University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Admission Essays

I defy odds. From birth, doctors predicted bad things for me based on my environment, including that I would not be intelligent, because I lacked proper motor skills and speech proficiency. Today, I have defied those odds, because my mother didn’t believe their assumptions, and…

Electrifying bursts of energy flow through my veins as the excitement builds up just minutes before opening night. The lights flicker and the audience goes silent. The curtains slowly glide open as I set foot on the stage. The lights turn on and illuminate the…

When deciding where to go to college, most students do not know which school is the perfect one for them. But for me, this is not the case. I know that the University of Illinois is the ideal choice for me. I know it is…

I glared at the plastic contraption before me and tried one last time to summon any telekinesis powers. Nope. Nothing. The device’s arm stubbornly oscillated at a regular pace, like a mocking tongue across a palate. I sighed dejectedly and shut the piano’s cover. At…

As a teenage girl with hyperlexia – a communications disorder that causes some social problems – my life has had its share of interesting challenges. Although my disorder is not nearly as severe as it was during my childhood, it has left some residual consequences…

It was 11:30 on a chilly Thursday night, and I was taking a brief stroll through my neighborhood. My mind swarmed with overwhelming thoughts concerning school, parents, and most of all, the college application. I had been tirelessly trying to ‘find myself’ over the past…

In 1988, drought was the main concern in my small southern Illinois town. My parents’ only blessing that year was the birth of a baby girl amidst the withering crops. What no one knew then was that the current drought crisis would ultimately influence the…

“You save BIG money, you save BIG money, you save BIG money at Menards!” The songs that I sang as a child were never the opening themes of Clifford or Arthur. Instead, I would sing the jingles of the commercials I saw on television: Luna,…

A petite young woman sits in the obstetrician’s office, her four-year-old daughter in her lap. The little girl is restless yet unable to extricate herself from her mother’s arms due to cerebral palsy. Both mother and daughter wear worried expressions, anxiously waiting for the doctor…

Big data, big data, and big data. With the birth of the internet age, our world has inevitably produced massive quantities of data. Application is limitless as such data yields crucial information about human trends and preferences, clearly illustrating where our society is heading towards….