The UC system has their own approach to the college application, and they give a lot of advice on their essay webpage. You always want to heed the direct, official advice of an adcom. To that end, we’re going to share the upfront advice and prompts from UC, and share our Admissionado insights as we go along. Anything in italics is the Admissionado angle; anything in roman (non-italicized) is from the University of California admissions webpage.

Personal insight questions

Imagine UC was a person. If we met face-to-face, what would you want us to know about you? These personal insight questions allow you to tell us. You could write about your creative side. Your thoughts on leadership. A challenge you’ve faced. Whatever questions you answer, make sure you show us your personality—just as you would in real life.

Admissionado angle: The strategy here is not simply to pick your four best standalone essay topics from all your possible responses to the prompts. Rather, your goal should be for the sum of your four personal insight questions to give the best, most well-rounded, impressive and intriguing picture of you. If you’re a nationally-lauded concert violinist, that’s AMAZING!—while this may be your crowning achievement, you should still only write ONE essay on the topic. 

After you’ve done the initial brainstorming for each potential prompt, circle back and consider, which one shows your intellectually curious side? Your creative side? Your commitment to community and service? Something that they totally didn’t expect? While you do want the picture of you to be complete, it doesn’t—in fact, it shouldn’t—be predictable. Don’t underestimate the power of a great wildcard—that ‘you’d never guess from the rest of my application, but I…’ story. 

Directions

• You will have 8 questions to choose from. You must respond to only 4 of the 8 questions.
• Each response is limited to a maximum of 350 words.
• Which questions you choose to answer is entirely up to you. However, you should select questions that are most relevant to your experience and that best reflect your individual circumstances.

Admissionado angle: on the topic of choosing questions (& answers) that are most relevant to your personal experience, we recommend favoring stories where you did something that other people observed. Stories that involve your observable actions will almost always be harder-hitting than stories of the ‘I was sitting alone in my room, and had a revelation about XYZ, and now I think about ABC totally differently’ genre. Often those of the latter category can feel a bit made up, or like you don’t have any stories that demonstrate meaningful impact. If you know you’ve got a stellar story of this reflection-driven ilk—you know yourself best! No two stories are alike, so our generalizations are just that… generalizations. 

Keep in mind

• All questions are equal. All are given equal consideration in the application review process, which means there is no advantage or disadvantage to choosing certain questions over others.
• There is no right or wrong way to answer these questions. It’s about getting to know your personality, background, interests and achievements in your own unique voice.  
• Use the additional comments field if there are issues you'd like to address that you didn't have the opportunity to discuss elsewhere on the application. This shouldn't be an essay, but rather a place to note unusual circumstances or anything that might be unclear in other parts of the application. 

Admissionado angle: do heed their advice not to turn the additional comments field into another essay. This space is largely to address concerns that might arise from reading your overall application, were someone to read your application without additional context. This is the space for that context. If your grades suffered during the pandemic because you needed to do additional caregiving for family members, or there’s a language or economic context that would help address certain ‘gaps’ in your application, don’t hesitate to share them. Don’t worry that somehow stating these facts is asking for special consideration or treatment—it’s an opportunity for you to help the adcom assess applicants by understanding the contexts they’re applying from.

Questions & guidance

Remember, the personal insight questions are just that—personal. Which means you should use our guidance for each question just as a suggestion in case you need help. The important thing is expressing who you are, what matters to you and what you want to share with UC. 

1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.

Things to consider: A leadership role can mean more than just a title. It can mean being a mentor to others, acting as the person in charge of a specific task, or taking the lead role in organizing an event or project. Think about what you accomplished and what you learned from the experience. What were your responsibilities?

Did you lead a team? How did your experience change your perspective on leading others? Did you help to resolve an important dispute at your school, church, in your community or an organization? And your leadership role doesn't necessarily have to be limited to school activities. For example, do you help out or take care of your family?

Admissionado angle: do take the adcom at their word when they say that this doesn’t need to be a school activity. For many of you, your most meaningful leadership experience to date might NOT be leading a school club (even for those of you that DID lead a school club). Another way to approach brainstorming this prompt is to ask yourself, ‘where have I had the most responsibility in my life?’

Write down a couple of options and once you’ve got a bit of brainstorming done for each prompt, come back and see if your best option here complements your other best options. For instance, if you tell a family leadership story or a church leadership story here, that’s great, and then you want your best answers to other questions to be NOT a family story, or a church story, etc. 

2. 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.

Things to consider: What does creativity mean to you? Do you have a creative skill that is important to you? What have you been able to do with that skill? If you used creativity to solve a problem, what was your solution? What are the steps you took to solve the problem?

How does your creativity influence your decisions inside or outside the classroom? Does your creativity relate to your major or a future career?

Admissionado angle: there are a lot of questions nested in this one question, and you don’t have to answer every single one of them. You only have 350 words, after all. DO come back to all the little questions once you have a first draft, but for starters, work on two key components: 1) where does your creativity manifest in your life? 2) What is the broader impact of your creativity on your current life & plans for the future (college & career)? You can make non-obvious connections here–in fact, that’s great! If your process as a painter / cartoonist informs how you (creatively) approach interpersonal relationships, amazing, make that connection! Don’t get hung up on what creativity looks like… you don’t have to be a capital-A Artist to write an amazing essay on your creativity!

In, let’s say, at least two of the questions, you want to explicitly pull the ‘so what?’ of your essay into what you’ll bring to college (and UC specifically), both as an academic student and community member. Touch on it in as many essays as you can without it feeling forced or redundant, but make sure you work it into two (or at least one really solid one) thoroughly.

3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?

Things to consider: If there is a talent or skill that you're proud of, this is the time to share it.You don't necessarily have to be recognized or have received awards for your talent (although if you did and you want to talk about it, feel free to do so). Why is this talent or skill meaningful to you?

Does the talent come naturally or have you worked hard to develop this skill or talent? Does your talent or skill allow you opportunities in or outside the classroom? If so, what are they and how do they fit into your schedule?

Admissionado angle: once again, do stick to the prompt and ALSO don’t get stuck in narrow ideals of what a talent or skill is. If you’re excellent at defusing conflict and finding common ground in difficult conversations, that’s ABSOLUTELY a skill—and an amazing one, at that!

List your greatest skills/talents, and next to each, write 1) why it’s meaningful; 2) how you came by this skill; and 3) the broader impact of this skill and practice on your life. For instance, if you learned how not to give up through the challenges of training as an aerial artist, and this has inspired you to take difficult APs, definitely highlight that! Don’t try to make connections that aren’t there, but DO think about the broader ramifications of your expertise and training in this area, whether it’s a relatively specialized skill (e.g., tap dancing) or a broader life skill (e.g., finding common ground in tough conversations). In both cases, you want to be specific about what you DO, how you learned this skill, and how it impacts you elsewhere in life (including how it will inform how you show up to college). 

4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

Things to consider: An educational opportunity can be anything that has added value to your educational experience and better prepared you for college. For example, participation in an honors or academic enrichment program, or enrollment in an academy that's geared toward an occupation or a major, or taking advanced courses that interest you; just to name a few.

If you choose to write about educational barriers you've faced, how did you overcome or strive to overcome them? What personal characteristics or skills did you call on to overcome this challenge? How did overcoming this barrier help shape who you are today?

Admissionado angle: do not fall prey to the notion that discussing an educational barrier or challenge is a sign of lower achievement! Showing how you overcome a challenge or didn’t back down at the sight of a barrier is an incredible opportunity to show strength.

If you’ve had a lot of education opportunities, highlight one specific opportunity but focus on how YOU took advantage of it. If you were handed all sorts of things and then just basically showed up, that doesn’t really fit the prompt. Find an opportunity where YOU took initiative to really make the most of an opportunity. You can acknowledge your fortune in having access to this opportunity without turning the short essay into a 350-word exercise in privilege-checking. Focus on what YOU DID. 

On the flip side, if you’re focusing on an educational barrier, focus on what YOU DID to overcome a SPECIFIC barrier. If this barrier is systemic, it’s absolutely valid to include that in your essay, but still keep the focus on YOU and your actions. If you do feel that a broader discussion of how systemic barriers or dynamics might impact the perception of certain aspects of your application, we’d recommend that you flesh out those dynamics in the ‘optional information’ section. 

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?

Things to consider: A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles you've faced and what you've learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone?

If you're currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now, and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends or with my family?

Admissionado angle: write a list of major challenges you’ve faced, then next to each, make a note of what you learned from that experience, and where else you’ve applied that learning. 

If you’re able to make a connection, a challenge you faced in one realm (say, family) can absolutely impact how you show up as a student at school. If the connections feel authentic to you, we encourage you to draw connections across different areas of your life. 

You don’t need to get hung up on the language of ‘overcoming’ the challenge. Some challenges can’t really be overcome, yet you can still find courage to change the things you can. If you’re talking about a personal challenge—say, the loss of a close friend or family member—don’t feel pressure to tie it up in a neat little bow and explain how you overcame it and now everything’s just dandy. Outline what happened then focus on what you did, what you learned, and how that informs the way you show up in class and beyond. 

6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.

Things to consider: Many students have a passion for one specific academic subject area, something that they just can't get enough of. If that applies to you, what have you done to further that interest? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had inside and outside the classroom such as volunteer work, internships, employment, summer programs, participation in student organizations and/or clubs and what you have gained from your involvement.

Has your interest in the subject influenced you in choosing a major and/or future career? Have you been able to pursue coursework at a higher level in this subject (honors, AP, IB, college or university work)? Are you inspired to pursue this subject further at UC, and how might you do that?

Admissionado angle: your main focus in this question should not be just what can be gleaned from your transcript. Like UC’s advice says, do mention any advanced coursework or additional opportunities you’ve pursued, but the idea here is to show that you have a passion for learning. This is the passion that will keep you achieving even after you’ve gotten into college, and you don’t have your parents breathing down your neck to get a certain GPA. 

Write down any subjects or areas of study that you have a sincere passion for. Note all of the ways that you’ve pursued this passion, and how it informs what you hope to do at college and/or in your career. If you’ve got a real passion for a certain subject AND you have some interesting and impressive stories about how you’ve pursued that passion—great! That’s a contender for feature in your final set of answers. If nothing gels here, you’ve got plenty of other questions to choose from. 

7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?

Things to consider: Think of community as a term that can encompass a group, team or a place like your high school, hometown or home. You can define community as you see fit, just make sure you talk about your role in that community. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community?

Why were you inspired to act? What did you learn from your effort? How did your actions benefit others, the wider community or both? Did you work alone or with others to initiate change in your community?

Admissionado angle: once again, do construe ‘community’ as broadly as makes sense for you. It does not have to be a titled or clearly delineated community—just a group of people that you’re a member of that has some sort of shared goal, belief or activity. 

So go ahead and list the communities that you’re a part of (including your school… then feel free to break that down into student groups or clubs as well). List any ACTIONS YOU’VE TAKEN to make each community a better place. A great answer here will include an outline of the community and what it means to you, a need for change you identified, specific actions you took (alone or with others), and a marked impact. Again, specific action is really key. Showing up and keeping the vibe good is indeed important, but it’s not really grounds for an admissions essay. 

8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

Things to consider: If there's anything you want us to know about you but didn't find a question or place in the application to tell us, now's your chance. What have you not shared with us that will highlight a skill, talent, challenge or opportunity that you think will help us know you better?

From your point of view, what do you feel makes you an excellent choice for UC? Don't be afraid to brag a little.

Admissionado angle: if there’s something you need to tell them but haven’t, this is your moment! This can be about you—a key thing you’ve done that’s important to you but hasn’t gotten a mention yet—or it can be about the magic that you and UC will create together! They’re asking why you’re a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California… not ‘to any top college’. Are there any particular programs, departments, communities, etc. that you’re REALLY excited about at UC? Something that you really can’t find in the same way anywhere else? This is your chance to convince them that YOU are someone who can really take advantage of all UC has to offer. 

Even if you want to talk about your interest in X & Y programs, do center yourself and what you’ve done to date that makes your stated interest—and future success in pursuing this interest—credible. If you say you’re really interested in studying Field A at UC but have never really done anything that would indicate real interest in Field A, the claim can feel a little flimsy. 

Use this opportunity if it gives you space you need; or, if one of your brainstorming ideas for one of their scripted prompts was really great but diverged a bit from the prompt, it can go here! But always tie it back to why you + UC = magic. 

We’ll let the UC adcom take you out with some final advice—do pay attention!

When choosing your questions, we suggest brainstorming a couple of possible topics that you could write about for each one and from there, selecting the answers that you believe to be the strongest. You should take this opportunity to give the admission committees a complete, coherent picture of who you are, so choose questions that will allow you to share a diverse range of experiences that demonstrate significant growth.

To help you get started, the University of California has provided you with Things to Consider, questions and food for thought for each question. Read this advice carefully and use their questions and guidance as a part of this brainstorming exercise.

Maximize the Word Count  

With only 350 words to answer each question, your writing must be both impactful and concise. So don’t generalize, try to fit in a million ideas, or write about anyone other than yourself. We can’t emphasize this enough: do not waste time telling a story about someone else. You should devote all 350 words to describing YOUR experiences. The directions actually specifically say to use “I” and “my” in your responses.

Something else to consider when answering these questions is to SHOW rather than TELL. If you’ve worked with us or read any of our application guides before, this shouldn’t be anything new. Each response should use detailed and vivid language that paints a clear picture of who you are, and in some cases make us feel like we’re right there with you. Saying, “I grew tremendously from this leadership experience or educational opportunity or challenge” doesn’t really say much. You have to show, through specific examples, HOW you grew tremendously. What did you learn about being a leader? What about your perspective changed? How do you approach obstacles differently now as a result of overcoming this challenge? These are the sorts of questions you should be asking yourself.

Demonstrate Growth

Through the stories you choose to tell, you should demonstrate a certain maturity and ability to introspect. The admissions committee is looking for students who are creative and critical thinkers. Chances are the experiences that you will be writing about will be very similar to those that other students are writing about, and that’s okay! What’s MORE important is that your take on this experience, or your lens as we like to call it, is unique. What unusual (and compelling) ideas and perspective can you offer? Ideally, all four of your answers should demonstrate some form of intellectual and personal growth.

To recap,

Choose your questions carefully. You should answer the four questions that will reflect your “greatest hits,” so to speak. Not the questions that you think the admissions committee wants to hear.

Maximize the word count by presenting clear, concise and compelling ideas that are all about YOUR experiences.

Demonstrate growth, maturity and a unique perspective.