#uc application

How many of you have been in this situation? You’ve spent hours pouring everything you can into your college application to produce quality essays. As the application deadline approaches, you add any finishing touches, and then focus on filling in the tedious parts as quickly as possible: family info, school info, grades, activities list, etc.

But what if I told you the essays are not the only part of your application in which you can tell a compelling story?

Today, we are going to take a look at one of the often-overlooked components of the college application process.

While it’s obvious that the essays and supplements tell much of your story, the activities list also tells a story: the story of how you spend your time outside of the classroom. The activities list gives admissions officers a sense of where your passions lie and what experiences have shaped you into who you are today. As such, you must make sure to use the allotted space appropriately.

Speaking of space, historically, there hasn’t been much room to explain your activities. That remains true of the Common Application, but as of this year, the University of California application offers much more room to write your activities list. There is strategy involved in telling the most dynamic, compelling story to have your application pop among the many that admissions officers read each season.

Extracurricular Activities on the Common Application

For Honors & Awards, there are five entries with a maximum 100-character count for description.

For Extracurricular Activities, there are ten entries with a maximum of 50 characters to describe any position held and the organization name & a maximum of 150 characters for details, honors, and accomplishments. As you can see, space is limited, so make every word count.

Use abbreviations and symbols when you can, but don’t sacrifice clarity for conciseness. The admissions officer still needs to understand the information you’re including. Not everyone will fill up all the honors & extracurriculars sections; however, some of you may have more to include than fits in the given space. In those cases I suggest you add your resume in the additional information section.

Extracurricular Activities on the UC Application

The University of California Activities List offers much more space for activities and awards. You have up to 20 slots to fill out six categories: Award or honor, Educational preparation programs, Extracurricular activity, Other coursework, Volunteering/Community service, & Work experience. 

You can fill up the 20 slots with any combination of the six categories that you like. If any category does not apply to you, you need not fill it out. For example, not every student has work experience or educational preparation programs.

Each slot also allows 500 characters to describe the activity and 500 more characters to describe your role/responsibilities. However, more space does not mean that you must fill up the entire box. As always, less is more—just make sure you are telling the complete story with each entry.

Writing Your Activities List

Create your list in order of significance Give admissions officers a sense of what has been most meaningful and formative to you and your development. Doing so will help demonstrate your values and priorities.

Be as specific as possible Take the time to truly reflect back on all that you did for each activity. Leave no stone unturned.

Use active verbs Instead of using complete sentences, list your responsibilities using a variety of active verbs. You can find a list of strong action verbs here categorized by the type of role in which you were involved.

Estimate actual time spent Many students underestimate how much time they spend on any given activity. Consider the time spent outside of the actual club hours, and add those to your hours spent per week.

Highlight concrete details Many students tend to generalize their activities list, but a general activities list will result in a general impression. To create a standout activities list, focus on measurable details and emphasize their significance. Include facts and numbers to tell the full story of your involvement.

Think outside of the box Not every activity needs to be an official club or organization. Anything productive that you have spent your time on outside of the classroom can qualify as an activity, so do not limit yourself or feel as though you have nothing to add.

Remember that your entire college application tells a story. Give enough attention to each part of the application, and make sure that you are sharing the whole story that you want to tell.

The deadline is tomorrow!

The deadline is tomorrow

The deadline is tomorrow

The deadline is tomorrow

The deadline is tomorrow

The deadline is tomorrow

The deadline is tomorrow

The deadline is tomorrow

The deadline is tomorrow

Also, use the school code 3594 to send your SAT scores to the CSU's. Don't send them to each individual CSU.

College application deadlines occur during some of the busiest times of the year. Early applications are due around Halloween, UC applications are due post-Thanksgiving, and regular applications are due during winter break at the peak of the holiday season.

With the deadlines rapidly approaching, many high school seniors are scrambling to finalize their college essays and add any finishing touches to their applications. However, in the midst of it all, there are important steps you should keep in mind before sending off your applications.

1. PROOFREAD YOUR ENTIRE APPLICATION

After investing so much time and energy into your college applications, the last thing you want the admissions readers to encounter is an application blemished with typos. Review each page of your applications, making sure that all of the information is accurate, properly spelled, and grammatically correct. Read the application aloud from start to finish and then read it again backwards to ensure a thorough review of all the information. If you are unsure or uncertain about anything, find someone you trust to look over it. When you’re deep into the application process, it can be easy to gloss over the details, and a fresh pair of eyes can often help detect any flaws you may have missed.

2. DOUBLE CHECK YOUR APPLICATION STATUS UPDATES ONLINE

Before submitting your application, verify that all materials outside of your direct control have been received by the colleges. This includes recommendations, test scores, portfolios, and any other supplemental information to your application. Remember, you must report your official SAT/ACT scores through the corresponding organization, and if your scores haven’t been received, you need to follow up with the College Board or the ACT. If your recommenders haven’t sent their letters by the time you are ready to submit, kindly update them and remind them of the deadline (they’re busy too!). Don’t panic if anything is missing. Following up in a timely fashion and carefully explaining your situation will usually resolve any issues.

3. GUARANTEE THAT YOUR WHOLE STORY IS ON DISPLAY

Your college applications must portray the full picture of who you are as an individual and how you will make an excellent addition to each school to which you are applying. Admissions is an extremely competitive process, and you do yourself a disservice if you leave out crucial information. Each and every section of the application should build upon the previous ones to construct a dynamic and layered self-portrait. Upon reading your application, admissions readers should have a vivid idea of who you are both as a student and as a human being as well as recognize without a shadow of a doubt that you will add unique value to their campus environment.

Please don’t wait until the final minute to submit your applications; any number of things can go awry. Finish your applications a week or so early, so you can use those last few days to go over these steps and then submit with full confidence that you’ve given it all you’ve got.

How many of you have been in this situation? You’ve spent hours pouring everything you can into your college application to produce quality essays. As the application deadline approaches, you add any finishing touches, and then focus on filling in the tedious parts as quickly as possible: family info, school info, grades, activities list, etc.

But what if I told you the essays are not the only part of your application in which you can tell a compelling story?

Today, we are going to take a look at one of the often-overlooked components of the college application process. 

While it’s obvious that the essays and supplements tell much of your story, the activities list also tells a story: the story of how you spend your time outside of the classroom. The activities list gives admissions officers a sense of where your passions lie and what experiences have shaped you into who you are today. As such, you must make sure to use the allotted space appropriately.

Speaking of space, historically, there hasn’t been much room to explain your activities. That remains true of the Common Application, but as of this year, the University of California application offers much more room to write your activities list. There is strategy involved in telling the most dynamic, compelling story to have your application pop among the many that admissions officers read each season.

Extracurricular Activities on the Common Application

For Honors & Awards, there are five entries with a maximum 100-character count for description.

For Extracurricular Activities, there are ten entries with a maximum of 50 characters to describe any position held and the organization name & a maximum of 150 characters for details, honors, and accomplishments. As you can see, space is limited, so make every word count.

Use abbreviations and symbols when you can, but don’t sacrifice clarity for conciseness. The admissions officer still needs to understand the information you’re including. Not everyone will fill up all the honors & extracurriculars sections; however, some of you may have more to include than fits in the given space. In those cases I suggest you add your resume in the additional information section.

Extracurricular Activities on the UC Application

The University of California Activities List offers much more space for activities and awards. You have up to 20 slots to fill out six categories: Award or honor, Educational preparation programs, Extracurricular activity, Other coursework, Volunteering/Community service, & Work experience.

You can fill up the 20 slots with any combination of the six categories that you like. If any category does not apply to you, you need not fill it out. For example, not every student has work experience or educational preparation programs.

Each slot also allows 500 characters to describe the activity and 500 more characters to describe your role/responsibilities. However, more space does not mean that you must fill up the entire box. As always, less is more—just make sure you are telling the complete story with each entry.

Writing your Activities List

Create your list in order of significance Give admissions officers a sense of what has been most meaningful and formative to you and your development. Doing so will help demonstrate your values and priorities.

Be as specific as possible Take the time to truly reflect back on all that you did for each activity. Leave no stone unturned.

Use active verbs Instead of using complete sentences, list your responsibilities using a variety of active verbs. You can find a list of strong action verbs here categorized by the type of role in which you were involved. 

Estimate actual time spent Many students underestimate how much time they spend on any given activity. Consider the time spent outside of the actual club hours, and add those to your hours spent per week.

Highlight concrete details Many students tend to generalize their activities list, but a general activities list will result in a general impression. To create a standout activities list, focus on measurable details and emphasize their significance. Include facts and numbers to tell the full story of your involvement.

Think outside of the box Not every activity needs to be an official club or organization. Anything productive that you have spent your time on outside of the classroom can qualify as an activity, so do not limit yourself or feel as though you have nothing to add.

Remember that your entire college application tells a story. Give enough attention to each part of the application, and make sure that you are sharing the whole story that you want to tell.

The University of California (UC) campuses receive more than 221,000 undergraduate applications. From all of those, they could admit only 71,000.

To make such tough decisions, the admissions staff will strive to get to know you, but since none of the UCs conduct student interviews and none accept letters of recommendation, your application will be the only way they get to “meet” you. As you can imagine, grades, test scores, and descriptions of activities and awards can only communicate so much about your dynamic, unique personality—so this is where your personal statement comes in.

To assess whether you will be a good fit for the university and excel once you get there, the admissions staff wants to know who you are: your interests, challenges, thoughts, perspectives, experiences. And they want to understand your background and life circumstances so that they can better interpret the rest of your application.

Through the UC Personal Insight Questions, you have the opportunity to fill them in. As the name suggests, these are not your typical “college essays.” You will be asked to choose four out of eight given prompts and respond to each in 350 words or fewer. The UCs are primarily looking to learn more information about you, so unlike many college essays, these questions are best answered in straightforward, rather than poetic or stylistic, prose.

The UC Personal Insight Questions

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

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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?

📋 HOW TO APPROACH THE UC QUESTIONS

1. Read Through All 8 Prompts

Note any that stand out as topics you might want to write about, and jot down any ideas that come to mind.

2. Brainstorm

You have had innumerable experiences over the years, but perhaps have not spent much time reflecting on how they have affected you or what you have learned. So now’s the time to do some deeper-level thinking.

A good place to start is to write down all of your high school activities and awards. Think about what you’ve spent most of your time doing, what’s most important to you, and what you think someone who has never met you might want to hear more about.  

Then try writing down five of each of the following:

Personality traits (e.g., optimistic, analytical, humorous)

Interests/passions/talents (e.g., soccer, painting, tutoring)

Values (ideas that are important to you, e.g., honesty, reliability, efficiency)

Objects (items that capture an essence of you, e.g., journal, necklace, green tea)

Challenges (most difficult times of your life)

Times you have felt really excited or lost track of time doing something

Experiences that have defined you or caused you to change

Attributes that make you overall great

From your list, choose three to five of the most important aspects of yourself, and write down specific stories, examples, or details that illustrate each one.

3. Write a Stream-of-Consciousness

Pick your favorite UC prompt and spend 15 minutes writing anything that comes to mind. IMPORTANT: It does not have to sound good. Feel free to write like a third-grader or even make no sense. If it’s easier, record yourself telling a story out loud and then transcribe. And definitely don’t worry about the word limit yet.

4. Choose Your Other Three UC Prompts

As you consider which topics to write about, make sure all four responses will fit together to showcase your character as a whole, without overlapping ideas. Be sure to include aspects of yourself that admissions officers would not learn about in other parts of your application. If you are applying to a professional college (such as the College of Engineering or Biological Sciences), somewhere in your writings discuss your intended field of study and any school or work-related experience you’ve had by answering prompt #6 about an academic subject that inspires you.

5. Structure Your Responses

As you edit your drafts, it often works well to tell a story. Offering a glimpse into your life, you in action, can be the most compelling and effective way to make an impression on your readers. You can recount a single experience or a narrative that spans a few years. Keep in mind that you want to focus on who you currently are, so mostly discuss examples from your high school years. You can certainly mention important events from your childhood but then explain how they’ve contributed to who you are today. For some prompts, tying together a series of examples may work better than one story. In all cases, the more specific details you can include, the better. You’re the only one who has lived your life, so add enough specifics to show them your unique way of interacting with the world.

6. Add Personal Insight

Each answer should also include some insight and reflection. Think about why what you are writing matters, to you and to others, and what you learned from each experience. Expressing uncommon ways of seeing things will help your individuality stand out among the other 200,000 or so applicants.

7. Revise and Proofread

As you read over your writing, consider the following questions that admissions officers are hoping to answer about you:

Who is this person?

Will this person contribute to our campus?

Will this person be successful at our school?

Can this person write ( with proper grammar and mechanics)?

And you will want to be able to answer “yes” to the following questions:

Do you sound like yourself?

Are you speaking genuinely?

Do you answer the prompt?