UC Essay Topic Work

College Essays
1

<p>I have written my second essay and have several topics lined up for my first. If any of you could tell me which essays sound more compelling for a UC admissions reader that would be absolutely excellent; eventually I'll post the finished copies on this board too, but I have yet to write the first essay (I know, I procrastinated).</p>

<p>The topics I have for prompt 1 are as follows:
I could write about my parents, their circumstances, and how that/they influenced me (namely how my mom went from the lowest "class" to a comfortable middle class life, and how the remnants of her bottom-class life have impressed me with certain sentiments, and how my parents absolutely work their a** off for me and my siblings because they know the value of education and are willing to pitch in to help)
OR
My career of reading high-level books from an early age and how that has impressed me with certain sentiments/ideals (i.e. Crichton's Prey made me google PredPray simulations which essentially lead to me teaching myself the basics of CS/Machine Learning/Algorithms, and how Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" scared the crap out of me and impressed me with a sense of 'necessary independence' which has shaped my learning career)</p>

<p>And for the second essay, I wrote about how my endeavor into learning CS and all the math that goes with taking Stanford's (legitimate, not the Coursera version) Engineering Everywhere Machine Learning course (and later the Computational Neuroscience course) taught me how to teach myself, manage my time, and have confidence in my ability to learn essentially anything I put my mind to. </p>

<p>Does the Prompt 2 essay sound too precocious (if so, I have a backup, which is me writing about my near-death experience, which involved me being pinned under a metal bench underwater and basically accepting death-this experience having greatly contributed to my person...or would this be more of a Prompt 1 essay?) Also, which Prompt 1 essay would have the best effect on a reader, do you think?</p>

<p>Any insight helps, thanks a ton :)</p>

2

<p>For essay, talking about books and how you learned CS is a lot better. The essays need to be about you, and what you did, not your mom. </p>

<p>If you do choose CS for number 1, it would be a bad idea to make yourself one dimensional and talk about the same thing for essay 2. </p>

<p>Near-death experience is prob a topic for an essay because it’ll be depression. “accepting death” doesn’t really sound good IRL.</p>

3

<p>The prompt 2 essay sounds fine.</p>

<p>For the UC essay number 1, the first idea is the more relevant to the prompt. The prompt is trying to delve into your background and influences and you have some pronounced ones. Just be sure to keep the focus on you and how the family circumstances affected you, your worldview and your aspirations.</p>

4

<p>Thanks. So you guys are saying the second prompt sounds like a decent topic…awesome.
And I guess I’ll just go with the prompt 2 that I can make the most personal (admittedly, I would’ve focused a bit on my parent’s circumstances if I went with that topic, but at the same time, there’s more material there as far as how it affected me).</p>

5

<p>@ BrownParent. They said “your world” could be your bedroom. Prompt 1 doesn’t have to be taken literarily. Plus everyone has some kind of backstory. The inherent problem of talking about your parents and their struggles is that you aren’t talking about yourself and your struggles.</p>

6

<p>Well I mean I could write about how their mannerisms (which came about as a result of their struggles) affect my life and aspirations, but I see what you mean.</p>