There are 13 areas of application review criteria that all the UC’s use to evaluate their applicants and each UC determines the weight of each area independently. On the UC PIQ discussion, many good points have been brought up regarding how Unpredictable the UC’s are when selecting applicants and how important PIQ’s are becoming more vital along with the EC’s to differentiate all the 4.0+ GPA applicants. Although you cannot tailor your PIQ’s to each campus, each campus is looking for key attributes presented in the PIQ’s and EC’s.
Each UC has a mission statement and much information can be derived from this statement on how they determine “fit”.
For UCSC: promoting and protecting an environment that values and supports every person in an atmosphere of civility, honesty, cooperation, professionalism and fairness.
For UCB: Motivation, Achievement, Leadership and Commitment
For UCD: Collaboration
For UCLA: Leadership, intellectual curiosity and your interest in personal development.