Northeastern University Application Essays

Asian people do not discuss mental illness. While “Asian” is a broad term that cannot possibly encompass all the nationalities and ethnicities of the Asian continent, this is a solid fact in the most prominent cultures: China, Japan, Korea, and–slightly less prominent, but more relevant…

The ladder is broken – the socioeconomic ladder of Ghana that is. There are several missing rungs, leaving a large gap between the first few steps and those leading towards the top. This disparity makes it difficult for underprivileged Ghanaians to improve their lots. Every…

I was practically born on the river. Both of my parents were extreme whitewater raft guides, and they passed on their love of the river and nature in general to me. From a young age, my parents took me rafting on rivers like the San…

The wind whipped across my face, grabbing the hair I had attempted to coax into a ponytail, pushing it into my mouth, and tangling it around my neck. Water splashed with unrelenting ferocity off the blade spinning desperately in my hands. My muscles ached with…

Two hours later, even with my cart stockpiled with an assortment of possible parts, I strode aisle-to-aisle scrutinizing each item, and mentally assembling the bits I had selected to generate the ideal model. It was hard to avoid the weird looks from parents as they…

My childhood included everything from waking up to my mom’s dramatic wake up calls in the mornings, eating ice cream from the carton with my siblings, rough-and-tumble play with my father, to family dinners at our Chinese restaurant, filled with boisterous laughter. However for my…

“Areh bache! Return to class!” The teacher’s booming voice couldn’t stop them. The students, identically dressed in white polo shirts, navy shorts, and polished shoes, climbed on top of one another to see if they could catch a glimpse. “There it is!” a student yelled…

“I hate coming to this school.” I vividly remember overhearing during the first week at my new school. I couldn’t believe someone would say such a thing in America. Back in Japan, students certainly complained about school but never with such anger. However, over the…

The plane landed, and immediately seat belts flew off and iPhones came out. It had been six hours since the plane took off, and therefore six hours since my phone had internet. I had to check every social media platform for anything I could’ve missed,…

There was something about the feeling of that squishy muck squirting through my toes after a heavy rainfall that simply made me feel alive. Or to feel the gritty road pushing against every inch of my sole and the rough gravel digging into my leathery…