UC Personal Insight Question

What are the prompts?

It is hard to tell without know what the prompts were - but generally what admissions is trying to do from a high level is to see the "you". Stuff you can not decipher from academics, clubs and what is normally on an application. They want to see what you are like as a person. Make you more an individual rather than just a number that they can plug in.

It is one way you can stand out. I'd suggest trying to make it as introspective as you can - make it really personal. That is the only one to make it stand out. And if you just try to answer the way you expect they would like - it will sound artificial.

What do you think you have that is different about you? What makes you unique? Try to get that across in the essays. What you write about typically isn't as important as how you tell it and how you make it personal and show what type of person you are, what is important to you and how you conduct yourself.

Make those assets you have really shine through on what you write. For example if say you have great perseverance - show that in the essay. Talk about how you really wanted to be on baseball team but you really were not that good; how you worked hard and improved your game and then made the team. Or if you have a love of helping others - talk about how you did a certain project; helped an old lady cross the street, help your disabled neighbor regularly. It honestly doesn't need to be this huge thing - it can be smaller - like you always make time for the lonely elderly neighbor and chat with them - the important thing is to show something that is impactful to you and shows some of your positive attributes.