New York University Undergraduate College Application Essays

“Passionate people put pens to paper to produce poetry.”

While a third grade teacher may gush over this sentence, most others would find it appalling. Nevertheless, the truth behind it is undeniable; poetry rises from the fires in people’s eyes...

Although I was just playing with Barbie Dolls, I managed to apply rudimentary math skills at the age of four. “How many pairs of Barbie shoes did you just put away?” I attentively counted by twos and shouted out, “Six pairs, mom!” The utilization...

“Test does not exist! We only think she exists!”

The pale pink room was filled with too-bright morning light. High up on the Himalayan mountainside, the monastery had a sweeping view of the fog-covered village below.

The portly monk continued, in...

As I pulled the handle, the drawer gave way, allowing year’s worth of junk to spill out onto the floor. I rushed to put everything back into the neatly arranged disorder that I found it before my parents walk in to see the snooping I’d been...

As an outspoken Asian girl with an unusually large number of freckles and the tone of a strong alto, I am generally very noticeable. I had always felt very comfortable with the people around me considering that I had been with the same group of...

This is how my nightmare begins.

I’m standing in the heart of a pristine university campus, surrounded by hundreds of teenage girls fidgeting with their luggage. Damp hair sticks to the backs of our necks; we can taste the heat and the salt and...

I am a citizen of another world. This land is not one everyone ventures into, and even fewer make a home within it. It is a world with mystery and magic, unimaginable creatures and portals that lead to the stuff of dreams. Some call us divers,...

“At 6.00 in the morning she begins her morning cleaning. After preparing breakfast and clearing the table, she cleans up all the rooms.” This is a brief translation of a short passage secondary school students are given in Turkey. The passage...

On Thursday, July 10th, I learned an essential lesson about ambition.

I walked optimistically through the grand Springer Opera House entranceway, ready for a day of captivating classes and wild theatre kids. I saw my friends and migrated downstage...

I made sure no one saw me as I rounded the dark corner.

“You got the stuff?” a hurried voice whispered.

“I got the stuff. You?”

I replied to a shaded figure, which in turn hastily nodded.

A quick exchange occurred, and two figures dispersed from...

As I raised my arm to smash the birdie, I let out a whoop of excitement at finally being able to play my favorite sport with friends again. When I found out about my school’s badminton club, I signed up right away, but realized that I wouldn’t be...

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...

"Who is your hero?"

I remember seven names on seven different sheets of crumpled paper: Chimamanda Adichie, Ocean Vuong, Martha Johnson, Alan Turing, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, and James Baldwin. Each name belonged to an incredible human...

5. you’re taught to be an object

Imagine, you’re a fourth-grade body on a rare 100 degree day in San Franciscoin a classroom filled with pre-pubescent laughter, occasional voice cracks, and the crinkling of notes being passed. A smile spreads...

The score was 14-14, and 15 was the target. I knew the exact action I was going to make, no problem there. I was loose and having fun, only half aware of the pressure in the later rounds of a national tournament. I was ready to go. “...Fence!” the...

A few years ago, on the Charles Bridge across Vltava River, I gained my first impression of NYU. I saw a group of students carrying cameras, lighting and microphones, with the logo NYU printed on the front of their violet t-shirts. I approached...

The story began in last summer while I was looking at the name list of my new class, because every student chose humanities or science as the major after finishing the first year, the school had rearranged our classes. Though having been told...

Bridgeport, Connecticut: A fleet of fifty-two Greater Bridgeport Transit Authority-owned buses spurt to a start while the sun begins to rise. Each bus slowly creeps along one of the nineteen lines spanning across Fairfield County; one of them, Bus...

Reverberating voices. Flying spit. Clinking shot glasses. A gaggle of grandpas in furry trapper hats, perched on potato crates, pontificating about Soviet politics in a farm shed. They agreed, yet still managed to yell. As a routine observer of...

I was at a loss for words.

Before we traveled back to New York, my dad insisted that we visit a nearby plantation. As I walked across the Carolina cotton field, I pictured myself in my ancestors' shoes. Imagining the verbal, physical and mental...

“You are going to a boarding school in Singapore,” said my parents one day.

The decision to send me off to boarding school came as a surprise for my family’s acquaintances. It came as a shock to me --- especially since I did not even know what the...

Light, clear and ephemeral. A bubble is easy to pop. An onion on the other hand, has layers of tough, pungent membranes - breaking them brings tears to your eyes.

When asked where I was from, I would unthinkingly say ‘Karachi’. As I grew older, I...

I had spent the whole morning preparing to execute an Olympic worthy backflip into my aunt’s community pool. It was the summer before 6th grade; I stood at the edge, took one deep breath, and launched myself into the air. I imagined the intense...