation, but I came pretty close. It was a sweltering day in Atlanta, temperature somewhere in the high eighties. The iced tea in my stomach was nearing...

I met her when I was six. Though she stood two inches shorter, her intimidation towered over me. Yet, I saw beyond her hard exterior; I saw a friendship that has lasted over a decade. She’s more of a listener, only speaking when spoken to. She is...

Since moving to Nashville five years ago, I’ve seen how meteoric growth can displace disadvantaged communities from necessary resources. Last summer, I shadowed at a public health lab, exploring the effectiveness of grassroots programs at...

“Your order #30114391 has arrived!”

I examine the envelope. It’s bright red and covered with small, white doodles surrounding the words “Find Your Thing.” It looks chaotic and somewhat outlandish. Slowly, I open the envelope, revealing a purple...

“You walked four flights to take a selfie with a door placard?”

My dad wasn’t impressed by Louise Gluck’s office in Linsly-Chittenden Hall. But when I visited Yale this past August, it was my first stop. Gluck, one of my favorite poets,...

“To combat organ trafficking, we must allow people to sell their kidneys!”

Being a Model United Nations delegate has opened my mind to new ideas, whether representing Suriname on the issue of child labor, Iran on the problem of organ trafficking,...

A cow gave birth and I watched. Staring from the window of our stopped car, I experienced two beginnings that day: the small bovine life and my future. Both emerged when I was only 10 years old and cruising along the twisting roads of rural...

Moving homes is never fun, but the first time I stepped into our new neighborhood, my feelings could be best described as disorienting, if you want to be nice. The small, gray houses were a stark contrast to those found in my old suburban...

The first beats of the tabla played, and my body relaxed. I closed my eyes to absorb the rhythm, then I started to sing. The interweaving of melodies and micro-tunes required deep focus; I needed to block out all distractions. The tensions from my...

As a careless child with no worries besides what my Barbie was wearing to our next tea party, I never cared enough about appearance or culture to be bothered by the clear difference between me most of my classmates. Despite the various lessons we...

Sprachgefühl. A word introduced to me by author Kory Stamper, in her book Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. Sounds like the most exciting book ever, doesn’t it? A friend gave this book to me for my sixteenth birthday. My sweet...

Photography is like magic; they’re both about deceiving people. Since I was 14, I explored the world with my best friend, my Nikon D3400. I took thousands of photographs. Each one with less glare, less blur than the one before, but with the same...

I have fallen in love with Thursdays. Why? Because I volunteer in the ER at Cleveland Clinic in Weston, Florida, constantly madcap organization, a symphony of coughing and wheezing, as well as electric energy. Whether it is consoling patients or...

The humid morning breeze pulls me down 7th Avenue, the anticipation gnawing at my stomach. Glaring billboards advertising Calvin Klein Jeans, Disney Movies, and Starbucks Coffee surround me; however, only one sign truly catches my eye with its...

Growing up, I loved to watch magicians. Amazed at their impossible tricks, I wanted to be a magician myself. Then, I discovered medicine. Pulling cards out of thin air? I studied penicillin instead. Levitating objects? The respiratory system was...

After visiting concentration camps in Poland, I became deeply intrigued by the human aspects of World War II. Even though it was difficult, even painful, to learn about what happened to my ancestors, the experience was valuable because it nurtured...

"It's all we doctors can do," my dad told me as we stood in the sunbaked dirt watching dying tadpoles flop feebly in the quickly evaporating puddle, "We can't change the course of nature, we can't change the fate of the dying, but we can give them...

“You’re not the boss of me!” my younger brother taunts as I attempt to make him return a toy that he took from our youngest sibling. Meanwhile, another brother sits on the couch, laughing at all of the commotion going on. As the instigator of this...

It was a sizzling September day. I was behind a table at the Club Fair handing out shiny, glazed donuts. My peers meandered by with their giant plates of stromboli as I attempted to convince them to sign up for Jewish Club.

My biggest leadership...

On our wall at home, there hangs a poster that reads "Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries, for mathematics, the cultural world is one country". This paraphernalia comes courtesy of my father - a math professor who would never let...

Lodhi Garden, New Delhi’s most scenic historic park, is visited by a diverse group of people every day: politicians, businessmen, doctors, and also the occasional celebrity. And of course, me!

In the midst of hectic examinations or on quiet breezy...

After completing an hour of training with the overworked nurses of Johnston-Willis Hospital, I acquainted myself with Holly, a frail ninety year old woman who, along with fighting terminal cancer, was recovering from a stroke that also impaired...

The guitar has a voice like no other in one’s soul. Its voice is soft and intimate when its player feels likewise yet also fiery and vehement given the slightest bit of oomph. When I play, I feel as if the guitar is really the one with emotion and...

We moved to a different house again. For the eighteenth time.

It had been a Saturday when my father made his grand announcement that we were moving again. I had been eating at the dinner table with my six siblings, and I almost choked. Grinning,...