Adapted from PrepScholar

Prompt 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 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?

Qualities to Emphasize:

• That you have the maturity to deal with groups of people

• That you can solve problems with your own ingenuity and resourcefulness

• That you don't lose your head and panic at problems

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:

1. The Problem

   • Explain the Dilemma

     1. 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.

     2. 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?

     3. 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?

2. Your Actions That Led To The Solution

   • Describe your solution (specifically YOUR ACTIONS)

     1. 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?

     2. 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?

     3. 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?

     4. 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?

Adapted from PrepScholar

Prompt 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?

Qualities to Emphasize:

• That you have actually created something in your life or academic career

• That you consider this an important quality within yourself, and that you have cultivated your skills

• That you can see and have considered the impact of what you've done on yourself or on the world around you

The prompt wants you to examine the role your brand of creativity plays in your sense of yourself.

Part 1: Define Your Creativity

• What exactly do you produce, make, craft, create, or generate? Of course, the most obvious answer would be a visual art, a 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 thing or do you struggle with it? If you struggle with it, why is it important to you to keep doing it?

Part 3: Connect Your Creative Drive With Your Future

• The most basic way to do this is if you envision yourself actually doing your creative pursuit 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?

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

Adapted from PrepScholar

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?

Qualities to Emphasize:

• That you have actually developed, honed, and near-perfected a talent or skill

• That you find this talent or skill personally meaningful and you take pride in it

• That this journey has also led to maturation, a sense of responsibility, and a deeper understanding of your values and ideals

The prompt wants you to chart your development of a skill or talent and reflect on its impact on you.

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 mindblowing 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 then, 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, unless you can spin that experience into a story about how you've been on the straight and narrow path ever since.

Adapted from PrepScholar

Prompt 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?"

Qualities to Emphasize:

• That you can handle disappointment, rejection, hard challenges, and adversity

• That you are creative and solution-oriented when rising to a tough challenge, keeping cool and thinking outside of the box

The prompt wants you to recount your recovery journey through a "Big T" Traumatizing situation

1. Part 1: Facing a "Big T" Challenge

The first part of this essay is about problem-solving. The prompt asks you to point at something that could have derailed you, if not for your strength and skill. Not only will you describe the challenge itself, but you'll talk about what you did when faced with it. Please note that this prompt is really exploring life-altering challenges--ones that often threaten a student's life, well-being, sense of safety, and more. If you want to talk about interpersonal conflicts, getting a low grade, or not making it on the team--save that essay for a different prompt altogether. Go with this one if you lost a parent, experienced a period of homelessness, survived a life-threatening ailment, etc.

2. Part 2: Looking in the Mirror

The second part of Topic B asks you to consider how this challenge has echoed through your life—and more specifically, how your education has been affected by what happened to you. The essay should equally focus on your recovery journey and how you survived. Explore and explain what structures of support did you lean on, and how you found yourself again after a period of darkness. When you look back and in the mirror, what do you see?

Adapted from PrepScholar

Prompt 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?

Qualities to Emphasize:

• That you are driven, goal-oriented, and passionate

• That you took time to try and determine BEFORE COLLEGE what you want to study IN COLLEGE

• That you are an active participant in establishing your future career (and not just floating through the surface of life)

The prompt wants you to share a glimpse of your imagined possibilities for your future career.

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. You can just 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 only discovered your academic passion at the very end of high school? Let's break down what the question is really asking into two parts.

1. Part 1: Picking a Favorite

At first glance, it sounds as if what you should write about is the class where you have gotten the best grades, or the class 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 where 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 where 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 the way you've learned to handle or overcome your limitations.

2. 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.

On the other hand, you could focus on the more abstract, values-driven goals we just talked about. Then, the way you explain 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 created a desire to be an actor, but working on plays with your peers may have shown you how highly you value collaboration. And 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.

Adapted from PrepScholar

Prompt 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?

Qualities to Emphasize:

• That you notice others or are mindful of the needs of the group

• That you engage with those around you or your community in a positive and meaningful way

• That you step up and offer help, support, time, and care when needs arise

The prompt wants you to describe which community you belong to and your role & investment in helping deepen, support, and improve this community. This prompt is looking for these main 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?

Adapted from PrepScholar

Prompt 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.

Editor's note: Double check your unique-ness first--bragging is fine, but may be better suited in other prompts. If your "stardom" is not very unique, special, or truly awe-inspiring--your choice to tell your story under Prompt 8 may actually leave a bad taste in the reader's mouth.

Qualities to Emphasize:

• That you have a unique and amazing story to tell

• That you explore how this stand-out experience or quality has impacted you

Again, please note you should only choose this topic if you have an exceptional experience to share, and that any everyday 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.

What's UC Hoping to Learn About You?

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:

• What happened to you

• When and where it happened

• How you participated or were involved in the situation

• How it affected you as a person

• How it affected your schoolwork

• How the experience will be reflected in the point of view you bring to campus

The reasons that the university wants this information are:

• It gives context to applications that otherwise might seem mediocre or even subpar

• It can help explain times 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