Newest College Application Essays

My transition from a mermaid to a scientist wasn’t necessarily my choice, but boy am I glad it happened.

“Five more minutes, dad!” was all you heard, and wrinkled hands waving frantically in the air were all you saw. I remember splashing around...

Photos freeze the world in place for just a moment. In the rapidly moving world, it’s refreshing to look at a photo, stop the earth’s spin, and live in the past for a few minutes. Photos are sentiments—souvenirs of a time and place that has...

“This looks not like a nuptial” - Much Ado About Nothing

For a split second hanging in the air, I could feel the forces of gravity drag me toward the packed-down snow. The knowledge that I had made a horrible decision swam through the pink folds...

Most ten year-olds have a themed birthday party, Minecraft, Disney princesses,shows, you name it. However, I had spent my birthday 18 hours on a plane, emotionally tense and sleep deprived.

Growing up, I wasn’t exposed to diverse groups of...

In a bustling early childcare classroom, it was a usual day with all sorts of wails and giggles in the background. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as a conversation between children escalated and as a fellow teacher made moves to intervene....

The only explanation why there are Cheeto-dusted fingerprints across a squash court could only be: little kids. Over the summer, my squash coach asked if I would help with her children’s summer camp. Naively confident, I accepted. Throughout those...

“Help, I can’t move,” cried a feeble voice. It was a trapped “victim.” At first, I froze in fear until my team leader yelled, “Radio out!” I composed myself, called our Incident Commander on the walkie-talkie, and reported, “Female, green top, red...

In The Office series finale, Andy Bernard remarks that he wished there was a “way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve left them.” I know in my own life, there have been days where I ached for my childhood, the time when my days were...

The clear breeze that I could not feel but I could see, the smell of the gateways closing, the rush of checking in on time, and having to fit so much in little suitcases. As a young girl, that was my story every year, an adventurous trip from one...

“Seed-Free Spoon” is a product I tried to develop to benefit all watermelon lovers, in the hope that we can enjoy the juicy mouth feel of the fruit without constantly chewing on the annoying seeds. However, when I first shared my idea with my...

The smell of sweet plantain fills my room and beckons me into the kitchen. My mom’s on the phone. She speaks loudly across the world to my aunt, while on the verge of blistering her hands from the popping oil. She hears me enter, then tosses the...

I vividly remember my sixth-grade self sprawled out on my kitchen floor attempting to separate the misplaced recyclables in our trash can. I knew little of climate change or the nitrogen cycle at the time but was fascinated by the outdoors. Even...

My left foot takes a daring step, leading my body into the foreign environment, darkness enveloping me as an air of forbidden exhilaration rushes through my veins. The creatures of the night chirp vigorously and the dew-filled grass wraps itself...

Before I open my laptop I can hear it. Every beat, every base drop comes to life faster than my hands can sort it into sound. Melodies weave together and I can tell the stuffed animals on my shelf are in for a show. Now in the headspace to create,...

I wasn’t going home with my mom that night. She was waiting outside the clinic to pick me up just like she did every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday night, and I heard my phone buzz with the predictable “I’m here” text. But instead, I told her to...

According to a British newspaper, The Mirror, “Four babies a day are born addicted to heroin, crack cocaine and other drugs, shocking figures revealed [that’s about 7,800 crack babies since 2009].” I was one of these children; born in Miami: no...

“I think being enough is just being who you are in any given moment.

So I don’t think there is such a thing as enough.

Um.”

So began The Closer We Get, a new piece of theater that I proudly directed. Each year, our troupe competes in a one act...

After four laps around the Ratty searching for my lunch, I decide to skip the lines and go for the salad bar. I can’t help but notice the student across from me as he empties nearly all the cucumbers onto his plate, even as he is engrossed in...

The sunlight mutedly shone through the grimy windows, peering through the blinds. We maintained steady eye contact between the covered Erlenmeyer flasks, mouthing our countdown: “three … two … one!" As if perfectly rehearsed, the purple...

Naked forms were everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, on the desks. Smudged with charcoal and twisted in fantastic poses, the products of our human figure drawing class papered the walls and blanked the room, evidence of the past five days’...

A six-year-old girl stands at the edge, unsure about the leap she must take. She is nervous; very aware of the challenge at hand and the expectations she must meet. In the next moment, she finds herself suspended in the air, entering the watery...

Water. Agua. מַיִם. These words describe one of the most vital substances that the human race requires in order to survive. Water nourishes, agua keeps us healthy, and מַיִם cleans. Beyond its essential qualities, water can also bring people...

“Your dad was born in Lebanon? Wow, that’s so cool!”

I often hear this when I first meet someone. While my father was only in Lebanon for the first one and a half years of life, our family had a presence in the city of Beirut for many years before...

It was as though Medusa had looked me straight in the eye. I saw my mother’s lips moving, but all I could hear was the turbulent rhythm of my heavy heart. I clutched my fork tighter in my fist and disappeared, desperately figuring out how to turn...