<p>(I know all of this cuz I go to school in SB right now and we had an admissions rep come twice to talk to us):</p>
<p>For the essays-they can make/break your application. If there’s two similar students, they turn to the essays to discern between the two. They mainly wanted facts and an elaboration of the stuff on your application (like an EC that you had extensive activity in, for example). The admissions rep said “keep flowery language for the private schools-we just want hardcore facts.”</p>
<p>Eep…fudge and I gotta get in! My essays were really good…but not like hard core facts…well one was sorta…the other…arg I’m screwed… <em>sob</em> I’m a good student I don’t wanna fail!</p>
<p>my first essay basically says how i overcame my hardship in school by learning english with this one senior citizen in 4-5th grade and then i helped her do her daily chores until she died couple months ago</p>
<p>my second one basically says how i picked up the violin (i play viola too) instead of guitar like my mom told me to and how i learned perseverance blah blah blah generic stuff</p>
<p>but then after that i put in the note secction the reason why i dropped some classes b/c i wanted to do better with an easier class load contradicts my essay so i’m doomed… UGHHHHHHHHHHHHH GOD SAVE ME PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE</p>
<p>My essays were:
One: My mom, who passed away, helped me learn to love education.
Two: How I evacuated Lebanon during a war and I wrote how I was proud to be a Lebanese American…</p>
<p>These were mine:
one (this one was kinda crappy): the fact that my dad dropped out of hs and my mom never completed college and how that inspires me to work harder…then a little bit about my small hs and how that compelled me to take advantage of every club etc i could get into
two: this was my strongest and I talked about my involvement in Math Club and how it affected me as a person and as an inspiring computer scientist</p>
<p>Yes…let’s make a huge prayer circle…i’ll start:</p>
<p>Lord almighty, despite everything i have done to shame christianity and bring shame upon your name, i pray that you will give us the strength to have more faith in you.
Whether we get admission into this university or not, i pray that in the long run, you will watch over us and give us the strength to succeed.</p>
<p>and let them not, Lord, be deterred from the righteous path by admissions cuts. Let them not reject us, nor offer us guaranteed transfer, nor acceptance for winter quarter.</p>
<p>I don’t know about UCSB, but UCSD did that to a ton of people this year. Personally, I was offered a guaranteed transfer program through UC Merced… but there’s no way I want to go to Merced for 2 years.</p>