Hamilton College Application Essays

It’s been three years. The edges of the photo are soft now, and the colors have dimmed. It has been worn thin and fragile, and there is a deepening crease down its center from the years it spent folded between my fingers. I don’t usually…

Darkness permeates the early hours of a weekday morning as sleep wraps a blanket around New York City. The beaming moonlight penetrates the nighttime sky but steadily loses its strength as the first flickers of light appear. The color of the sky morphs from a…

I have shared victories that have come from striving toward a common goal with other swimmers: Lauren, Brittany, Lizzie, Kelley. Those ten-year-old girls would cheer with spunky screams when participants of our neighborhood swim team would out-touch the opposition in a race. More recently, I…

This is how my nightmare begins. I’m standing in the heart of a pristine university campus, surrounded by hundreds of teenage girls fidgeting with their luggage. Damp hair sticks to the backs of our necks; we can taste the heat and the salt and the…

As a child, I worried about everything. Things that most kids enjoyed like school, roller coasters and junk food made me nervous and uncomfortable. I became used to having a persistent stomach ache; I was always anxious and reluctant to try anything. Consequently, I felt…