University of Virginia Undergraduate College Application Essays

He reached out, unfurled his hand, and looked up at me with what can only be described as a look of pure desperation. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a crumpled five-dollar bill and handed it to the man. "It's a cold one," I remarked. "God...

Everyone has that unforgettable experience that they would like to capture and relive. For some, this may be a certain day; for others, it may be a special event. For me, though, it is a place that I hold near and dear that constantly reminds me...

My favorite word is constellations. The word itself is simple: the prefix “con” means together and the root “stella” means stars, but they together, to me, say everything: the stars are together. Stars are all individual points of light, floating...

My family faced tragedy shortly after we arrived in Afghanistan. We struggled through our first six months, but my parents were new missionaries filled with excitement for God's work. Even when we timidly bought food from strangers who spoke Dari...

As the sunlight began to dim, my panic rose. The street signs were incomprehensible, and any request for assistance only resulted in a barrage of unfamiliar German. I found myself hoping for a rapid rescue, yet I knew that I needed to find my own...

I work in one of the most loved, yet most hated industries in the world. Criticism comes from all angles in the fast food business – whether the guests' food is not prepared to their liking, their table isn’t as clean as they would like it to be,...

If I had a dollar for every time I heard, “Wait, you aren’t white?” I would probably be a millionaire. Unfortunately, dollars do not shoot at me whenever I hear that question. To clarify, I am half Puerto Rican, half Cuban, and half...

The pianist plays the final chord, the conductor lowers her hands, and the audience pauses in awe before applauding the beautiful rendition. Three hundred pairs of eyes relax and slowly look around, secretly celebrating what has just been...

The University of Virginia has been good to me. I had the college life of storybooks—lazy afternoons on the Lawn, head-scratching debates about philosophy, and spirited evenings at athletic events. As a third year, I should be looking forward to a...

The reason I did so well on my Math Analysis final exam in my junior year was because of Blink-182 and black tea. By the time May came around, my study session for math went like this – pour the water in the kettle and check Instagram while the...

Scrawled as haphazardly as it demands, the word braids from a continuous thread of twists and turns. There is a sense of urgency as the letters come to life in a flourish. The plummeting stroke of the “p” appears out of place, as if the weighty...

My brother knocks down a glass from the kitchen table and it shatters; my sister makes a joke, teasing my Dad; I receive a bad test grade in my math class. As different as these situations are, my family reacts to each with just two simple words:...

Floccinaucinihilipilification [flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-key-shuh n] (noun) - The action or habit of estimating something as worthless.

As long as written languages have existed, curious words have been nestled in the pages of...

As a staunch believer in the absolute nature of human rights and justice, I never expected the struggle of a distraught, middle-aged Chilean woman to challenge me quite in the way that it did. From the moment I was first introduced to Ariel...

The way my family tells stories of the sugar mill in Cuba, one would swear it was paradise. Dolores was the pride of my family going back generations, and even though they fled the little piece of heaven 56 years ago, the oldest of my living...

On my first day of third grade, I wore tap shoes to school. The majority of my elementary school years was a blur, but I vividly remember this occurrence as it is the earliest memory I have of going decisively against the crowd. They were a creamy...

Every year as the air turns frigid and wreaths start to adorn front doors, you’re bound to hear cheery, classical music from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Not only is it an internationally popular ballet, but also a ballet representative of...

As I reach into the back of my closet for my go-to tee and gently tug it off its hanger, its hem brushes against a yellow tote bag that hasn’t left its spot on the bottom shelf for months. Without opening or even peering down into it, I can...

She runs so gracefully, her arms swinging back and forth, her legs flying, barely even touching the ground as she laps the girl in front of her. I am that girl—not the graceful one but the slow one who runs like a beanbag chair, hunched over and...

“Hey now, hey noowwwowww.” A Hilary Duff Song set to the tone of a grieving walrus. That is basically what I sound like. All the time. Why all the time? Because I sing all the time. Why a grieving walrus? Well you probably haven’t heard me sing....

Zipping through the tiled halls, I glance back and grin. I grab her hand, and we soar through an arch of fluorescent-lit stores, gliding past stands selling cheap accessories in our clunky rollerblades. We stop, resting our feet, and scope out our...

I often travel through a land of backpacks, ironed silk suits, Hawaiian slippers, colorful shirts, low-waist jeans and outfits that do not even have a name. This is a land where shoes are worn and pants are stained with adhesive, where tie knots...

“I hate coming to this school.” I vividly remember overhearing during the first week at my new school. I couldn't believe someone would say such a thing in America. Back in Japan, students certainly complained about school but never with such...

A novel with a body eating itself from the inside is sure to generate some deep thinking, especially when, while fictional, it presents real scientific possibilities. The Cobra Event, a bone-chilling novel by Richard Preston, does just that. A...