Application Essay Excerpts

Walking by the Dodge Physical Fitness Center, my tour guide speculated on the conception and development of the swim test. This trivial event reminded me of why I love Columbia: its commitment to both history and the future...

As a young Sydneysider, I was always proud of the Sydney Opera House and embraced it as an icon of my city. It wasn’t until years later in Toronto, however, that I came to understand the full significance of this magnificent edifice...

For four weeks during the summer of 2012, I studied at New York City's Barnard College in participation with their Summer in the City program. I was in utter bliss, my eyes supposedly glazed over for most of the experience in complete disbelief not only that any city could be so busy and beautiful, but that I had the good fortune to be there on my own. The subway became my transportation method of choice, and in an instantly-acquired show of elitism, I would sometimes scoff at the obvious tourist-types who spoiled the whole experience by utilizing maps...

I always thought that I was somewhat of a go-getter. Entering contests for scholarships, studying for the SAT, selling my old clothes to buy new ones…I considered myself a girl who really valued ambition and embodied it to the fullest.So as I was watching a small boy spread some paint on a piece of tile in the rainy city of Porto de Galinhas, Brasil, I didn’t really think anything spectacular about it...

The jungle is a place where living things flourish. Dart frogs scurry, their blue and black speckled backs flash across the jungle floor. Somewhere nearby a hoatzin bird sings for his mate. The hot, Brazilian sun peeks through the elephant-ear sized leaves...

When I was little I remember filing into my mom’s mini-van and excitedly going to the eye doctor. Dr. Bowers was such a friendly guy, and though I never understood exactly what he did, I was always interested. He would bring out the intricate glasses and ask me, “Better? Can you see now?”..

For a girl who has never eaten a Sabrett’s hot dog, seen the Empire State Building in person, or been to a Yankees game, New York just seems like an unattainable daydream…not a place I could actually attend school. I have always fantasized life as a ‘New Yorka’, being able to live it rather than through the vicarious experiences of Seinfeld and Alicia Keys. But more important than all the stereotypical wonders of the area, is the Columbia experience itself...

With as much broken English as she could manage, Amartaivan, like a daily alarm clock, would quiver with excitement. "Tomorrow...we to go Mother Tree."..

My interest in engineering began even before I knew the meaning of the word. As ayoung child, I loved to cook with my Mom and would enjoy stirring, pouring, and mixing solutions...

“Throw, catch, throw, catch...” The rhythmic pattern is ingrained in my mind. I have seen the balanced cascade pass before my eyes many times, and I know where the next ball will fall, and where it will then be thrown. This pattern, with its unwavering certainty, could go on forever, predictably, but why?..