<p>This is really more of a UC admissions question than an essay question, so I'm posting here. The UC transfer application prompt reads: </p>
<p>"What is your intended major? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had in the field — such as volunteer work, internships and employment, participation in student organizations and activities — and what you have gained from your involvement."</p>
<p>I have no issue with explaining my interest in chemical engineering, However, I have zero experience with it. No internships, hobbies, or even chem e classes because my college doesn't have any. I do of course have chemistry, physics, and mathematics classes. This will be my shorter essay (250-300 words). I wanted feedback from maybe some successful transfers on here on how they approached this prompt if they were in a similar situation. All advice is welcomed!</p>
<p>Have you taken OChem yet? If yes, you probably have performed several syntheses of useful products. Pick a particular synthesis and describe it as experience you have had in the field. (The experiment produced grams of product. However, I want to know how to mass-produce it, so a degree in ChemE will help me attain such goal…) </p>
<p>There has to be something that made you choose chemical engineering over all the other majors that are offered. If you chose ChemE for its pay, what made you choose chemical over all the other engineering disciplines? </p>
<p>Yes I have completed the O-chem sequence. I chose chem e because I absolutely love chemistry and physics, and I know that major will allow me to use some of each. I really enjoy the variety of jobs a chemical engineer may do because I don’t want to be pigeonholed into a single job type or certain region to have to live in to find work. There are endless opportunities with the degree and I want that. </p>
<p>They don’t care about originality. What they care about is if you can connect it to your life and be authentic. They want your transcript to “dialogue” with your personal statement. They will see the courses you’ve taken. Talk about the first class you took and maybe how that eventually brought you to the decision. You don’t need to write about some moment of clarity. </p>
<p>Just talk about your love of chemistry. Maybe it started with a childhood chem set or a lecture or an experiment or an interesting mentor/friend. Maybe a TV show got you hooked. Also you can talk about what you see for your future and the various directions you see it taking you. </p>
<p>@calbro, thank you for the link. watching that video and several related is really helping me get a feel for how to approach the essays. Thanks!</p>
<p>@Bear87 Not a problem! I’m glad that it was helpful. Go to your transfer center at your community college and ask when admission officers from UCLA or Berkeley visit your college. They’re the best source of information and not your counselors or even the peer mentors from schools. Bring your brainstorm/draft to them and they will help you!</p>
<p>@Bear87, I personally talked about a very personal circumstance that got me interested in the biological sciences, so if you went through something similar that greatly impacted you when you were growing up, then I would highly recommend you to at least talk a little bit about that and how much you learned from that circumstance and how much more you want to learn about that specific topic etc. It worked for me, so I hope it works for you too :). </p>
<p>PS. Be careful to not be so specific on your personal statement, for example when I applied to 4 UCs (got into all of them), I applied to UCLA as a neuroscience major, same thing with UCSD, but for UCD I applied as a behavioral science and neurobiology major, and UC-Berkeley as a Molecular and Cell Bio major with an emphasis in either immunology or neurobiology… Instead of focusing on just one major, I mentioned I truly wanted to pursue a career in the biological sciences (which emphasized all of the different majors I applied for) because of x, y, and z etc… Hope it helps, wish you the best of luck! </p>
<p>At the risk of being told I’m wrong, I am going to say I wouldn’t worry too much about the essay on the major. UCLA and UCB are the only two who read the essays as part of the application: the rest read them simply for scholarship potential. Merced and Irvine may read if they are looking for discrepancies (such as why you had bad grades or took a year off), but even that is questionable, as all the UCs look for these discrepancies in additional comments, so there is no guarantee.</p>
<p>My daughter wrote the essay on her major, which was offered at the 4 UCs she applied to (UCLA and Berkekey were in that mix). After she submitted she decided she should hedge her bets and apply to all nine UC campuses. The other five did not have her major so she had to choose different ones more or less on the spot. The point is, she wrote her entire essay on one major that was not the major she applied to at the other five UCs. She got accepted to all, which further shows the other schools aren’t reading the essays. So not to worry. Focus on Berkeley’s major (and UCLA’s, if applying there) and don’t worry so much about the others.</p>
<p>I did actually give the bulk of my word limit to prompt 2 (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?") and have about 250-350 words to work on the major essay with. My reservation on this essay is just that I have no experience per se in my major. I feel I can communicate my interest in the major and the profession well enough. And I suppose at this point my lack of internship or related employment or clubs isn’t something I can change, so perhaps I shouldn’t stress over it. </p>
<p>I am not applying to Berkely or Merced. I’m tagging UCI so my essay doesn’t matter for admissions there. While I am applying to UCLA, I honestly don’t know if I will go if accepted. The thing I stress over is the scholarships, which all UC’s use the essays for. I work full time and have zero savings. My UC experience will be funded (hopefully) by financial aid and a small amount of loans. I don’t plan on working while at UC, so I need good aid packages to make this happen. Where I end up going will be determined largely by what aid I’m offered. If I’m offered equivalent or near-equivalent packages, then of course I have my druthers.</p>
<p>I was actually quite irritated at UC San Diego for not reading. They sent me a message around the beginning of January asking why I had a gap in my education. I was so close to saying, “It’s in my damn personal statement.” Whatever, they accepted me in March anyway. </p>
<p>I was also irritated at UC Davis for asking me the same thing. They also called me around February asking why I didn’t list one of the required courses as planned. I was so close to taking that class, “[insert quote here].” Whatever, they accepted me in April anyway. </p>
<p>Wow that is really interesting that they didn’t check the essays. This is really reinforcing that it needs to be in the additional comments section. Thx for sharing that @calbro and @fontanita</p>
<p>Wow that is really interesting that they didn’t check the essays. This is really reinforcing that it needs to be in the additional comments section. Thx for sharing that @calbro and @fontanita</p>
<p>@lindyk8 - it’s really weird because in the section where I added in my schools, they ask for why there are gaps. I filled that in accurately, but then I still got the request asking me to fill the gaps after the update. </p>
<p>@2016Candles do you suggest duplicating that information in the additional comments section, or waiting to see if they ask? I did already put it in the boxes where classes are listed. </p>
<p>You could duplicate it in the additional comments section, if you don’t have other additional comments. I mean if they do ask later on to explain the gaps it’s not really a big deal. They give you a link, and you say what you did. Click submit, and you’re done. Either way I don’t think it’s a big deal.</p>
<p>I personally used the comment section to add new/additional info that could help me be accepted.</p>
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