Newest College Application Essays

The barbed wire fence was still wet from the morning dew. I peered across the broad fields and felt the pang of sadness, thinking about the countless souls buried before me. I stood within the haunting gas chambers and touched the scratch marks...

Fascinating! I had no idea, as I took my seat near the front of the hall, how much one lecture could change my thinking. Our media focuses on crime, conflict, and injustice - what demands attention. But Harvard psychology professor Steven Pinker...

I winced in aversion when the document loaded. Displayed before me was a dauntingly long list of bizarre names, obscure titles, and dates hundreds of years in the past. As I scrolled through the PDF, my disorientation only grew.

Earlier that day,...

For most high schoolers, a best friend is someone who lends you the physics notes when you miss class. Someone who says you look like a marshmallow in your parka but silences anyone who does the same. Someone who sponsors midnight Stop & Shop...

It was time for me to go. I didn’t think it could get any more complicated than it was but it did I timidly shuffled into the daunting assembly room of a church to approach a rather unwelcoming judge panel. My heart raced as the heat from the...

This Saturday morning was unlike any other. All of us dressed in lab coats, wearing protective goggles, and holding test tubes in our gloved hands…. it was impossible not to feel like professional researchers (for me, at least). The tranquility of...

It’s a normal school day; I am sitting at my desk, hair in braids, doing my classwork when I hear giggling behind me. “She bald-headed,” a voice says, giggling. “I know, that's why she wears weave all the time,” the other replies. I sit at my...

Like any toddler, I despised my car seat; I’d arch my back and defiantly kick my feet as Mom strapped me in. Finally accepting my fate, I’d sulk throughout the drive to ensure Mom understood my frustration. One day, however, this scene played out...

The blazing summer heat wears away at my body. I stare at the children laughing and splashing each other in the cool pool water. Sweat drips down my back begging me to jump in. I sit there, letting my mind race with ideas of excuses to leave. I...

“Let’s get out of here, just you and me.”

This is what Molly, my friend, whispered to me one afternoon as she awoke from an “in-and-out” nap, as she likes to call it. Molly is a 90-something year old hospice patient who is wrapped in dementia and...

It was pouring rain as night crept in. Hauling heavy packs and tools, we trekked down the 19-kilometer unmaintained Galene Lakes Route, on our way back from constructing a campsite for BC Parks. Upon reaching a ravine, we ground to a halt - the...

It’s 10:30 pm, yet the streets are still filled with cars, with the bustling pedestrians. It doesn’t feel like nighttime. The glare of LED store signs, the glow of open dental clinics, and the glimmer of the myriad of food stalls in the night...

Often, when I speak I have a slight stutter. I am accustomed to spending hours pacing my room, practicing a confrontation in my head, attempting to predict how the other person may retaliate, all in the hope that I won’t stumble on my words. Up...

“It’s pink!” I shouted to my lab partners, beckoning them over. “Look, Dr. Gallos, it’s pink!” I gushed to my chemistry teacher. Everyone else who passed by my lab table was greeted with a “Check out this solution, it’s pink!” from me. True...

As much as I loved the stars as a child, I was rarely given the opportunity to be outside at night. Since the annual Christmas reunion at my aunt’s house culminated after 10 PM however, I was able to spend some time on those nights staring into...

Sophomore year: I had just returned from a home football game. There, I had shouted and cheered, but the vibe changed once I arrived at my house, hearing chaos behind my parents’ doors. There was tension within my family. I had just conducted my...

Sometimes, kids don’t want to go home.

“It’s okay,” I assure one of them. “This is a safe place for you; we’ll both be here tomorrow.”

I give them a hug and hand them their bag. It means everything to me to mean something to the kids at the...

My father treats wrong turns on road trips as opportunities for new experiences. Sometimes, I think he’d take an early exit on purpose, just to receive Mom’s famous glare. Nonetheless, he’d always look back at me as we both exclaimed, “It’ll be an...

The shrill sound of the rushing ambulance pierced the summer air. I hugged the blanket in my arms, stretching to see if the patient has arrived. The glass doors swished open and an entourage of paramedics rushed in. This time, it was an...

In photography, "aperture" is one of three settings that dictates the quality of a photo. It determines how much light to let into the camera and can be adjusted to optimize a photo’s brightness, focus, and depth. It’s a fun word to say, but was...

The egg-sized bruise on my leg glowed black and purple, but to me, it was shinier and more valuable than any other medal of honor. All day long I carried it around like a trophy, proudly presenting it to others around me. I had received many...

My community can be seen through a window on a bus ride from my school back home. Safely tucked away in an air-conditioned bus, I glance out the window to see the world for what it really is.

The world beyond that window has shown me more than...

If I had the opportunity to paint whatever I wanted on the Beta Bridge, I would paint eleven numbers in navy blue contrasted by an orange background. I would paint the suicide hotline, 1-800-273-8255.

I didn’t realize to what extent conversation...