There is only one University of California application, and the application can go to any the following nine schools: UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, and UC Merced.
These schools vary greatly both in terms of acceptance rate and academic offerings. It’s next to impossible to love all nine schools, so be sure to do your research before applying.
There are 8 questions to choose from, and you’ll choose 4. Responses are capped at 350 words each. Let’s take a look:
Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.
Should you choose to answer this question, the best advice that we can give you is to think outside of appointed leadership positions. We shy away from “team captain” responses here because those will be listed in the activities section of your UC application account. By zooming in on a personal and small story, you can demonstrate the ways that you lead people when you aren’t forced to do so. For example, if you have younger siblings who come to you for advice about starting high school, you might highlight the ways that you’ve eased their anxiety and helped them adjust to a new school.
Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
This is a great question for those students who have a hobby or have found creative ways to do pretty much anything. We once worked with a student who built his own computer, and while he didn’t necessarily consider himself an artist, he found creative ways to solve problems along the way. It’s important to keep in mind the many ways that creativity can be expressed. If you’re a painter or someone who is writing code and you’re taking an off-book approach, you could explain how you incorporate creativity when looking to innovate. It’s also worth noting that this is a great opportunity to break form, especially since this prompt is begging you to flex your creative muscles. If you’ve been wanting to write a short three act play, but your other supplements don’t quite fit the bill for it, this just might be the place.
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
This question stops most TKG clients in their tracks. We think it’s the mention of the word “greatest.” Instead of focusing on the first question, read the second one over. “How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?” There is one requirement of this prompt: to showcase growth. As long as you aren’t highlighting something that appears elsewhere in your application, it doesn’t really matter what talent or skill you write about as long as you show a commitment to getting better. This is also an amazing opportunity to write about something lighthearted and funny if you can swing it, so if you’ve been setting aside a few hours a week to practice juggling or making the perfect omelet, now’s your time to shine.
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
Before you start answering this prompt, read the next one. There is a bit of overlap, and for that reason, we suggest choosing one (and not both) of the questions. To answer this one, we suggest writing about a time when you took what you’ve learned (either in school or during your free time) and used it to either get a job, internship, or research opportunity. To broaden that, basically think of any opportunity you took advantage of. Even if an internship fell into your lap, focus your story on what you did once you got there. For example, if you took a bunch of online courses during quarantine and then taught a course a local library once things opened back up, you might highlight something memorable from that experience. Your story doesn’t have to be big to work!
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?
If something came to mind for this question, you should probably go for it. But if you have faced a notable challenge, and you believe that it’s worth mentioning, practice the art of honest storytelling. For the record, you do not need to write a gut-wrenching story to get into college and you should only write about what you’re truly comfortable sharing. Just don’t forget to include what you’ve done, or are currently doing, to overcome the situation.
Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
We highly recommend answering this question! This is because it’s the only dedicated space to tell the UC schools what you plan to major in, which could be information that they’ll use to balance out their incoming class. It’s also a good way to step away from the personality prompts for those students who have a hard time writing about themselves.
Instead of writing broadly about Chemistry, go deep. Go back to that first source of inspiration and explain how you’ve familiarized yourself with the topic, the books you’ve read, the research rabbit holes you’ve gone down, and the jobs and internships you’ve had. Feel free to fully geek out and make sure that your passion jumps off the page.
What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
You should only move forward with this question if you’ve demonstrated a long-term commitment to improve your school or community. This is NOT the time to write about a service trip, and whatever you write about should have taken place close to home. To use an example, you could write about a three-pronged approach to improving the recycling program at your school. But for most students, you’re better off skipping this one unless you’ve been working towards something for years.
Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
While we never suggest a copy and paste job, we would be remiss not to mention that this essay has common app essay vibes. If you worked hard to express an aspect of your personality that doesn’t appear elsewhere, you might try distilling your existing essay into 350 words.
If you’d rather start fresh, this could be a good space for the Thing-That-Wouldn’t-Quite-Fit elsewhere. But make sure that it complements the rest of your application, and doesn’t read like a disjointed attempt at squeezing in irrelevant information.
We recommend choosing a mix of questions that speak to different aspects of yourself. Avoid redundancy by reading through everything before you start writing!
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