You’re waitlisted! That means you still have a chance of getting accepted!
But to get accepted, you’ll have to show UC Davis that you’re a good fit for their school. This guide shows how to write a UC Davis waitlist essay that gets you in and shows an example of what a successful waitlist essay looks like.
Note: You should simply be using this essay example as a guide and inspiration on how to format the content and structure of your waitlist essay. Copying this essay would be cheating. We highly recommend having at least 3 admissions experts (or well-trusted counselors if you can’t afford one) look over your essay.
If you haven’t already, we also suggest taking a look at the University of California Waitlist Page for information on the rules!
UC Davis Waitlist Question: “Please briefly tell us why you feel UC Davis is the right place for you to continue your education. Please limit your response to 200 words. Note that you will only be able to submit your essay once, so please review it carefully before submitting.”
The waitlist question can be scary here. Here’s why:
- Firstly, you are only limited to 200 words maximum.
- Secondly, most students only ever really have a surface-level understanding about why they want to attend university to begin with.
We’re quite proud of this one! Below is a successful UC Davis waitlist essay example from a student who was accepted into the department of engineering. Hey! That must mean that a waitlist essay like this is pretty good! After all, the department of engineering is one of the most competitive to get accepted into in Davis.
Without further ado, here’s our successful UC Davis waitlist essay.
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UC Davis Waitlist Essay For Department of Engineering
“My interest in UC Davis stems from its top-notch facilities and extensive research opportunities. With highly trained professors and high-tech facilities, Davis is the perfect place for me to improve my engineering skills and contribute to the field. In Ready Set Connect, I provide tech support, mostly in social media to elders and people with little technological knowledge. In the program, my group is currently developing a website to provide easier social media access to elders in our community, so they can connect with their families, wherever they are. The different opportunities available at Davis can help me pursue more research to better my community. For instance, I imagine bringing the website I am working on to be more accessible and more secure with research from Professor Chen-Nee Chuah’s RUBINET. With Davis’s resources, I aim to make technology more accessible to everyone, starting with the local elders. I want to continue my research on different programs even though I am farther away from my community.
Davis is my top choice; I believe the school will challenge me and allow me to push the boundaries of current engineering to improve the lives of people in the future.”
As we said, this essay example was a pretty good one. They were able to use this to get accepted into one of the more competitive departments in UC Davis.
In the following list, we’re going to show some of the things you can get out of this essay and how you can apply it into your own.
Remember: Implementing these factors into your own essay isn’t a guarantee that you’ll get accepted off the waitlist. Since the essay becomes the primary determining admissions factor in the waitlist, you can’t afford critical errors.
Why This Waitlist Essay Worked
Experience
The essay example shows what the writer has been up to either it be in the classroom or outside. In this example, the activity of the program outside of school shows how engage the writer is in the engineering field. Any extracurricular, internship, or programs that you could have done over the year or years can help in distinguishing yourself from the rest of the essays since this is a unique experience that only you can have.
We actually firmly believe that this is the core reason that the student was able to get accepted into UC Davis for engineering to begin with. They weren’t just any student focusing on academics; they were able to stretch their skills to apply it practically in everyday life.
The experience of being in a program and making a website shows that the writer is dedicated to investing the time to be part of something that relates to the department that the writer wants to get into.
Reasons Why YOU Fit Into The School
How exactly do your talents fit in with this school? You’ll have to be able to say that, but also briefly. Don’t forget: you only have at most 200 words in this waitlist essay. Show them how you go with the grain instead of against the grain to have a good advantage against the rest of the admissions pool.
To be fair, the student here did speak about what Davis could provide for them at the beginning of the essay, which for us would be a big “no-no.” You want to make sure the beginning is interesting enough to capture the reader’s attention, so that means don’t say anything they already know about like the strengths of their facilities.
The admissions officer who reads the essay does not need to be reminded about the greatness of the school. Therefore, focus on how your talents can resonate with the help of the school. This is about how YOU are a great fit for the school and your admissions to the school will be most fruitful for the world. A general rule that schools follow is this: Students who are a great fit and who do great things typically improve our reputation. We need a good reputation to earn every dollar of our grant money.
Directness
This goes a bit with the need for brevity, though that goes with all steps of the admissions essay writing process. You have to be straightforward and forthright about your words in this one, without boring your admissions officers of course. Sure, they can spare a drop of attention for a 200 word essay. The admissions officers are spending time taking your college application a second consideration. That’s like getting your homework back and having to look at all the problems again! Long story short, that’s a lot of work.
So they’re most probably going to look through your work with brief, scanning eyes. What do you do? You can’t fit deep, poetic imagery into 200 words; even if you could, it wouldn’t be a good idea in the waitlist essay. Well, you have to not only be direct, but you have to have the proper diction, sentence structure diversity, and general writing style to provide the admissions officers with a connotation. A positive one; one that unconsciously shows you as a person who is capable and can prove that they’re the right student for UC Davis.
Questions about the UC waitlist essay? Need a second look before you press the submit button? PenningPapers provides one free expert admissions essay check to maximize your admissions chances. Simply fill out the sidebar form, or contact us through email to schedule a consultation!