<p>Hi everyone, I have a question about the application essays for freshman admission.</p>
<p>These are the two prompts:</p>
<p>Prompt #1 (freshman applicants)</p>
<p>Describe the world you come from for example, your family, community or school and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.</p>
<p>Prompt #2 (all applicants)</p>
<p>Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?</p>
<p>-The UC website states that "You may allocate the word count as you wish. If you choose to respond to one prompt at greater length, we suggest your shorter answer be no less than 250 words."</p>
<p>Do they really not care how we divide the word count between the two prompts? To me, it seems like the first prompt would be weighed more heavily. Would I be penalized if I spent most of my word count describing an experience?</p>
<p>You’re not going to be ‘penalized’ for anything - just make sure they are both actual essays and sound good.</p>
<p>You won’t be penalized for the distribution of words, no.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Don’t underestimate prompt #2 - that was the one I exceeded my preliminary word limit on (500 & 500). I didn’t have problems keeping to it for prompt #1.</p>
<p>Have fun with your essays; now’s a good time to start :)</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Flutterfly28…about both of them being actual essays:</p>
<p>I want to write a 700~ word response to prompt #2. That leaves me with 300 words for prompt #1. Can a 300 word response be considered an actual essay?</p>
<p>It does. I think. I’ll be really impressed if you manage to squeeze all your background, dreams and aspirations into 300 words though!</p>
<p>I felt that my response to prompt 1 could be compelling, so I wrote 800+ words for that. My response to prompt 2 was under 200 (I copy-pasted a paragraph from my Common App). My Regents interviewer commended me on taking a risk but encouraged me to follow suggestions if I came to Berkeley LOL.</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about it. Take some poetic license; as long as your writing is good, you can get away with a lot.</p>