I was talking to my mom and she told me that only UCB and UCLA read personal statements when she did research for my brother when he was applying back in 2012. Is this still true to date? Or have other campuses begun reading personal statements regardless of the cutoff?
I think they will read. If they don’t read then they don’t ask you to write. Otherwise there will be a huge public protest.
From the UC Website:::
Most of the UC campuses employ a method of comprehensive review called holistic review, whereby campus admissions offices evaluate applications based on the totality of the 14 factors. In other words, no single factor plays a deciding role in how an applicant is evaluated.
UCB/UCLA tend to be the most “holistic” UC campuses and may put more emphasis on the essays vs. UCR but all campuses will review the personal statements in their application review to some extend or another.
UCSB specially states on their website that they evaluate Freshman based on 50% (GPA, a-g courses and test scores) and 50% (Personal Insight questions and EC’s).
http://admissions.sa.ucsb.edu/applying/freshman/selection
Gumbymom to the rescue as always.