Some Questions About UC Essays

College Essays
1

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<li><p>I don't write a lot about my passion about the major in my essay, I just write about the factors that give me an advantage/indirectly show my passion in the major. Is this okay or should I directly link the conclusions of my essays to my major?</p></li>
<li><p>Do they read every single word on it?</p></li>
<li><p>How important are essays in getting accepted?</p></li>
<li><p>My 1st essay is 100% personal, and my second essay is mostly personal and shows a social impact I've made. Should one essay be personal and the other very achievement based? Or are my essays fine (I do follow the guidelines) at the moment?</p></li>
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<p>Any help would be much appreciated.</p>

2

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<li><p>They don’t ask specifically about your major, and they read ten gazillion essays about “this is why I want to be an engineer” (etc.). Many, many students end up changing their majors anyway. As long as you’re answering the prompt, an essay not about your major is fine and might even be a welcome break from the “this is why I want to be an engineer” essays.</p></li>
<li><p>I honestly do not know, but I do know that you should write the essay under the assumption that they will read every single word of it. Even if they don’t, you never know which part will jump out at them – maybe the part you hoped they wouldn’t notice.</p></li>
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3

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<li>Hard to tell without reading them, but they sound fine to me. Achievement-based essays can get tiring to read, and as long as you’re addressing the prompts, I don’t think you should worry. More important than whether they’re both personal is whether they’re about <em>different</em> personal things. Some people use the second essay to kind of rehash a lot of the same information from the first essay, which you should avoid.</li>
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4

<p>@jpheys thank you so much. if you were wondering, my second essay is just a more detailed exploration of a talent i briefly mentioned in the first essay (which was generally about something much more broad). </p>

5

<p>Review these links for helpful hints on writing the UC personal statement:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cfep.uci.edu/ub/senior_center/uc_personal_statement.html”>http://www.cfep.uci.edu/ub/senior_center/uc_personal_statement.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://counseling.ahs.ausd.net/modules/groups/homepagefiles/gwp/1414167/2051610/File/College%20Information%20docs/2013-2014%20Writing%20a%20Powerful%20UC%20Application%20Essay%20presentation.pdf”>http://counseling.ahs.ausd.net/modules/groups/homepagefiles/gwp/1414167/2051610/File/College%20Information%20docs/2013-2014%20Writing%20a%20Powerful%20UC%20Application%20Essay%20presentation.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<li>In general, the essays matter more for smaller colleges and the more selective colleges. On the importance of college essay, read on…</li>
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<p><a href=“Lifting the Veil on the Holistic Process at the University of California, Berkeley - The New York Times”>Lifting the Veil on the Holistic Process at the University of California, Berkeley - The New York Times;

<p>Hope this helps. Best of luck! (:</p>