The prompts I chose for my UC essays are 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Prompt 4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
I am writing about how I became my own greatest educational barrier through being lazy and feeling inferior to my peers, but overcoming it halfway through high school. (This is in part an explanation of my poor grades in freshman year and beginning of sophomore year)
Prompt 5. Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?
For this one I wrote about how being gay while raised in a religious household caused me to hate myself and be reluctant to care about school and such until I overcame it and I am working to better myself for the future.
Prompt 6. Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you.
I wrote about how my love for science revitalized my interest in school and in learning.
Prompt 7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
With this prompt I basically talked about how much I enjoy volunteering at community events and peer tutoring.
Do these sound like reasonable ways to approach each of the prompts? I finished all of my essays and I’m hoping they will be perceived well.