“… The friends talked about one of the biggest headaches on the University of California undergraduate application: the personal statement essay.” …
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Big-change-to-UC-application-requirements-8154142.php
lol. I’m kind of at a loss for words. I can understand people being stressed by the personal statements, but not the “big change.”
I think the new system is easier. Instead of crafting two much longer statements based off of pretty broad questions and allocating however many words they like between them from a pool of 2000 words, they simply answer a few very direct questions with a set number of each.
I don’t feel bad for them for the changes. And if they’re stressed now, wait until they get to university or do something besides high school.
I personally would have preferred the new system when I was applying. I remember having a hard time deciding exactly what to write about for the two prompts, and balancing the word count between the two. At least the new system gives you some flexibility in the prompts and some hard guidelines for how long each should be.
That said, I’ve always liked writing and wasn’t bothered by the personal statements in general. I could see how it’d be more stressful for someone who isn’t keen on writing, but it is good practice for college regardless of how much you like (or dislike) writing.
This should be more relieving than stressful, since when is a variety of choices a bad thing?
Personally, as someone applying to the UC’s this fall, I MUCH prefer the new prompts. I felt that last year’s prompts were too vague and more difficult to write about. While this year’s prompts can showcase more about ourselves and we have more prompts to choose from.