<p>Anybody have an idea of how tens of thousands of personal statements for the UCs get read?<br>
Due to sheer numbers I cannot imagine that they get much scrutiny.</p>
<p>Depends on the UC. Some UCs eliminate using computers and going based off numbers and reading the personal statements of the rest. I believe berkeley reads all of them…</p>
<p>We were told that they read every one of them, esp if you’re applying to UCLA or Cal. But some of the other campuses, like Davis, Santa Barbara, or even Santa Cruz have become much harder to get into the past few years. I would think that the essays are very important. If you want to go there, I would approach it with that attitude.</p>
<p>The personal statement is very crucial and should be taken seriously. In fact many UC’s hire independent readers who are from high school college counseling offices or are independent college admissions counselors. The applications and personal statement will get at least two reads with a rating given to the application. Bottom line: take the personal statement seriously and do no blow it off.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. I knew someone about 10 years who was a UC reader (she had recently gotten a PhD from a UC) and she said she had about 2 minutes per essay with a rubric. This was before the application tsunami. I think I was imagining robo-scans by computers these days.</p>
<p>Some of the UC’s have gone to holistic review so that is why there are multiple readers. Yes they use a rubic but the multiple reads mean they have to come close in scoring or else they get an additional read. There are no robo-scans which only really happens for the Cal-state applications.</p>