<p>I'm going to be applying as an OOS [out of state] this fall. Does anyone have any tips? :)</p>
<p>Please? :) :)</p>
<p>This is just general advice: </p>
<p>Take the time to actually write your essays and polish them. I know it's a large state university that receives a lot of applications but essays can play a huge role in your decision. From the UC Admissions website:
[quote]
The personal</a> statement is an important part of your application for admission. There are limitations to what grades and test scores can tell the University about an applicant. The University uses your statement to learn more about you as an individual — your talents, experiences, achievements and points of view.
[/quote]
My approaches for the first essay involved describing a summer experience and concluding the essay response with statements that highlighted my general attitudes towards learning and education - there is a larger idea to what I wrote. For the second essay, I described a situation (a program I intended but not necesarrily a summer program) that showed why I wanted to pursue my intended studies. It tied in with similar general ideas from my first essay while showing more of my character and personality (it was also my longest essay but it's up to you to choose which you want to be longest). For my third essay, I explained some difficult circumstances that I had experienced. (If you come from a disadvantage background, have experienced difficult circumstances, etc. you should definitely mention this in your third essay since it can give the reader an idea of whether or not you've had to persevere, are hard-working, or possess any other qualities that can't be deduced from the rest of your application. I think this was my best response even though it wasn't the longest since it not only tied in with my first two essays but also to my EC's and my work experience (reasons for having a job, what I did with the money, etc.). </p>
<p>Overall, I would advise a holistic approach to your application and would approach anything with even the smallest amount of availabilty for description as possible ways to create a more dimensional figure. (My reasons for my EC's were all similar and my EC's were divisions of one greater activity.) My application's essays tied together with the rest of my application and the third essay was kind of like the seal. </p>
<p>Hopefully I'm making sense. (I can't say much about grades or SAT except to strive for higher scores and marks from the statistics you can find by searching for threads started by flopsy.)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I was admitted out of state.
I wrote about my passions in school, my writing abilitites, and ovaltine. last essay was awesome haha.</p>
<p>You actually wrote about your writing abilities?
How humble of you... :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I wrote about how I enjoy writing and how I intend to contribute that passion to UCLA. Nothing particularly haughty.</p>
<p>write about how you hate USC</p>