What’s it like to pore over nearly 2,000 entries from 500 colleges and universities nationwide? For the Modern Love editor Daniel Jones and his readers, Miya Lee and Bindu Bansinath, the process included countless tales of heartbreak and self-discovery, very little sleep and a trip to the “Seinfeld”-famous Tom’s Restaurant.

“In true collegiate fashion, procrastination ruled when it came to students getting their entries in by the March 19 midnight deadline,” Mr. Jones explained in a recent Times Insider article. “Two-thirds of the submissions arrived on the final day, with 600 in the final hour. Malcolm [Conner]’s winning essay arrived less than two minutes before the deadline, while one of our finalists, Clara Dollar, cut it even closer, hitting ‘send’ with just 40 seconds to spare.”

The stories that stood out from the pack focused on faith, gender, sexuality, technology and, of course, love. You can read them here.