No More UC Personal Statements??

College Essays
1

WHHHAAATTT???

After 148 years, the UC system recently announced that they will be dropping the two personal essays and will use 4 “Personal Insight Questions” instead to evaluate applicants.

“You will have 8 questions to choose from. You must respond to only 4 of the 8 questions.
Each response is limited to a maximum of 350 words.
Which questions you choose to answer is entirely up to you: But you should select questions that are most relevant to
your experience and that best reflect your individual circumstances.”

“All questions are equal: All are given equal consideration in the application review process, which means there is no

advantage or disadvantage to choosing certain questions over others.
There is no right or wrong way to answer these questions: It’s about getting to know your personality, background,

interests and achievements in your own unique voice.”

"1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.

  1. Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
  2. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
  3. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
    1. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
  4. Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you.
  5. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
  6. What is the one thing that you think sets you apart from other candidates applying to the University of California?"

-http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/personal-questions/freshman/index.html

I personally feel that this is a disadvantage for new applicants because students are restricted from freely expressing and individualizing themselves from other applicants because the questions are more specific and narrow, rather than being broad general topics.

What are your thoughts? Is this better than the personal statements or worse?

2

Worse. So much worse. The 2 prompts before were vague enough that you could take them in just about any direction, but these are just so darn specific. I feel like now all the essays will sound so similar to each other.

3

Exactly how I feel. I’m guessing UC’s are placing less value on the writing skills, and more on grades, test scores, and extracurriculars?

4

yes. thank god