@TheRose21 Thanks so much!
Can anyone tell me what the UCI campus and life on the campus is like?
Anyone can PM me their essays to review, I did Cosmos my sophomore year.
(i edited my comment because i didn’t read the application clearly and realized the answer to my question was in the instructions. sorry! it’s really weird cc doesn’t allow deleting comments).
@TheRose21 thank you so much for all of the advice
i do realize that this is a bit late
@hyh789 I am also interested in bio clusters. Which cluster do you recommend?
I got accepted into UCD’s Cluster 2 when I was a rising sophomore. I’m a junior in highschool now. I can answer any questions and feel free to PM me your essays today, I have time to edit it. PS just a tip: my professor said that alot of the applicants chosen were through their indirect essays… as in, instead of using the words “I’m passionate”, the passion was actually displayed in the essay without the applicant having to directly state it… if that makes sense. Cosmos is definitely competitive but I think I only got in because I wrote a genuine essay.
@daunt18 can you please pm me too? I’m a new member, and i would greatly appreciate it if anybody could look over my essays.
@EmilyShen2003 can you please pm me too? I’m a new member, and i would greatly appreciate it if anybody could look over my essays.
I know a lot of people on this sub say that the campus matters the most, but in reality, it’s really the cluster. Like previously stated, biology clusters tend to be the most competitive but physics/music/food/transportation should have a lower acceptance rate. I think alot has changed with the summer program over the years and campus doesn’t really matter in terms of competiveness.
Computer science is a really competitive cluster… if I’m not mistaken, I think your specific cluster was one of the most competitive ones (top 3 if not more for the campus). I would say that everyone has an equal chance despite their background, unless your gpa is very low. So someone with worse extracurriculars may get in while you don’t, simply because of the essay.
I cannot emphasize this enough but I was rejected in my freshman year because I underestimated the importance of the personal statements. I got in my sophomore year when I started the statements early on and had my friends edit them. If you want, you can PM me your essays. I applied to UCD’s cluster 2 and wrote about leading my robotics team to victory at a tournament and through that experience, it really defined who I was through my ability to work hard, lead and demonstrating passion. I would say that my essay is pretty generic, but I was specific enough to really make it unique
Hey you guys! I just realized that the application deadline is today! Good luckkkkk you guys. Don’t worry about it too much, just grammar-check your essay and make sure that everything is submitted. I remember that one of my friends forgot to copy and paste an entire chunk of her sentence so her essay started off on the wrong foot, but she still got accepted since it was still a really good essay. Be careful
Also not everyone in the program has a 4.0, since people in the bay area especially attend competitive high schools that make it really hard for them to attain such high grades. As long as you don’t have reoccuring B’s in your math/science classes, your GPA should be sufficient
Thank you so much!! I wish I can PM you… I really need someone to look over my essays, but I’m still a new member… Is there any other way I can contact you or something? Thanks again!
Actually, can you just look over my essay ideas? Thanks!
Here it is (really vague): For the why I chose this cluster essays:
for math: not experience-specific (I didn’t really have any :/), but I talk about how magical math is and my curiosity about math
for game design: the first time I designed a game and the feelings I had surrounding it (and why I want to experience that again with cosmos)
personal statement: (math again) I talked about how my opinion surrounding math changed from taking classes just for competitions to truly enjoying it because I found that I was able to help others with my knowledge. I concluded with saying that cosmos would be an opportunity for a big jump in my love for and my knowledge of stem topics and how I would love to continue to help others with that.
What do you think of these? I still have a bit of time to change them, so it would be soo helpful if you could give me feedback. Thank you so much!
Hey! I think your ideas are very good 
But if you’re applying for video games as cluster 2, then it would be very very unlikely to receive it as video games is one of the most competitve clusters, and they only accept applicants who put it as first-choice. They rarely ever make it to second-choice applicants.
I have a few ideas for your personal statement:
- Use a lottt of imagery.. for example... refer to some Ivy League college acceptance essays.. http://www.qianmu.org/u/lystu/school/file/0hme5mn180002vc/0hmlotdce00040a.pdf
- Use a story since that's a lot more engaging. So you can explain the time you encountered a difficult math problem, something that happened in your math class and then connect that to how your opinions of math changed
Overall, I think you stand a strong chance because alot of the tips and advice on this thread are very beneficial so you definitely have an advantage in terms of applications. I wish you the best of luck!! Also, when I applied I forced my parents to read it over because they’re older and they can see the essays through the professor’s mind unlike us teenagers. You’ll be shocked by their useful advice.
I’m a new member as well 
you can give me vague general ideas and I could give you suggestions since some people may steal your ideas… or I can give you my personal email just so I can add comments. Either way, I’ll be glad to help
@EmilyShen2003 Wow, thank you so much!! I think I’m going to stick with my current idea for the personal statement, but I will try to incorporate your idea for the cluster essay (math). I reallllyyyy want to get into the math cluster, more than the video game cluster, so I did not really mention CS in my other essays and I’m not betting on getting in because I put it as second choice. And I’ll ask my parents soon :).
@Chargers85 Hi! At the UCI campus you stay (at least we did, last summer) in middle earth, and there are two guys dorms and two girls dorms. The campus is nice, and you can go for morning runs with a group and a residential advisor (RA) in Aldrich park, which is really pretty. There can be a fair bit of walking to get to class, but it’s completely manageable and is a nice way to start your day with your cluster. On campus, you only eat at one cafeteria and the occasional starbucks, but can go to University Town Center once a week which has a Target and LOTS of great food options (mendocino farms, boba, coffees, fast food, trader joes, etc.). After the educational part of your day, you can hang out in the multi-purpose room and play card/board games or just talk or participate in really fun activities facilitated by the RAs (like horror movie night, assassin–that lasts for days–, scrapbooking, friendship bracelets, etc.) until 10PM when you go back to your dorm. In the dorms, you’re in a suite, which is nice because it’s a small group of people you get close to, but there are also common spaces where people from different suites can hang out. Hope that helped! It was an amazing experience that I could not recommend more.
When calculating the unweighted gpa, is an A- a 3.7 or a 4.0? Some websites are saying different things so I was confused. Please help me asap!