Brown University Application Essays

“So, you’re like a plant, right?” Yep, exactly. My name is Katia, my favorite color is aubergine, and I’m secretly a plant because I don’t experience sexual attraction. How did you know? I found out I was asexual the summer after sophomore year. For years,…

Freedom. That is the essence of the Open Curriculum at Brown. As a student committed to engineering but with broad interests and a desire to explore them, I find that nothing excites me more than the opportunity to be the director of my own experience….

In second grade, I worked in construction. I knew that dewy grass was proof of fairies, and that they needed a spot to rest their wings before shining lawns with water. So I gathered my tools and worked ceaselessly, at every possible chance, to build…

I opened the Snapchat video to see forty faces of my Savannah summer musical castmates shouting, “WE’LL MISS YOU, ‘THAILAND’!!” You see, in America, I’m a foreigner, even though I was born here. I am a child of international diplomacy, raised for three-year sojourns in…

Sweat, soiled by dust and tears, seeped down my body as I thrust myself forward. With every breath, my lungs collapsed on themselves. While oxygen poured in through my gaping mouth, I still craved more air. Foot after foot, I trampled down the grassy hill…

Silver saris and raging reds of glamorously decorated individuals beamed with faces masked with makeup and jewelry. Twinkling yellow lights hung above her head like shimmering stars and breathed pure radiance over her. Standing before the myriad of wedding colors, she saw herself at the…

When I was ten years old, my grandmother gave my mother a thick book filled with pictures of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. I must have picked up the book from our coffee table in some moment of juvenile boredom. Flipping through the book, I fell…

This is the balcony that extends into infinite dimensions. Inside: paintings and the smell of dusk. Lined against the tiled walls are canvases both void and filled. A soft light overhead. There is something extremely calming about occupying this platform, transforming it into surreal dimensions….

In an old moon-cake box lay hundreds of hang tags; they are different shapes and colors, flaunt decisive typography, and showcase intricate logos, differentiating each and every one. To many, these tags are a nuisance – quickly snipped off of their products and tossed into…

I initially noticed it at my first A Level Physics class. This was the second most popular subject at school, and yet I was the only girl there. Ditto with Advanced Mathematics: I was the only female student there, and I wanted to get to…