4 Winning College Essay Examples from Top Schools

I could get away from “S” if I stayed busy; you can’t have dinner with your “parent” if you’re too busy to have family dinner. I became known as the “busy kid”- the one that everyone always asks, “How do you have time? ” Morning meetings, classes, after school meetings, volleyball practice, dance class, rehearsal in Boston, homework, sleep, repeat. Though how to start an essay with a quote format my specific schedule has changed over time, the busyness has not. I couldn’t fill the loss that “S” left in my life, but I could at least make sure I didn’t have to think about it. There were so many things in my life that I couldn’t control, so I controlled what I could- my schedule. I never succumbed to the stress of potentially over-committing.

1. The college essay is your opportunity to show admissions officers who you are apart from your grades and test scores .
2. I started gymnastics when I was five, and since then my hands have earned their calluses, and I am proud of them.
3. As I write this essay, there is a blue line under the word “parent” telling me to check my grammar; even Grammarly assumes that I should have parents, but cancer doesn’t listen to edit suggestions.
4. I know from personal experience that in order to achieve the trust, honesty, and success that State University values, new people are needed to create a respectful environment for these values.
5. I took his relative silence to be disinterest and found it offensive.

I began to appreciate the pink kiss of ever-evolving sunsets and the even suppression of melancholy. When my father came home from a business trip, it was no longer a matter of simple happiness, characteristics of narrative but of fatigue and gladness’ underlying shades. The personalities who had once seemed so annoyingly arrogant now turned soft with their complexities of doubt and inspiration.

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My love for gardening began when I moved to Georgia during my sophomore year. In the time I’ve spent learning how to garden, I’ve developed an affinity for watching my vegetables grow to maturity, eager to be harvested and sold at the Saturday market. Though many see gardening as tedious busywork, I find it meditative, as I lose track of time while combining peat moss and soil in the garden’s compost mixer. Saturday morning garden work has how much is a short essay become a weekend ritual, ridding me of all extraneous responsibilities. I don’t actively focus on focusing, but rather I observe myself internally digest the week’s events. I’m a bystander to fireworks of thought that explode in my mind as my perception of important matters becomes trivial. Sometimes, it’s the physics midterm that suddenly seems less daunting or the deadlines I need to meet for my Spanish project that push back farther.

I recall one particular moment when all six started yelling over the minor grievance of whose turn it was to take the dirty dishes back to the kitchen that meal. I tried diffusing the situation peacefully but, in the end, it required a firmer stance to get them to calm down. It was tough for me to take a harder line with them, but it was a valuable lesson that being assertive, yet still kind, is an effective method for future situations. Here are some of the best Common App essay examples that have gotten students into top colleges.

Essays That Worked: Ultimate List of College Essay Examples

The chicken moves towards the light to tacitly inform the man of his mistake. But then the chicken notices a jagged gray line on the otherwise flawless egg. Hypnotized and appalled, the chicken watches as the line turns into a crack and a small beak attached to a fuzzy yellow definition of argumentative essay head pokes out. Suddenly a shadow descends over the chicken and the nice man snatches the egg–the baby chick–and stomps off. After 14 years of living in a region destroyed by violence, I was sent away to boarding school in a region known for peace, Switzerland.

Choosing a topic should come from the heart and be something you care about instead of something you think will impress admission officers. Topics with a personal connection will be more authentic and will hold the reader’s attention. commentary essay In this essay, don’t be afraid to get vulnerable and be specific. Whether you pick a trait or simply a specific memory, connect it to what it means to you personally and why you don’t generally tell people about it.

Writing About COVID

While for some, high school is the best time of their lives, for me, high school has represented some of the best and, hopefully, worst times. Even with the struggles I’ve faced with my family, I am grateful for this path.

During those five weeks, we were not taught impressive terminology or how to ace the AP Physics exam. Learning is working together to solve the problems around us and better our community. To me, learning is the means to a better future, and that’s exciting. This completely different perspective broadened my understanding of the surgical field and changed my initial perception of who and what a surgeon was. I not only want to help those who are ill and injured, but also to be entrusted with difficult decisions the occupation entails.

Read Sample Application Essays:

Although my accent is horrid, some computers almost broke, and even a starfish would outswim me, I continue to enjoy activities I once criticized. Nobody I know is a kazoo-playing, boogie-board loving, boba connoisseur like me. I add the journal to the stack of eleven books on my nightstand. Struck by the bittersweet sensation of closing a chapter of my life, I grab the notebook at the bottom of the pile to reminisce. In my household, dumplings are a far cry from the classic pork and cabbage. Our menu boasts everything from the savory lamb-bamboo shoot-watercress to the sweet and crispy apple-cinnamon-date.

1. After the show, I met and became a part of this small community.
2. My brother experiencing quiet when I got home for the first time in years.
3. Each word is an adventure, and on the journey through Virgil’s Aeneid I found that I am more like Aeneas than any living, dead, or fictional hero I know.
4. Applicants should remember that they get only a few hundred words to leave a favorable impression.
5. I’m careful about how I spend it and fearful of wasting it.
6. Heavenly Essays by Janine W. Robinson—This collection from the popular blogger behind Essay Hell includes a wider range of schools, as well as helpful tips on honing your own essay.
7. It had been years since I’d kneaded mud between my fingers; instead of scaling a white pine, I’d practiced scales on my piano, my hands softening into those of a musician—fleshy and sensitive.
8. They laughed and told me that if I wanted to see for myself, I should work on a farm.

She sang out every letter, clapped her hands at every page, and followed along with the eagle, stopping at every few letters to declare that https://siit.co/guestposts/how-long-is-an-essay-average-essay-length-guide/ “E is for eagle” and pet her teacher fondly on the beak. Additionally, the turn of the essay or “volta” could’ve packed a bigger punch.

College Essay Writing Tips

However, there are moments where the seconds stand still. However, thinking on my own wasn’t enough; I needed more perspectives. It started after my grandparents first brought me to their home in France and I have now been to twenty-nine different countries. But holding her hands, looking into her eyes, I could still smell that garlic.

I soon found though, that this only increased his fear of gliding on his own, so I changed my approach, making lessons as exciting as possible in hopes that he would catch the skating bug and take off. In the weeks that followed, we held relay races, played “freeze-skate” and “ice-potato”, and raced through obstacle courses; gradually, with each slip and subsequent success, his fear began to abate. I watched Oliver’s eyes widen in excitement with every skill he learned, and not long after, he earned his first skating badge.

Why Us College Application Essay Example

Most importantly, Carrie’s ambitions show how she can contribute to the Harvard community positively, making her a strong applicant. If these subway passengers understood me, they would know that the very reason I sat beside them was because of Latin. Even before Aeneas and his tale, I met Caecilius and Grumio, characters in my first Latin textbook. In translations I learned grammar alongside Rome’s rich history.

He is sure that the always composed and compassionate chicken will help him make sense of what he’s just seen. I have been conditioned to complete tasks quickly, efficiently, and with an advanced understanding. I measured my self-worth as my ability https://nosos.net/deductive-reasoning-vs-inductive-reasoning/ to outdo my peers academically, thinking my scores were the only aspect that defined me; and they were. I was statistically a smart kid with a good head on my shoulders, right? Little did I know, this was my first exposure to meaning beyond numbers.

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Despite his insistence that he cannot dance, we see him dancing throughout his essay. Second, he realizes that he can in fact dance, but needs to work with others to bring out the best in himself, and in the group. And third, he then is able to connect this to his future. In 8th grade, I figured out that I loved science along with math, but I didn’t exactly know what science I loved.

I have accumulated over 300 community service hours that includes work at homeless shelters, libraries, and special education youth camps. I have been evaluated by the College Board and have placed within the top percentile. When my computer dies , it will be like my passport expiring. It’ll be difficult leaving these moments and memories behind, but I probably won’t want these stickers in my 20s anyways (except Harry Styles, that’s never leaving).

This is a trait that exists in a powerful independent thinker who could push all kinds of debates forwards – academic ones or otherwise. “We–must–know … ” the mathematician David Hilbert’s voice echoes in resolute cursive at the tip of my pen, as he, addressing German scientists in 1930, propounds the goal of modern intellectu­als.