Starting most sentences with "I" in the UC app personal questions

I’m working on the personal questions for the Univ of California system and I followed their guidance about using “I” statements and to not consider this as an English essay. After reviewing my written answers it looks like elementary school writing, am I correct in literally starting the majority of the sentences with “I”? Can anyone accepted to UC share their experience on how to write this not as an english essay.

Don’t take it too literally. The point of “I statements” is that the essay shouldn’t have a long intro and long conclusion but should quickly get to the point and talk about you - what you did, why you did it, what you learned from it, how it has impacted your choice to do other activities, choose a major, etc.

My suggestion would be to let those essays sit and marinade as you work on your activity section. After describing your activities, go back to the essays and look at what you want to keep or revise. In the activity section you are limited on words so you might want to start with verbs rather than “I”

OP: I will PM you. You can respond via return PM.

If you like, I will edit one of your essays so that you can consider different approaches.