short essay about california

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: December 13, 2022 | Original: November 9, 2009

The first Spanish missionaries arrived in California in the 1700s, but California didn’t become part of the United States until 1847, as part of the treaty ending the Mexican-American War . Shortly thereafter, the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848 inspired a wave of settlers to head to the West Coast in search of fortune. In 1850 California became the 31st state.

With millions of acres of farmland, California leads the United States in agricultural production. The state is also home to famous cultural institutions and national parks including Hollywood , Disneyland, Yosemite National Park, Alcatraz , Angel Island and the Golden Gate Bridge .

WATCH: How the States Got Their Shape on HISTORY Vault

California’s Native American History

The first people migrated to California nearly 20,000 years ago from Asia across the Bering Straits. California’s mountain ranges and deserts isolated Native American tribes from each other, and they lived in peaceful family clans with little political structure. More than 500 tribes, each with their unique culture, developed across the state, such as the Pomo, Tolowa, Miwok, Maidu, Cahto, Wintun, Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Chumash, Karok, Mojave, Yokuts, Paiute and Modoc.

When Spanish missionaries first came to California in the mid-1700s, the native population was estimated to be about 30,000—or 13 percent of the total Indigenous population in North America at the time. The population was gradually decimated, first in the 18th century by disease and forced labor in Spanish missions, and then in the late 19th century by American settlers .

California Missions

Concerned about Russian and English encroachment on western New Spain territory, Spain ordered an expedition north from Baja Mexico in 1769. The first Spanish soldiers and priests traveled and established a presidio (military fort) and mission church in San Diego. This marked the first of at least 21 California missions , which were often accompanied by presidios and pueblos (small towns).

Greatly outnumbered by native inhabitants, Franciscan missionaries came with the blessing of the Spanish state to convert Indigenous people to Christianity and train them into loyal Spanish citizens. Missionaries introduced agriculture and ranching to indigenous peoples. They taught them Spanish culture and language as well as skills like weaving, construction and blacksmithing. They also forced natives to build and stay within their walled communities and flogged those who disobeyed. Forced labor along with foreign disease, which spread rapidly in crowded living conditions, halved the indigenous population by the time the Mexican government secularized the mission system in 1834.

European Exploration

Spanish explorers began sailing the West Coast of North America looking for the mythical “Island of California,” entirely populated by beautiful women, described in Garcí Rodríguez Ordóñez de Montalvo’s book Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Exploits of Esplandián). They named the Baja California peninsula of Mexico after the book.

Spanish conquistador Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to explore the West Coast of the United States, naming the area “Alta California.” Sent by New Spain to find a water route to Asia, Cabrillo and his crew left from Mexico and set foot on modern-day San Diego on September 28, 1542, then traveled north to Monterey Bay.

Sailing for the English in 1579, Sir Francis Drake looted Spanish settlements in the Americas and escaped to Point Reyes Peninsula, near San Francisco. Portuguese merchant-adventurer Sebastián Rodríguez Cermeño landed in Drake’s Bay in 1595 and explored parts of northern California including Monterey, an area revisited several years later by Spanish explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno.

The Spanish only settled in California with the Franciscan establishment of presidios and missions beginning in 1769. Spanish commander Juan Bautista de Anza created an overland route from California to New Spain and brought the first families to California in 1776. Fewer than 4,000 settlers lived in California until the mid-1800s.

From Mexico to the United States

Mexico won independence from Spain in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence , and Alta California became a Mexican province in 1822. The Mexicans established a ranching culture, and Mexico’s liberal trading policies encouraged Californians to trade with the Americans and the English.

In 1826 trapper Jedediah Smith led the first group of U.S. citizens overland into the area. In 1841, John Bidwell and John Bartleson led the first group of organized American settlers into California. Immigration continued until American immigrants outnumbered Mexican citizens by the mid-1840s. American settlers revolted against the Mexican government in 1846 and declared California an independent nation in what became known as the Bear Flag Revolt .

Meanwhile, the U.S. government had gained interest in expanding its territory and was fighting the Mexican-American War . One month after the Bear Flag Revolt, the U.S. military occupied California. In January 1847, California surrendered to the United States. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo at the war’s end gave California to the United States on February 2, 1848. Without ever becoming a territory, California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state on September 9, 1850.

California Gold Rush & Immigration

WATCH: The California Gold Rush

On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered gold at a sawmill he was constructing at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California, ushering the California Gold Rush . Most of the first treasure-hunting immigrants came from outside the United States, including from Mexico, Chile and China. After President James Polk recognized the discovery that December, prospectors known as “ forty-niners ” began pouring into the state the following year.

In 1849 alone, more than 100,000 people moved to California from the United States and worldwide, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and China. Some came looking for gold, while others set up saloons and other businesses. Between 1847 and 1860, the state’s population tripled to 308,000 residents. The Gold Rush  changed the lives of California’s Native Americans , who within years, were almost wiped out due to the massive immigration the Gold Rush inspired. Most prospectors never struck it rich, but miners did extract an astonishing 28,280,711 ounces of fine gold between 1850 and 1859.

By the 1870s, almost all of the 63,000 Chinese immigrants in America lived in California, and anti-Chinese sentiment arose. Chinese filled jobs building the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s and then in agriculture in the early 1870s. This combined with an economic downturn in the 1870s spurred the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which barred Chinese immigration until China sided with the United States in World War II .

The next big wave of California immigrants came to escape the Great Depression and a series of droughts in the 1930s. More than 300,000 people migrated to California from midwestern “ Dust Bowl ” states, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas. These poverty-stricken “Okies” faced discrimination and were the subject of John Steinbeck's Pulitzer-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath .

When the passage of the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act opened up U.S. immigration, people from all over the world arrived in California, especially from Mexico, China, the Philippines, Central America and India.

California's Economy

California’s balmy climate and strong economy continue to attract new residents. As of 2021, the state boasted the largest population in the United States with more than 39 million residents. Many come to work in agriculture. Despite urbanization, drought and the loss of land to industry, California leads the country in agricultural production: More than a third of U.S. vegetables and two-thirds of fruit and nuts are grown in California. As of 2021, California also grew more than 3.9 million tons of wine grapes on 620,000 acres each year, producing more than 80 percent of all U.S. wine.

A thriving tech industry emerged in northern California in the 1960s, earning the area the name Silicon Valley after the main element in integrated circuits. In the 1970s and 80s, California businesses including Intel and entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple helped create personal computing. As of 2022, California boasted the most tech jobs of any state in the United States, accounting for 1.88 million jobs and a quarter of national tech productivity.

California is also known for its film industry. Los Angeles was home to the first motion picture theater in the United States , which opened in 1902. Industrial jobs and a real estate boom encouraged many people to move to Hollywood from the early to mid-1900s. The 1930s welcomed the “Golden Age” of Hollywood, cemented by the creation of Technicolor and Walt Disney ’s studios. Almost half of today’s film sector jobs in the United States are based in Los Angeles.

As of 2022, California had the largest economy of any state in the U.S. In 1997, it was the first state to reach the trillion-dollar benchmark in gross state product (GDP). As of 2021, California was ranked the fifth-largest economy in the world, with a GDP of $3.1 trillion.

Date of Statehood: September 9, 1850

Capital: Sacramento

Population: 39,538,223 (2020)

Size: 163,694 square miles

Nickname(s): The Golden State; The Land of Milk and Honey; The El Dorado State; The Grape State

Motto: Eureka (“I have found it”)

Tree: California Redwood

Flower : Poppy

Bird: California Valley Quail

Interesting Facts

• The highest and lowest points in the continental United States are located within 100 miles of one another in California: Mount Whitney measures 14,505 feet, and Badwater Basin in Death Valley is 282 feet below sea level.
• Considered to be the hottest, driest place in the United States, Death Valley often reaches temperatures greater than 120 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer and averages only around two inches of rain each year.
• With a trunk slightly greater than 36 feet in diameter at its base and 275 feet tall, the General Sherman in Sequoia National Park is the largest living tree (by volume) in the world. It is estimated to be about 2,200 years old.
• About one-half of California's land is federally owned. National parks located throughout the state are devoted to the preservation of nature and natural resources.
• Southern California has about 10,000 earthquakes each year, although only 15 to 20 of them have a magnitude greater than 4.0.
• Dr. Maya Angelou  was San Francisco’s first Black female streetcar conductor. The civil rights activist, poet and author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings went on to recite one of her poems at Bill Clinton ’s presidential inauguration.

Agriculture Facts,  aeps.calpoly.edu

Native People of California, kids.nationalgeographic.com

"The First Peoples of California," loc.gov

"Religion and Capitalism as Motivators for Colonial Exploitation," gallatin.nyu.edu

"Revealing the history of genocide against California’s Native Americans," newsroom.ucla.edu

"Early California: pre-1769–1840s: Early Explorers," picturethis.museumca.org

Spanish California, loc.gov

"California Indians, Before, During, and After the Mission Era," californiamissionsfoundation.org

"Fourth Grade in California Public Schools," district.mpcsd.org

The Missions, loc.gov

"Early History of the California Coast," nps.gov

"European Exploration: Voyages of Discovery,"  csun.edu

"Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo - A Voyage of Exploration," nps.gov

"Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail Arizona and California," nps.gov

"Mexican California," loc.gov

Americans Arrive – 1840s to 1890s, ci.emeryville.ca.us

"Gold!," loc.gov

"The Discovery of Gold," loc.gov

"The Forty Niners," loc.gov

"From Gold Rush to Golden State," loc.gov

"U.S. Census Bureau History: The California Gold Rush," census.gov

State Symbols, library.ca.gov

"The Dust Bowl, California, and the Politics of Hard Times," capitolmuseum.ca.gov

"The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture," okhistory.org

California Migration History 1850-2018, depts.washington.edu

U.S. and World Population Clock, census.gov

Immigrants in California, americanimmigrationcouncil.org

California Agricultural Production Statistics, cdfa.ca.gov

Media & Trade, discovercaliforniawines.com

"California Grape Acreage Report, 2020 Summary," nass.usda.gov

California and U.S. Wine Production, wineinstitute.org

Silicon Valley, California, americanhistory.si.edu

High Tech, business.ca.gov

"California State Facts: The First Time The Golden State...,"  California.gov

Hollywood, California, americanhistory.si.edu

"Film and Digital Media Industry Los Angeles County Perspective," file.lacounty.gov

"How Might California Really Rank As A Country?" cafwd.org

California, forbes.com

The General Sherman Tree, nps.gov

Maya Angelou, biography.com

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Essential California: The best California writing of 2020

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Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter . It’s Thursday, Dec. 24 , and I’m writing from Los Angeles.

Start your day right

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

This morning we’ll be sharing our compendium of some of the best California writing of 2020.

California contains multitudes. This is a state of 40 million people — a place so big that there have been at least 220 recorded attempts to break it up. Which is all to say that even a hundred stories couldn’t capture the entirety of the California experience during this historic year.

But these were 30 of our favorite stories published in 2020, from The Times and beyond.

Together, they’ll take you up and down the coast, into the desert and through the Central Valley. There are narratives, investigations, news stories, essays and personal histories. You’ll meet nurses, linebackers, strawberry growers, a Qatari sheikh, a homeless 7-year-old, an iconoclastic federal judge and a devoted mail carrier, to name a few.

“A nurse without an N95 mask raced in to treat a ‘code blue’ patient. She died 14 days later” (Soumya Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times, May 2020)

This is a story about a decision. An L.A. nurse was faced with a choice — she could either rush into a COVID patient’s room to save him while only wearing a thin surgical mask, or wait to find an N95. But it’s also a story about the human toll of the pandemic, and the broken systems that left a frontline worker without adequate PPE.

“USC’s dying linebackers” (Michael Rosenberg, Sports Illustrated, October 2020)

There were 12 linebackers on the Trojans’ depth chart in the fall of 1989. Five are gone now — dead before age 50. None of them died on the field, but for each former player, football was inextricably tied to mortality. Part of what makes this piece so gutting is the simplicity with which it is told. No flowery language or fancy descriptions. Just sparse, simple sentences that land like ceaseless punches.

“How do you sign ‘Black Lives Matter’ in ASL?” (Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, June 2020)

For black deaf Angelenos, it’s complicated. As with everything in American Sign — a language that many hearing people have been exposed to regularly since the outbreak of the coronavirus — nuance shows up in translation.

“What my dad gave his shop” (Francesca Mari, The Atlantic, December 2020)

A piercing essay from Francesca Mari about her father’s fading San Francisco audio-video store, and the travails of being a small-business owner in America — before and during the pandemic.

“What happened on Howard Street” (Ashley Harrell, North Coast Journal, August 2020)

Racial politics, family and a fight for justice unfold in a rough corner of Eureka, high in Humboldt County. At the center of the story is a wiry, bright-eyed 16-year-old boy struggling to make the best of difficult circumstances, as the forces that should protect him fail to do just that.

“For contact tracers, COVID-19 fight is personal” (Colleen Shalby, Los Angeles Times, December 2020)

Contact tracers tell people they’ve tested positive for the coronavirus or warn they’ve been exposed to it. The conversations are confidential and sometimes surprisingly intimate. Some last minutes; others, hours. Much of the job relies on intuition shaped by cultural and familial ties — bonds that make the work personal.

“Why did it take a white chef to pique my interest in my own Mexican culture?” (Javier Cabral, Bon Appétit, February 2020)

L.A. Taco editor Javier Cabral’s moving essay on internalized racism, his mother’s cooking, and finding a career as a taco expert.

“Facing dangers from coronavirus and Trump, postal carriers just keep delivering the mail” (Brittny Mejia, Los Angeles Times, June 2020)

A lovely portrait of the embattled United States Postal Service, and a letter carrier named James Daniels methodically making his way through the roughly 800 addresses on his San Clemente route.

“The true story of the heartthrob prince of Qatar and his time at USC” (Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, July 2020)

When a Qatari sheikh came to live in L.A., an entire economy sprouted to meet his wishes. “His highness doesn’t like to hear no,” one associate told a professor. This is a wild yarn, from two of the best investigative reporters in the game.

“How the waters off Catalina became a DDT dumping ground” (Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times, October 2020)

Last year, Rosanna Xia was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for her writing about how sea level rise will affect the California coast. In a new and equally critical story, she unravels a toxic mystery along that same coast. Here, she recounts how the waters off Catalina became a dumping ground for a now-banned pesticide — a toxic legacy that remained hidden until a new generation of scientists discovered the evidence.

“This federal judge is risking his life to save homeless people from the coronavirus” (Ben Oreskes, Los Angeles Times, April 2020)

There are many niche categories of journalism, but “profile from a beat writer” has long been one of my favorites. Beat writers aren’t struggling to understand the stakes or day-to-day nuances of a new world — they come to the assignment already intimately familiar with the broader landscape. This is a story about one singular, 76-year-old judge hectoring public officials, touring encampments and insisting on in-person hearings during a pandemic. But it’s also a story about the homelessness crisis in L.A., written by a reporter who’s spent the last two years focused on just that.

“How will we grieve once the coronavirus pandemic is over?” (Thomas Curwen, Los Angeles Times, April 2020)

How do we craft the narratives that will define a pandemic? My colleague Tom Curwen — who writes with the precision of a doctor, the wisdom of a rabbi and the sparse economy of a poet — looks to the wreckage of history to try to understand how humans will make sense of this story too.

“Deceit, disrepair and death inside a Southern California rental empire” (Aaron Mendelson, LAist, February 2020)

This deeply upsetting investigation from Aaron Mendelson digs into Mike Nijjar’s PAMA Management empire, where tens of thousands of California’s poorest tenants have endured dirty, dilapidated housing conditions.

“The unheroic reality of being an ‘essential’ restaurant worker” (Sara Selevitch, Eater, May 2020)

Sara Selevitch vividly describes the various indignities and absurdities foisted upon her while risking her health to hand customers takeout noodles during a pandemic. Several of the anecdotes in this story have haunted me, including this passage: “Regulars who never tipped before the crisis have continued their practice of not tipping. ... During a rainstorm, a customer called and asked that we bring her order out to the car. When I handed her the receipt, she wrote ‘0.00’ and signed her name with a flourish. She was wearing a T-shirt that said ‘Wild Feminist.’”

“Coronavirus has emptied places of worship, but here’s how it also fuels our faith” (Marcos Bretón, Sacramento Bee, April 2020)

Columnist Marcos Bretón writes about ancient rituals reimagined in the early days of the pandemic.

“Theo: Homeless at age 7” (Sarah Ravani, San Francisco Chronicle, July 2020)

Meet Theo, a homeless 7-year-old in Berkeley. All he wants is his own room and a kitchen where he can bake chocolate cake. He dreams of it while he sleeps in tents in parks and under the freeway.

“The making of American money” (An Uong, Hyphen Magazine, May 2020)

An Uong writes beautifully about childhood days spent rummaging through L.A. recycling bins and how income from other people’s trash provided her mother, a Vietnamese immigrant, with her first taste of independence in the U.S.

“This 81-year-old was L.A.’s most devoted museum-goer until COVID-19 shuttered cultural institutions” (Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times, April 2020)

For eight years, Ben Barcelona had been visiting a different art museum, gallery or public art installation every day of the week, rarely, if ever, deviating from his routine. His story is a love song about what he — and we — have all lost during these long months of isolation. (The reporter checked in with Barcelona a few days ago, if you’d like to read the coda .)

“‘I’m going to be honest with you,’ the grandfather told the police. ‘I killed a lot.’” (Jessica Garrison, Buzzfeed, August 2020)

In this excerpt adapted from nonfiction book “The Devil’s Harvest,” former Times editor Jessica Garrison details a contract killer’s 35-year run in the Central Valley, and how the criminal justice system failed his vulnerable victims.

“How an unknown British actress played a role in the downfall of two Hollywood moguls” (Stacy Perman, Ryan Faughnder and Meg James, Los Angeles Times, August 2020)

How does a 28-year-old woman from Kent, England, with a thin résumé of bit parts in a few movies take a starring role in the downfall of two of Hollywood’s most powerful moguls? That’s the question that riveted — if not rocked — the industry this summer.

“As a Black journalist, covering civil rights protests has been harrowing” (Lexis Olivier-Ray, L.A. Taco, June 2020)

Photographer and writer Lexis Olivier-Ray writes about how he came to photograph a now-iconic image of an LAPD cruiser engulfed in flames at the intersection of Beverly and Fairfax, continuing to record even while fearing for his own safety and why he has sometimes wondered “if it would be more impactful for me to put my camera down and join the protest.”

“Black Panthers now are grandparents and great-grandparents. But we still show up” (Henry Lee Wallace V, San Diego Union-Tribune, July 2020)

Henry Lee Wallace V, a retired bus driver, recounts his family’s role in the founding of the San Diego chapter of the Black Panther Party, and all that came after. The piece is an oral history, as told to Union-Tribune community opinion editor Laura Castañeda.

“A family of strawberry growers had big dreams. Then came the pandemic” (Daniel Hernandez, Los Angeles Times, April 2020)

“The Carranza family is a rare unit in the state’s strawberry supply. They are not laborers on a large industrial farm, like those paid by the box, but an entirely family-run enterprise that sells to restaurants and at five farmers markets: Santa Monica, Hollywood, South Pasadena, Ojai and Santa Barbara. At least until recently, before the coronavirus began forcing closures.”

“A lifeline leveled” (Carin Dorghalli, Chico Enterprise-Record, September 2020)

Enterprise-Record photographer Carin Dorghalli mourns the loss of her immigrant father’s market — the only store in Berry Creek — as she documents the flames ravaging mountain communities.

“George Floyd, Central Park and the familiar terror they inspire” (LZ Granderson, Los Angeles Times, May 2020)

A wrenching essay from Times sports and culture columnist LZ Granderson detailing a lifetime of encounters with police — and why Granderson is tired of writing about racism. Not just tired of writing about racism, but also “tired of black and brown bodies being killed by it,” tired of the endless, soul-slicing micro-aggressions and “tired of watching some white people be more upset by those who are protesting racism as opposed to the racism itself.”

“From healthcare worker to patient: Death in Room 311” (Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times, December 2020)

A nurse died alone at a Days Inn in West Covina, under isolation because she had COVID-19. For an investigator with the L.A. County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, the job was to piece together the puzzle of the victim’s life and death — and to stay healthy.

“Want to tear down insidious monuments to racism and segregation? Bulldoze L.A. freeways” (Matthew Fleischer, Los Angeles Times, June 2020)

“The aftermath of George Floyd’s death while in police custody has created a moment for radical truth-telling,” writes opinion editor Matthew Fleischer. “So here’s some ugly truth about the city of Los Angeles: Our freeway system is one of the most noxious monuments to racism and segregation in the country.”

“Systemic racism isn’t just about police brutality — and it has a long history in Fresno” (Manuela Tobias, Fresno Bee, June 2020)

Over half of west Fresno lives below the poverty line, while the rest of Fresno hovers around 27%. West Fresno residents earn about half the median salary as the rest of Fresno. Fewer residents graduate high school or own homes. And, on average, they live about 20 years less than residents in wealthier parts of the city. None of this is by accident — unrelenting disinvestment, neglect and a lack of representation have held back generations of Black and brown residents on this side of the city.

“This hidden Salton Sea birder oasis burned in the Niland fire. Its owner vows to rebuild” (Mark Olalde, The Desert Sun, July 2020)

The story of Barnacle Snug Luffy, who looks to pick up the pieces after a fire ripped through the town and torched his birding oasis.

“Safe at home in Los Angeles” (Lynell George, High Country News, March 2020)

Lynell George is one of the greatest living chroniclers of Los Angeles, a native who captures this contested domain in all its complexity. This lyrical dispatch from the early days of shelter-in-place pulls from the city’s literary canon to process those strange days.

Last but not least, an honorable mention in satire writing, from The Onion: “Gavin Newsom slammed for eating at the French Laundry when Atelier Crenn clearly superior take on contemporary cuisine.”

And now, here’s what’s happening across California:

California surpassed 2 million coronavirus cases on Wednesday, in another marker of the wrenching toll the pandemic is inflecting. The coronavirus has been spreading with breathtaking speed in recent weeks, creating crisis conditions in hospitals and making California one of the hardest-hit parts of the United States. Los Angeles Times

Trump gives Congress chaos for Christmas, with aid to millions up in the air: What may well be the final two legislative battles of the Trump presidency unspooled in typically chaotic fashion Wednesday as the president departed Washington for his Mar-a-Lago resort, leaving behind a vetoed defense bill, continued uncertainty over the fate of some $900 billion in COVID relief, and some very dismayed Republican leaders. Los Angeles Times

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L.A. STORIES

COVID-19 surges at L.A. County shopping malls as holiday customers pack stores: Shopping malls and retail businesses deemed nonessential must limit occupancy to 20% of their maximum capacity, under county rules. But in the eyes of many, even public officials, they remain unsafe. Los Angeles Times

Doctors treat patients in hallways as Long Beach hospitals begin to overflow: Long Beach officials painted a dire picture of the situation inside local hospitals Wednesday, as ambulances struggled to keep up with a crush of patients and the city activated a “mass fatality” plan to back up local morgues. Long Beach Post

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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

President Trump continued his string of pardons Wednesday night , bringing the two-day total to 41 and wiping felonies from the records of Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, two political advisors who were convicted in the Russia investigation. Los Angeles Times

HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Billions of dollars were spent on fighting California wildfires, but little on prevention: The numbers highlight the enormous chasm between what state and federal agencies spend on firefighting and what they spend on reducing California’s wildfire hazard — a persistent gap that critics say ensures a self-perpetuating cycle of destruction. Los Angeles Times

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

California residents have not greatly reduced their visits to stores and workplaces since Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered them to stay at home in early December, according to a review of mobility trend data collected by Google from cellphones. Sacramento Bee

Two California counties and the town of Truckee are asking Airbnb to help halt short-term rentals in the Lake Tahoe area that violate the state’s stay-at-home order amid the continuing coronavirus surge. San Francisco Chronicle

A poem to start your Thursday: “At the California Institute of Technology” by Richard Brautigan. Poetry Foundation

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CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

Los Angeles: cloudy, 66. San Diego: cloudy, 70. San Francisco: partly sunny, 59. San Jose: cloudy, 64. Fresno: fog, 57. Sacramento: partly sunny, 55. More weather is here.

AND FINALLY

Today’s California memory comes from Laurie Kasparian :

I grew up in Westchester in the ‘50s and ‘60s, just north of LAX. The sound of the planes was such a constant disruption that we learned not to notice the rumble. Or maybe we just turned the TV up or used the roar of the engines as a lullaby at night. As the jets got bigger, the crescendo could stop you in your tracks when playing outdoors. Looking down our alley, it would seem like the 747s would hang in the air just above the house on their slow climb out over the ocean. At one point, airport officials drove around handing out earmuffs to kids playing outside. By the time I headed to college, our home was on the chopping block to make way for a new north runway. At night, we heard the loudest rumble of all, the sound of homes being moved down our street to new locations. We all headed to Orange County, but our home ended up in Chino.

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us . (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints, ideas and unrelated book recommendations to Julia Wick . Follow her on Twitter @Sherlyholmes .

Julia Wick is a political reporter at the Los Angeles Times. She and her colleagues won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for reporting on a leaked audio recording that upended Los Angeles politics. She was also part of the team that was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for work covering a fatal shooting on the set of the film “Rust.” Before joining the Times, Wick was the editor in chief of LAist.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Tired and confused, first migrants reach california border after biden’s asylum order.

Fifth quake to hit SoCal in 5 days: Small temblor strikes Newport Beach

Swift justice: Porsche driver is ticketed for 133 mph on the 101 Freeway

10-year-old brings loaded handgun to L.A. school amid rise in school crime, fights

Freshman requirements

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• You will have 8 questions to choose from. You must respond to only 4 of the 8 questions.
• Each response is limited to a maximum of 350 words.
• Which questions you choose to answer is entirely up to you. However, you should select questions that are most relevant to your experience and that best reflect your individual circumstances.

Keep in mind

• All questions are equal. All are given equal consideration in the application review process, which means there is no advantage or disadvantage to choosing certain questions over others.
• There is no right or wrong way to answer these questions. It’s about getting to know your personality, background, interests and achievements in your own unique voice.  
• Use the additional comments field if there are issues you'd like to address that you didn't have the opportunity to discuss elsewhere on the application. This shouldn't be an essay, but rather a place to note unusual circumstances or anything that might be unclear in other parts of the application. You may use the additional comments field to note extraordinary circumstances related to COVID-19, if necessary. 

Questions & guidance

Remember, the personal insight questions are just that—personal. Which means you should use our guidance for each question just as a suggestion in case you need help. The important thing is expressing who you are, what matters to you and what you want to share with UC. 

1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time. Things to consider: A leadership role can mean more than just a title. It can mean being a mentor to others, acting as the person in charge of a specific task, or taking the lead role in organizing an event or project. Think about what you accomplished and what you learned from the experience. What were your responsibilities?

Did you lead a team? How did your experience change your perspective on leading others? Did you help to resolve an important dispute at your school, church, in your community or an organization? And your leadership role doesn't necessarily have to be limited to school activities. For example, do you help out or take care of your family? 2. 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. Things to consider: What does creativity mean to you? Do you have a creative skill that is important to you? What have you been able to do with that skill? If you used creativity to solve a problem, what was your solution? What are the steps you took to solve the problem?

How does your creativity influence your decisions inside or outside the classroom? Does your creativity relate to your major or a future career? 3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? Things to consider: If there is a talent or skill that you're proud of, this is the time to share it.You don't necessarily have to be recognized or have received awards for your talent (although if you did and you want to talk about it, feel free to do so). Why is this talent or skill meaningful to you?

Does the talent come naturally or have you worked hard to develop this skill or talent? Does your talent or skill allow you opportunities in or outside the classroom? If so, what are they and how do they fit into your schedule? 4. Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced. Things to consider: An educational opportunity can be anything that has added value to your educational experience and better prepared you for college. For example, participation in an honors or academic enrichment program, or enrollment in an academy that's geared toward an occupation or a major, or taking advanced courses that interest you; just to name a few.

If you choose to write about educational barriers you've faced, how did you overcome or strive to overcome them? What personal characteristics or skills did you call on to overcome this challenge? How did overcoming this barrier help shape who you are today? 5. 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? Things to consider: A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles you've faced and what you've learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone?

If you're currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now, and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends or with my family? 6. Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. Things to consider:  Many students have a passion for one specific academic subject area, something that they just can't get enough of. If that applies to you, what have you done to further that interest? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had inside and outside the classroom such as volunteer work, internships, employment, summer programs, participation in student organizations and/or clubs and what you have gained from your involvement.

Has your interest in the subject influenced you in choosing a major and/or future career? Have you been able to pursue coursework at a higher level in this subject (honors, AP, IB, college or university work)? Are you inspired to pursue this subject further at UC, and how might you do that?

7. What have you done to make your school or your community a better place? Things to consider: Think of community as a term that can encompass a group, team or a place like your high school, hometown or home. You can define community as you see fit, just make sure you talk about your role in that community. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community?

Why were you inspired to act? What did you learn from your effort? How did your actions benefit others, the wider community or both? Did you work alone or with others to initiate change in your community? 8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California? Things to consider:  If there's anything you want us to know about you but didn't find a question or place in the application to tell us, now's your chance. What have you not shared with us that will highlight a skill, talent, challenge or opportunity that you think will help us know you better?

From your point of view, what do you feel makes you an excellent choice for UC? Don't be afraid to brag a little.

Writing tips

Start early..

Give yourself plenty of time for preparation, careful composition and revisions.

Write persuasively.

Making a list of accomplishments, activities, awards or work will lessen the impact of your words. Expand on a topic by using specific, concrete examples to support the points you want to make.

Use “I” statements.

Talk about yourself so that we can get to know your personality, talents, accomplishments and potential for success on a UC campus. Use “I” and “my” statements in your responses.

Proofread and edit.

Although you will not be evaluated on grammar, spelling or sentence structure, you should proofread your work and make sure your writing is clear. Grammatical and spelling errors can be distracting to the reader and get in the way of what you’re trying to communicate.

Solicit feedback.

Your answers should reflect your own ideas and be written by you alone, but others — family, teachers and friends can offer valuable suggestions. Ask advice of whomever you like, but do not plagiarize from sources in print or online and do not use anyone's words, published or unpublished, but your own.

Copy and paste.

Once you are satisfied with your answers, save them in plain text (ASCII) and paste them into the space provided in the application. Proofread once more to make sure no odd characters or line breaks have appeared.

This is one of many pieces of information we consider in reviewing your application. Your responses can only add value to the application. An admission decision will not be based on this section alone.

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• November 11, 2021

How To Write The University of California Essays (2021-2022)

Adrianne is a college admissions consultant and TV/film director, producer, writer, and actress currently based in LA. She uses her experience in multiple disciplines to help students achieve their personal and academic goals.

Welcome to the 2021-2022 essay prompts for the University of California system! Here’s everything you need to know to write the best UC essays possible before the November 30th deadline.

These schools are some of the most popular in the country and admitted just over 132,353 prospective freshmen — including out-of-state and international students — last year out of a record-breakingly large applicant pool. Whether you’re a California resident or not, you’ll need to stand out amongst the crowd in your answers to these questions.

You can refer to the University of California admissions website if you want to see how exactly they’re presenting their essay prompts, also known as “Personal Insight Questions,” for this year. The UC school system has its own application, and all nine schools — UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, UC Riverside, UC Merced — accept the same application with the same essay questions.

You’ll need to respond to 4 of the 8 questions listed below, in essays of 250-350 words. This is a pretty big writing assignment, and you have a lot of freedom in which topics you choose, so spend some time brainstorming.

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

Let me say right off the bat that this isn’t a great question. Even if you’ve demonstrated incredible leadership, The University of California has better essay prompts for you, so you’re welcome to read on, or skip ahead to the next question.

OK. This appears to be a good question for student-entrepreneurs—kids who’ve created impactful projects. As always, however, you need to make sure you’re going beyond your activities list—don’t just tell us about a project you’ve listed elsewhere on your application. The UC schools don’t accept the Common App, but they have a place on their application where they ask you to describe your “activities and awards.”

Think very small here, and focus on specific examples of leadership. Remember: essays are stories. This is your chance to tell a good one about a specific time you took the reins. All this being said, if the strongest leadership story you can muster is about helping a fellow student with his or her homework one time, you should probably choose another prompt — unless somehow it’s a really great story.

The hard thing about questions like this, as always, is resisting the temptation to brag, and finding a way to tell your story without sounding like you’re making yourself out to be a hero. Don’t sensationalize or exaggerate your accomplishments. Be matter-of-fact when talking about your achievements. Focus on a specific anecdote. Give us a clear sense of why a specific leadership experience mattered to you.

2. 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.

Remember how I said there were better questions about leadership? Here’s one. Rather than tell the story about a time you were a leader-hero, why not answer this one? Frame your accomplishments in terms of your creativity, rather than in terms of your leadership. If you’ve started a business, non-profit, or club, it’s on your activities list and we know that you are “a leader” (at least on paper). But are you creative ? How did you come up with your idea? How did you make it happen?

This response doesn’t have to be about leadership, of course. It doesn’t need to be about problem-solving, and it doesn’t need to relate to your future major. Try not to write a boring, formulaic essay in response to this prompt, since it’s a little disappointing to read an essay about creativity that isn’t creative.

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

Again, don’t repeat what’s on your activities and awards list. Definitely don’t talk about your awards. They appear elsewhere, and how would you feel if someone you just met started talking about his or her gold medals and trophies? It doesn’t make you look well-adjusted.

It’s tough to talk about your skills without sounding braggy. “How has your talent or skill helped you in or outside the classroom?” Are they serious? I just can’t imagine how answering this question would make anyone look confident and mature.

The only effective response to this prompt would be about mundane or even downright pointless skills. Pomona, when it asks about talents, specifies that you are welcome to discuss “useless skills.” You’re welcome to do so for the UC schools as well. Don’t be flippant; make sure you have something meaningful to say about your mundane or useless skill. For example, I have a friend who can list in chronological order just about every hit rock, soul, and pop album released between 1964 and 1982. This ability has no practical application in his professional life as far as I can tell, but it says a great deal about who he is and how his mind works. And it’s a far more endearing detail than any of the awards and accolades he’s received in life.

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

This is one of those questions where, for some, not answering is the best way to demonstrate self-awareness and maturity.

You’re being asked to talk about educational opportunities and barriers. Before you answer this question, ask yourself: have you received noteworthy educational opportunities and/or faced barriers to pursuing your education? If you got a big-deal scholarship or got into a charter school after taking an IQ test or something, there may be a story there. (Although, “I have a high IQ” isn’t a great story.) If you spent your junior year caring for a sick parent or grandparent or suffered a physical or mental health issue yourself, that’s definitely a barrier to education.

But, on the other hand, if the opportunities you’ve had in terms of education have to do with your parents’ ability to pay for a fancy school, choose a different question. If, for you, “barriers to education” means commuting forty-five minutes to school, or something like that, again, there are plenty of other questions to answer. Self-awareness is at the top of the list of qualities that schools like Berkeley, UCLA, and the other UC schools are looking for in their applicants. Make sure you’re in touch with the opportunities you’ve been given, and the impediments you’ve faced.

5. 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?

See my comments on the previous question. If you’ve faced some real challenges, and if you have enough distance from them to write with perspective (and to feel comfortable writing about them, of course), this may be a question for you. But think long and hard about the challenges you’ve encountered. If they aren’t very serious in the big scheme of things, don’t try to exaggerate them, and to convince your readers you had a hard time.

This is a tempting question to answer if you want to explain a low grade, for example. Let’s say you got a C+ in ninth grade English. Be careful: the question wants to know about “the most significant challenge you faced”: so if you got that C+ because your cat died the day before the final exam, or because your teacher was a jerk, don’t write about it. Everybody has teachers they don’t like and all pets die at some point. (Sorry to be grim.) These are not life’s greatest challenges.

As with “talents” questions, “challenges” questions sometimes put applicants in a tricky situation. Make sure it doesn’t sound like you’re blaming others unfairly or complaining.

If you have an entertaining story about a challenge, which says a lot about who you are, but which isn’t a serious example of hardship, you can absolutely write about it. But use humor and be self-aware. In other words, make it clear that you are cognizant of the fact that your inability to parallel park, apply makeup properly, or beat your little brother in Fortnite doesn’t constitute a “real” challenge.

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

If you’re a nice “pointy” student, here’s your chance to talk about how all your intellectual activities over the past three years have served to further your passion for… fill in the blank (architecture, art history, astrophysics). Presumably, if you’re this kind of kid, you plan on majoring in an academic field related to what you’re writing about, so discuss your choice of major as well, and say what you plan on doing at the UC school(s) you’re applying to.

You can also answer this question by talking about an academic subject you have no intention of majoring in, provided that it’s interesting, and that you can clearly point to your experience with the subject. If you plan on majoring in history, but you had a really good bio teacher freshman year, that probably isn’t enough of a reason to talk about biology.

Maybe you plan on majoring in psychology at The University of California, but what you really want to do later in life is art therapy, and you’ve gained some experience in the subject, and have a real, demonstrable passion for art generally (you were in the art club, or you exhibited your work somewhere, or you did something else that is at least mildly remarkable with art). Talk about art.

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

I know I keep saying this, but beware of sounding braggy. Make sure you’re demonstrating self-awareness.

I keep saying these things because there are a good number of high schoolers out there who are effectuating real, significant societal change, and who are fighting in extremely ambitious ways to make their communities and even their country a better place. Keep kids like them in mind as you evaluate your own accomplishments in your community. I know this is intimidating — but remembering them will help you maintain perspective as you write.

Here’s a bad example of “making one’s community a better place” — the kind of thing you should not write about. When I was in high school, I was elected student body president, and I succeeded in getting our “student room” equipped with an electric kettle (for tea, ramen noodles, what have you). My fellow students were pretty psyched. But let me tell you: describing this kind of accomplishment would be a pretty pathetic response to the question that’s being asked here. In the big scheme of things, ramen noodles rank pretty low.

8. 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?

Great question! Take the following phrase very seriously: “Beyond what has already been shared in your application.” Don’t talk about anything on your activities and awards list.

I know it’s tempting to write about your greatest achievements, but they’re already on your application. This is a great opportunity to talk about something new and different, in order to help your admissions committee get to know the real you a little better.

Think small and personal for this one. This is your chance to talk about that hobby of yours that doesn’t have any direct relation to your academic and professional future, or one of your personal quirks that maybe doesn’t matter much in the big scheme of things, but says a lot about who you are.

The way the question is phrased makes it sound like you need to show off here (“what do you believe makes you stand out”). Don’t give in to the temptation to brag. Or, if you do, brag about a useless personal talent, or make the bold claim that what makes you stand out as an applicant is that you’ve read every Stephen King novel ever written, or that you can do a near-perfect Elvis Costello impression. Think: humor and self-awareness.

As always, our Ivy League college consultants are here to help. Don’t hesitate to reach out .

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to write a perfect uc essay for every prompt.

College Essays

If you're applying to any University of California (UC) campus as an incoming first-year student , then you have a special challenge ahead of you. Applicants need to answer four UC personal insight questions, chosen from a pool of eight unique prompts different from those on the Common App. But not to worry! This article is here to help.

In this article, I'll dissect the eight UC essay prompts in detail. What are they asking you for? What do they want to know about you? What do UC admissions officers really care about? How do you avoid boring or repulsing them with your essay?

I'll break down all of these important questions for each prompt and discuss how to pick the four prompts that are perfect for you. I'll also give you examples of how to make sure your essay fully answers the question. Finally, I'll offer step-by-step instructions on how to come up with the best ideas for your UC personal statements.

What Are the UC Personal Insight Questions?

If you think about it, your college application is mostly made up of numbers: your GPA, your SAT scores, the number of AP classes you took, how many years you spent playing volleyball. But these numbers reveal only so much. The job of admissions officers is to put together a class of interesting, compelling individuals—but a cut-and-dried achievement list makes it very hard to assess whether someone is interesting or compelling. This is where the personal insight questions come in.

The UC application essays are your way to give admissions staff a sense of your personality, your perspective on the world, and some of the experiences that have made you into who you are. The idea is to share the kinds of things that don't end up on your transcript. It's helpful to remember that you are not writing this for you. You're writing for an audience of people who do not know you but are interested to learn about you. The essay is meant to be a revealing look inside your thoughts and feelings.

These short essays—each with a 350-word limit—are different from the essays you write in school, which tend to focus on analyzing someone else's work. Really, the application essays are much closer to a short story. They rely heavily on narratives of events from your life and on your descriptions of people, places, and feelings.

If you'd like more background on college essays, check out our explainer for a very detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application .

Now, let's dive into the eight University of California essay questions. First, I'll compare and contrast these prompts. Then I'll dig deep into each UC personal statement question individually, exploring what it's really trying to find out and how you can give the admissions officers what they're looking for.

Think of each personal insight essay as a brief story that reveals something about your personal values, interests, motivations, and goals.

Comparing the UC Essay Prompts

Before we can pull these prompts apart, let's first compare and contrast them with each other . Clearly, UC wants you to write four different essays, and they're asking you eight different questions. But what are the differences? And are there any similarities?

The 8 UC Essay Prompts

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

#2: 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.

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

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

#5: 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?

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

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

#8: 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 Tell the UC Essay Prompts Apart

• Topics 1 and 7 are about your engagement with the people, things, and ideas around you. Consider the impact of the outside world on you and how you handled that impact.
• Topics 2 and 6 are about your inner self, what defines you, and what makes you the person that you are. Consider your interior makeup—the characteristics of the inner you.
• Topics 3, 4, 5, and 8 are about your achievements. Consider what you've accomplished in life and what you are proud of doing.

These very broad categories will help when you're brainstorming ideas and life experiences to write about for your essay. Of course, it's true that many of the stories you think of can be shaped to fit each of these prompts. Still, think about what the experience most reveals about you .

If it's an experience that shows how you have handled the people and places around you, it'll work better for questions in the first group. If it's a description of how you express yourself, it's a good match for questions in group two. If it's an experience that tells how you acted or what you did, it's probably a better fit for questions in group three.

For more help, check out our article on coming up with great ideas for your essay topic .

Reflect carefully on the eight UC prompts to decide which four questions you'll respond to.

How Is This Guide Organized?

We analyze all eight UC prompts in this guide, and for each one, we give the following information:

• The prompt itself and any accompanying instructions
• What each part of the prompt is asking for
• Why UC is using this prompt and what they hope to learn from you
• All the key points you should cover in your response so you answer the complete prompt and give UC insight into who you are

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 1

The prompt and its instructions.

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

Things to consider: A leadership role can mean more than just a title. It can mean being a mentor to others, acting as the person in charge of a specific task, or taking a lead role in organizing an event or project. Think about your accomplishments and what you learned from the experience. What were your responsibilities?

Did you lead a team? How did your experience change your perspective on leading others? Did you help to resolve an important dispute at your school, church in your community or an organization? And your leadership role doesn't necessarily have to be limited to school activities. For example, do you help out or take care of your family?

What's the Question Asking?

The prompt wants you to describe how you handled a specific kind of relationship with a group of people—a time when you took the reigns and the initiative. Your answer to this prompt will consist of two parts.

Part 1: Explain the Dilemma

Before you can tell your story of leading, brokering peace, or having a lasting impact on other people, you have to give your reader a frame of reference and a context for your actions .

First, describe the group of people you interacted with. Who were and what was their relationship to you? How long were you in each others' lives?

Second, explain the issue you eventually solved. What was going on before you stepped in? What was the immediate problem? Were there potential long-term repercussions?

Leadership isn't limited to officer roles in student organizations. Think about experiences in which you've taken charge, resolved conflicts, or taken care of loved ones.

Part 2: Describe Your Solution

This is where your essay will have to explicitly talk about your own actions .

Discuss what thought process led you to your course of action. Was it a last-ditch effort or a long-planned strategy? Did you think about what might happen if you didn't step in? Did you have to choose between several courses of action?

Explain how you took the bull by the horns. Did you step into the lead role willingly, or were you pushed despite some doubts? Did you replace or supersede a more obvious leader?

Describe your solution to the problem or your contribution to resolving the ongoing issue. What did you do? How did you do it? Did your plan succeed immediately or did it take some time?

Consider how this experience has shaped the person you have now become. Do you think back on this time fondly as being the origin of some personal quality or skill? Did it make you more likely to lead in other situations?

What's UC Hoping to Learn about You?

College will be an environment unlike any of the ones you've found yourself in up to now. Sure, you will have a framework for your curriculum, and you will have advisers available to help. But for the most part, you will be on your own to deal with the situations that will inevitably arise when you mix with your diverse peers . UC wants to make sure that

• you have the maturity to deal with groups of people,
• you can solve problems with your own ingenuity and resourcefulness, and
• you don't lose your head and panic at problems.

Demonstrating your problem-solving abilities in your UC college essay will make you a stronger candidate for admission.

How Can You Give Them What They Want?

So how can you make sure those qualities come through in your essay?

Pick Your Group

The prompt very specifically wants you to talk about an interaction with a group of people. Let's say a group has to be at least three people.

Raise the Stakes

Think of the way movies ratchet up the tension of the impending catastrophe before the hero swoops in and saves the day. Keeping an audience on tenterhooks is important—and distinguishes the hero for the job well done. Similarly, when reading your essay, the admissions staff has to fundamentally understand exactly what you and the group you ended up leading were facing. Why was this an important problem to solve?

Balance You versus Them

Personal statements need to showcase you above all things . Because this essay will necessarily have to spend some time on other people, you need to find a good proportion of them-time and me-time. In general, the first (setup) section of the essay should be shorter because it will not be focused on what you were doing. The second section should take the rest of the space. So, in a 350-word essay, maybe 100–125 words go to setup whereas 225–250 words should be devoted to your leadership and solution.

Find Your Arc

Not only do you need to show how your leadership helped you meet the challenge you faced, but you also have to show how the experience changed you . In other words, the outcome was double-sided: you affected the world, and the world affected you right back.

Give your response to question 1 a compelling arc that demonstrates your personal growth.

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 2

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.

Things to consider: What does creativity mean to you? Do you have a creative skill that is important to you? What have you been able to do with that skill? If you used creativity to solve a problem, what was your solution? What are the steps you took to solve the problem?

How does your creativity influence your decisions inside or outside the classroom? Does your creativity relate to your major or a future career?

This question is trying to probe the way you express yourself. Its broad description of "creativity" gives you the opportunity to make almost anything you create that didn't exist before fit the topic. What this essay question is really asking you to do is to examine the role your brand of creativity plays in your sense of yourself . The essay will have three parts.

Part 1: Define Your Creativity

What exactly do you produce, make, craft, create, or generate? Of course, the most obvious answer would be visual art, performance art, or music. But in reality, there is creativity in all fields. Any time you come up with an idea, thought, concept, or theory that didn't exist before, you are being creative. So your job is to explain what you spend time creating.

Part 2: Connect Your Creative Drive to Your Overall Self

Why do you do what you do? Are you doing it for external reasons—to perform for others, to demonstrate your skill, to fulfill some need in the world? Or is your creativity private and for your own use—to unwind, to distract yourself from other parts of your life, to have personal satisfaction in learning a skill? Are you good at your creative endeavor, or do you struggle with it? If you struggle, why is it important to you to keep pursuing it?

Part 3: Connect Your Creative Drive With Your Future

The most basic way to do this is by envisioning yourself actually pursuing your creative endeavor professionally. But this doesn't have to be the only way you draw this link. What have you learned from what you've made? How has it changed how you interact with other objects or with people? Does it change your appreciation for the work of others or motivate you to improve upon it?

Connecting your current creative pursuits with your chosen major or career will help UC admissions staff understand your motivations and intentions.

Nothing characterizes higher education like the need for creative thinking, unorthodox ideas in response to old topics, and the ability to synthesize something new . That is what you are going to college to learn how to do better. UC's second personal insight essay wants to know whether this mindset of out-of-the-box-ness is something you are already comfortable with. They want to see that

• you have actually created something in your life or academic career,
• you consider this an important quality within yourself,
• you have cultivated your skills, and
• you can see and have considered the impact of your creativity on yourself or on the world around you.

College admissions counselors, professors, and employers all value the skill of thinking outside the box, so being able to demonstrate that skill is crucial.

How can you really show that you are committed to being a creative person?

Be Specific and Descriptive

It's not enough to vaguely gesture at your creative field. Instead, give a detailed and lively description of a specific thing or idea that you have created . For example, I could describe a Turner painting as "a seascape," or I could call it "an attempt to capture the breathtaking power and violence of an ocean storm as it overwhelms a ship." Which painting would you rather look at?

Give a Sense of History

The question wants a little narrative of your relationship to your creative outlet . How long have you been doing it? Did someone teach you or mentor you? Have you taught it to others? Where and when do you create?

Hit a Snag; Find the Success

Anything worth doing is worth doing despite setbacks, this question argues—and it wants you to narrate one such setback. So first, figure out something that interfered with your creative expression .  Was it a lack of skill, time, or resources? Too much or not enough ambition in a project? Then, make sure this story has a happy ending that shows you off as the solver of your own problems: What did you do to fix the situation? How did you do it?

Show Insight

Your essay should include some thoughtful consideration of how this creative pursuit has shaped you , your thoughts, your opinions, your relationships with others, your understanding of creativity in general, or your dreams about your future. (Notice I said "or," not "and"—350 words is not enough to cover all of those things!)

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 3

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

Things to consider: If there's a talent or skill that you're proud of, this is the time to share it. You don't necessarily have to be recognized or have received awards for your talent (although if you did and you want to talk about, feel free to do so). Why is this talent or skill meaningful to you?

Does the talent come naturally or have you worked hard to develop this skill or talent? Does your talent or skill allow you opportunities in or outside the classroom? If so, what are they and how do they fit into your schedule?

Basically, what's being asked for here is a beaming rave. Whatever you write about, picture yourself talking about it with a glowing smile on your face.

Part 1: Narrative

The first part of the question really comes down to this: Tell us a story about what's amazing about you. Have you done an outstanding thing? Do you have a mind-blowing ability? Describe a place, a time, or a situation in which you were a star.

A close reading of this first case of the prompt reveals that you don't need to stress if you don't have an obvious answer. Sure, if you're playing first chair violin in the symphony orchestra, that qualifies as both a "talent" and an "accomplishment." But the word "quality" really gives you the option of writing about any one of your most meaningful traits. And the words "contribution" and "experience" open up the range of possibilities that you could write about even further. A contribution could be anything from physically helping put something together to providing moral or emotional support at a critical moment.

But the key to the first part is the phrase "important to you." Once again, what you write about is not as important as how you write about it. Being able to demonstrate the importance of the event that you're describing reveals much more about you than the specific talent or characteristic ever could.

Part 2: Insight and Personal Development

The second part of the last essay asked you to look to the future. The second part of this essay wants you to look at the present instead. The general task is similar, however. Once again, you're being asked to make connections:  How do you fit this quality you have or this achievement you accomplished into the story of who you are?

A close reading of the second part of this prompt lands on the word "proud." This is a big clue that the revelation this essay is looking for should be a very positive one. In other words, this is probably not the time to write about getting arrested for vandalism. Instead, focus on a skill that you've carefully honed, and clarify how that practice and any achievements connected with your talent have earned you concrete opportunities or, more abstractly, personal growth.

Remember to connect the talent or skill you choose to write about with your sense of personal identity and development.

What's UC Hoping to Learn About You?

Admissions officers have a very straightforward interest in learning about your accomplishments. By the end of high school, many of the experiences that you are most proud of don't tend to be the kind of things that end up on your résumé .

They want to know what makes you proud of yourself. Is it something that relates to performance, to overcoming a difficult obstacle, to keeping a cool head in a crisis, to your ability to help others in need?

At the same time, they are looking for a sense of maturity. In order to be proud of an accomplishment, it's important to be able to understand your own values and ideals. This is your chance to show that you truly understand the qualities and experiences that make you a responsible and grown-up person, someone who will thrive in the independence of college life. In other words, although you might really be proud that you managed to tag 10 highway overpasses with graffiti, that's probably not the achievement to brag about here.

Unless you were hired by the city to paint the overpasses, in which case definitely brag about it.

The trick with this prompt is how to show a lot about yourself without listing accomplishments or devolving into cliche platitudes. Let's take it step by step.

Step #1: Explain Your Field

Make sure that somewhere in your narrative (preferably closer to the beginning), you let the reader know what makes your achievement an achievement . Not all interests are mainstream, so it helps your reader to understand what you're facing if you give a quick sketch of, for example, why it's challenging to build a battle bot that can defeat another fighting robot or how the difficulties of extemporaneous debate compare with debating about a prepared topic.

Keep in mind that for some things, the explanation might be obvious. For example, do you really need to explain why finishing a marathon is a hard task?

Step #2: Zoom in on a Specific Experience

Think about your talent, quality, or accomplishment in terms of experiences that showcase it. Conversely, think about your experiences in terms of the talent, quality, or accomplishment they demonstrate. Because you're once again going to be limited to 350 words, you won't be able to fit all the ways in which you exhibit your exemplary skill into this essay. This means that you'll need to figure out how to best demonstrate your ability through one event in which you displayed it . Or if you're writing about an experience you had or a contribution you made, you'll need to also point out what personality trait or characteristic it reveals.

Step #3: Find a Conflict or a Transition

The first question asked for a description, but this one wants a story—a narrative of how you pursue your special talent or how you accomplished the skill you were so great at. The main thing about stories is that they have to have the following:

• A beginning: This is the setup, when you weren't yet the star you are now.
• An obstacle or a transition: Sometimes, a story has a conflict that needs to be resolved: something that stood in your way, a challenge that you had to figure out a way around, a block that you powered through. Other times, a story is about a change or a transformation: you used to believe, think, or be one thing, and now you are different or better.
• A resolution: When your full power, self-knowledge, ability, or future goal is revealed.

If, for example, you taught yourself to become a gifted coder, how did you first learn this skill? What challenges did you overcome in your learning? What does this ability say about your character, motivations, or goals?

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 4

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

Things to consider: An educational opportunity can be anything that has added value to your educational experience and better prepared you for college. For example, participation in an honors or academic enrichment program, or enrollment in an academy that's geared toward an occupation or a major, or taking advanced courses that interest you—just to name a few.

If you choose to write about educational barriers you've faced, how did you overcome or strive to overcome them? What personal characteristics or skills did you call on to overcome this challenge? How did overcoming this barrier help shape who are you today?

Cue the swelling music because this essay is going to be all about your inspirational journey. You will either tell your story of overcoming adversity against all (or some) odds or of pursuing the chance of a lifetime.

If you write about triumphing over adversity, your essay will include the following:

A description of the setback that befell you: The prompt wants to know what you consider a challenge in your school life. And definitely note that this challenge should have in some significant way impacted your academics rather than your life overall.

The challenge can be a wide-reaching problem in your educational environment or something that happened specifically to you. The word "barrier" also shows that the challenge should be something that stood in your way: If only that thing weren't there, then you'd be sure to succeed.

An explanation of your success: Here, you'll talk about what you did when faced with this challenge. Notice that the prompt asks you to describe the "work" you put in to overcome the problem. So this piece of the essay should focus on your actions, thoughts, ideas, and strategies.

Although the essay doesn't specify it, this section should also at some point turn reflexive. How are you defined by this thing that happened? You could discuss the emotional fallout of having dramatically succeeded or how your maturity level, concrete skills, or understanding of the situation has increased now that you have dealt with it personally. Or you could talk about any beliefs or personal philosophy that you have had to reevaluate as a result of either the challenge itself or of the way that you had to go about solving it.

If you write about an educational opportunity, your essay will include the following:

A short, clear description of exactly what you got the chance to do: In your own words, explain what the opportunity was and why it's special.

Also, explain why you specifically got the chance to do it. Was it the culmination of years of study? An academic contest prize? An unexpected encounter that led to you seizing an unlooked-for opportunity?

How you made the best of it: It's one thing to get the opportunity to do something amazing, but it's another to really maximize what you get out of this chance for greatness. This is where you show just how much you understand the value of what you did and how you've changed and grown as a result of it.

Were you very challenged by this opportunity? Did your skills develop? Did you unearth talents you didn't know you had?

How does this impact your future academic ambitions or interests? Will you study this area further? Does this help you find your academic focus?

If writing about an educational obstacle you overcame, make sure to describe not just the challenge itself but also how you overcame it and how breaking down that barrier changed you for the better.

Of course, whatever you write about in this essay is probably already reflected on your résumé or in your transcript in some small way. But UC wants to go deeper, to find out how seriously you take your academic career, and to assess  how thoughtfully you've approached either its ups or its downs.

In college, there will be many amazing opportunities, but they aren't simply there for the taking. Instead, you will be responsible for seizing whatever chances will further your studies, interests, or skills.

Conversely, college will necessarily be more challenging, harder, and potentially much more full of academic obstacles than your academic experiences so far. UC wants to see that you are up to handling whatever setbacks may come your way with aplomb rather than panic.

Define the Problem or Opportunity

Not every challenge is automatically obvious. Sure, everyone can understand the drawbacks of having to miss a significant amount of school because of illness, but what if the obstacle you tackled is something a little more obscure? Likewise, winning the chance to travel to Italy to paint landscapes with a master is clearly rare and amazing, but some opportunities are more specialized and less obviously impressive. Make sure your essay explains everything the reader will need to know to understand what you were facing.

Watch Your Tone

An essay describing problems can easily slip into finger-pointing and self-pity. Make sure to avoid this by speaking positively or at least neutrally about what was wrong and what you faced . This goes double if you decide to explain who or what was at fault for creating this problem.

Likewise, an essay describing amazing opportunities can quickly become an exercise in unpleasant bragging and self-centeredness. Make sure you stay grounded: Rather than dwelling at length on your accomplishments, describe the specifics of what you learned and how.

Elaborating on how you conducted microbiology research during the summer before your senior year would make an appropriate topic for question 4.

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 5

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?

Things to consider: A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles you've faced and what you've learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone?

If you're currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now, and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, "How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends, or with my family?"

It's time to draw back the curtains and expand our field of vision because this is going to be a two-part story of overcoming adversity against all (or some) odds.

Part 1: Facing a Challenge

The first part of this essay is about problem-solving. The prompt asks you to relate something that could have derailed you if not for your strength and skill. Not only will you describe the challenge itself, but you'll also talk about what you did when faced with it.

Part 2: Looking in the Mirror

The second part of question 5 asks you to consider how this challenge has echoed through your life—and, more specifically, how what happened to you affected your education.

In life, dealing with setbacks, defeats, barriers, and conflicts is not a bug—it's a feature. And colleges want to make sure that you can handle these upsetting events without losing your overall sense of self, without being totally demoralized, and without getting completely overwhelmed. In other words, they are looking for someone who is mature enough to do well on a college campus, where disappointing results and hard challenges will be par for the course.

They are also looking for your creativity and problem-solving skills. Are you good at tackling something that needs to be fixed? Can you keep a cool head in a crisis? Do you look for solutions outside the box? These are all markers of a successful student, so it's not surprising that admissions staff want you to demonstrate these qualities.

The challenge you write about for question 5 need not be an educational barrier, which is better suited for question 4. Think broadly about the obstacles you've overcome and how they've shaped your perspective and self-confidence.

Let's explore the best ways to show off your problem-solving side.

Show Your Work

It's one thing to be able to say what's wrong, but it's another thing entirely to demonstrate how you figured out how to fix it. Even more than knowing that you were able to fix the problem, colleges want to see how you approached the situation . This is why your essay needs to explain your problem-solving methodology. Basically, they need to see you in action. What did you think would work? What did you think would not work? Did you compare this to other problems you have faced and pass? Did you do research? Describe your process.

Make Sure That You Are the Hero

This essay is supposed to demonstrate your resourcefulness and creativity . And make sure that you had to be the person responsible for overcoming the obstacle, not someone else. Your story must clarify that without you and your special brand of XYZ , people would still be lamenting the issue today. Don't worry if the resource you used to bring about a solution was the knowledge and know-how that somebody else brought to the table. Just focus on explaining what made you think of this person as the one to go to, how you convinced them to participate, and how you explained to them how they would be helpful. This will shift the attention of the story back to you and your efforts.

Find the Suspenseful Moment

The most exciting part of this essay should be watching you struggle to find a solution just in the nick of time. Think every movie cliché ever about someone defusing a bomb: Even if you know 100% that the hero is going to save the day, the movie still ratchets up the tension to make it seem like, Well, maybe... You want to do the same thing here. Bring excitement and a feeling of uncertainty to your description of your process to really pull the reader in and make them root for you to succeed.

You're the superhero!

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 6

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

Things to consider: Many students have a passion for one specific academic subject area, something that they just can't get enough of. If that applies to you, what have you done to further that interest? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had inside and outside the classroom — such as volunteer work, internships, employment, summer programs, participation in student organizations and/or clubs — and what you have gained from your involvement.

Has your interest in the subject influenced you in choosing a major and/or career? Have you been able to pursue coursework at a higher level in this subject (honors, AP, IB, college or university work)? Are you inspired to pursue this subject further at UC, and how might you do that?

This question is really asking for a glimpse of your imagined possibilities .

For some students, this will be an extremely straightforward question. For example, say you've always loved science to the point that you've spent every summer taking biology and chemistry classes. Pick a few of the most gripping moments from these experiences and discuss the overall trajectory of your interests, and your essay will be a winner.

But what if you have many academic interests? Or what if you discovered your academic passion only at the very end of high school? Let's break down what the question is really asking into two parts.

Part 1: Picking a Favorite

At first glance, it sounds as if what you should write about is the class in which you have gotten the best grades or the subject that easily fits into what you see as your future college major or maybe even your eventual career goal. There is nothing wrong with this kind of pick—especially if you really are someone who tends to excel in those classes that are right up your interest alley.

But if we look closer, we see that there is nothing in the prompt that specifically demands that you write either about a particular class or an area of study in which you perform well.

Instead, you could take the phrase "academic subject" to mean a wide field of study and explore your fascination with the different types of learning to be found there. For example, if your chosen topic is the field of literature, you could discuss your experiences with different genres or with foreign writers.

You could also write about a course or area of study that has significantly challenged you and in which you have not been as stellar a student as you want. This could be a way to focus on your personal growth as a result of struggling through a difficult class or to represent how you've learned to handle or overcome your limitations.

Part 2: Relevance

The second part of this prompt , like the first, can also be taken in a literal and direct way . There is absolutely nothing wrong with explaining that because you love engineering and want to be an engineer, you have pursued all your school's STEM courses, are also involved in a robotics club, and have taught yourself to code in order to develop apps.

However, you could focus on the more abstract, values-driven goals we just talked about instead. Then, your explanation of how your academics will help you can be rooted not in the content of what you studied but in the life lessons you drew from it.

In other words, for example, your theater class may not have stimulated your ambition to be an actor, but working on plays with your peers may have shown you how highly you value collaboration, or perhaps the experience of designing sets was an exercise in problem-solving and ingenuity. These lessons would be useful in any field you pursue and could easily be said to help you achieve your lifetime goals.

If you are on a direct path to a specific field of study or career pursuit, admissions officers definitely want to know that. Having driven, goal-oriented, and passionate students is a huge plus for a university. So if this is you, be sure that your essay conveys not just your interest but also your deep and abiding love of the subject. Maybe even include any related clubs, activities, and hobbies that you've done during high school.

Of course, college is the place to find yourself and the things that you become passionate about. So if you're not already committed to a specific course of study, don't worry. Instead, you have to realize that in this essay, like in all the other essays, the how matters much more than the what. No matter where your eventual academic, career, or other pursuits may lie, every class that you have taken up to now has taught you something. You learned about things like work ethic, mastering a skill, practice, learning from a teacher, interacting with peers, dealing with setbacks, understanding your own learning style, and perseverance.

In other words, the admissions office wants to make sure that no matter what you study, you will draw meaningful conclusions from your experiences, whether those conclusions are about the content of what you learn or about a deeper understanding of yourself and others. They want to see that you're not simply floating through life on the surface  but that you are absorbing the qualities, skills, and know-how you will need to succeed in the world—no matter what that success looks like.

Focus on a telling detail. Because personal statements are short, you simply won't have time to explain everything you have loved about a particular subject in enough detail to make it count. Instead, pick one event that crystallized your passion for a subject   or one telling moment that revealed what your working style will be , and go deep into a discussion of what it meant to you in the past and how it will affect your future.

Don't overreach. It's fine to say that you have loved your German classes so much that you have begun exploring both modern and classic German-language writers, for example, but it's a little too self-aggrandizing to claim that your four years of German have made you basically bilingual and ready to teach the language to others. Make sure that whatever class achievements you describe don't come off as unnecessary bragging rather than simple pride .

Similarly, don't underreach. Make sure that you have actual accomplishments to describe in whatever subject you pick to write about. If your favorite class turned out to be the one you mostly skipped to hang out in the gym instead, this may not be the place to share that lifetime goal. After all, you always have to remember your audience. In this case, it's college admissions officers who want to find students who are eager to learn and be exposed to new thoughts and ideas.

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 7

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

Things to consider: Think of community as a term that can encompass a group, team or a place— like your high school, hometown or home. You can define community as you see fit, just make sure you talk about your role in that community. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community?

Why were you inspired to act? What did you learn from your effort? How did your actions benefit others, the wider community or both? Did you work alone or with others to initiate change in your community?

This topic is trying to get at how you engage with your environment. It's looking for several things:

#1: Your Sense of Place and Connection

Because the term "community" is so broad and ambiguous, this is a good essay for explaining where you feel a sense of belonging and rootedness. What or who constitutes your community? Is your connection to a place, to a group of people, or to an organization? What makes you identify as part of this community—cultural background, a sense of shared purpose, or some other quality?

#2: Your Empathy and Ability to Look at the Big Picture

Before you can solve a problem, you have to realize that the problem exists. Before you can make your community a better place, you have to find the things that can be ameliorated. No matter what your contribution ended up being, you first have to show how you saw where your skills, talent, intelligence, or hard work could do the most good. Did you put yourself in the shoes of the other people in your community? Understand some fundamental inner working of a system you could fix? Knowingly put yourself in the right place at the right time?

#3: Your Problem-Solving Skills

How did you make the difference in your community? If you resolved a tangible issue, how did you come up with your solution? Did you examine several options or act from the gut? If you made your community better in a less direct way, how did you know where to apply yourself and how to have the most impact possible?

Clarify not just what the problem and solution was but also your process of getting involved and contributing specific skills, ideas, or efforts that made a positive difference.

Community is a very important thing to colleges. You'll be involved with and encounter lots of different communities in college, including the broader student body, your extracurriculars, your classes, and the community outside the university. UC wants to make sure that you can engage with the communities around you in a positive, meaningful way .

Make it personal. Before you can explain what you did in your community, you have to define and describe this community itself—and you can only do that by focusing on what it means to you. Don't speak in generalities; instead, show the bonds between you and the group you are a part of through colorful, idiosyncratic language. Sure, they might be "my water polo team," but maybe they are more specifically "the 12 people who have seen me at my most exhausted and my most exhilarated."

Feel all the feelings. This is a chance to move your readers. As you delve deep into what makes your community one of your emotional centers, and then as you describe how you were able to improve it in a meaningful and lasting way, you should keep the roller coaster of feelings front and center. Own how you felt at each step of the process: when you found your community, when you saw that you could make a difference, and when you realized that your actions resulted in a change for the better. Did you feel unprepared for the task you undertook? Nervous to potentially let down those around you? Thrilled to get a chance to display a hidden or underused talent?

To flesh out your essay, depict the emotions you felt while making your community contribution, from frustration or disappointment to joy and fulfillment. 

Dissecting Personal Insight Question 8

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?

Things to consider: If there's anything you want us to know about you, but didn't find a question or place in the application to tell us, now's your chance. What have you not shared with us that will highlight a skill, talent, challenge or opportunity that you think will help us know you better?

From your point of view, what do you feel makes you an excellent choice for UC? Don't be afraid to brag a little.

If your particular experience doesn't quite fit under the rubrics of the other essay topics , or if there is something the admissions officers need to understand about your background in order to consider your application in the right context, then this is the essay for you.

Now, I'm going to say something a little counterintuitive here. The prompt for this essay clarifies that even if you don't have a "unique" story to tell, you should still feel free to pick this topic. But, honestly, I think you should  choose this topic only if you have an exceptional experience to share . Remember that E veryday challenges or successes of regular life could easily fit one of the other insight questions instead.

What this means is that evaluating whether your experiences qualify for this essay is a matter of degrees. For example, did you manage to thrive academically despite being raised by a hard-working single parent? That's a hardship that could easily be written about for Questions 1 or 5, depending on how you choose to frame what happened. Did you manage to earn a 3.7 GPA despite living in a succession of foster families only to age out of the system in the middle of your senior year of high school? That's a narrative of overcoming hardship that easily belongs to Question 8.

On the flip side, did you win a state-wide robotics competition? Well done, and feel free to tell your story under Question 4. Were you the youngest person to single-handedly win a season of BattleBots? Then feel free to write about it for Question 8.

This is pretty straightforward. They are trying to identify students that have unique and amazing stories to tell about who they are and where they come from. If you're a student like this, then the admissions people want to know the following:

• What happened to you?
• When and where did it happen?
• How did you participate, or how were you involved in the situation?
• How did it affect you as a person?
• How did it affect your schoolwork?
• How will the experience be reflected in the point of view you bring to campus?

The university wants this information because of the following:

• It gives context to applications that otherwise might seem mediocre or even subpar.
• It can help explain places in a transcript where grades significantly drop.
• It gives them the opportunity to build a lot of diversity into the incoming class.
• It's a way of finding unique talents and abilities that otherwise wouldn't show up on other application materials.

Let's run through a few tricks for making sure your essay makes the most of your particular distinctiveness.

Double-Check Your Uniqueness

Many experiences in our lives that make us feel elated, accomplished, and extremely competent are also near universal. This essay isn't trying to take the validity of your strong feelings away from you, but it would be best served by stories that are on a different scale . Wondering whether what you went through counts? This might be a good time to run your idea by a parent, school counselor, or trusted teacher. Do they think your experience is widespread? Or do they agree that you truly lived a life less ordinary?

Connect Outward

The vast majority of your answer to the prompt should be telling your story and its impact on you and your life. But the essay should also point toward how your particular experiences set you apart from your peers. One of the reasons that the admissions office wants to find out which of the applicants has been through something unlike most other people is that they are hoping to increase the number of points of view in the student body. Think about—and include in your essay—how you will impact campus life. This can be very literal: If you are a jazz singer who has released several songs on social media, then maybe you will perform on campus. Or it can be much more oblique: If you have a disability, then you will be able to offer a perspective that differs from the able-bodied majority.

Be Direct, Specific, and Honest

Nothing will make your voice sound more appealing than writing without embellishment or verbal flourishes. This is the one case in which  how you're telling the story is just as—if not more—important than what you're telling . So the best strategy is to be as straightforward in your writing as possible. This means using description to situate your reader in a place, time, or experience that they would never get to see firsthand. You can do this by picking a specific moment during your accomplishment to narrate as a small short story and not shying away from explaining your emotions throughout the experience. Your goal is to make the extraordinary into something at least somewhat relatable, and the way you do that is by bringing your writing down to earth.

Your essays should feature relatable thoughts and emotions as well as insights into how you will contribute to the campus community.

Writing Advice for Making Your UC Personal Statements Shine

No matter what personal insight questions you end up choosing to write about, here are two tips for making your writing sparkle:

#1: Be Detailed and Descriptive

Have you ever heard the expression "show; don't tell"? It's usually given as creative writing advice, and it will be your best friend when you're writing college essays. It means that any time you want to describe a person or thing as having a particular quality, it's better to illustrate with an example than to just use vague adjectives . If you stick to giving examples that paint a picture, your focus will also become narrower and more specific. You'll end up concentrating on details and concrete events rather than not-particularly-telling generalizations.

Let's say, for instance, Adnan is writing about the house that he's been helping his dad fix up. Which of these do you think gives the reader a better sense of place?

My family bought an old house that was kind of run-down. My dad likes fixing it up on the weekends, and I like helping him. Now the house is much nicer than when we bought it, and I can see all our hard work when I look at it.

My dad grinned when he saw my shocked face. Our "new" house looked like a completely run-down shed: peeling paint, rust-covered railings, shutters that looked like the crooked teeth of a jack-o-lantern. I was still staring at the spider-web crack in one broken window when my dad handed me a pair of brand-new work gloves and a paint scraper. "Today, let's just do what we can with the front wall," he said. And then I smiled too, knowing that many of my weekends would be spent here with him, working side by side.

Both versions of this story focus on the house being dilapidated and how Adnan enjoyed helping his dad do repairs. But the second does this by:

painting a picture of what the house actually looked like by adding visual details ("peeling paint," "rust-covered railings," and "broken window") and through comparisons ("shutters like a jack-o-lantern" and "spider-web crack");

showing emotions by describing facial expressions ("my dad grinned," "my shocked face," and "I smiled"); and

using specific and descriptive action verbs ("grinned," "shocked," "staring," and "handed").

The essay would probably go on to describe one day of working with his dad or a time when a repair went horribly awry. Adnan would make sure to keep adding sensory details (what things looked, sounded, smelled, tasted, and felt like), using active verbs, and illustrating feelings with dialogue and facial expressions.

If you're having trouble checking whether your description is detailed enough, read your work to someone else . Then, ask that person to describe the scene back to you. Are they able to conjure up a picture from your words? If not, you need to beef up your details.

It's a bit of a fixer-upper, but it'll make a great college essay!

#2: Show Your Feelings

All good personal essays deal with emotions. And what marks great personal essays is the author's willingness to really dig into negative feelings as well as positive ones . As you write your UC application essays, keep asking yourself questions and probing your memory. How did you feel before it happened? How did you expect to feel after, and how did you actually feel after? How did the world that you are describing feel about what happened? How do you know how your world felt?

Then write about your feelings using mostly emotion words ("I was thrilled/disappointed/proud/scared"), some comparisons ("I felt like I'd never run again/like I'd just bitten into a sour apple/like the world's greatest explorer"), and a few bits of direct speech ("'How are we going to get away with this?' my brother asked").

What's Next?

This should give you a great starting point to address the UC essay prompts and consider how you'll write your own effective UC personal statements. The hard part starts here: work hard, brainstorm broadly, and use all my suggestions above to craft a great UC application essay.

Making your way through college applications? We have advice on how to find the right college for you , how to write about your extracurricular activities , and how to ask teachers for recommendations .

Interested in taking the SAT one more time? Check out our highly detailed explainer on studying for the SAT to learn how to prepare best.

Worried about how to pay for college after you get in? Read our description of how much college really costs , our comparison of subsidized and unsubsidized loans , and our lists of the top scholarships for high school seniors and juniors .

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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UC Essay Examples for the Personal Insight Questions

Sample essays with explanations of their strengths and weaknesses

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Every applicant to one of the University of California campuses must write four short essays in response to the UC application's Personal Insight questions. The UC essay examples below reveal how two different students approached the prompts. Both essays are accompanied by an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses.

Features of a Winning UC Personal Insight Essay

The strongest UC essays present information that isn't available elsewhere in the application, and they paint the portrait of someone who will play a positive role in the campus community. Let your kindness, humor, talent, and creativity shine, but also make sure each of your four essays is substantive.

As you figure out your strategy for responding to the UC Personal Insight questions , keep in mind that it's not just the individual essays that matter, but also the full portrait of yourself that you create through the combination of all four essays. Ideally, each essay should present a different dimension of your personality, interests, and talents so that the admissions folks get to know you as a three-dimensional individual who has a lot to contribute to the campus community.

UC Sample Essay, Question #2

For one of her Personal Insight essays, Angie responded to question #2: 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.

Here is her essay:

I’m not great at drawing. Even after taking the required art classes in elementary and middle school, I don’t really see myself becoming a famous artist anytime soon. I’m most comfortable creating stick figures and notebook doodles. However, my lack of innate talent hasn’t kept me from using drawing communicate or entertain through cartoons.

Now, like I said, the artwork itself isn’t going to win any awards, but that’s only part of my creative process. I draw cartoons to make my friends laugh, to make my siblings feel better if they’re having a bad day, to poke fun at myself. I don’t make cartoons to show off my artistic ability; I make them because I think they’re fun to create, and (so far) other people enjoy them.

When I was about seven or eight, my sister got dumped by her boyfriend unexpectedly. She was feeling really down about it, and I was trying to think of something I could do that would cheer her up. So I drew a (pretty bad) likeness of her ex, made better by some rather unflattering details. It made my sister laugh, and I like to think I helped her through her break-up, even if only a little bit. Since then, I’ve drawn caricatures of my teachers, friends, and celebrities, ventured a little into political cartooning, and started a series about my interactions with my idiotic cat, Gingerale.

Cartooning is a way for me to be creative and express myself. Not only am I being artistic (and I use that term loosely), but I’m using my imagination to create scenarios and figure out how how to represent people and things. I’ve learned what people find funny, and what is not funny. I’ve come to realize that my drawing skills are not the important part of my cartooning. What is important is that I’m expressing myself, making others happy, and doing something small and silly, but also worthwhile.

Discussion of UC Sample Essay by Angie

Angie's essay comes in at 322 words, a little below the 350-word limit. 350 words is already a small space in which to tell a meaningful story, so don't be afraid to submit an essay that's close to the word limit (as long as your essay isn't wordy, repetitive, or lacking substance).

The essay does a good job showing the reader a dimension of Angie that probably isn't apparent anywhere else in her application. Her love of creating cartoons wouldn't appear in her academic record or list of extracurricular activities . Thus, it's a good choice for one of her Personal Insight essays (after all, it's providing new insight into her person). We learn that Angie isn't just a good student who is involved in some school activities. She also has a hobby she is passionate about. Crucially, Angie explains why cartooning is important to her.

The tone of Angie's essay is also a plus. She has not written a typical "look how great I am" essay. Instead, Angie clearly tells us that her artistic skills are rather weak. Her honesty is refreshing, and at the same time, the essay does convey much to admire about Angie: she is funny, self-deprecating, and caring. This latter point, in fact, is the true strength of the essay. By explaining that she enjoys this hobby because of the happiness it brings other people, Angie comes across as someone who is genuine, considerate, and kind.

Overall, the essay is quite strong. It is clearly written, uses an engaging style , and is free of any major grammatical errors . It presents a dimension of Angie's character that should appeal to the admissions staff who read her essay. If there is one weakness, it would be that the third paragraph focuses on Angie's early childhood. Colleges are much more interested in what you have done in recent years than your activities as a child. That said, the childhood information connects to Angie's current interests in clear, relevant ways, so it does not detract too much from the overall essay.

UC Sample Essay, Question #6

For one of his University of California Personal Insight essays, Terrance responded to option #6: Describe your favorite academic subject and explain how it has influenced you .

Here is his essay:

One of my strongest memories in elementary school is rehearsing for the annual “Learning on the Move” show. The fourth graders put on this show every year, each one focusing on something different. Our show was about food and making healthy choices. We could pick which group to be in: dancing, stage design, writing, or music. I chose music, not because I was interested in it the most, but because my best friend had picked it.

I remember the music director showing us a long row of various percussion instruments, and asking us what we thought different foods would sound like. This was not my first experience in playing an instrument, but I was a novice when it came to creating music, deciding what the music meant, and what its intent and meaning was. Granted, choosing a güiro to represent scrambled eggs was not Beethoven writing his Ninth Symphony, but it was a start.

In middle school, I joined the orchestra, taking up the cello. Freshmen year of high school, I auditioned for, and was accepted into, the regional youth symphony. More importantly, though, I took two semesters of Music Theory my sophomore year. I love playing music, but I’ve learned that I love writing it even more. Since my high school only offers Music Theory I and II, I attended a summer music camp with a program in theory and composition. I learned so much, and I’m looking forward to pursuing a major in Music Composition.

I find writing music is a way for me to express emotions and tell stories that are beyond language. Music is such a unifying force; it’s a way to communicate across languages and borders. Music has been such a large part of my life—from fourth grade and on—and studying music and music composition is a way for me to create something beautiful and share it with others.

Discussion of UC Sample Essay by Terrance

Like Angie's essay, Terrance's essay comes in at a little over 300 words. This length is perfectly appropriate assuming all of the words add substance to the narrative. When it comes to the features of a good application essay , Terrance does well and avoids common pitfalls.

For Terrance, the choice of question #6 makes sense—he fell in love with composing music, and he is entering college knowing what his major will be. If you are like many college applicants and have a wide range of interests and possible college majors, you may want to steer clear of this question.

Terrance's essay does a good job balancing humor with substance. The opening paragraph presents an entertaining vignette in which he chooses to study music based on nothing more than peer pressure. By paragraph three, we learn how that rather serendipitous introduction to music has led to something very meaningful. The final paragraph also establishes a pleasing tone with its emphasis on music as a "unifying force" and something that Terrance wants to share with others. He comes across as a passionate and generous person who will contribute to the campus community in a meaningful way.

A Final Word on Personal Insight Essays

Unlike the California State University system , the University of California schools have a holistic admissions process. The admissions officers are evaluating you as a whole person, not just as numerical data related to test scores and grades (although both are important). The Personal Insight questions are one of the primary ways the admissions officers get to know you, your personality, and your interests.

Think of each essay as an independent entity, as well as one piece of a four-essay application. Each essay should present an engaging narrative that reveals an important aspect of your life as well as explain why the topic you've chosen is important to you. When you consider all four essays in combination, they should work together to reveal the true breadth and depth of your character and interests.

• Examples of Great Introductory Paragraphs
• Tips for the 8 University of California Personal Insight Questions
• UC Personal Statement Prompt #1
• A Sample Essay for Common Application Option #7: Topic of Your Choice
• Sample Supplemental Essay for College Admissions: Why This College?
• "Handiwork" - Sample Common Application Essay for Option #1
• Sample College Application Short Answer Essay
• College Essay Style Tips
• Sample Short Answer Essay on Running
• "My Dads" - Sample Common Application Essay for Option #1
• Sample Common Application Essay for Option #5
• Sample College Transfer Essay
• "Grandpa's Rubik's Cube"—Sample Common Application Essay, Option #4
• Sample Application Essay - Porkopolis
• Sample Weak Supplemental Essay for Duke University
• Model Essay on Identity

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How to Write the University of Southern California Application Essays 2015-2016

(note: this post has been updated for the 2016-2017 application cycle. to view the updated post, click here .).

“Fight on!” These two words ring through every hallway at the University of Southern California, invoking the spirit and camaraderie of the mighty Trojans themselves. USC is a private institution based in Los Angeles, California, with an emphasis on research and strong athletics. USC athletic teams boast a total of 123 national titles across various sports, and fans from across the nation often deck themselves out in cardinal and gold in support of the dominant Trojan football team. The USC social dynamic is diverse and happening, and if Greek life is your thing, about 25% of men are in a fraternity and 20% of women are in a sorority. With a total enrollment of 18,000, there is opportunity around every corner of USC’s beautiful campus, and while parts of LA off-campus are places to stay away from, life on campus makes up for any restrictions. With amazing academics and a gung-ho student culture, it’s no wonder that USC alum come away loving their four years as a Trojan.

USC is very selective, choosing about 18% of the thousands of applicants every year, and yields about 35%. Certain schools, like the Viterbi School of Engineering, may be even more difficult to get into, so it’s best to be well prepared when applying to USC, whether that’s early acceptance or regular decision.

USC students are known to be involved. Briefly describe a non-academic pursuit (such as service to community or family, a club or sport, or work, etc.,) that best illustrates who you are, and why it is important you. (250 word limit)

This question may feel like an extension of the Common App in that it simply asks more about your extracurricular interests, but this question is a good opportunity to go more in depth and reveal new things about your personality. As this question states, they want to see how the activity you choose to write about “best illustrates who you are,” so you have room to talk more about yourself and your background. For example, you could elaborate on how you grew up doing outdoor aerobics with your uncle, and how that eventually lead to your participation in triathlons. This pursuit can be commonplace or unique, but it’s best not to mention the sports or clubs you already listed on your Common App (unless you can write a strong story about what they mean to you personally). If possible, use an activity out of the usual or very personal and expand upon it, because chances are it will be easier to explain why this unique activity is important to you and differentiates you than a more clichéd extracurricular will. No matter your approach to this rather basic question, your response can leave a strong impression on admissions as they try to gauge how you as a person will fit into USC and the non-academic opportunities there.

Describe your academic interests and how you plan to pursue them at USC. Please feel free to address your first- and second-choice major selections (250 word limit).

While this question may also seem like an extension of the Common Application, the admissions are trying to create a wholesome picture of you, so use this essay to go in depth about your intellectual passions and why you want to pursue what you want to pursue. This is an ideal “Why major” question, so make sure to also address why you are qualified to pursue your first and second choice majors, and why you want to study these subjects at USC in specific. Even if your essay seems conventional or boring, that’s fine – this prompt is straightforward, and you don’t want to leave admissions more confused about your academic interests with an unnecessarily complex narrative. You can even give a little background, or approach this essay somewhat from a “Why school” style, but there’s no need to do something too fancy. Just remember to be precise about what you are interested in, why you are passionate about that, and why you are meant to study this at USC.

If you plan on applying to the School of Engineering:

How do you plan to use your engineering degree to benefit society? (250 word limit)

This essay evaluates two main things: what your career plans are as an engineer, and how much you have researched and looked into USC engineering. First off, you want to talk about what you would do with your engineering degree, specifically with respect to how that degree would “benefits society,” because they want to see whether or not you should be put into the engineering school. If you put a second major as non-Viterbi school of engineering, this essay can be a large factor in whether or not they accept you into Viterbi or some other school like Dornsife College of LSA. While your career plans may be the same no matter what engineering program you enter at whatever school, an engineering education at USC is unique, and the admissions will want to see if you know facts about USC engineering and know what you can get out of specific programs at the Viterbi school of engineering. So, do your research and mention professors you can collaborate with (be specific, name-drop only if the professor is actually relevant to you and what you want to do) or programs you can join at USC that will help you in the long run. Much like the other USC essays, this prompt is straightforward, so be clear and be bold in how you believe your career plans and engineering goals will change the world.

Some people categorize engineers as geeks or nerds. Are you a geek, nerd, or neither? Why? (250 word limit)

Feel free to be creative with this one! This essay is a perfect chance to be quirky, funny, and honest about who you are and what makes you an engineer personality-wise. You don’t have to talk about engineering projects you have done, but rather you can talk about the small nerdy or geeky things you do for fun (or don’t do, since neither is still an option). You want to convey how your personality makes you an ideal engineer, so even if you don’t feel as if you are geeky or nerdy, you want to talk about yourself and what makes you feel like building, creating, simplifying, engineering.

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University of California Essay Examples (And Why They Worked)

The following essays were written by several different authors who were admitted to University of California (UC) schools and are intended to provide examples of successful UC essays. All names have been redacted for anonymity. Please note that CollegeAdvisor.com has shared these essays with admissions officers within the University of California system in order to deter potential plagiarism.

For our 2020-2021 University of California Essay Guide, click here . For more guidance on personal essays and the college application process in general, sign up for a monthly plan to work with an admissions coach 1-on-1.

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

Three thousand, four hundred and seventy one dollars. That was the bill for the hotel room expenses alone for our thirty member excursion. And those were the least of my worries for the weekend. Between drilling wood pieces into a working frame for Air Trajectory and tying a knot in floss to build a pendulum, I was running down the halls, talking to worried parents on the phone, anatomy textbook in hand. The other captains study while I ensure everyone eats dinner and sleeps by 2am, responsible as the school’s sole legal representative for ensuring typical high school shenanigans of music blasting didn’t manifest into real danger. Despite the challenges, I love how self-sufficient we are. North Hollywood students are greeted with an association of, “Aren’t you that school that crushes us in Science Olympiad?” followed by a joking, “Stop!” We don’t have a single adult teaching us, whether in learning to use power tools or conducting flame tests.

As the only member of the Science Olympiad team with four years of experience, I carry weight with seniority and position, but also a nostalgia for friendships dimmed as team members graduate. When others concentrated solely on performing well at competition, I couldn’t disagree however heart-wrenching it felt — but I wanted a strong team dynamic, a home for us at school. So I worked on producing it, forming mentorship programs, pairing up freshmen with upperclassmen in events. Whether teaching about mosquito reproduction in standing water or the equivalent of a statistics course I had yet to take, my own enthusiasm seeping into a bobbing ponytail, all I hope for is a continuation of the “FamilyOly” I’ve grown to love.

Science Olympiad was a microcosm of the larger school, where competition ran in the very veins of the institution. But to me, it had become a family evolving with my role, from the little sister of the team to finally the senior captain.

Why this University of California School essay worked, from an ex-admissions officer

This essay prompt was meant for the author. This essay works because the author not only demonstrates their leadership skills throughout, but highlights the qualities and characteristics that make her a successful leader. The author successfully conveys that she is involved in every aspect of leading her Olympiad team, and even picks up the slack when needed. You get the sense that even though it’s stressful for her at times, she truly enjoys the experience and the connections she has made throughout her four years on the team.

The admissions officers learn that this is a dedicated student with grit. Not only has she committed to this extracurricular throughout high school, she has been impactful within the organization as demonstrated by the mentorship program she created and the active role she takes in ensuring the team’s overall success. Furthermore, the author shows a vulnerable side proving that though she is obviously driven, she has layers.

Beyond demonstrating her leadership, she effectively shows the admissions committee the type of student she will be on campus and how she will possibly contribute to the community. An admissions officer will likely finish reading this essay feeling that this is a student they want on campus!

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.

440 Hz exactly. The flames flare to life, forming the perfect wave length as I transitioned from note to note, the curves transitioning along. My classmates crowded around as I sang (shouted?) into the Ruben’s tube, a simple PVC pipe with holes cut at even intervals so that high notes translated to beautiful waves of flames.

The fight to get a vocal teacher in the first place was an uphill run. Singing, unlike playing the piano or learning to draw, wasn’t deemed worthy of spending money on – wasn’t even seen as a skill. After multiple pitches, I finally got my way, just a foot in the door: one month.

It was an odd request from a girl raised to be stringent with money, knowing that a few hours of lessons was equivalent to a new pair of tennis shoes to replace her mother’s long-broken in ones. It started with a classmate’s hate list – number 1? Me. For my voice – -the single-most confusing criterion. I couldn’t change my speaking voice. But in an environment which valued acapellas and Barbershop choirs, singing – singing I could improve on.

Six years later, I’m still driving down to lessons every week. I haven’t performed outside of karaokes, I haven’t released recordings to the public, and there’s no record of my voice anywhere in the public eye. But years of vocal exercises and training has done so much for me, even outside of music in strengthening tone and amplitude.

It wasn’t until high school that I could reap the benefits, not byway of choir, but through debate. Walking into round meant adopting an entirely new persona, a thick-skinned, articulate force to be reckoned with. Crossfire was my time to shine, to show how I could twist their arguments to fit my logic, and win. My best tournament came with a topic that coincided with my interests – genetically modified foods. In wielding knowledge of biology, from the damages of fertilizer to individual agricultural efficiency methods, we not only won all rounds undefeated, but managed to score the top speaker position and of course a trophy to signify my newly-found voice.

I remember standing in an half empty auditorium, standing far away from the students, pitching my virtues as a secretary for a middle school honor society. My arguments were sound, as the first row of students mentioned to me later, nodding along. But with the counselor repeating, like an endless drone – speak louder, yell – the simple repetition of my spiel simply lost its use. I sat down with never-mind-eyes cast to the floor, withdrawing from the election.

The author of this essay took an interesting approach to highlighting her creativity by weaving in examples of finding and using her voice in various situations. Two of the qualities that her stories convey is resilience and fortitude. This is demonstrated by the fact that she had been picked on and overlooked as a child but was able to find her voice and confidence, albeit in an unexpected way, through vocal lessons. As an added bonus, the admissions officers also learn about some of the student’s academic and extracurricular interests such as biology, food science, and debate.

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

My chest is burning, my eyes are stinging, and my legs are numb. A thousand thoughts are passing through my brain, but I cannot grasp any of them. All I can do is keep pushing forward. Strangely enough, it is this moment when I feel most alive and connected with the universe. This is my life under water. I have been a swimmer since I was eight years old, for both a swim club and a high school team. In the water, the stress and anxiety from school fades away, allowing me to relax in peace and tranquility.

The best swimmers are 5’10” with broad shoulders and huge feet. These characteristics are advantages during competitions because the athletes are able to move faster in the pool without being pushed back by the waves. I am not a typical swimmer. I am half- Black and half- Mexican, topping out at a whopping 5’0″. My skills are not Olympic-bound, but I am passionate about the sport despite the fact that I initially felt like an outlier.

Even though I used to get lonely when swimming, I found a huge amount of joy in being a part of the sport at my high school. Our team started off with only six members, most of whom had never even been to a swim meet before. Eventually we gained enough participants and experience to compete against other schools. We were neither the largest nor the fastest team, but I did not care. I had finally found a group of people I connected with. More importantly, I found a group with whom I could share my passion. The daily routine of striving to perfect our techniques formed a bond between us that resulted in the sense of a family. I felt honored when I was chosen as captain and MVP; however, my deepest honor was simply having opportunity to join the team.

After I graduate, I hope that the swim team continues to prosper. Then, maybe it will become another young girl’s safe haven, the way the sport has always been mine.

Why this University of California essay worked, from an ex-admissions officer

This essay works because it’s touching and speaks to the admissions officers’ emotional side. This applicant scores high on the likability factor. As a reader you are able to quickly connect with the author and find yourself cheering for them. The student comes across as dedicated, determined, humble, appreciative, caring, and sincere – which is a lot to accomplish in just 350 words.

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

“Hi, this is Teen Line, what’s bothering you tonight?” That simple phrase rings through the tiny room, merely enough space for a few desks and chairs. On one end of the line is a teenager, sharing stories of anything from the dark dread of depression and anxiety to a plea for a savior from the downward spiral of suicide. A tearful voice, desperate for help – a girl barely in high school, suffering at the hands of her “friends” and on the brink of suicide, complete with a plan to choke herself with a dog leash.

It’s another hard-hitting story for the night, one that affects all the listeners in the room. But by the end of the hour, we’ve not only managed to get her resources like the National Suicide Hotline, but also managed to get her laughing. It’s a skill that is extremely hard to master, to put aside your fears of failure and empathize. To move from a situation edging on a police call to one with a girl singing songs and laughing at jokes is a seemingly impossible feat that the volunteers at Teen Line must perform every shift, one that takes a lot of inner strength.

For me, entering Teen Line was an odd activity for a family whose culture did not center around talking out feelings. Yet, I specifically sought out a suicide hotline in which a high schooler could participate; it was my chance to give back, to listen and hopefully guide those who were willing to seek help, an ear to listen and a shoulder to lean on. It was an opportunity to do for others what I could not obtain for myself, and for that I am grateful. Whether calls from low-income neighborhoods of the nearby Los Angeles to international Skypes of New Zealand and India, never have I felt more productive. The end of a shift always left me with the same satisfied feeling of knowing that someone who needed to be heard was acknowledged, just a small rippling effect on one caller leaving a lifetime’s worth of impression.

This is another example of an essay that speaks to the reader’s emotional side. This is an essay that sticks out not only because of its content, but because an admissions officer has a true sense of the kind of person this student is by the end. This student has a high level of maturity and is a genuinely committed young adult who readily and willingly takes on huge responsibility.

Apart from identifying the authors values and qualities, the essay is very well written. The vivid use of language draws the reader in, both time and place, on the emotional journey of that particular night.

Sometimes admissions officers have to present candidates before a larger committee. This is an example where, if it came down to it, an officer would probably fight to ensure this student is admitted to the college or university if the rest of their application materials were strong overall, but perhaps slightly weaker in some areas. Simply put, this is a student an admissions officer would want as part of their campus community.

These University of California essay examples were compiled by the advising team at CollegeAdvisor.com . If you want to get help writing your UC application essays from CollegeAdvisor.com Admissions Experts , register with CollegeAdvisor.com today.

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Times Insider

A Look at California Today, and Tomorrow

Soumya Karlamangla, who writes The Times’s California newsletter, wants to balance uplifting stories and hard news happening in the Golden State.

By Josh Ocampo

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.

When Soumya Karlamangla, who lives in San Francisco, tells someone she works for The New York Times, the reaction is often the same: a look of confusion.

“People that I’m interviewing in the field will say, ‘Oh, they flew you out here for this?’” she said in a recent conversation. “I usually tell them that there’s a good number of Times reporters in California. We have two bureaus.”

Ms. Karlamangla, who writes the California Today newsletter, joined The Times in July 2021 from The Los Angeles Times, where she covered health care news.

“I was tired of writing about Covid-19,” she said. When The Times approached her with an opportunity to cover news in the Golden State, she didn’t hesitate.

Ms. Karlamangla grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles, where she moved from the Midwest when she was 4. Now living in the Richmond neighborhood of San Francisco, she finds much of her inspiration for the newsletter, which publishes every weekday, in her surroundings. Last year, for example, she observed a number of Burmese restaurants in her neighborhood and wrote about the rise of the cuisine . She recently reported on how California got its name , answering a question she’d long had.

In a phone interview, Ms. Karlamangla shared her favorite part about reporting from California and her pursuit to report from all 58 of its counties. The conversation below has been edited and condensed.

How do you decide what to cover for the newsletter?

It’s a combination of what I find interesting, what I think readers could benefit from and what my editors are paying attention to. One thing that’s different about writing a newsletter versus being a beat reporter is that I think about the newsletter on a weekly basis. We have five newsletters a week, so are they all adding something of value to readers? Are we leaning too hard on light news or too hard on heavier news? Because this is a newsletter that lands in people’s inbox first thing in the morning, you have to be a little bit more gentle. People don’t want to click on a newsletter at 6:30 a.m. and find out the world is going to catch on fire in a year.

I want to help explain things to people who have seen headlines about certain news but maybe don’t have the full context, like why U.C.L.A.’s chancellor is testifying on Capitol Hill, or what the Santa Cruz City Council is doing with the collapse of the beachside promenade.

How much of your reporting is on the ground?

When I took over the newsletter, I had a goal that I wanted to visit and report from all 58 counties in California. I’ve made it to 50. On most days, I am in my apartment writing. But this is the kind of job where I might fly out to San Diego, for example, to spend four days there and report several stories for the newsletter.

I often get tapped to report breaking news in the state, too. I was in Half Moon Bay last year because of the mass shooting there. A few weeks ago, I woke up at 6 a.m. to a phone call from my editor who wanted me to go to U.C.L.A so that I could report on the protests there over the war in Gaza .

You’ve written a lot about the recent rebranding of California — the changing of its slogan , the redesign of Hollywood Boulevard and Disneyland . Is there a reason all of this is happening now?

California is huge and a place of reinvention, so there’s always stuff like that happening. I think the state tourism board is trying to get ahead of a situation where people outside of California only see the state through a political lens and therefore don’t see it as a fun place to vacation. I feel like California is always trying to walk a fine line and figure out the right way to present itself.

What’s the biggest challenge of writing California Today?

Trying to find stories and perspectives that feel representative of 39 million people. California has so many different identities, places, geographies. Trying to narrow down what we might write about, where The Times can add value and where my reporting experience and expertise can add value is really hard.

What’s the most common feedback you receive from readers?

Our reader emails are amazing. They’ll say something like: “I start my day with this newsletter and a cup of coffee. Thank you so much for all the hard work that you do.” I get one of those once a day. This newsletter is kind of a public service. It’s free. People are so invested in it.

What’s a perfect day in California look like for you?

To me, any perfect day in San Francisco involves visiting Golden Gate Park and walking around seeing all the people. In L.A., the weather is always the same. In San Francisco, there is slightly more weather variation, and it has brought me great joy to live here and visit the park when the weather is nice. Feeling that communal joy is something I’ve honestly never experienced before.

What’s your favorite part of living in California?

The diversity of geography. There are so many things you could see in one day, like the beach or snowy mountains. We have so many national parks here, and they all look wildly different.

And your least favorite?

It’s expensive. The cost of living is not great.

15 Business Schools With Lowest Acceptance Rates

These schools rejected more than 75% of full-time MBA applicants who wanted to enter in fall 2023, per U.S. News data.

15 B-Schools With Low Acceptance Rates

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The Stanford University Graduate School of Business in California accepted 8.42% of full-time MBA applicants for fall 2023.

Even supremely qualified MBA hopefuls sometimes struggle to stand out in the applicant pool at highly selective U.S. business schools, since these institutions tend to attract a greater number of strong candidates than they can admit.

The average fall 2023 acceptance rate among the 124 ranked full-time MBA programs that provided this data to U.S. News in an annual survey was roughly 49.7%. Meanwhile, the average rate among the 15 most selective full-time MBA programs that provided this data was about 18.5%.

The Stanford University Graduate School of Business in California once again had the lowest acceptance rate for full-time MBA applicants: 8.42%. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University Maryland reported an acceptance rate of 100%.

Each of the 15 schools with the most daunting admission odds had an acceptance rate below 25%. Seven of them placed within the top 20 of the Best Business Schools rankings, while each of the remaining eight schools fell in the top 85 of the rankings.

Although B-schools that reject a significant proportion of applicants tend to perform well in the rankings, acceptance rates are a minor ranking factor. In the Best Business Schools ranking methodology , the percentage of prospective full-time MBA students admitted for entry in fall 2023 accounted for only 2% of a business school's overall score.

The 15 schools where getting in was hardest in fall 2023 are scattered across the U.S., led by California with four and New York with two. Nine of the 15 schools are private and six are public.

Overall, the total number of applications to U.S. business schools dropped nearly 5% in 2023, marking the second straight year for a decrease after a boost in 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admission Council.

This trend is due partly to a decline in applications to highly selective programs, but the survey found that more programs reported growth in application numbers in 2023 than in 2022. Programs most likely to report growth in applications were from "moderately selective schools" where acceptance rates range from 43% to 65%, the survey found.

Below is a list of the 15 business schools that reported the lowest acceptance rates for full-time MBA applicants in fall 2023. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.

Don't see your school in the top 15? Access the U.S. News Business School Compass to find admissions statistics, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights .

U.S. News surveyed 506 business programs in our survey conducted in 2023 and 2024. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Business Schools rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel or have room to grow in specific areas that are important to them. While the data comes from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges , Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs . The acceptance rate data above is correct as of June 5, 2024.

Tags: MBAs , business school , education , students , graduate schools

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Trump lender Axos plunges 15% after short-seller report flags real-estate loan risk

• Axos Financial fell as much as 15% on Tuesday after Hindenburg Research announced a short position.
• The short bet stems from Axos' large exposure to commercial real estate.
• Despite more exposure than its peers, Axos' valuation trades at a premium, Hindenburg said.

Shares of Axos Financial dove as much as 15% on Tuesday after short seller Hindenburg Research announced a bet against the California-based bank.

In a note , the research firm outlined that it's taken a short position in the lender, citing Axos' rising exposure to commercial real estate. Despite brewing uncertainty in the sector, the bank has been building a portfolio around it, the report said.

"Contrary to many peers who backed away from the deteriorating commercial real estate market post-covid pandemic, Axos doubled down, increasing its total exposure from $5.5 billion in March 2021 to $9.9 billion in March 2024," Hindenburg said. "Now, 53% of Axos' total loan book is exposed to these segments."

Between higher interest rates and a declining demand for office properties, analysts are waiting for a loan crisis to eventually swamp the real estate market. With over $2 trillion in debt coming due in the next few years , lenders have been shrinking their exposure to the space — sometimes at a loss .

To compare with Axos, the noted cited that the average direct commercial real estate exposure among regional banks is 16.5% on loan books.

But not only has Axos increased its position, the bank trades at a 35% price to tangible book value premium to its peers, Hindenburg said. That implies outsized growth, a low-risk loan book, and years of upside ahead of it, the note argued.

But instead, Hindenburg's research "indicates a company exposed to the riskiest asset classes with lax underwriting standards and a loan book filled with multiple glaring problems," it said. According to sources who spoke with Hindenburg, issues include a client base of doubtful and non-performing borrowers.

Through a Securities and Exchange Commission  filing  published Tuesday, Axos challenged Hindenburg's report as inaccurate and misleading.

Among criticisms was a failure to mention fund partners backing Axos' credit position, it said, "as well as inaccurate discussions of loans that that have already been repaid but not represented in the report as having been repaid."

CEO Greg Garrabrants also previously told Bloomberg that commercial real estate fears are overdone, and the risk is already reflected by Axos' stock price.

Though not mentioned in the report, among the bank's former borrowers are president Donald Trump. Axos has previously refinanced a $100 million loan on Trump Tower , and lent funds to a Florida resort.

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LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.

California Teachers Are Using AI To Grade Papers. Who’s Grading The AI?

Teachers use AI to grade English papers

The cost of using ai in the classroom, state ai guidelines for teachers, when teachers can’t tell if they’re cheating.

Your children could be some of a growing number of California kids having their writing graded by software instead of a teacher.

California school districts are signing more contracts for artificial intelligence tools, from automated grading in San Diego to chatbots in central California, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

English teachers say AI tools can help them grade papers faster, get students more feedback, and improve their learning experience. But guidelines are vague and adoption by teachers and districts is spotty.

The California Department of Education can’t tell you which schools use AI or how much they pay for it. The state doesn’t track AI use by school districts, said Katherine Goyette, computer science coordinator for the California Department of Education.

While Goyette said chatbots are the most common form of AI she’s encountered in schools, more and more California teachers are using AI tools to help grade student work. That’s consistent with surveys that have found teachers use AI as often if not more than students , news that contrasts sharply with headlines about fears of students cheating with AI.

Teachers use AI to do things like personalize reading material, create lesson plans, and other tasks in order to save time and and reduce burnout . A report issued last fall in response to an AI executive order by Gov. Gavin Newsom mentions opportunities to use AI for tutoring, summarization, and personalized content generation, but also labels education a risky use case. Generative AI tools have been known to create convincing but inaccurate answers to questions, and use  toxic language or imagery laden with racism or sexism.

California issued guidance for how educators should use the technology last fall, one of seven states to do so. It encourages critical analysis of text and imagery created by AI models and conversations between teachers and students about what amounts to ethical or appropriate use of AI in the classroom.

But no specific mention is made of how teachers should treat AI that grades assignments. Additionally, the California education code states that guidance from the state is “merely exemplary, and that compliance with the guidelines is not mandatory.”

Goyette said she’s waiting to see if the California Legislature passes Senate Bill 1288 , which would require state Superintendent Tony Thurmond to create an AI working group to issue further guidance to local school districts on how to safely use AI. Cosponsored by Thurmond, the bill also calls for an assessment of the current state of AI in education and for the identification of forms of AI that can harm students and educators by 2026.

Nobody tracks what AI tools school districts are adopting or the policy they use to enforce standards, said Alix Gallagher, head of strategic partnerships at the Policy Analysis for California Education center at Stanford University. Since the state does not track curriculum that school districts adopt or software in use, it would be highly unusual for them to track AI contracts, she said.

Amid AI hype, Gallagher thinks people can lose sight of the fact that the technology is just a tool and it will only be as good or problematic as the decisions of the humans using that tool, which is why she repeatedly urges investments in helping teachers understand AI tools and how to be thoughtful about their use and making space for communities are given voice about how to best meet their kid’s needs.

“Some people will probably make some pretty bad decisions that are not in the best interests of kids, and some other people might find ways to use maybe even the same tools to enrich student experiences,” she said.

Last summer, Jen Roberts, an English teacher at Point Loma High School in San Diego, went to a training session to learn how to use Writable, an AI tool that automates grading writing assignments and gives students feedback powered by OpenAI. For the past school year, Roberts used Writable and other AI tools in the classroom, and she said it’s been the best year yet of nearly three decades of teaching. Roberts said it has made her students better writers, not because AI did the writing for them, but because automated feedback can tell her students faster than she can how to improve, which in turn allows her to hand out more writing assignments.

“At this point last year, a lot of students were still struggling to write a paragraph, let alone an essay with evidence and claims and reasoning and explanation and elaboration and all of that,” Roberts said. “This year, they’re just getting there faster.”

Roberts feels Writable is “very accurate” when grading her students of average aptitude. But, she said, there’s a downside: It sometimes assigns high-performing students lower grades than merited and struggling students higher grades. She said she routinely checks answers when the AI grades assignments, but only checks the feedback it gives students occasionally.

“In actual practicality, I do not look at the feedback it gives every single student,” she said. “That’s just not a great use of my time. But I do a lot of spot checking and I see what’s going on and if I see a student that I’m worried about get feedback, (I’m like) ‘Let me go look at what his feedback is and then go talk to him about that.’”

Alex Rainey teaches English to fourth graders at Chico Country Day School in northern California. She used GPT-4, a language model made by OpenAI which costs $20 a month, to grade papers and provide feedback. After uploading her grading rubric and examples of her written feedback, she used AI to grade assignments about animal defense mechanisms, allowing GPT-4 to analyze students’ grammar and sentence structure while she focused on assessing creativity.

“I feel like the feedback it gave was very similar to how I grade my kids, like my brain was tapped into it,” she said.

Like Roberts she found that it saves time, transforming work that took hours into less than an hour, but also found that sometimes GPT-4 is a tougher grader than she is. She agrees that quicker feedback and the ability to dole out more writing assignments produces better writers. A teacher can assign more writing before delivering feedback but “then kids have nothing to grow from.”

Rainey said her experience grading with GPT-4 left her in agreement with Roberts, that more feedback and writing more often produces better writers. She feels strongly that teachers still need to oversee grading and feedback by AI, “but I think it’s amazing. I couldn’t go backwards now.”

Contracts involving artificial intelligence can be lucrative.

To launch a chatbot named Ed, Los Angeles Unified School District signed a $6.2 million contract for two years with the option of renewing for three additional years. Magic School AI is used by educators in Los Angeles and costs $100 per teacher per year.

Despite repeated calls and emails over the span of roughly a month, Writable and the San Diego Unified School District declined to share pricing details with CalMatters. A district spokesperson said teachers got access to Writeable through a contract with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for English language learners.

QuillBot is an AI-powered writing tool for students in grades 4-12 made by the company Quill. Quill says its tool is currently used at 1,000 schools in California and has more than 13,000 student and educator users in San Diego alone. An annual Quill Premium subscription costs $80 per teacher or $1800 per school.

QuillBot does not generate writing for students like ChatGPT or grade writing assignments, but gives students feedback on their writing. Quill is a nonprofit that’s raised $20 million from groups like Google’s charitable foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation over the past 10 years.

Even if a teacher or district wants to shell out for an AI tool, guidance for safe and responsible use is still getting worked out.

Governments are placing high-risk labels on forms of AI with the power to make critical decisions about whether a person gets a job or rents an apartment or receives government benefits . California Federation of Teachers President Jeff Freitas said he hasn’t considered whether AI for grading is moderate or high risk, but “it definitely is a risk to use for grading.”

The California Federation of Teachers is a union with 120,000 members. Freitas told CalMatters he’s concerned about AI having a number of consequences in the classroom. He’s worried administrators may use it to justify increasing classroom sizes or adding to teacher workloads; he’s worried about climate change and the amount of energy needed to train and deploy AI models’ he’s worried about protecting students’ privacy, and he’s worried about automation bias.

Regulators around the world wrestling with AI praise approaches where it is used to augment human decision-making instead of replacing it. But it’s difficult for laws to account for automation bias and humans becoming placing too much trust in machines.

The American Federation of Teachers created an AI working group in October 2023 to propose guidance on how educators should use the technology or talk about it in collective bargaining contract negotiations. Freitas said those guidelines are due out in the coming weeks.

“We’re trying to provide guidelines for educators to not solely rely on (AI), he said. “It should be used as a tool, and you should not lose your critical analysis of what it’s producing for you.”

Goyette, the computer science coordinator for the education department, helped create state AI guidelines and speaks to county offices of education for in-person training on AI for educators. She also helped create an online AI training series for educators. She said the most popular online course is about workflow and efficiency , which shows teachers how to automate lesson planning and grading.

“Teachers have an incredibly important and tough job, and what’s most important is that they’re building relationships with their students,” she said. “There’s decades of research that speaks to the power of that, so if they can save time on mundane tasks so that they can spend more time with their students, that’s a win.”

Alex Kotran, chief executive of an education nonprofit that’s supported by Google and OpenAI, said they found that it’s hard to design a language model to predictably match how a teacher grades papers.

He spoke with teachers willing to accept a model that’s accurate 80% of the time in order to reap the reward of time saved, but he thinks it’s probably safe to say that a student or parent would want to make sure an AI model used for grading is even more accurate.

Kotran of the AI Education Project thinks it makes sense for school districts to adopt a policy that says teachers should be wary any time they use AI tools that can have disparate effects on student’s lives.

Even with such a policy, teachers can still fall victim to trusting AI without question. And even if the state kept track of AI used by school districts, there’s still the possibility that teachers will purchase technology for use on their personal computers.

Kotran said he routinely speaks with educators across the U.S. and is not aware of any systematic studies to verify the effectiveness and consistency of AI for grading English papers.

Roberts, the Point Loma High School teacher, describes herself as pro technology.

She regularly writes and speaks about AI. Her experiences have led her to the opinion that grading with AI is what’s best for her students, but she didn’t arrive at that conclusion easily.

At first she questioned whether using AI for grading and feedback could hurt her understanding of her students. Today she views using AI like the cross-country coach who rides alongside student athletes in a golf cart, like an aid that helps her assist her students better.

Roberts says the average high school English teacher in her district has roughly 180 students. Grading and feedback can take between five to 10 minutes per assignment she says, so between teaching, meetings, and other duties, it can take two to three weeks to get feedback back into the hands of students unless a teacher decides to give up large chunks of their weekends. With AI, it takes Roberts a day or two.

Ultimately she concluded that “if my students are growing as writers, then I don’t think I’m cheating.” She says AI reduces her fatigue, giving her more time to focus on struggling students and giving them more detailed feedback.

“My job is to make sure you grow, and that you’re a healthy, happy, literate adult by the time you graduate from high school, and I will use any tool that helps me do that, and I’m not going to get hung up on the moral aspects of that,” she said. “My job is not to spend every Saturday reading essays. Way too many English teachers work way too many hours a week because they are grading students the old-fashioned way.”

Roberts also thinks AI might be a less biased grader in some instances than human teachers who can adjust their grading for students sometimes to give them the benefit of the doubt or be punitive if they were particularly annoying in class recently.

She isn’t worried about students cheating with AI, a concern she characterizes as a moral panic. She points to a Stanford University study released last fall which found that students cheated just as much before the advent of ChatGPT as they did a year after the release of the AI.

Goyette said she understands why students question whether some AI use by teachers is like cheating. Education department AI guidelines encourage teachers and students to use the technology more. What’s essential, Goyette said, is that teachers discuss what ethical use of AI looks like in their classroom, and convey that — like using a calculator in math class — using AI is accepted or encouraged for some assignments and not others.

For the last assignment of the year, Robers has one final experiment to run: Edit an essay written entirely by AI. But they must change at least 50% of the text, make it 25% longer, write their own thesis, and add quotes from classroom reading material. The idea, she said, is to prepare them for a future where AI writes the first draft and humans edit the results to fit their needs.

“It used to be you weren’t allowed to bring a calculator into the SATs and now you’re supposed to bring your calculator so things change,” she said. “It’s just moral panic. Things change and people freak out and that’s what’s happening.”

Sharing Salary Information With Co-Workers: Benefits and Drawbacks

There are solid arguments for salary transparency in the workplace – and for keeping your earnings information close to the vest.

Should You Tell Co-Workers Your Pay?

It’s a detail some people would do just about anything not to reveal about themselves: their salary .

Getty Images

While it's a potentially uncomfortable topic, the debate around pay transparency is heating up. Amidst the backdrop of companies facing fierce competition for workers, employees and advocates are increasingly calling for pay equity initiatives to address gender and racial wage gaps. Some states and cities, including Colorado and New York City, are even requiring employers to post salary ranges for open positions.

If employees are not getting this information from the source, some are researching market pay rates for similar positions on sites like Glassdoor and PayScale. Others are trading salary information with colleagues.

But there are a number of reasons why some employees may be reluctant to share their salary with co-workers or even friends and family. “Some people might be scared of jealousy, resentment, embarrassment, conflict,” says Matt Gotchy, vice president of Trusaic, a provider of equal pay software and consulting. The company recently released a survey in which 11% of the 1,276 adults polled said they'd rather run naked through the office than let co-workers know what they earn.

“Some may be loathe to reveal their pay because they’re worried that it’s either more or less than colleagues doing similar work are making, despite having equivalent education and years on the job. This could put, say, the higher-paid person in an awkward position and require them to defend their higher pay," Gotchy says. "And some folks, of course, simply hate talking about money at any time."

In summary, he says, "telling others our pay is just not part of our culture or mindset."

But is salary secrecy a good thing? Here's what experts have to say about salary transparency in the workplace and among co-workers.

Can Employees Share Their Salary?

Sharing salary information is protected under the National Labor Relations Act . Federal, state and local governments (including public schools, libraries and parks) are excluded under the act, but it covers the majority of nongovernment employers.

It states that employers cannot punish workers for discussing wages with colleagues, and this includes face-to-face conversations and written messages.

Should You Share Your Salary?

There are a number of reasons to consider sharing your salary with co-workers, either as information you volunteer or if someone asks you for intel. Here are a few:

It may help your co-workers. Jeffrey Moriarty, executive director of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics and a philosophy professor at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, is squarely in the camp of sharing the information with your co-workers.

“Many women still get paid less than men at their firms for doing the same work equally well. This is unfair. The best way to correct this unfairness is for women to know what their male counterparts get paid,” Moriarty says.

It may make salaries more equitable. In other words, "it forces firms to make rational pay decisions,” Moriarty says. “Putting aside questions about pay discrimination among protected workers, if firms can’t justify their pay decisions, this is a sign that their pay decisions aren’t justifiable. That is, they are irrational or incoherent.”

It may improve the business overall. If a firm is transparent about what people earn, Moriarty says, it’s ultimately better for the company.

“A pay system that contains elements of randomness or arbitrariness is likely to be less efficient than one based on consistent principles,” Moriarty says.

Still, many companies are not forthcoming about salary information. According to a January Salary.com survey , 23% of employees said that their employer is transparent about how people are paid. Just under half of employees surveyed don't think they're paid fairly compared to others in the same role at other companies, and 37% don't think they're paid fairly compared with other workers at their companies.

Why Shouldn't You Share Your Salary With Co-Workers?

While transparency may be a good idea, remember the following points from the other camp.

Feelings may be hurt. If you share salary information, be prepared for a reaction of anger or sadness from the other person, says Diane Cook, a human resources specialist in Springfield, Missouri, who runs MyResumeSeed.com. “It's very rare that anything good comes from discussing compensation,” she says. “Meaning you're more than likely going to find out that your co-worker makes more or less than you, which will often result in a negative feeling.”

Steve McIntosh, founder and CEO of CareerPoint.com, a career advancement coaching site, also votes for not saying anything about your salary to co-workers. McIntosh, before founding his company, was an executive recruiter for 17 years and the CEO of a business with 50 employees.

“Never share your salary with a co-worker,” McIntosh says. “There’s no scenario where this works out well. If you’re earning more than they are, they’ll be unhappy or even resentful. They could also cite your salary in a discussion with your boss, which is bound to reflect badly on you. If you’re earning less than they are, you’ll be the one that’s resentful.”

You may be missing context. To advocates of salary transparency, hurt feelings are not a strong enough reason to avoid disclosure. That said, what goes into determining salaries can be complicated. After all, salaries for jobs usually cover a range. For instance, a position might pay $80,000 to $100,000 a year, with the $100,000 going to an applicant with more experience or a graduate degree , and the $80,000 salary going to someone early in their career and with a bachelor's. So right away, two people may not earn the same amount as they start a job.

In other words, consider all the reasons why two people doing the same job may not earn the same salary. And if you share your salary with a co-worker, if it's wildly higher or lower, you and your co-worker may not have all the context, according to Lori Rassas, a New York City-based human resources consultant.

She cites examples of executives who might get a bump in pay because "an employee brings in a lucrative client, or a top performance is provided a salary increase in response to their presentation of a job offer from another company."

Says Cook: “Non-HR associates may not understand what goes into determining someone's compensation, which is why I always recommend that if associates do have questions, they contact their HR representative."

The Bottom Line on Sharing Your Salary Information

Whether companies should be transparent about how they pay employees is not as much your concern as your employer’s, says Erin Grau, co-founder and chief operating officer of Charter, a media and services company based in New York City.

“Overall, I think that salary transparency and pay equity is a company’s job. It’s not an employee’s job to identify and fix pay inequity at their company by sharing their salary with their colleagues,” Grau says, while conceding: “But sharing salaries can be one effective way for employees to uncover pay gaps , pursue fair wages and even the playing field for women and people of color.”

Gotchy, for one, is a fan of greater pay transparency. “The ability to know how much co-workers earn is shown to help reduce both gender and racial and ethnic pay gaps. Indeed, we believe that it’s essential if we want to achieve meaningful progress in closing such pay gaps,” he says.

But experts tend to agree that individuals should do whatever makes them feel comfortable. If a co-worker asks what you make, you can decline to share without feeling bad about it. In other words, it's your call if you want to open up about your paycheck.

Rassas points out that with so much information available these days on sites including Glassdoor and Salary.com, there are other ways to get a general idea of what your colleagues earn.

So should you tell your co-worker how much money you make? If they ask, or you want to volunteer that information, it’s entirely up to you.

17 Bad Management Traits

Tags: careers , Company Culture , Salaries and Benefits , money , income , personal finance

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Crime and Public Safety | LAPD clears tents from short-lived…

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Crime and Public Safety

Crime and public safety | lapd clears tents from short-lived pro-palestinian encampment outside la city hall.

Los Angeles Police Department officers early Tuesday monitored protesters and removed tents, chairs and other items from a pro-Palestinian encampment that had been set up at Los Angeles City Hall on Monday evening. (Photo by Key News Network)

Los Angeles Police Department officers staging early Tuesday before they removed tents, chairs and other items from a pro-Palestinian encampment that had been set up at Los Angeles City Hall on Monday evening. (Photo by Key News Network)

Los Angeles Police Department officers early Tuesday monitored demonstrators and removed tents, chairs and other items from a pro-Palestinian encampment that had been set up at Los Angeles City Hall on Monday evening. (Photo by Key News Network)

Demonstrators and police watch each other early Tuesday as LAPD officers remove tents, chairs and other items from a pro-Palestinian encampment at Los Angeles City Hall. (Photo by Key News Network)

Los Angeles Police Department officers early Tuesday removed tents, chairs and other items from a pro-Palestinian encampment that had been set up at Los Angeles City Hall on Monday evening. (Photo by Key News Network)

About 20 tents began going up on the sidewalks outside the building at Main Street and First Street late Monday afternoon. Several tents had Palestinian flags and phrases such as “Free Palestine” and “Free Gaza,” according to KNX.

A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators have set up an encampment outside of Los Angeles City Hall. https://t.co/Gmw0G3xcBo — KNX News 97.1 FM (@knxnews) June 4, 2024

At 9:25 p.m. Monday, the department’s Central Division posted the following on X: “There is a non-permitted demonstration occurring in the Civic Center portion of DTLA. Please use caution in the area due to people in the roadway.”

The department issued a tactical alert around 10 p.m., according to Officer Tony Im, a LAPD spokesman.

According to video news service Key News Network, LAPD officers moved in around 12:30 a.m. to remove tents, chairs and other items from the encampment. Tents are not allowed at City Hall, Key News reported. Key News said around 50 protesters were on scene.

The alert was canceled around 2 a.m..

No injuries or arrests of demonstrators were reported.

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Shiloh Jolie-Pitt wants to drop dad Brad Pitt's last name per legal request, reports state

Shiloh Jolie-Pitt wants to put Pitt in the past amid a recent request to legally change her name, according to reports.

The second-eldest daughter of actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt filed to change her name to "Shiloh Jolie," according to People and The Los Angeles Times. The documents were filed on Memorial Day which was Jolie-Pitt's 18th birthday.

Pitt, 60, and Jolie, 48, share six children: Maddox, 22; Pax, 20; Zahara, 19; Shiloh, 18; and 15-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox. In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from her fellow Oscar winner, but the pair have yet to finalize their divorce. People reported earlier this week that 15-year-old Vivienne, one of the pair's youngest children, also dropped "Pitt" in the Playbill credit for the buzzy new Broadway musical "The Outsiders," which her mom produced.

'Wolfs' trailer: Brad Pitt, George Clooney reunite for first film together in 16 years

Shiloh Jolie-Pitt legal filings follow Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt lawsuit battles

Jolie-Pitt's legal filing follows a yearslong legal battle between her parents.

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In April, Jolie filed a lawsuit alleging ex  Brad Pitt's  abuse "started well before"  a highly publicized 2016 incident , in which the actor  was allegedly violent  toward his then-wife and  children  while aboard a private jet.

"While Pitt's history of physical abuse of Jolie started well before the family’s September 2016 plane trip from France to Los Angeles, this flight marked the first time he turned his physical abuse on the children as well. Jolie then immediately left him," a court filing written by Jolie's lawyers said at the time, obtained by USA TODAY.

In  an October 2022 filing , Jolie's lawyers alleged that Pitt "grabbed Jolie by the head and shook her, and then grabbed her shoulders and shook her again before pushing her into the bathroom wall," during a flight from the couple's Chateau Miraval winery in France to California.

The suit added that Pitt started "deriding Jolie with insults" and, when one of the kids defended Jolie, the actor "lunged at his own child and Jolie grabbed him from behind to stop him." Pitt then "threw himself backwards into the airplane's seats injuring Jolie's back and elbow," the suit claimed.

If you are a victim of domestic violence, The  National Domestic Violence Hotline  ( thehotline.org )  allows you to speak confidentially with trained advocates online or by the phone, which they recommend for those who think their online activity is being monitored by their abuser (800-799-7233). They can help survivors develop a plan to achieve safety for themselves and their children.

Safe Horizon's  hotline ( safehorizon.org )  offers crisis counseling, safety planning and assistance finding shelters (800-621-HOPE (4673). It also has a  chat feature  where you can reach out for help from a computer or phone confidentially. 

Contributing: Morgan Hines, KiMi Robinson