Application Essay Excerpts

With one click of my mouse, the computer window opens. I'm a humble dot navigating a white space, surrounded by beacons firing spiky bullets at me. When I impale myself, I glow, and the game treats me to a goofy rewind effect from the ’80s...

I peek over the laptop screen. My teacher isn't looking. Good. If he sees my flushed face, he'll investigate—and discover I’m not writing the essay he thinks I am. I should’ve texted my mom a few hours ago, but that’s the last thing on my mind. How is it that I can blow my forty-something parents off while weeping at the fictional plight of a forty-something woman?..

Exiting school, my Creative Nonfiction classmates and I scattered for our solitary, silent, two hour walk around our Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. I did not expect to see anything new, having walked these streets for three years. But without the distraction I usually have walking with friends, I quickly realized that this neighborhood was actually a stranger to me...

I learned about Colorado College through a family friend who, over the course of a dinner conversation, noted, “Abby, I know just for the school for you, Colorado College.” Knowing little about the school, I did my own in depth research to determine the accuracy of her statement...

Rice offers me a perfect combination of challenging academics, varied extracurricular opportunities, cohesive community, and school spirit. The honor system is one of the core reasons I hope to attend Rice. In my high school, I am privileged to be part of a community that places high value on trust, mutual respect, and honesty...

I firmly believe that learning should occur both in and outside the classroom. I make a point of applying knowledge that I gain from my teachers and classmates to almost everything I do when my school day ends. What I love about Tulane is the balance it offers between learning inside and outside the classroom...

“It’s seven after six, and you’re listening to Morning Edition on NPR.” I love and hate traffic jams at the same time. I hate them because the idea of being physically stuck in one place for an indefinite amount of time bothers me, but I love them because they give me a chance to explore...

Nike is a multinational and multibillion dollar sports company that can be found anywhere in the world. Nike’s mission statement, “Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. *If you have a body, you are an athlete” is one of the reasons they are so successful as they cater to everyone in the world...

I sat with my young student in the dim office, staring intently at the computer. We had just spent the majority of the day filming his forehand and his backhand, the targets of our next analysis and the source of his recent losses in the past tennis tournaments. Frame by frame, we examined his strokes for issues and for slight mistakes, so that they could be fixed in the upcoming days. At 18, this was nothing new for me; perfecting my own strokes had been a painstaking venture in perseverance as well as creativity, and had spanned most of my life...

“An inside job.” I deduced. “A traitor has betrayed me for the enemy.” While the sun incessantly hammers heat, my own thoughts betray me; together they formed a formidable offense that targets both the inside and outside. Evan and I were already fighting an uphill battle without the brutal weather taxing my body and traitorous mind scattering my focus...