University of Texas - Dallas Undergraduate College Application Essays

It was my first day of high school- a public high school in Chicago. As I pushed past the sea of people bustling past me to get to my classroom, I felt like a buoy being tossed back and forth by the high tide. Three months prior, I graduated from...

Being Indian -- and I am 100% South Indian by birth -- is not about Bollywood or cricket for me. Rather, my culture revolves around food. Few countries can lay claim to cuisine influenced by Anglo-Saxons, Mongols, Turks, and Persians. No other...

"S-P-H-E-R-I-C-A-L," I declared. Flashing a grin to the 600-person audience, I glanced at the ink stains dotting my clasped hands. These hands had suffered for months practicing obscure words from the dictionary. One person away from winning the...

Grasping the knife, I made deliberate cuts. Mumbling, I couldn't focus on what I was doing. Looking outside at the bleak clouds and parched grass, I felt groggy. Gray cinderblock-like bags tugged on my haggard eyes. The leaky kitchen faucet's "ka...

As dawn broke and the rays of sunlight shined through the tiny cracks in the cabin walls, I woke up to the sound of creaking doors and the smell of urine.With one eye open, I peeked below me, where my beautiful 27-year old Sarah was wide awake...

When I was about eight years old, I stole for the very first and the very last time. It was a small drawing of the scrumptious Gingerbread House that Hansel and Gretel, the two lost kids, had been trapped inside by the evil cannibal witch. My ten...

When I was younger, my mother attended ESL classes every Wednesday evening at our local church. When she came home, it was straight to the dining table to complete her given assignments. It would not be uncommon for her to take hours just...

Music can be best described as a skeleton key, opening the locks in your mind. Whether it's changing a mood, de-stressing, or adding excitement, music transcends generations and cultures. Throughout my existence, music has been a constant reminder...

An enchanted ticket, speckled with the paints of artists past and present, allows me to enter any museum at any time to study, engage, and feel the mastery of the artists' paint brushes in an effort to expand the use of my own. I set my plan of...

Of all the things I had expected might happen, waking up to a chicken trying to peck me to death wasn’t one of them. Last night had started out like any other, comforting in its ordinariness and definitely chicken free. After wrapping up some...

I woke up to the sound of my brother screaming. Worried, I rushed downstairs to the sight of ripped paper beneath his feet and a new iPad in his hands. It was Christmas. Giddy with excitement, I dove into the pile of gifts, searching for the box...

My harness was tightened. My sweaty hands clutched onto the bar. My toes dangled off the edge of the platform. Every horrible outcome to this scenario raced through my mind. “Whenever you’re ready, Gabby.” All I had to do was lift my feet and I’d...

I had the spent majority of my days here, spending my time exploring the nooks and crannies when my parents were at work and looking for the ancient photos and relics dating back in my family’s history. Whether I was on vacation or living in...

The high-rise steel buildings and skyscrapers were replaced with vast greenery and blue, cloudy skies. The familiar symphony of sirens, honking, and indistinct chatter was suddenly replaced with oppressive silence. People I had known for my whole...

Dustin couldn’t read. He knew letters, but not words. I saw him throw his book on the floor, a tired copy of Little Critter, as I plopped down in bus 75 seat 11, the unforgiving Mississippi sun burning through the left-hand window. I looked over...