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UC admissions REACTS to TikTok application advice | University of California | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: UC admissions REACTS to TikTok application advice
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Video Summary
Summary
Core Theme
University of California admissions officers review common application advice videos, debunking myths and emphasizing authenticity, personal narrative, and demonstrating genuine passion over formulaic approaches.
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People will care about your emotions,
but admissions officers are not one of them.
them.
>> Oh, well that's harsh. That was really
harsh. Wow. We We do care about your
emotions. I'm Robert Pemman and I'm the
executive director of undergraduate
admissions at UC Davis. Before that, I
worked on the admissions teams at UC
Berkeley and UC Riverside. And if you're
applying to UC, you've probably come
across some social media videos telling
you that they know the secret to getting
in. I'm here to review those videos and
I'll tell you what's accurate and what
advice you should probably stay away from.
from.
>> First of all, let me say something.
There's any influencer out there who's
telling you do X, do y, you'll get into
BC Berkeley, you're full of what works
for you works for me, works for other
people, may not work for you. Every
single person have their own strength.
Every single person have their own
weaknesses. There's no oneizefits-all.
>> Yeah, that's accurate. There is there's
no formula to admission to the
University of California. What works for
one person does not necessarily mean
it's going to be the same thing for you
and or should it be. We're trying to
build a group of students on our
campuses that have a bunch of different
perspectives and you really just have to
show up as yourself. So kudos to that
guy for getting getting the first the
first answer correct.
>> One thing is that UC's prioritize
community service a lot like a lot. So
make sure that's like exemplified
somewhere in your essays or in your
extracurriculars list.
>> Here's the thing. If you're volunteering
just because you think it's going to
look good on the application for the
University of California, we're really
having the wrong conversation to begin
with. And I would say this is true of a
lot of different places in the
application, but let's just focus on
this for now. At UC, we're looking for
students who are going to be active
members of our community in a bunch of
different ways, right? There is no
preference for students who spend a lot
of their time volunteering, just like
there's not necessarily any kind of
preference for students who are captains
of their football team or members of
their robotics teams. Every student is
going to have a different set of
interests that hopefully mean something
to them and that's what we want to learn
about. So, if you are a volunteer and
you volunteer at a homeless shelter, a
church, or at your school, whatever it
may be, we hope that that's meaningful
for you and that you will then help us
understand why that was so meaningful to
you through your application. Some
students, they might be contributing
financially to the household. They might
be responsible for siblings and they
can't participate in extracurricular
activities because they had to do these
other things. That is doing what you
could with what you had available to
you. That is 100% valid and important
context. A lot of times students will
ask me like, you know, well, if I do
this, is this more valuable than that?
And I always tell them, don't try to fit
into the box that you think that I want
you to fit into. Make your own box. Do
what's important to you, what what
drives you, what gets you excited
because it's going to show more
thoroughly throughout your application
than just trying to check a box off.
>> IQ season is finally here and it's super
stressful, but I'm here to help you guys
get into those UC's. Do not write a stop
story. A lot of people just want to
write about, oh my god, like my life was
so hard, my blah blah blah. Unless you
kind of dealt with a different lot of
adversities that you directly overcame
with kind of um a more abstract
solution, people will care about your
emotions, but admissions officers are
not one of them.
>> Oh, well, that was really harsh. Wow. We
we do care about your emotions. Um and
and she's also not wrong. You don't have
to have a Saab story. And I I don't even
know that I really like framing it that
way, but her words, not mine. I think
there is some thought amongst students
that they have to have had overcome some
significant challenge. And I find
sometimes students really feel like
they're stretching to to find a
challenge that they've overcome. And
that's just that's just not the case.
Every student has had a different set of
experiences in life. and you might have
overcome some really significant
challenges that are impactful to you and
you want me to know about. You also
might have overcome some really
significant challenges that you do not
believe define you as a person and
therefore choose not to tell me about.
Both of those things are okay as is not
having had challenges and therefore not
making anything up. That's also all of
those are acceptable. You don't have to
have had a bunch of life challenges to
be admitted to the university. And if
you have had them and you want us to
know about them, it's also okay to write
about them.
>> Listen up. If you are writing your UC
personal insight questions, I have the
formula for you on how to write those
essays and write them successfully.
Number one should be some kind of hook,
including like a personal anecdote or
anything that really grabs the reader's
attention so that they'll pay attention
to what you're saying.
>> Personal insight questions or the PIQ's
are really meant to be kind of like an
interview, like a conversation with the
person reading your application. And so
if I asked you to tell me about an
example of how you show your leadership,
I would not expect some hook or anything
like that. I've seen applications where
a student will start to write with uh
you know it was a dark and stormy night
and there was dark clouds on the horizon
and the thunder rolling in the
background, the pitter patter of
raindrops on the tin roof and so on and
so forth. And I mean it can be very very
beautiful writing but you've now wasted
like three lines of your personal
insight question response telling me
about that and I've learned absolutely
nothing about you. Right? So you you've
missed some opportunities there to use
that space wisely. There are 350 words
allowed for each response. You know
they're they're quite short. I think the
most effective responses are just direct
and treated as if we were just having a
conversation. Colleges will look at the
high school you go to and see the grade
for that high school. So, every high
school has like a grade that determines
how challenging your school is. There's
a private high school and a public high
school. Let's say the private high
school notoriously is college
preparatory. It gets higher scores,
higher standards, considered smarter. It
goes up on the rating for more
challenging. So, if a student comes from
there with straight A's,
more challenged. And then we have a
public high school. And this is where
the bar is set for the most challenging.
Definitely lower than the private. So,
if a student gets straight A's here and
a student gets straight A's here, people
are probably going to choose a student
that gets straight A's at the more
challenging high school. That's not
really fair. But it's not necessarily
just your high school. They can also see
what classes you took. And then there's
ratings based on classes. I don't know
the specifics of how that system works,
but I do know it exists.
>> I don't know that I would agree with
like the framing of public versus
private. One is more rigorous than
another. Most of our students do come
from public schools like just as a
matter of fact. So, I don't know that I
would necessarily frame it that way.
What I will say though is the context of
your school is what we are assessing you
on, meaning what was available to you at
your school. And so if you attend a
school that restricts, for example, the
number of honors or AP or college
courses that you can take, that's
important information for us to know
about your course taking patterns,
right? Um, you know, I I go to this
school, they only allow two AP courses
per year, which by the way, that's fine.
On the flip side, you might go to a
school that doesn't offer AP or honors
at all. And and that's also okay. We're
going to review you in the context of
that school environment. So regardless
of whether you went to a public school
or a private school, that that doesn't
matter. And in fact, the majority of our
students here at the University of
California, I think it's somewhere north
of 75% come from public high schools
right here in the state of California.
>> Take on extracurriculars.
Okay, I'm going to do lacrosse,
basketball, softball, dance, and swim
while figure skating.
Yeah, I think that should be enough,
right? And the key here is not to pick
as many extracurriculars as possible and
be bad at each and every one of them.
You don't necessarily have to have 10
extracurriculars to impress the
admissions team. All you really need is
really just like one, but you have to be
very good at it. You could be the top
swimming champion, awardwinning pottery
maker, or you knit like 10 sweaters for
homeless kittens. Whatever. Just pick
one thing to really focus on it and
become really, really, really good.
>> Yeah, I don't think that that's bad
advice. I don't know that I would say,
you know, work to reduce it down to one
and become really, really good at that
one thing. But the one thing I do think
is absolutely 100% accurate though about
this video is the quality over quantity
for sure. We have such a wide variety of
experiences where some students like at
Davis for example we have an equestrian
team. They have been raising horses
their entire life. They compete and they
do this every single weekend year round.
Because of that you don't necessarily
expect to see a lot of other things
happening because that student might be
just wrapped up in that one particular
event that just means so much to them.
And then you sometimes have the opposite
where students really don't know what
their passions are and they're just
trying to figure it out. And so they try
a bunch of different things and along
the way hopefully we see some depth and
we see some some narrowing, you know,
something that students become really
interested in. They're getting involved
in the leadership of that program or
they are beginning to compete if it's a
competitive space or they're expanding
that interest to others. So, if you're
just trying to fill the page, we're
again starting from the wrong spot. We
really want you to pursue what is most
interesting to you.
>> Okay. Finally, my last piece of advice
is to use every single resource that you
have. Like my school had this free
college workshop thing, and a lot of my
friends were embarrassed to go to those,
but I was like, why? Like, this is not
just the next four years of your life.
Like, this is like possibly your entire
future onwards. Don't be embarrassed to
ask like your past teachers to help you
proofread your PIQ's. Don't be
embarrassed to ask your friends.
>> Taking advantage of resources that are
available to you, 100% co-signed on
this. If you're in California, actually,
if you're anywhere in the country,
anywhere in the world, we have dedicated
territory managers that you can reach
out to. Those folks are really there to
help answer your questions. Reach out to
our offices for assistance. We are a
free resource. We run workshops all the
time. We host them locally in your
communities. We host them online. And
so, you know, use us as a resource as well.
well.
>> The best way to cook yourself when
applying to UC schools is to write
really bad PIQ's. Do not be boring.
There are many ways to be boring. And
one of the easiest ways to do it is to
repeat information that you've already
included in other sections of the
application. The PIQ essays are an
opportunity for you to showcase other
aspects of your personality, growth, or
achievements that aren't fully explained
elsewhere. Making sure to not repeat
information, I think, is actually pretty
good advice, particularly within the
PIQ's themselves. You know, four
personal insight questions that talk
about the same situation or the same
activity again and again and again and
again, I think can be a missed
opportunity. Students should try, if
they can, to expand into multiple areas
of their background to to really provide
a more full picture of who they are as
as a human being. You might be one of
those students that has just a one-track
thing like you are just so into this one
activity and it is the one thing that
you do and the one thing you want me to
know about you. Try to use at least a
different example from that particular
space so that we're get a little bit
more complex understanding of who you are.
are.
>> So how do you figure out which PIQ
prompts to answer?
>> Think about what you want me as the
person reading your application to know
about you. Do a little brainstorm
exercise. is okay. I want this person to
know that I'm a creative individual and
I like to solve problems and I'm really
interested in this topic and I've got
this particular leadership experience
that I think was really transformative
in my life. Right? You might want me to
know those four things and you can fit
those into any questions you want to.
Right? Like that's the beauty I think of
the personal insight questions. You can
talk about leadership in the creativity
response. You can talk about creativity
and the greatest talent or skill
response. And so start first with the
characteristics and qualities and
situations that you may want me to know
about first and then expand from there
to looking at the questions and seeing,
okay, where would this fit in? How would
I combine four of them together to paint
that picture for Robert versus like,
okay, well, I I definitely have to
respond to leadership. Um, and I don't
even know what I'm going to talk about,
but I definitely have to respond to
that. That's we're starting from the
wrong lens there. So, flip that around.
Think about first what you want me to
know and then work your way into the questions.
questions.
>> And of course, using cliches is probably
the best way to be boring. I'm obviously
not an admissions officer, but it
probably gets really boring for them to
read essays about divorce or sports
injury over and over again. Keep in mind
that over 140,000 people applied to UCLA
last year. So, you definitely want to
differentiate yourself.
>> I mean, look, sports injuries and
divorce are realities of of life. And
for many students, that may have had a
very big impact on who they are and and
what they hope to achieve. Don't stay
away from that because someone told you
to avoid like something that everybody's
going to talk about. If that was a real
genuinely impactful situation that you
want me as the person reading your
application to know, lean in on it,
right? you own the narrative and forget
what the naysayers are are telling you.
We really want to hear your words as an
individual. So if you start to talk
about a parents divorce or you talk
about a sports injury, as this young man
was saying, focus on impact to you,
right? And and I think more importantly
than just the impact, the overcoming of
those challenges in any situation that
you're you're going to write about.
>> But do you get responses that are boring?
boring?
I don't know that I would say that that
there are responses I've read that are
boring. I think that there are responses
that I've read that are maybe missed
opportunities, right? To provide more
color, provide more context. Stop
worrying about like what you think I
want to hear because when I say all I
want to hear about is you, I mean it. I
really do mean it. And I want to hear
about your life and your aspirations and
what you want to study and why and how
you might be a creative person or how
you might have made your community
better. Those are the things I want to
hear about because they matter to you.
Compared to a student who tries to fit
in the box that they think I want them
to fit in, I think ultimately falls flat
because it's not genuine.
>> I got this message today and it occurred
to me. I have never done a video on
UCGPA cut offs cuz guess what? They got
them. If you're a California resident,
the cutoff is a 3.0. It has to be a 3.0
0 or above in your UC GPA calculation,
which I will elaborate on a second. For
out of state applicants, it's a 3.4 or
above. The UC's, along with a number of
other colleges, will recalculate your
GPA based on their own criteria. For the
UC's, it's um your GPA in your A
throughG coursework.
>> Most students applying to the University
of California aren't just getting to the
minimum. They're eager learners. They've
gone beyond what's the the minimum
requirements. I think what's always
going to be important here is that
students are really researching each
campus that they're going to apply to to
understand the relative level of
competitiveness in the academic space
and recognize that even within a campus
like at Davis, one program might be more
selective than another. And so your
overall chances of admission are not
always going to come straight down to
GPA either. That's that's important to note.
note.
>> I got into Brown, USC, and UCLA, and I'm
a low-inccome student. I had no fancy
internships, but I showed real impact on
my activity section. This is how you can
do it, too, to get into your dream
school. If you ever tutored your
siblings, that's leadership. If you've
ever worked a part-time job, that's time
management. If you've ever organized a
community cleanup, that shows
initiative. If you have a dream school,
you don't need a perfect resume. You
need the right framing of your story to
craft it in a way where it hooks the
college admissions and allows them to
understand your full story through your
activities section. that is 100% valid
and an important context because I think
what she was trying to get at is it's
taking me away from the ability to
participate in these like really quote
unquote prestigious extracurricular
activities because she had to do these
other things that is doing what you
could with what you had available to you
and that is important context. Students
really are the owners of their own
narrative. We really want to get to know
as much about a student as we possibly
can. And I don't think that she got in
just because she is a low-income student
with excellent extracurricular
activities. I bet she has a really
stellar academic record as well.
>> You can get into your dream college even
with a low GPA. Let me explain. Take
advantage of the additional information
section. When you're applying to
colleges, you'll see this part come up.
You might be thinking, I don't have
anything else to add. I'm just going to
skip this. Wrong. This is literally the
most underrated part in the entire
application. This is the perfect space
to address your low GPA without taking
space in your personal essay. You should
not be making any excuses and taking
full responsibility. Some example of
things you can include are you had to
spend more time working in your
part-time job, experienced some sort of
health issue. Basically, take full
advantage of this section.
>> I mean, the additional comments can be
used for all kinds of things, right? It
doesn't have to be used just to explain
a negative grade trend, right? There's
two additional comment sections. One
that is part of the academic history
portion of the application. And that's a
good place to tell us about things like,
you know, maybe your school uses a
different grading scale. Perhaps your
school limits the number of advanced
courses you can take. Perhaps your
school has some other unique
characteristic about it that we may not
know just reading your application.
That's a good place to tell us stuff
about like like that. the additional
comments that are part of the personal
insight questions. It's a much longer
response. I think it's 550 words and you
can tell us a lot of information, 550
words. This is a good space, I think, to
really explain any challenges in your
curriculum or any other contextual
pieces of information that you think
would be helpful for us to understand
about you as we're reviewing your
application. It's not mandatory. It's
completely optional. I do think it can
be underutilized. And I think that
that's actually a pretty insightful
point from this video that it can be underutilized.
underutilized.
>> So, what is that one tip that is minor
but crucial? It is to fill out your UC
application using I statements in any of
the writing segments, the activities and
awards section and the scholarship and
program section. A lot of students tend
to make the mistake of deviating from
their role and tend to talk about the
award itself rather than the role you
played in getting that award or
scholarship or program you participated
in. In today's terms, let's just say you
want to make yourself the main
character. The program or scholarship or
award should not be the main character.
You should.
>> Yeah, that's great advice. One thing
about the University of California
application is that it is very student
driven. There are no counselor
recommendations. There's no teacher
recommendations. Your parents don't get
to call us and tell us how wonderful you
are. There's no interviews for for most
programs, right? And so, we're not going
to know anything about you unless you
tell us. And this is the space to tell
us about you and who you are.
>> Number one missed opportunity I see when
it comes to UC applications is the
activities list. I had a student who was
accepted to UCSD even though her GPA was
lower than other students who were
rejected and she was certain that it was
because she followed my advice for how
to write strong activities list descriptions.
descriptions.
>> I mean, we don't know what campuses or
majors the student applied to that may
have had an impact on the selectivity
relatively. And I would never say that
the extracurriculars are what got a
student in. It's really the whole package.
package.
>> Write chunky descriptions. no one or two
sentence answers for what you do. Here
are some examples of extracurricular and
community service activities.
>> I take a little bit of issue with the
advice on quote unquote chunky answers.
The way that I would phrase this is that
more is not always better, right? And
that applies to the number of awards,
activities, honors, and and whatnot. It
also applies to the way that you write
the description. You don't have to have
full sentences. Bullet points are okay.
Short statements are okay. Using I
statements, I did XYZ. I led this. I X,
you know, so on and so forth. I think
those are really powerful statements.
Um, you know, you don't have a lot of
character count, so you really do need
to self-edit and kind of get to the
point. We're not grading them for
grammar or spelling, you know,
punctuation or anything like that, but
you do want to try to make it easy for
the person reading the application to
read it. Like in her example, she had
the title. if there were titles held uh
positions held as part of a club right
up front. It makes it easier for the
reader to uh immediately understand the
scope rather than having to um we I mean
we read every single word you put down
on these things. So just make sure
that's clear, but you can make it easier
on us to to get to that information quickly.
quickly.
>> Use numbers. Numbers are your best
friend. Numbers are helpful for
admissions officers who have a sense of
scale because they don't know what your
club is like. If you lead a club that's
50 people strong versus 10 people
strong, then you need to make that
differentiation. There are a lot of
different numbers that you can include.
Here's a short list.
>> For awards or activities where we may
not have a lot of context as to what it
is that can be really helpful for us to
understand scope. It can help us. The
advice on like the number of people in a
club that you're leading can can be
helpful. I think her list was actually
pretty good on on that. like the types
of things that some context around
really help to to just kind of flush out
the our our understanding of what the
activity or the ward is.
>> If your family lives in California, you
might assume your teen has an edge when
applying to the University of California
system, but that's not exactly the case.
Here's how admissions typically works.
International students are admitted
first. They pay about 80,000 a year and
must have guaranteed funds in an escrow
account. Out of state students come
next, paying around 70,000 a year.
California students pay closer to 40,000
a year and are considered last in this process.
process.
>> Oh, this is so problematic. We read all
of our first year applicants at the same
time. I mean, we don't split them out in
cycles. We are the University of
California, and so we're here to serve
the students and people of the state of
California, point blank. And that shows
up in our enrollment numbers. 84% of our
current undergraduates come from the
state of California. So, we admit far
more California residents every year
than we admit students from outside the
state. The UC system promises that 25%
of all students admitted will be from
California, but that's measured across
all campuses, not each one. That means
schools like UC Merrced and UC
Riverside, which are great colleges,
admit more instate students to offset
lower California enrollment at schools
like UCLA or UC Berkeley.
>> At every UC campus, we're all like at
80% or above California residents. So,
I'm not sure where she's getting her
information cuz it's just on its face
factually untrue. We are funded by the
state of California to enroll California
residents. Every UC campus has more
California residents than non-residents.
I don't know how that claim could be
made. So, now that I've watched all
these videos, let me give you my tips.
And I'll start with the one that I might
have said the most, which is stop trying
to fit into the box that you think I
want you to fit into and make your own
box. Right? A lot of times students get
so caught up in thinking about what I
want to hear that you lose sight of who
you are and what you are most passionate
about. So really focus on yourself. Tip
number two, don't be afraid to reach out
to our offices for assistance. We are a
free resource. We answer our calls uh
every day. We run workshops all the
time. We host them locally in your
communities. We host them online. So
check out our websites. We're there for
you to help guide you through this
process. So don't be afraid to reach
out. Tip number three is to explore all
of your options throughout the
University of California. You might be
very familiar with a campus because you
live nearby and you might be less
familiar with another campus because
it's further away or maybe your friends
aren't applying or what have you. Each
campus is unique and has a different
vibe that might actually be a really
good fit for you. Look at all of your
options throughout the UC system.
Consider all of the campuses before
submitting your your final application.
Also, remember you're submitting one
application. So, if you choose Davis,
Santa Barbara, and Irvine, the three of
us are going to get your application. We
read it independently of each other and
and and make selection independently of
each other. And you can choose all nine
if you really wanted to. You could
choose to apply to all nine campuses
with one application. And finally, my
last tip is to slow down and take your
time. Really think about the picture
that you're painting for us through your
application. Every single year, we get
questions from students about, can I
update my my application? I forgot I
left this piece out or I got this award
right after I submitted the application
or something like that, right? And the
the the truth is you're really not able
to update that information. So you
should you should know that going up
front. We're not going to know anything
about you unless you've told us. You
really want to make sure that you're
giving yourself plenty of time to submit
to review and not wait until the very
last minute to submit it. The narrative
pieces of your application are going to
take the longest, right? Because you
really get to craft your story for us
with your with your words. Your grades
at this point are what they are.
Nothing's going to change in that
regard. But how you tell your story can
can have a really big impact on helping
us to understand who you are and what
gets you excited every single day. It is
stressful. I understand and uh I
empathize a lot. We want you to know
that we take a lot of care in this
process to really slow down as well and
read your applications thoroughly and
read the whole thing before we we make
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