Macalester College Undergraduate College Application Essays

"Northwest, this is La Crosse Tower. Hold-short runway three-one for Cessna on final."

Knowing that I had personally delayed a plane full of commercial passengers on my sixteenth birthday was not what I had in mind for my first solo flight....

The name Kofi Annan formed my first impression of Macalester College. It was a school that had educated the Secretary-General of the United Nations, one of the most influential people in the world. In addition, a browse through the school...

During my time at the United World College, I have had the opportunity to spend every day of my school life with people from cultures very different from my own. It is hard to think of one specific situation which stands out from the others, but...

“The freshman 15” results from, starchy, processed, high calorie, bland, unhealthy and artificial food—typical college cuisine. Unfortunately, many colleges operate their classrooms with similar attitudes—artificial, pre-packaged experiences with...

“Peux-j'aller à... el baño? No… Me Permite ir…à la toilette? No…” My head spun, my bladder throbbed and my voice stuttered in some incomprehensible, newly invented language. Regretting all the water I drank at morning swim practice, I attempted to...

By now, color and form are two essential ways I express myself. In my art I often draw myself as a stick figure with a shock of bright red hair. My family, friends, and even strangers have always commented on the thousands of freckles that pepper...

A middle aged woman enters the riding arena with what looks like a rag doll draped over her forearms. Her face has the furrowed brow of melancholy, but her tone is hopeful when she speaks to me. “Esta es mi hija Mili (this is my daughter Mili),”...

Sweat dripped from my brow as I carefully set my roll of tape onto the granite kitchen counter in front of me. My masterpiece was finally complete. As I slid down from my stool, I was careful to not let my knobby ten-year-old knees topple into the...

Growing up in an ultra-liberal town just outside of San Francisco’s Bay Area, I have become accustomed to the long-running joke in my school that it’s easier to be gay than it is to be Republican. As an openly bisexual Democrat, I would both agree...

Getting to work at ten in the morning to go stand in what I charitably referred to as the Hut for eight hour stretches was probably not how most people envisioned their summer but when you live in Santa Cruz for as long as I have, working at the...