Top universities want their students to be leaders, but what does that really mean? Unfortunately, many high school students fall into the trap of thinking that leadership is just a title. If you become president of some club, or founder of some random project, you're in! This is actually not the case, and admissions officers are trained in sniffing out these hollow leadership roles and eliminating students who try to fluff up their resume with them. Today we will be discussi

If you're an ambitious high school student, you're most likely applying to more schools than the University of California system. However, during the application process, you must be aware of the different aspects of your character that these schools are looking for in your application and frame each submission accordingly. All of these schools demand rigor, but serve different purposes with their styles of education and thus assess students slightly differently. Today, we'll

Our first PIQ article has done really well, so we're here to give the people what they want! Today, we'll be talking about more detailed advice for writing Personal Insight Questions. Without further ado, here are some more problems we see in student PIQs. All Accomplishment, No Narrative A common mistake that we see is students trying to cram their resume and their awards list into a narrative form that ends up sounding more like a laundry list of “why I’m awesome”! While yo

Most students go into college with a "Plan A" major, but the UCs give you the chance to have a "Plan B" major with an alternate major, and even a "Plan C" with the undeclared option. Today, we'll be discussing how to maximize your chances of admission with an alternate major and breaking down which schools allow undeclared majors for first years. What is an alternate major and which UCs consider them? An alternate major is a secondary major listed on your application that mos

Image Courtesy of NPR Are you a community college student looking for a university home, or are you a university student looking for a more challenging curriculum? Transferring to the UC system might be the right choice for you. Why Transfer? Some common reasons students transfer after one or two years at a community college or other small institution are to earn a university degree. Others want access to more specialized majors or programs, while some prefer a larger school

When you imagine a well-rounded student, you're probably picturing a Disney-channel style "popular kid" who's student body president, has A's in every subject, and is in every activity from archery to the school paper. The good news is that you don't have to be well-rounded to get into a good school, including the UC system. The bad news is that you have to do something else to be the kind of student top universities are looking for. Image Courtesy of BBC Glasgow What makes a

The UC Personal Insight Questions are unique in that they are some of the shorter college essays you may have to write when applying to American universities, but they also give you freedom of choice in what topics you prefer to write about. You can take a look at our previous post to get the best "dos" for PIQs, and today we're diving into the "don'ts". Rule #1 Many English teachers and writing instructors say, "Show, don't tell!" and while this is good advice for writing a

Image Courtesy of UCLA The University of California system has some interesting supplemental essays: with only 350 words to express who you are in one area of life, you answer four self-selected questions from a set assortment of 8. This year's questions are in alignment with the general trend of personal and education related questions. Let's take a look at each and how you can stand out in your answers! From the UC Admissions Website, here are the questions and directions f