<p>Someone PLEASE help me with the UC essays! I have a book on college essays and received advice from teachers/counselors about the overall writing style of college essays. They want show not tell. I want to be able to answer the UC prompts with a creative writing style in which I answer the prompt through my tone/style and not through analyzing my characteristics and life events. Many of my peer essays have somewhat of an analytical paragraph that is like "from this experience (enter range of sports/dramatic life experience/leadership role/volunteer service/ETC) I gained these qualities (dedication, leadership, ability to work with other people, ETC) which I will take to college." I do not feel this is completely necessary since everyone basically says the same thing. Yet some people have told me that UCs prefer if you answer the prompt in such a way because "showing" would not entirely answer the prompt directly. I am confused because the UC prompts are pretty specific... Help?</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>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>While I can’t really help you come up with a creative way to write your essays (the only way to have your true voice in your essay is if you create it 100% by your self), there’s one piece of advice I can give you about college essay books. Instead of using the books as examples of what to do, use them as a guideline of what NOT to do. Since those books are super accessible to millions of students, there are bound to be tons of kids who base their essays off of the ones in the books. In addition, after flipping through a couple of those books, I’ve noticed that many of the essays in the books are cliche and generic (basically “from this experience (enter range of sports/dramatic life experience/leadership role/volunteer service/ETC) I gained these qualities (dedication, leadership, ability to work with other people, ETC) which I will take to college”). Spend a lot of time thinking of creative ideas and surely you’ll come up with one that you’re satisfied with.</p>
<p>Yes I understand that I myself need to come up with the creative way…but what I’m really asking is if that sort of answering the UC prompts through a tell not show is really better since the prompts are a little more specific then the usual general tell us about yourself prompt. Like say if I write creatively… and then answer the prompt descriptively in the last para? I’m just confused because many people I’ve talked to tell me that UCs like to see that you’ve answered the prompt…by analyzing what you’ve said throughout your essay…even though I don’t see how that is necessary</p>