Webinar Transcript: College Essay Series: All About the UC PIQs
Elton Lin
Anthony Su (he/him): Good morning everyone. I really appreciate folks joining us on this Sunday morning. We're covering an important topic for a lot of seniors – and hopefully some curious juniors are here, just to hear a bit about it, maybe get a preview – the UC personal insight questions.
We had the UCSB rep come in a few weeks ago and talk about how there are no UC essays; they are personal insight questions. And you should tackle them a little bit differently. Think about them a bit different compared to the other essays that you might be writing for the Common App and things like that.
Today we are going to have Heather and Sagrika tell us a bit more about this. Heather, do you want to introduce yourself, and then Sagrika?
Heather Vaughan (she/her): Definitely. Good morning everyone; thank you so much for being here. My name is Heather; I use she/her pronouns. And here at ILUMIN I am an educational consultant, as well as serving as the lead of our essay team.
I have been working closely with students to help them write their essays for over four years now, and I'm happy to share some insights, and answer some of your questions about the UC PIQs.
Sagrika Jawadi (she/they): And I'm Sargrika; I use she/they pronouns. I graduated from Scripps college last year, and I've been working as an essay specialist and helping students one-on-one with their essays – including the personal insight questions. I'm excited to share with you all some information about them.
Anthony Su: Okay, awesome! We'll go ahead and get started.
Agenda
Sagrika Jawadi: Okay, first we'll just go over a quick agenda. We're going to talk about:
the UC application in general, and then,
“What are UC readers looking for in your PIQs,”
about the personal insight questions
“How do I choose which PIQs to write?”
what topics should you avoid or highlight,
and how you fit your story into the word count of those PIQs.
Quick facts about the UC application
Heather Vaughan: All right. Thank you, Sagrika.
Let's just go over a couple of quick facts about the UC application. Some of you might know some of this, but it's really important to get all this info out on the table.
If you are planning on applying to the University of California, there is one application platform for all nine UCs. You will fill out one application on that platform. And all of the selected campuses will see the same application. If you want to apply to L.A., Berkeley, and San Diego, you will check the box for those three, and they will see the exact same thing.
It's up to you how many UC's you apply to.
So, that being said, you can select a different major at a different campus. Maybe one school offers a major you're interested in; another school doesn't. You can select a different intended major for different campuses. For UC Berkeley, you'll select your first and second choice majors.
What does the UC application contain? You'll share some personal info, like your demographic information, and your academic information – including your transcripts, your GPA, things like that. You'll share an activity list. (We won't go into detail about this today, but if you'd like to know more about the activity list, we can chat more about it at the end in our Q&A. The activity list allows you to list twenty activities awards, honors, and things like that – so things that you've been involved in.) Then four PIQs – which are the “essays” that we'll be talking about today. And then “additional information.” This is not an extra essay, but it's a place for you to share additional context – like a reason why you may have changed schools, or a reason why your grades may have been lower in a particular semester. Things like that.
This year, for the UCs, you can submit your SAT and ACT… and they will be taken into consideration for course placement if you enroll. But they are not currently being used to evaluate your application. I want to highlight that: the SAT and ACT are not being taken into account for whether or not you're admitted. Which makes the rest of this more important. (Your AP scores are considered.)
All right – so those were some quick facts. And we'll keep it going.
What are the UC readers looking for?
Sagrika Jawadi: Okay. Next we'll talk about what the UC readers are looking for.
As Anthony said, these are not essays, but personal insight questions. And one thing that differs from a traditional essay is it's more about quantifying your accomplishments – and using numbers and details and other statistics to make it very clear and concrete what you did.
You want to really focus on highlighting the ways that you stand out – as opposed to maybe a more creative or subtle approach. You want to be very straightforward, clear, and concise in these PIQs. Because they're looking for ways to advocate for you to the rest of the admissions committee. Make sure that they have clear facts that they can use when talking about the strengths that you would bring to a UC.
About the personal insight questions (PIQs)
Heather Vaughan: All right. Let's dig in a little bit more deeply into the PIQs.
You will be writing four “essays.” They will each have 350 words, maximum – relatively short compared to the Common App personal statement. There are eight prompts total – and we'll take a look at them in our next slide.
You'll think about what prompts you want to choose. Keep in mind that no prompt is better than another; you want to choose the prompts that allow you to convey your story. The prompts will be read in order – so be mindful of any overlap between different essays, or repetition of details. The best way to go about it is to select four different topics, and then figure out which prompts fit the best with those topics. Remember that all four of them will be read by the admissions committee – so, again, you don't want to have repetition, or write about the same topic for multiple essays, unless you're making a very different point and sharing very different details!
PIQs simplified
Heather Vaughan: We're going to move on to the next slide and take a look at these prompts. This is a simplified version of them. The prompts themselves ask you a specific question.
I'm going to read through these, just to give you a general idea of what these different prompts are:
The first option is about leadership. “Talk about a time that you have been a leader, and what impact you've made as a leader.”
Number two: “How do you express your creative side?” Many students write about creativity. Problem solving is a common thing that students write about for this prompt.
Number three: “What is your greatest talent or skill?”
Number four: “Talk about an educational opportunity of which you’ve taken advantage.”
Number five: “What is the greatest challenge you have faced?”
Number six: “What is your greatest academic interest?” or, “Talk about an academic interest that you love, and how you've explored it.”
Number seven: “How have you made a positive impact on your community?”
And then, finally, “Beyond everything else that you've shared, what makes you a strong applicant?” We call this the standout experience, or standout quality. Sometimes we call it the “supernova” – because it's really an opportunity for you to share about something very unique that you've done that doesn't fit into another prompt.
To make a couple comments about what this reveals about what the UC readers are looking for: they value leaders, problem solvers, creators, hard workers, and folks who take opportunity and find initiative. They value resilience, uniqueness, commitment to community, and those who are excited to learn.
In your four essays, you may not be able to highlight every single one of those qualities – but you'll choose the ones that feel the most relevant to you, and that connect most closely to the stories that you want to tell.
How do I choose which PIQs to write?
Sagrika Jawadi: There are eight prompts that Heather just went through, and you're gonna choose four of them. How do you choose which PIQs to write?
A great way to start is to think about your four biggest activities from high school. And then plug them in as different answers to the questions. You can consider different prompts that you could use to write about the same activity that you. For example, DECA might fit into leadership or problem solving or academic interest. That can really help when you're thinking about how to organize the four different activities into different prompts – because you have different options and ways to incorporate different activities to answer different questions.
And then, if you don't have any activities – or let's say you just don't have four – you can also write about your own personality, or your own core characteristics or core memories. Think about experiences or stories you can tell from your life that demonstrate these. You want to be straightforward, and you want to be providing evidence for the claims that you're making.
What prompts should I avoid?
Heather Vaughan: Continuing on, talking about which prompts to choose, we want to flag a couple of prompts that you may want to avoid – or if you do choose them, that you want to be really intentional about them.
Prompt five – a personal challenge
Prompt five is a significant personal challenge. Some students may write about this. We highly encourage you to choose a personal challenge – if you write about this – that connects directly to your academic achievement. Because the full prompt asks about “a significant personal challenge and how it has impacted your academic achievement.”
We also really want to highlight that – if you are writing about this – you want to be able to demonstrate how this challenge has affected you, as well as how you've overcome it. It is not ideal to write an entire essay about the challenge itself. Rather, the focus should be on how you went above and beyond to overcome this challenge – highlighting your resilience.
Prompt eight – the “supernova”
Also, prompt eight. I mentioned this earlier. This is a prompt that you should only choose if you have something that is very unique and really makes you stand out.
The metric that we typically tell our students is, “Have you done something that has garnered you recognition on a large scale – like a statewide or national level?” If you feel that this doesn't apply to you, then prompt eight might not be the best fit.
Other things to avoid
Other things to consider avoiding are hard sells: things that you think the reader may not really understand, or find to be as compelling as other topics. One of those might be COVID. If you're planning on writing about your experience during the pandemic, make sure that it is unique to you – and it's not something that many other students might write about.
For example, if you had a hard time adjusting to online school, that's totally valid. And that's something that many students experience. If you're considering writing about that, think about what made your experience unique – and how did you uniquely approach it to overcome that challenge?
You may want to also avoid discussing other people – for a number of reasons. These personal statements are about you – so you want to be using the first person, and sharing about your experiences and your reflections. If you write about another person – maybe a grandparent who has inspired you, or a co-collaborator with whom you worked – that's going to take the focus away from you. And you're not really going to reach that goal of helping the UC readers get to know you.
Additionally, you want to make sure that any discussion of other people is generally positive – because you don't want to leave the UC readers with the feeling that you're complaining or being judgmental.
Finally, you can consider avoiding any accomplishments or experiences in elementary school or middle school. The examples that you give should primarily focus on high school – because that's what will be the most relevant, and it will tell the reader the most about who you are today.
It doesn't mean that you can never mention things that happened in the past – especially, for example, if you're talking about how your interest in a particular academic subject began. Okay, share a bit of context about the past. But the bulk of the accomplishments and experiences you should share should be in high school. That is what will be most relevant to the college admissions team.
Again, these are all suggestions; they're just things to think about.
What to highlight?
Sagrika Jawadi: That was what you should avoid, and now what do you want to highlight.
You really want to emphasize the high points of your high school accomplishments. What are the best things that you accomplished in high school?
The things that are on your résumé – or would be on a résumé if you had one.
What did you contribute to your community? This is a very broad term. It could be a team, a class, your school, your family… There are so many different ways to look at that. But what have you contributed to them
And then other quantifiable achievements: achievements that have numbers associated with them. Like: you were the best among 300 other people. Something like that.
Those are the things you want to highlight – so that, again, the UC readers can really advocate for you with concrete evidence.
How do I fit my story into 350 words???
Heather Vaughan: With all of these recommendations, you might be wondering, “How am I going to fit all this into 350 words?” It's definitely a challenge… but it's absolutely doable. Here are a couple of tips to help you do that.
The first – and I would say most important – tip is to be straightforward. In the UC essays, in order to write an excellent essay, it is all about being straightforward and clear. The UC readers are not looking for writing that is extremely creative or poetic. That might be appropriate in another context – like if you're writing a book, or if you're writing a creative essay. But in this context, it's all about making yourself clear and straightforward. Definitely keep that in mind
What else can you do to fit into 350 words? We recommend that you begin by brainstorming – getting all of your ideas out. There are many ways that you can do this.
And then, once you've decided what you want to write about for a particular essay, we encourage you to outline it – breaking down, “What will I say in the introduction, the paragraphs, the conclusion?”
We highly recommend that you write your thesis and cling to it for dear life. What do I mean by this? Clearly, identify: what is the main message of my essay that I want to communicate to the reader? If you're answering the community prompt, how have you contributed to your community? Your thesis might be something like, “I've made a tangible impact in my community through my involvement with girl scouts, where I've done X, Y, and Z.”
Right off the bat the reader understands what you'll be communicating – and then, throughout your essay, every sentence must advance your point. You can give context and details about whatever you feel is relevant, but those things always need to come back to proving the point that you are communicating.
Similarly, don't get sidetracked.
Be clear on the “So what?” of your essay – by which I mean, “Why is this important?” Why should the reader care? Why does this make you a strong applicant for the UC? Keeping with that example of the community prompt, what impact have you made? What have you learned because of that impact? And the actions that you took to make it. Contextualizing and keeping it relevant
And then, of course, going through and proofreading, and condensing your language where necessary.
Let’s look at an essay, before and after
Sagrika Jawadi: Now we're going to look at a UC PIQ before and after. Heather's going to read the first draft.
DRAFT 1
Heather Vaughan: I'm going to go ahead and read this out loud. As I do, I'd love for you to follow along with me – and notice anything you see about this essay: anything that you think is particularly good, and anything that you think needs work. This is the first draft. In just a moment we'll look at the final draft, and we'll pay attention to what we recommended that the student change.
The prompt for this one is leadership.
Though I'm naturally reserved at times, as the oldest sibling I've always taken the initiative of being the leader outside and inside my family. Whether it's taking the bulk of responsibilities around the house or leading a group project I always find myself leading and guiding others.
One of the more recent ways I exemplified leadership was through taking initiative and taking on extra roles to keep the team afloat.
My junior year, I was appointed the Vice President of Mock Trial. With this position I had to help guide the freshmen and do tedious things such as paperwork for the club. Due to distance learning there was less prominent advertising for the club, resulting in less member involvement. We seemed to have just enough people in our club until one of the attorneys quit the club two weeks before competition. Unfortunately this meant that if we couldn't find anyone to take on the extra rolls we would have to forfeit the competition.
I took the initiative to take on the extra rolls despite the lack of time and materials. I was able to write questions for two more cross examinations and one more direct in addition to my original direct and cross examinations. I did this by making extra time for mock trial and memorizing the new witness statements. By working with the people around me I was able to communicate with my peers and our attorney coach I was able to come up with questions all while helping the underclassmen finish their work.
And though this was no easy feat, fortunately I was able to complete all of the questions and perfect them to the best of my abilities before the competition. Through this experience I quickly learned the importance of following through, accountability, organizing in an efficient manner, time and stress management skills.
Fortunately my hard work paid off and we were able to get through the competitions. And though we weren't able to place as high as year prior we managed to persevere despite the lack of members. Moreover, once again, one of the judges named me as one of the top three attorneys throughout the trial. This year as president I'm able to apply all the things I learned by leading the new members and teaching them the ways of mock trial.
There we have our first draft. I'd love to see a couple of comments in the chat about what you think the student could work on. What do you think they did well? Any other observations or comments? I'll give that a moment. And I'll also share a couple of things that I observed – before I pass it over to Sagrika and she reads us the final draft.
Let's give it a couple of seconds. I'd love to hear from a couple of folks.
Okay, I see one comment: “The essay sounded slightly pompous.” Interesting observation. “Not enough details.” Okay. Maybe adding some more details.
What else – what other thoughts do we have? I'd love to hear one or two more comments.
“Starts with ‘naturally reserved’; that can be a turn off.” Yeah, good point. Maybe they can find another way to phrase that. “Using terms the reader is unfamiliar with.” Definitely there are a couple places where the reader could be confused. “There were repetitive statements that could be simplified within the essay.” “Sounds like they're making excuses.” “I have a question about, ‘What was the final position they placed in?’” “Remove ‘I was able to.’”
Okay, great. These are really helpful comments. And I think that you all are very much on the same page as Sagrika and I when we looked at this. I see, “They could be specific about numbers.” Yeah, we talked about that earlier.
A couple of key things that I noticed that this essay could improve: definitely being more specific. Getting more specific about the leadership actions as well – the impact that made. I also felt that the student needed a more clear guiding message. It was unclear to me, when I read their first section, what their thesis statement was. And – as we talked about earlier – that's essential.
I also wanted them to reflect a bit more on their growth. How did they grow as a leader? How did this experience help them learn, or change them?
I'm going to pass it over to Sagrika so they can read us the final version – and tell us a bit about how they helped the student improve their essay.
DRAFT 4
Sagrika Jawadi: Yeah, definitely. This is after a few rounds of edits. This is what they ended up with:
During my junior year I was the vice president of Mock Trial. In this position, I guided new members of the club and did logistical tasks for the club. Due to distance learning, there was less member involvement in the club. Our team had just enough participants to compete in Mock Trial competitions until one of the attorneys quit two weeks before our first competition. We would have to forfeit if we couldn't find anyone to take on the extra roles.
I took on the extra roles in addition to my regular tasks as vice president. This meant that I needed to write questions for two more cross examinations and one more direct in addition to my original examinations. I also made extra time to memorize the new witness statements. By working with the other participants, I completed all the tasks required for the extra roles while also helping the underclassmen prepare for their own roles.
It was no easy feat to complete all of the questions and perfect them before the competition. I learned what it meant to be committed and invested in the success of an organization. One crucial aspect of this was being adaptable and flexible in order to meet the needs of the team. I utilized my ability to delegate and my prior experience on the team to allow participation in competitions that year.
We not only got to participate, but also performed well in the competitions. Additionally, I was named as one of the top three attorneys throughout the trial. This meant a lot to me since I had invested time and energy into preparing for this trial, especially knowing that everyone else depended on me to be able to participate. This experience increased my confidence as a leader and as a future attorney, because it validated my ability to follow through and be held accountable to responsibilities I take on. This year as co-president, I'm continuing to grow in my commitment, adaptability, and organization as I lead new members and introduce them to the ways of Mock Trial.
This was my student last year. I helped them with their essay. We started from scratch and worked our way through the brainstorming phase, outlining phase, first draft, and then came to this.
A lot of people said there were lots of extraneous phrases and extraneous words. That was a big part of what I advised them with. I said, “Try to use more active voice instead of passive voice.” And I think that really shines through here. Instead of, “I was able to be the vice president,” it's just, “I was the vice president.” I think that really helped it get a lot more concise. That first paragraph says almost what the whole first draft said.
And also, like Heather had mentioned, it needed more reflection about their growth. The whole second half of this essay has a lot more of that reflection. And I think it has a much stronger conclusion with that.
It also talks about, explicitly, their confidence as a leader – which… This is for the leadership prompt. I really emphasized, “Let's be more explicit about leadership, since that's the purpose of this prompt.” That's also why I had them add about how they were guiding underclassmen as well, and focusing on teamwork and meeting the needs of a team.
I also want to point out that some of the sentences are almost exactly the same. We didn't take this essay and say, “We have to change it.” They’re still the same ideas. It's just more clean. Instead of it reading as a stream-of-consciousness, it reads like a direct essay – where you can easily see what this person learned, what this person did, what they accomplished, and what they're doing to build on that foundation.
They're a senior. As a senior they got to be a co-president. And maybe they would have wanted to talk about that leadership experience. But they were able to, instead, talk about what led to them becoming president. That's to say: if you end up having a leadership experience in your senior year, you can still talk about how you ended up having that – which is how this student ends it, saying that this year they are now co-president.
Those are the different points that we really worked on. And yeah, there's a much more explicit thesis at the beginning: about what leadership they did, and how they impacted a team – a community – and contributed to group efforts.
How can we help? Hourly essay coaching
Heather Vaughan: All right. It's time for Anthony to tell you a little bit about what we offer.
Anthony Su: Yeah, and of course feel free to put down questions; we'll get to that soon.
But yes, this is definitely featuring a little bit of the work that, Sagrika, you're doing – hourly essay consulting. We've been able to help students with our essay boot camp. Heather, you mentioned running that particular boot camp. It’s meant to help a lot of our students get that kick-start for the summer – of tackling which of the prompts to use for your UCs, since there are so many; trying to figure out how to really tackle a personal statement; and getting an early start to that.
Of course, if you're interested, you can definitely go to our website. We offer free consultations as well.
Q&A
There was a question about the essay: “Only one of the judges considered the student as the top three. Why did the essay end up saying[part of the] essay [that reads] … “‘I was named as one of the top three’?”
I guess the question's asking, “Is it exact? Is it exaggerated to say ‘I was one of the top three attorneys,’ and saying ‘I was named one of the top three attorneys’?”
Sagrika Jawadi (she/them): I think it's about using concise language. The reader doesn't necessarily know all the details of how Mock Trial works – and whether it matters if it's one of the judges, or many of the judges.… In fact, I don't even know the full details – if every judge picks their top three, or how that works..
But I think it's appropriate to say “I was named.” It's a little bit more direct. And, yeah, like another comment says, that detail wouldn't matter. That's an appropriate way to rephrase that – and it doesn't come off as dishonest or anything like that.
Anthony Su: The other way to think about it is where it ends up in the essay. It's at the end of the essay. It's a form of recognition – we're trying to say, “Other people did recognize this student as contributing: being a core member and being important to the process.”
Another question about the personal challenge prompt. I think this is a good question also, trying to make sure that we find good balance in the essays. “For a personal challenge essay, how much of the percentage should be the challenge and how much should be overcoming it?”
Should it be 50-50? 30-70? How would you approach that?
Heather Vaughan: I'll speak to that. It's a great question.
I think that there's no one way to approach that. 30-70 could be an appropriate breakdown. 40-60. 50-50 even.
I would say at least 50-50. You want at least half of your essay to be talking about how you overcame the challenge. But it's also essential to name and describe the challenge. That's also important.
Really, it is a case-by-case basis. And that's something that we might discuss with the student – if they're unsure how to do the breakdown. But… let's say you’re a student who is going to write for that prompt. Making an outline can really help you with that. Whether you're doing this on your own, or with an essay specialist, you can make an outline and see how everything feels.
If it feels balanced, then that's probably good. If you feel like you want to adjust it, you can do so.
I see another question; I'm gonna go ahead and just answer. “Would it be fitting to use the Common App gratitude prompt to respond to number eight [‘supernova’] on the UC application?” Great question.
The UC prompt number eight – I'm actually gonna go ahead and read the full text: “Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admission to the University of California.”
Some people might interpret this as a “choose your own prompt,” or just as a catch-all. Here at ILUMIN we don't really interpret it that way. I don't think that it would ruin your application to interpret it in that way, but we think that the best way to use this prompt is to share something that makes you an exceptionally strong candidate.
So, for that reason, I wouldn't recommend that you use this to talk about something that you're grateful for – because that doesn't quite fit with what it's asking. If you want to share about gratitude… I'm going to reflect on which prompt that could work for.
Anthony Su: Talent or skill.
Heather Vaughan: Yeah, you could potentially use prompt number three [talent or skill], and talk about the skill of gratitude, and how you've strengthened that skill over time. Maybe you used to not really have a gratitude practice, and maybe you've become really intentional about it. That could work. And it could potentially be a part of another essay.
That's my thought on that. I hope that that answered your question. I'll go ahead and answer this other question about that prompt, and then I'll pause, because I don't want to take up all the space..
Anthony Su: Keep going.
Heather Vaughan: Since we're already talking about the eighth prompt, the question is about doing research in a lab for this prompt. I would be curious about what research the student did, what they learned, and how it impacted them.
That being said, I think research in a lab can also fit into many other prompts. Consider the creativity or problem-solving prompt – about how you learn to solve problems in the lab. Talk about a talent or skill: maybe you consider yourself to be a skilled researcher now, thanks to this experience. Students might write about this as an educational opportunity: talking about the opportunity to do research in a lab. And how you went above and beyond to take advantage of it – you could also talk about how it furthered your academic interest.
I can't really think of a situation where it would need to fit in the eighth prompt, because doing research in a lab can easily fit into many other prompts.
Anthony Su: Another clarification: the eighth prompt is not particularly special in comparison to the other ones. I think it's meant to be something like, “Hey, dude! If, for some reason, you cannot speak about it for the other seven, we're gonna leave this eight prompt for you.”
And we tend to recommend, if you can fit it in something else, avoid eight. Because other people may write about way more standout experiences, or something that is really, really unique. Whereas, maybe yours could have fit in talent or skill, or problem solving, or something like that.
Let's see… question about the challenge prompt: number five. “Does the challenge prompt need to relate to family or health challenges?”
Let’s pull up the list of the prompts again. We’ll take a look at five.
Sagrika Jawadi: Five is: “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?”
So it can be any challenge. It does not need to be related to family or health. But it can be – if that is a really significant challenge.
Like Heather said, I think the biggest part of this prompt is the second question: “How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?” That is really the reason that you would want to choose this prompt: if that second question really applies to you.
Which is why we generally say to avoid number five. You can use a different prompt to talk about a challenge, or you could use the “additional information,” if that's something that you want to share. With prompt five, the challenge has to have affected your academic achievement.
Other than that, it can be related to anything.
Anthony Su: I think we also discussed this, but a lot of times when there's an essay idea, we look between four [educational opportunity] and five [educational challenge] and, if possible, we try to make it a four [educational opportunity].
[With prompt number four,] you have a chance to talk about an educational opportunity, or overcoming an educational barrier. It's one or the other. You do not need to talk about both. And, potentially, that's a little bit easier than specifically discussing a challenge that you had to overcome for your academic achievement.
And, yes, if you're gonna write about COVID or something like that, do not feel the need to incorporate it into one of the four PIQs – because the “additional information” section is helpful for that: just saying, “Hey, this is my family's circumstance,” or, “This is what happened during this time.” Just as additional information.
Sagika Jawadi: I see another question: “When should students start writing their essays?” We recommend, generally, doing a lot of work during the summer – because it just makes things less stressful once the school year starts. So… the summer before your senior year is a great time to work on them.
Really, starting as early as possible in the summer is great. Like starting at the beginning of June. That's when one of our first boot camps is. It’s a great time to start writing – so that you have plenty of time, and so that your senior year is not super stressful.
Antthony Su: Question about which prompt to use when writing about ethnicity and culture. This one's interesting!
Heather Vaughan: I see multiple questions from this participant. We already answered one of them! I have a couple thoughts on this… and I know we have a couple of questions in the Q&A thing as well.
So which prompt would one use to write about ethnicity and culture? It's a really good observation that, for the Common App prompts, there's one that specifically asks about your background. But, here, there isn't one that specifically asks about your background.
So… if a student asked me this, I would want to ask them a couple of questions. “What is it about your ethnicity, culture, and background that you want to share with the reader?” Maybe it's your journey of becoming more comfortable identifying with your background, and embracing the cultural practices that your family does.
That, for example, could be a challenge. Maybe you really struggled with your identity – and it caused you to not do certain things. And then you found a way to recognize the value in your identity.
I could see it fitting into a couple other prompts as well, but I think my first approach with a student who wanted to write about their background or their culture would be, “Why is it meaningful to you, and what are some examples that you want to share?” I could see that connecting to talent or skill, leadership, or community service.
Maybe you've been involved in a cultural center, or your religious community, or whatever it is. Think about how that has impacted you, and how you've been able to impact it.
Anything to add, Sagrika or Anthony?
Anthony Su: It honestly depends on the story. If I see a student talking about a particular type of art or music or something that's tied to their culture. Even if it's like, “I'm re-learning a particular language that I was able to take in high school,” that could be academic interest. You could definitely still talk about four [academic opportunity] or five [academic challenge].
I'm trying to think if there's one that's distinctly not related to ethnicity or culture or heritage. [You could use] even a seven [community service] – if you're going to talk about a church group or something like that. So there's not going to be one that you distinctly cannot write about.
It depends on the story. Which fits better?
Let's see… “Are essays compared only to those of the same prompt; i.e, does an admission officer compare all the essays addressing prompt one?”
No. They won't take all the ones, read them, and pick the top 10, or anything like that. UC readers admit they've got three to five minutes sometimes to go through a student's application. They're trying to get a quick snapshot: “What have you been able to do? You've already listed your 20 activities for your résumé. Tell me, what are the four that are most important to you?”
That's the way that you can think about what a PIQ is doing – part of the reader's process of trying to understand more about the student.
Heather Vaughan: To reiterate that, the readers will look at your entire application, all at once, and then they will move on to another application.
Anthony Su: There’s one: “Does CS interest impact the admission officer's judgment when applying for humanities majors?” Interesting.
Heather Vaughan: I can speak to that. Many students will write about some kind of academic interest that is not exactly what they are applying to as their intended major. And that's totally okay.
Maybe you're applying to computer science, and you write your academic interest essay about computer science. Great. You definitely should illustrate your interest in your intended major somewhere in your essays. That is very important.
But you can illustrate other interests as well. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that – and, in fact, it can make your application stronger. Because you're showing the reader that you're intellectually curious about many different things.
For a student applying as a humanities major, when the UC reader looks at your four essays, it should be clear to them that you have explored your interest in the humanities in some way – and that you're really excited about it. But you can, of course, also share about other interests that you have – like computer science, or anything else that is not as related to the humanities. Nothing wrong with that.
But the point to remember is that you should demonstrate your interest in your intended major. On top of that, you're also welcome to demonstrate your interest in other things as well.
Anthony Su: A question about a particular summer research program: “Where could I fit that in, if I wanted to discuss it as part of a PIQ?”
A research program could be, I would argue, anything from one to six [everything but community service or the standout/“supernova” prompt].
Sagrika Jawadi: I agree. Five [educational challenge] might be a bit tough, but…
Anthony Su: Five might be tough, yeah.
Sagrika Jawadi: But any of the other ones. It will just depend on what aspect of the experience you want to share, and what your other essays are about.
Maybe your other essays already cover leadership and academic interest, so this one could be an educational opportunity. It will just depend on your other prompts, and what you want to emphasize about the experience. But it really could fit in with a lot of them.
Anthony Su: That's a great point: when you have four essays, you can think about, “Which of these stories more or less must fit between maybe prompt number two and four, and then which ones can I have more opportunities or more prompts that might fit?”
A couple more questions. Let's see… “What about if you're undeclared as to what your major will be? Can you talk about broad interest, and willingness to explore?”
Heather Vaughan: I can talk a bit about that.
As an applicant to the UC, you can absolutely apply as undeclared. Many of the UCs also offer undeclared options that are a bit more specific, like “undeclared humanities,” “undeclared social sciences,” “undeclared life sciences”… If you're not familiar with that, it might be useful to look into it – if your student is leaning a particular way, but if you aren't sure where you're going to study. That's totally okay. That's why the UC offers an undeclared option.
I actually applied to and attended UCLA as an undeclared major – and then figured it out. It's not necessarily a disadvantage. That being said, even if you are undeclared, you should still demonstrate your academic interest.
Like we spoke about a few minutes ago, maybe you're very interested in both the humanities and computer science. That should come through in your essays. You don't have to directly address the options of majors that you're considering, but you might. Maybe you write about an academic interest, and you write about computer science. You could even consider sharing, at the end, “I'm not sure what my final major will be. but I know that I absolutely love the challenge of computer science, and I'm excited to be academically challenged as a UC student.” That's one way that you might frame it.
The “additional information” section is also a place that you could, perhaps, make a note about your decision to be an undeclared applicant. You could say, “I'm applying as undeclared, but I'm considering X and Y majors.” That could just give the reader a bit of brief context about your interest, without you having to formally select them.
And I think that for any applicant, regardless of what major you're applying as, the essays help the readers to get to know you, and understand what you've accomplished and what's important to you. You should still follow all of the same recommendations that we've given you throughout – and just tailoring it to what you think will be the strongest, despite the fact that you haven't selected a major.
Anthony Su: Question around, “I'm part of the youth commission. Is this considered a leadership position? I don't have a club officer position, and I'm a Boy Scout.”
I think it's pretty common. I think this is asking, “What could the leadership prompt talk about if you don't have ‘president of X club’ or something like that?”
Sagrika Jawadi: I think, once again, it's helpful to look at the full prompt – if it's possible to pull that up. Number one: “Describe an example of your leadership experience, in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.”
I like that first sentence. A “leadership role” can mean more than just a title. You definitely do not have to have a certain level of hierarchy in the leadership for it to be considered a legitimate leadership experience. As long as you can think of an example where you positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time, you can write about that as a leadership experience.
I don't know the details about what you did, but I would guess that a youth commissioner is a great example of that. And I would also say, with regards to Boy Scouts – or in general, things that a lot of people do – you can still write about those, because your experience is not going to be exactly the same as anyone else's. What you took away – and how you grow, or grew, from Boy Scouts – is gonna be different from the rest of your friends who [were also] Boy Scouts. If it really meant a lot to you, and contributed to who you are today, you should still write about it.
Heather Vaughan: Great. I want to jump in and answer a couple questions that I see in the Q&A.
One is, “Will the questions change in later years, or by next year?” These PIQs began in 2016. (Prior to 2016, the UC app looked a little different.) And they have stayed the same since then. We do not have any indication that they're going to change anytime soon. But if they do, that will be an announcement that you hear. The UC will announce it, and we at ILUMIN will make sure that anyone connected to us will be aware of that.
But, right now, we don't have any reason to believe that they're going to change it.
I also saw someone ask, “If you want to minor in something, or a double major, how would you indicate that on your application?” Good question. My answer will be a little bit similar to if you're planning on being undeclared – which is that, whether you're sure or unsure, you want to illustrate your academic interests in your essays.
Let's say that you're applying as a computer science major, and you want to add a minor in biology – because you're interested in that intersection. You'll indicate your primary major on your application, but you can talk in your essays. You can even say, “I plan on adding a minor in biology.” Maybe you had a biology-related experience and, at the end of the essay that you write about that biology related experience, you talk about, “This has really influenced me to want to learn more about biology, and I hope to do that in college by minoring in bio,” or minoring in X.
You don't have to indicate it formally on your essay for it to be something that you communicate.
So there's that. We have a couple others. I don't know, Sagrika, if you want to jump in…
Sagrika Jawadi: Sure. I see the question, “How to avoid sob stories, or topics that are not liked?” We talked about five [academic challenge] and eight [standout experience/“supernova”] being prompts that we want to avoid. Along those lines, topics that you might want to avoid are – especially with regards to sob stories – when you're talking about a challenge that a lot of people went through.
Such as learning online during COVID. You probably want to avoid that, if that is your specific challenge. Obviously you're allowed to talk about COVID in the additional information section. Or, if you had a really specific circumstance that impacted your academic achievement, then that is also totally appropriate to talk about.
In terms of avoiding sob stories, I would say what Heather said about it. It should be minimum 50-50: the challenge, and your growth – what you learned about it, what you overcame. A great way to avoid it being too negative is to make sure you're ending it on a positive note, or including at least as much positivity as you are negativity.
The other question: “Is it a bad thing to mention negative experiences with previous leadership?” I think it will come down to the way you phrase it. Like Heather said, you don't want to talk negatively about other people. That's not going to come off well.
However, it is totally appropriate to say something like, “We built on…” or, “We decided to improve the leadership structure by doing X, Y, and Z. We decided to incorporate more mentorship for younger students, because it was a need that we experienced as younger students.” There are ways to phrase things to talk about what you are addressing as a leader without talking negatively about other people.
Anthony Su: Awesome. I think we got through all the questions – so that's really great. We were able to get to everyone's thoughts and comments.
But, again, if you have any more questions, feel free to contact us. Feel free to request a free consultation. And we'll keep everyone posted and updated. We'll definitely have other admissions readers joining us soon on the webinar series as well.
Heather, Sagrika, thanks for joining us and giving us your thoughts. And I really appreciate everyone joining today this Sunday morning. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!