Newest College Application Essays

I carefully stepped down the steep gravel hill, making my way to the riverbank for my very first crew practice. The early March air chilled my skin and whipped my hair. I was nervous: each rocky step took me closer to a mass of athletic limbs, all...

The chilly air of the California winter tingled across my face, my arms filled with dolls, bears, and toy cars. I cautiously trudged past the stores, making sure to not drop anything. I slipped. Before I knew it, the toys had all tumbled to the...

I clutched my binder and walked to the front of the room. This defense would be tough. A bill legalizing same‐sex marriage had never been passed at conference. With a nod, the chair silently granted me permission to speak. My lips parted, the...

Immediately after placing the finishing touches on my homework, I grab my headphones and rush downstairs to the small, confined room that stows my drum kit. I proceed to “jam out” to a plethora of music, including Jazz, Rock, and Samba. The...

It’s been three years. The edges of the photo are soft now, and the colors have dimmed. It has been worn thin and fragile, and there is a deepening crease down its center from the years it spent folded between my fingers. I don't usually keep...

All it took were fourteen words to obliterate twelve years of passion. It had all been taken from me.

As I sat in the cold hard chair across from the neurologist's desk, I heard her voice, but I didn't want to. Her words were a blur, as if my ears...

I'm standing in the arena, facing my opponent. Hands on guard and ready to fight, fists clenched and sweat dripping down my fingers. In the distance, I hear the command, "fight!" The match has begun.

Sparring, kata, sweeps, hooks, and grabs had...

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...

When people imagine a setting for intellectual enrichment, they often envision libraries, universities, and Fortune 500 businesses. Although a local firehouse does not usually cross their minds, it actually provides unparalleled enrichment for its...

When I first heard the lyrics of the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black,” it was from this little red contraption that I bought from a garage sale for ten dollars. I was hooked. That small record player eventually became the two Numark turntables and...

Another failed sports season passed: no hits, no touchdowns. I entered 6th grade with my dreams of becoming a jock squashed. Then my parents informed me that I was enrolling in band. Still clinging to my ESPN hopes, I warned my parents that taking...

As I sit typing my final paper for eighth grade on a rainy Portland night in May, I hear my mother suddenly call, “Andrew, your father and I need to talk to you”. From her tone I know the subject of the conversation. She used that tone at the end...

There I sat on the piano bench, leather sticky where shorts ended and legs began, and all I could think was, "No, please don't make me learn that." The piece was Burgmüller's Ballade, the time somewhere around my twelfth birthday. The song was...

Before signing up for Computer Science, I had never seen what a code looked like. But suddenly, I found myself fluent in the language of Python. While the other students stewed n frustration, for me, everything had clicked.

It wasn’t until a few...

I shiver with anticipation as the other nine finalists and I line up on the Portland Teen Idol stage. I’ve performed my songs to the best of my ability, and now I grasp the clammy hands of my talented neighbors, waiting to hear the results. The...

Studying abroad in Germany, my classmates and I dreaded waking up early and walking to our classroom in the notoriously rainy city of Tubingen. Mr. Schneberger spoke about the anatomy of a cathedral, and we made it clear how confused we all were....

How can we build a more environmentally sustainable society?

Such a broad, open ended question may seem unreasonable for a sixteen year old girl to pursue, but at a place like Emory University, courageous inquiry is literally in the water. When I...

When my mother read picture books to me as a child, I lingered in the world of the story for days after, demanding that we act out my favorite scenes over and over again. I dressed my sister up as characters from my favorite books, carefully...

A silver eagle gleams as it soars over the Australian countryside on an early Tuesday morning. Inside this majestic mechanical bird, however, I feel nauseated and shiver vehemently despite the heavy suit I have on. The aircraft gives a violent...

“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...

A pink plastic weather station. A two-inch Black Friday telescope pointed at the Moon. A fishtank, lid heavy with chrysalises about to become butterflies. Of the images from my childhood, these and many more stand out as defining moments. I once...

My heart is booming. My pulse is rising. My stomach is churning. A drop of sweat rolls down my face. I can barely breathe. "You've already made it so far Cayley, you can do this," exclaims one of my more stable team members. I take a deep breath...

If at any given moment there is not at least one child screaming, one dog barking, any variation of an alarm sounding and/or someone "practicing" an instrument they don't actually know how to play, something is awry in my house. Generally, any...

I stood there holding my stethoscope, listening to a five year-old child’s back, nervously searching for any abnormality, trying to control my nerves and focus on my work. I shifted my stethoscope to another spot, the sweat on my back now beading...