The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Application Essays

Splashing in the pool, I’m wearing my one-piece, per camp policy. My girls are holding hands with me, running around in a circle, attempting to create a whirlpool. It’s the summer of 2013, and I’m a Counselor-In-Training at YMCA Camp Cheerio. I glance at the…

In my temporary home in Edison, I often witness and must mitigate the tension that arises between my Hindu and Catholic relatives. Whenever there is conflict, my mother and father, two people who I love the most and hold to the highest moral standard, degrade…

My love for math came about through a sort of associative learning. I didn’t start loving math because it was math, but because it was the class I always had with my best friend Krystyna. It began in third grade when our class was separated…

It seemed as if it was just yesterday when I anxiously fidgeted around in the airplane seat, awaiting unexpected surprises in my new home. This, however, was ten years ago when I emigrated from China to the United States. My parents had warned me that…

“$3.50, please.” I open up my worn wallet and fumble around for enough quarters, nickels, and dimes to pay for my Taco Bell burrito. I’m five cents short. A shake of my purse yields five lingering pennies, and my stomach and I sigh together in…

Some seventh graders look forward to driving or dating or getting their own cell phone, but I looked forward to drinking cans of soda from a moldy refrigerator. The day I gained that privilege would be the day I joined the youth group. After years…

The year is 2025, and you are standing in the sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden. You hear the lyrics “come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be,” blaring through the stadium and Kurt Cobain is standing 5 feet away…

I wrote for my first newspaper in 4th grade, the Fourth Grade Weekly. I was the owner, editor in chief, and lead writer. The Weekly contained hard-hitting pieces – by 4th-grade standards – such as Joke of the Week, Restaurant Reviews, and Sports News. My…

I think I was Canadian in a different life. Not because of my love of French, though strong, or my craving for maple syrup, though incessant; no, this Canadian lifestyle manifests itself through a kind of hockey mania. While my friends enjoy watching baseball and…

I squinted when the bright light pierced my eyes as I talked to the stony-faced manager of the Siberian airline. I was translating as quickly and accurately as I could, while both parties’ faces became steadily redder and their voices louder. The official rounded on…