Newest College Application Essays

Think about a neighborhood. The clumsy, haphazard houses are chock-full of individual life and experience. The cars whiz busily down the street, past gargantuan rows and corners of houses and apartments brimming with families, stories, and people....

It was my second time visiting Qatar as a presenter at its leadership conference. Amid the bustle, I managed to re-connect with Adeeba, a friend of mine from the online MUN program I pioneered. By then, the novelty of being in the Middle East was...

I grew up with pictures of Philips Academy Andover plastered on my bedroom walls, closets, and shelves, each meticulously clipped from the 20 alumni magazines whose contents I knew by heart. When my acceptance letter arrived in my freshman year, I...

Don’t let my mosquito bites itch, I prayed. It was summer. I was backstage at the church listening to the flutist before me, and with a fluttering stomach, was waiting my turn for the spotlight. The concert was to benefit CAM, abbreviated for...

Recently, I overheard my mother and her store manager discussing ways to attract teenage customers. As a teenager myself, I felt that providing a complementary sports watch with a purchase of over Rs. 1000 would encourage the customers to shop,...

I have known that I wanted to be a filmmaker since the 7th grade. I was taking a class on digital media, and fell in love with visual storytelling. That year, I took what I had learned and created a short film in my backyard with my younger...

At Chapman, I would be eager to be a part of the advancement of the diversity project by contributing my ideas and passions to the People of Color advisory group. People often struggle to fully understand what it is like to be a person who...

At the University of Oregon, I would be eager to be a part of the advancement of the equity and inclusion division by contributing my ideas and passions to the Multi-Ethnic Student Alliance group. People often struggle to fully understand what it...

Believe it or not, I’ve already designed my own course. It is my school’s first ever film production class. When structuring the syllabus, I had to pack everything into one hour and twenty minute classes that happened every other day. Creating a...

By the end of sixth grade, I had my entire future planned out for myself. I would apply to George Washington Carver Center for Arts and Technology for high school, specializing in Literary Arts. During my four years at Carver, I’d expand my...

Fatima Al-Fihri: a woman who lived in the ninth century, and the founder of the world’s oldest university.

In a time when educated women were looked down upon and ridiculed, she broke all social barriers and founded the University of Qarawiyyin....

Confident, invested, and aware, I throw my shoulders back and walk to center stage. I breathe deeply and smile menacingly as I channel my character. This has happened before, over fifty times and within twenty-four different stories, I have done...

Given the hypothetical opportunity to take passion for the visual arts to a new level, the subject of my class would be a “Feelings into Photography” course. Here, I would assign students a portfolio to be created, shared with my guidance...

It’s five o’clock on a Sunday morning. Do you know where your father is? If you’re me, then you know exactly where he is: in the kitchen preparing the dough for his homemade bread. My dad spends every Sunday morning this way. It’s a process that...

Recently, I discovered the world of “ditch architects”: urbanists who abandon the traditional office-style design studio and blur the line between urban planning, design, art, and social work. Rather than relying on statistics, they mapped out a...

Every time I strap on a guitar, a joyous juxtaposition of feeling washes over me. Sweet harmony glides on a smooth, still surface of my mind, while nervous anticipation rumbles underneath in a tumultuous undercurrent. Behind the neck of this...

My mother was born and raised in Vietnam. My father is a fifth-generation Californian whose family journeyed across Death Valley in the 19th century. My aunts are Taiwanese and Singaporean, and my cousin is Italian.

I was well on my way through...

For as long as I can remember, the concept of currency and the exchange of goods and services has always fascinated me. Growing up, I observed cashiers nonchalantly letting people walk away with goods in exchange for nothing more than a swipe of a...

In the first grade, I told my classmates that one of my favorite foods was rice. One of my friends asked me why, and I responded, “Why not? Doesn’t everyone eat rice daily?”

It took me a while to realize that not everyone has Vietnamese cuisine...

A little over half a year ago, I refreshed my email for the hundredth time and caught my breath when I finally found what I was looking for. My heart pounded as I scanned the list of students who had been accepted into my school’s “We The People”...

My mother was born and raised in Vietnam. My father is a fifth-generation Californian whose family journeyed across Death Valley in the 19th century. My aunts are Taiwanese and Singaporean, and my cousin is Italian. With this mixed background, I...

Beep. Beep. I opened my eyes, turned my head to the right, and saw the spiky graph on the little monitor that told me someone was alive. I looked at my body and saw the wires stuck to it, which informed me that the beeping heartbeat was mine.

I...

A smile spread on my face even before my feet touched the ground as I landed my flip and saluted the judge. I had just finished competing at the last meet of my first gymnastics season with Irvington High School, and my routines had all gone well....