I had a few questions about the the new UC format regarding the “personal insight” questions.
I have a teacher that’s telling me that I should establish a “controlling metaphor” and use symbols and a lot of examples of parallel structure and more in order to make the responses sound really good.
On the other hand, a UC college admissions officer told me to respond to it as merely a question and that even bullet points could do the job( I’m obviously not going to do this)
But my question is which approach to take? establishing symbols and controlling metaphors does take a lot of space being that they only allow 350 words but the last thing I want to do is turn in responses that sound mediocre to the rest. And maybe the admissions officer was only talking about what she expects while others expect more.
Does anybody have any further knowledge about what they expect or what is good to do on these new UC responses?
It’s just a question. The UC adcom is right. Your English teacher is probably correct for the Common App essay particularly for high-ranking colleges, but definitely not for the UC app.
Here are some writing tips:
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/personal-questions/writing-tips/index.html
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/personal-questions/index.html
http://admissions.berkeley.edu/personalstatement
Essay H*ll has what looks like useful suggestions.