Newest College Application Essays

The smell of chalk dust and anticipation, lights up my brain, narrowing my focus to a pinpoint of cold, unforgiving rock. The beauty of the rock as it gives one the option to dance in so many ways up its face. The granules of each stone feel like...

In the U.S., there are five standard barn styles. Iron Horse is a Midwestern classic; Homestead, is basic, easily adaptable. Offset Roofline takes a more angular structure, while Round Barn is the circular American original. Gambrels are...

“Fearless!” I snatched the pack of watermelon gum from Michael’s hand.

“Oh great,” he said. Earlier that morning, a GHP teacher in my Word Congress class challenged us to pick a word that we felt was an important quality to have, then spend the...

“OK… I’m not sure that was supposed to happen.”

My co-worker Greg and I both regarded the bike shock that now lay in two parts on the shop floor in a puddle of hydraulic fluid. The bike itself hung from the work stand, looking disconcertingly like...

As soon as my sister and I had settled into the back of the ambulance, I pulled out my phone and opened the “Notes” app despite my dwindling battery—putting my thoughts down meant everything to me in that moment. I wrote:Right now, I’m Schrödinger...

I last raced with him at our favorite venue, where he dusted me (and all of us) decidedly. Wiley was headed to big things. That much, I thought was certain. If only I had known this might be the last time I saw that blue race suit streak past me,...

My mother is a refugee from Cambodia who witnessed the murder of her father by the Khmer Rouge at age 2. Her response to her trauma was to put pressure on her kids to be the best. Growing up I remember writing out the ABC’s hundreds of times a...

Stairs, my lifelong arch(itectural)-nemesis. Over my seventeen years we’ve, unfortunately, had many encounters and some heated “stair”downs. Even when nothing goes explicitly wrong, the experience is hardly pleasant. Of course stairs aren't solely...

I stepped into the war zone of the counseling office and grimaced at the towers of styrofoam cups and cases of Dasani water, the enemies in my battle ahead to change our school’s environmental mindset. I was determined; time to care for the...

The painting is enormous. Its carved golden frame hangs squarely in the center of a muted red wall in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I lean in and read the information plaque to the right: Breaking Home Ties by Thomas Hovenden. Stepping back, I...

Its hairy back flashed across my line of sight. From the perimeter of our campsite, its growls haunted my family. My mouth suddenly dried up, bladder full, and a chill ran up my spine. For a second, my eyes were locked in contact with the bear's...

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,...

For most of my life I’ve felt that I’m good at almost everything, but not great at one single thing. I can write an essay just fine. My five-minute sprint is decent. I’m a good public speaker. But I couldn’t find that one thing, my one niche,...

Silence filled the room as twenty-two first graders watched me.

“What is it?...” my first grade teacher asked me as I held up my prized possession, a Hello Kitty charm, for Show-and-Tell.

What do you mean “what is it?” It’s the best thing I’ve...

I, a lonely marble eagle, perched upon the almighty Washington Square Park Arch, am sad. What cruel torture it is for me to witness waves of new students flock into NYU, my wings tauntingly spread open, but fixed in place!

I remember watching the...

An orchestra of color begins playing as the mantis shrimp unleashes its stunning arm from under its shell. It whips through the water at the speed of a .22 caliber rifle. A symphony of magenta and bronze. The blistering bubble it creates pops at...

As a child, one of my favorite moments in the year was watching the daily parade at the Big E with my family. Seeing the brightly colored floats drive brought me indescribable joy. Candy flew out of windows, classic cars honked their horns, and...

When my family first moved to our new home, our yard was gorgeous. Lush green grass, nice bushes, pretty ground cover---then the California drought hit. My parents, being the responsible environmentalists that they are, stopped watering the yards....

I held up a self-portrait that I drew in my beginner art class during junior year. The shadows were off, my eyes were lopsided, and my lips were triple the size of what they were supposed to be.

“Um... try again,” my art teacher said, as she tried...

“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...

Alice has her rabbit hole; Lucy has her wardrobe; Harry has Platform Nine and Three-quarters; as for me, I have my bookshelf. Reading is something I have always loved to do. It allows me to escape to another world from the comfort of my fuzzy...

How can some children let complete strangers take care of their aging parents?

Even at their advanced age, my grandparents join us every evening in prayer and stand by our stove stirring in their special blend of spices for our family dinner. Back...

I approach Wallace Stevens’ poetry with frightful bewilderment, occasional terror, and a sense of ambitious delight—much like how the Macbeths approached the murder of King Duncan.

Stevens was my first “difficult” poet. For fourteen years, I’d...

Peonies, marigolds, asters, tulips. My small hands stroke delicate yellow, pink, blue, and I hold the petals up to the light of the bright window in awe. When the strong sunlight beams down, the flowers remind me of fairy wings in their...