Hello. I’m planning to finish all currently available college essays by the end of the summer. I have 2 of my 4 UC Personal Insight questions done, but I have several questions regarding the UC Personal Insight Questions:
- Is it better to write it in a story-like manner, or are straight-forward responses preferred?
- Does the same admissions officer read all 4 essays + the addition comments section? I’m planning on writing 3 of my 4 essays about my passion for math and how it has inspired me to do several things related to different questions. I feel like admissions officers have to read all 4 of my essays to truly understand my passion for the subject.
- This sort of connects to the last question. Is it a good idea to have a theme throughout all 4 Personal Insight Questions (in my case, math), or should I talk about something different for each one?
- What should I use the addition comments section for? Is it okay to leave it blank, or would that significantly affect my chances?
- Would leading a club relate more to question 1 (what leadership have you done that positively influenced others) or question 7 (what have you done to make your school a better place) or does it not really matter?
Story-like is pretty common, as long as you answer the questions somewhere in there. Read the famous Ivy costco essay for an example. You can have a theme for 2, or maybe three, but talk about something different for at least one. Otherwise you get repetitive and you come across as dull and uni-faceted. Leave the additional comments section blank unless you have something big to write about (extenuating circumstance to explain that one year you got straight-D’s). Leading a club would lean more to Question 1, unless you did it specifically to help your school rather than to help people. Example: Campus clean-up club or something would go Question 7, but most clubs would be 1.
@daunt18 Thank you for the advice! I think I’ve figured out what I’m going to write about for 1: Founding the school’s math club and MATHCOUNTS team and encouraging mathematical problem solving at my school.
I’m sort of stuck on 7. I’m debating whether to write about my experience as a WEB/LINK leader in my sophomore and senior years where I helped new students at my school bond and get adapted to the school’s rigorous curriculum, or my experience as the co-founder of my school’s Web Design club, which has been working to redesign the school’s website so that it is more easily navigable and organized. My mom’s recommending that I write about my awards in math competitions and how that makes my school look better for 7, but I feel like that’s a bit braggy. What are your thoughts on this?
Math = boring. It’s great to be strong at math but it doesn’t show a personality that has something to offer his or her community.
I think writing about your experience as a Boy Scout would be much better. But again, consider an angle that shows you as a person. Think of a small experience that happened within scouting. It could be a relationship that developed or a time you made an impact on another and develop the essay from there. The essay is very short - just 650 words. You want to show yourself as a person not as an achievement.
Prove to the AOs that math IS NOT boring, if math and CS are your passion, write about them. Present it in an interesting/unique way, share your joy with them. Don’t list what you have done/achieved, your Other application info already did that.
Your ECs, your transcript(s), your awards and honors, and probably your LORs all scream math. This is a good thing. A very good thing. Use the essay to tell the AOs something else about you. Listing your achievements in your essay is extremely boring and redundant.
I agree with the poster above who advised to write about an experience, maybe during Boy Scouts, or maybe some other time that moved you, or changed you, or shaped you.
Writing about winning the big math competition is easy (and boring). Writing about an experience that changed your life is challenging (and much more interesting.)
Good luck!
Half of what essays? The Common App asks for one. If you mean UC essays, that’s different.
None of the writings are meant to push your suitability for a specific major. They aren’t job letters. You want an admit to a college community, not just to a major. Show some life, let them see you’re more than classwork.
I wouldn’t say writing about math is boring.
But it’s NOT the point of the essay. Who are you, after math? You may need to sit down and think about who you are and what colleges want.
Ps. Writing about all math/all the time is not stereotypical of Asian American kids. They have lives and other experiences to use as a basis.
Look at the Common App. See all the places you show math awards or activities. That isn’t what the essay is for. See the prompts.
@lookingforward I was referring to my UC essays. After seeing these suggestions, I’m thinking about doing questions 1, 4, 6 and 7.
I’ll write 1 (leadership) about my motivations for starting my school’s math club and MATHCOUNTS team, as well as what I had learned through my experience leading the MATHCOUNTS team in the competition and helping them learn and enjoy math without stressing them out too much.
I’ll write 4 (education opportunity/barriers) about my situation of exhausting all math classes at my high school and community college, and how I took to the internet and audited several courses in various topics of interest on Coursera, EdX, and MIT OpenCourseWare (including math classes, machine learning, and physics C).
I’ll write 6 (academic subject that inspired me) about my passion for math and problem solving developed through math competition, and how it has changed me as a person both in my choice of major and my way of thinking. I have a draft of this that my guidance counselor looked over (she was a former UCB admissions officer) and she said my passion for the subject is really brought out through that essay, and that she liked it. I’m working on making it a bit more concise so I can add another sentence or two at the end to show how my passion has extended beyond just math competitions. I’d appreciate it if anyone can look over that.
Lastly, I’ll write 7 (positive effects on community or school) about my development in my understanding of the world and leadership skills through Boy Scouts, and how I took on a more active role in society and my family (such as through volunteering, merit badges, and service projects).
I’m still a little bit worried that 3 of my 4 questions are regarding math. Would writing them on different aspects (club leadership, learning in school and classes, and math extracurriculars) help, or should I change my topics for some of those questions?
I’d be concerned, too. You’ve worked hard at your math interests, but theres more, right?
Maybe post a thread in one of the UC forums here. See how others handled those particular essays.
Hello! I’m a Chinese male from California and I’m starting to have second-thoughts on my college essay topics and hearing a presentation from a Chinese college prep center because my essays might be too stereotypical for Asian Americans. My intended major is applied mathematics, and possibly computer science.
I was originally planning on writing about half of my essays about my passion for math and computer science in multiple aspects:
- Math competitions (started in 10th grade, 2 time AIME qualifier, scored a 10 on AIME (top 168 among co2020) and scored 36th place globally on Online Math Open)
- Exhausting math courses at high school and community college (through Differential Equations) and learning undergrad and grad level math through online resources, such as Coursera, EdX, and MIT OpenCourseWare (Complex Analysis, Abstract Algebra, Group Theory, Graph Theory, Analytic Combinatorics, Galois Theory)
- Founding the Math club and MATHCOUNTS team at my school for 3 years, and serving as the assistant coach
- Independent Math Research since 10th grade, and getting a mentor this summer
- Job as a math tutor
- Participating for 3 years in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge with a math topic
- Cofounder of my school’s Web Design Club, which has a goal of redesigning our school website to make it more organized and navigable
- USACO (started in 11th grade, currently at the Gold division)
- Participation in Hackathons (started in 11th grade, placed 3rd place in one of them)
I have a number of other topics I can write about, such as my experience in Boy Scouts as senior patrol leader, and the valuable experiences I gained through helping in the community and my family, or my experience as a WEB/LINK leader in my sophomore and senior years, where I helped lead a group of new students through class bonding activities and giving them advice throughout the year for staying on top of academics.
Would it be okay to write about my passions (math and computer science) in my essays, or should I stick to less stereotypical topics, such as Boy Scouts and being a WEB/LINK leader? Do admission officers see our stats when reading our essays, or do they just dive in without knowing those details?
As long as each essay about Math is different and gives admissions a different perspective about yourself, it should be fine.