UC Essays

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hello. First time parent of a UC applicant here. Elder daughter applied a few years ago to east coast LACs and wrote one philosophical "Who am I" essay and one colorful shorter essay on her unsual EC. For LACs, the goal seemed to be to avoid writing boring essays.</p>

<p>BUT, Son will apply to UCs, probably engineering programs.</p>

<p>Has anyone seen really good UC essays and have advise? Which one should be the long one? Will they be more interested in facts than creativity in the essays?</p>

<p>1) academic prep (they see your transcript, so what you got out of it or why you took what you did?)
2) contribution (humbly brag? EC or personal quality? past or future focus?)
3) open ended (if no unusual personal circumstance, write a "Who am I?" type?)</p>

<p>Any thoughts appreciated. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>
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Which one should be the long one?

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</p>

<p>it really doesnt matter, but most people find it easier to use the 600 word on the open-ended one. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Will they be more interested in facts than creativity in the essays?

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</p>

<p>neither; they're interested in key words. facts dont demonstrate much. a misperception is that the essay is judged on creativity. creativity may be valued at berkeley and UCLA where the admissions is more competitive, but for the rest of the UC's, they're scanning the essays for key words and not judging you on creativity. this is especially true for schools that convert the essays to points, such as UCSD, where creativity doesnt give you any points but say, participation in an outreach program and how that helped you overcome a disadvantage would. basically they're looking for the content and not necessarily how you presented it.</p>

3

<p>D applied to UC as safety, but wasn't feeling positive about it; her UC essays lacked even a semblance of sincerity, creativity, or desirable content. She got in. It reminded me of applying for a credit card for my cat, using her financial data; got one.</p>

4

<p>Hiker, I just sent you some information in a PM that should help your son a great deal.</p>

5

<p>kfc4u: Key words? You mean like "minority" "foster child" or "food stamps" or like "chosen" "leader" and "curious"?</p>

<p>cello: lol. My son's "numbers" are great, so he'll love hearing that! Or maybe I shouldn't share it just yet...</p>

<p>carolyn: Thanks for the message!</p>

6

<p>All the UC application information stresses content over creativity. The essays are an opportunity to show more about who the applicant is than can be gleaned from a list of courses, grades, test scores, and ecs.</p>

<p>The one consistent bit of advice is "No Haiku"</p>

7

<p>The is the UC system.</p>

<p>They are reading hundreds of thousands of essays. </p>

<p>Therefore, this is not Bates. </p>

<p>Content, content, content.</p>