<p>Currently in the process of writing my personal statement, and I know it plays a big role in the admissions process for Cal. I'm just wondering what things I should focus on the most.</p>
<p>Being genuine</p>
<p>being genuine is good as long as it doesn’t come off as generic (generic personal statements are the weakest type of personal statements)</p>
<p>mine was far from being genuine, but it made good use of wit/sarcasm/humor
and i got in so it couldn’t have been that bad (didnt get into ucla tho… :[ )</p>
<p>Why you’re applying to Cal, what you want to get out of Cal.</p>
<p>If you answer those 2 questions, i think that’s a well-written personal statement.</p>
<p>Please don’t talk about what you want out of CAL specifically. Do not mention specific schools, since all UCs see the same application. Perhaps unless you’re only applying to UC Berkeley, even then, it comes off as desperate.</p>
<p>^ I know a kid who wrote an essay about why he should get into cal, and ended up getting into another UC hahaha</p>