The University of California (UC) schools are amongst the best public university systems in the country. Several of their elite colleges have the prestige and diversity to rival even the top private universities. Part of the admission process includes writing 4 essays based on 8 prompts called personal insight questions (PIQ), and each response cannot exceed 350 words. If you want to really impress the admissions officers, make sure you avoid these common mistakes when writing your PIQs.
Don’t Use Generalities
When answering the PIQs, it’s important to make them personal. Don’t speak in generalities, as they want to get to know who you are as a person and your skills, accomplishments, and potential to succeed. Make sure to use statements with “I” and “my” while writing. This will help focus your answers on your own experiences and express to the colleges why they should accept you as a student.
Avoid Repetition
Since you’ll be answering 4 PIQs, you need to make sure that the information you provide in each of them is unique. Choose prompts that will allow you to do this, as you don’t want to keep saying the same things about yourself. For example, the PIQs 2021 choices include questions about your greatest talent and your creative endeavors. If you write about how painting is your greatest talent, don’t choose another question where you talk about your experiences as a painter.
Stay Away from Philosophical Contemplation
Having to reflect upon your character and personality, as well as considering your future can lead you to contemplate these things in philosophical terms. However, try not to do this, since they are looking for facts in order to judge your capabilities as a person, rather than your inner thoughts and feelings. Make sure you get to the point of what you’re trying to say in each answer since you have a very limited amount of space to do so.
Don’t Complain About your Hardships
It’s easy to fall into the trap of writing too much about all the difficulties you’ve overcome in your life. You can include these things but focus more on how you’ve grown as a person instead of elaborating on how tough it has been for you. The purpose of college is to learn and build your foundation for the future, so dwelling too much on the hardships of your past can make you seem like someone who would rather complain about a problem than solve them and move forward.
Using Humor is a Bad Idea
Trying to inject some humor into your writing is often a way to express your personality, but it’s best not to do that with the PIQs. Since the questions ask about things like your talents, leadership skills, or community activism, they expect a serious answer. These aren’t the place for funny comments or silly anecdotes. Keep your essays on point and avoid inappropriate uses of humor.
Avoid Creative Writing
There’s no reason to write a poem or speculative tale for the PIQs. You can speak about your talents as a creative writer, but don’t give them any examples of your work. These should be fact-based answers, so anything that doesn’t directly support the message you’re trying to get across doesn’t belong there. You’re not telling a story, you’re informing the admissions offers about why they should choose you for their school.
Never Use Quotations
Since the purpose of the PIQs is to hear about you in your own words, they don’t want to hear anything from another person. Stay away from adding quotations as a way to support your answers. They will take up space that would be better served writing something from your own point of view. If you feel like you absolutely need the schools to be aware of something someone else has said regarding you or your activities, save it for the Common Application and/or Supplemental Essays.
Don’t Pick a Prompt Because it’s Easy
It can be tempting to choose a PIQ that sounds easy to answer, but you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you go that route. They are looking for information that best describes who you are as a person and what you can do, so it’s a better idea to pick a prompt that will allow you to display your best qualities.
Applying for college and completing all the necessary steps to get in is a lengthy and difficult process. Your future could be riding on whether you get accepted or not. When you’re writing your PIQs to get into a UC school, remember these tips on what mistakes you need to avoid to have the best essays possible.