Breaking down the UC personal insight questions

The University of California college application opens in 2 weeks! Are you prepared? In this blog post I will break down the UC Personal Insight questions and give some tips on how to approach these essays.

The UC Personal Insight Questions are basically short essays that stand in the place of one long essay that you may be accustomed to writing for the Common Application. Because the UC Public School system uses the UC Application, you will have to make an account on their application portal. The UC Application and Common Application are two entirely separate portals.

To apply this cycle, you must submit your application between November 1st - 30th, otherwise you will not be considered. The application period is during this one month time frame, so there is no Early Action or Early Decision option. Additionally, applying earlier in the month gives no advantage or priority to students over others who apply later in the month. Admission officers do not begin reviewing applications until after the deadline, so all you need to do is apply before the deadline to be considered.

For freshman applicants, you are given a choice of eight Personal Insight questions, then you must respond to four of them. Each response is limited to a maximum of 350 words. Here are the eight UC Personal Insight questions that you may write an essay for if you are a freshman applicant:

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.  
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.
3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?  
4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
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?
6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. 
7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?  
8. 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?

For transfers, there is one required question that you must answer. Afterwards, you must choose three prompts to answer out of the seven choices. Each response is limited to a maximum of 350 words. Here are the seven UC Personal Insight questions that you may write an essay for if you are a transfer applicant:
Required Question:
Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university.
Personal Insight Questions:

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.
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.  
3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?  
4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
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?
6. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?  
7. 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?

Because you get a choice in what questions you want to answer, here are some of my tips on how to approach these questions:

1. Read through all of the questions and mark off the questions that immediately speak to you. For me, questions 1 and 2 on the freshman application immediately jump out to me. I can envision what I would write about just by reading the question. For the rest of them, they are a little bit harder.
2. Then you should go through all of the question choices and brainstorm some topics that you could potentially write about. Doing this will help you to get the best essay possible, rather than just picking the three or four essay topics you want to write and going from there.
3. After brainstorming, see if the questions that immediately jumped out to you still have good essay potential, meaning, your brainstorming session led to interesting topics for those questions. Sometimes, you may like an essay prompt, but after further thought, you could not actually write a persuasive essay for that prompt. For me, my two questions that I liked from the first read through could still lead to viable essays.
4. Pick the essays you want to write. For freshman applicants, I would pick 6 questions to write essays for. For transfer applicants, I would pick 5 questions that I would write essays for. Even though you are writing more essays than the number of essays required to submit, writing these extra essays will actually help you craft the best essay possible. Through writing and editing, you may discover that a question that you didn’t like at first actually has become your best essay. That’s why I always recommend writing more essays than what is needed.

For more information on the UC freshman application, check out this site: https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-freshman/personal-insight-questions.html.
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For more information on the UC transfer application, check out this site: https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-transfer/personal-insight-questions.html.

RACHEL

Rachel is the founder of Study Hall College Consulting. Rachel graduated from UC Berkeley in the Class of 2020 where she double majored in Cognitive Science and Legal Studies. For more college application and essay tips, check out our Study Hall College Consulting website at: shcollegeconsulting.com.