In this article, we are featuring our UC Santa Barbara essay that worked. This was an accepted essay from 2019.

Because UCSB’s admissions process is so competitive, we highly suggest having your essay edited by at least one professional admissions expert.  

So, just how competitive can UCSB be?

How Hard is it to Get Into UC Santa Barbara?

Short answer: It’s hard.

Long answer: It’s hard and having good grades won’t guarantee your admission. Because the rest of the application pool will have very high grades, you will have to rely on the other most important factor: the personal insight questions.

To maximize your chances of getting accepted, you will need to make sure your entire application is in its best shape.

Like the other UC Schools, UC Santa Barbara uses 14 holistic admission factors in their decisions. The admissions process is grueling and competitive. Here are the stats for UCSB’s fall 2019 class.

UCSB average freshman profile

• High school GPA: 4.04-4.28
• Applied: 93,442
• Admitted: 27,719
• Admissions Rate: 29.7%

UC Santa Barbara’s admission rate has dropped from the years before; and as admissions gets more competitive each year, it will only drop more. That’s why it’s important to fine-tune every aspect of your application to maximize your acceptance chances.

Successful UC Santa Barbara Essay

          “Refereeing in sports is a position that never wins. There is no room for error, and even when one is right, they are wrong to half the crowd.

There is no level in the career, from little kids to the world cup, where the audience gets any nicer. 

             Despite this, being an arbiter pays off. It’s a small career niche, so every referee is special and contributes greatly to the sport. They help keep the spirit of the game alive, and provide an opportunity for those who no longer play on the field to still take part in the sport.

             I was fourteen when I started refereeing soccer games, still playing recreationally myself I began as a linesman for 8-9-year-old children who did not quite know how to play. While my fellow referees and I were not quite allowed to coach, we offered guidance and explained to kids that, “No, no matter how many times you do it, you are still not allowed to raise your foot on a throw-in,” and “No, please don’t tug on the other player’s shirt!”

     Now, five years later, as the Fall 2019 season comes to a close, I have aged out of the youth recreational league. I do not have the time to practice for an adult team, as I focus my energies on school. But between August through November, every year, every Saturday, that playing spirit is awakened on the sidelines, and nothing is more rewarding than to take part in officiating soccer matches on a Saturday morning where the game runs smoothly, the players have a good time (winning or losing), and the parents can watch their kids with pride — even if they dislike the referee’s calls. I find joy in playing a part in contributing to the spirit of the game and that is my special role in the soccer community.”

Anonymous; Accepted to UC Davis + UC Santa Barbara

How to Write the UCSB Essay

With an admission rate of 29.7%, UCSB is considered one of the “middle-tier” UC schools. Don’t mistake this as medium difficulty of acceptance, with the upper tiers being hard and the lower being easy. All UCs, at least currently, are very difficult to get into.

Compared to every other UC Santa Barbara essay that worked, this one is one of the “luckier” essays to have been accepted.

With the scores our applicant had received, she could have been accepted into much more competitive UC schools if she had a UC admissions officer look at her work.

With that said, here are 3 pieces of advice we would provide to write your UCSB personal insight questions.

1. Make a Strong Hook (A Very Strong One)

Hooks are some of the most important parts of the college essay. They not only catch attention, but they also tell the admissions officers that you take your application very seriously.

The hook needs to at least be better than the average applicant’s hook. Considering many of them are applying with high GPAs, you can be sure many of them won’t skimp out on their hooks as well.

Hooks also tend to be one of the most difficult parts to get right.

On one hand, you want to be short, sweet, to the point, and absolutely riveting. On the other hand, you easily risk saying something awkward or offensive in the process.

2. Write with strong imagery

Imagery is another one of those most important parts of the essay.

The only problem with this is that it tends to be very difficult to get right. There are so many considerations with imagery in the college essays that covering every point would be impossible.

So, how do we make imagery work with the essay? It depends on your topic.

Some topics may require many sentences in short bursts with no punctuation. Other topics may demand long sentences with deep description of every physical feeling.

For some, imagery can also demonstrate certain personality traits. For example, long and fluid “stream of consciousness” types of writing tend to fit for creative applicants because it demonstrates a dream-like vision.

The overall gist is this: your style of imagery should match your topic, and it should portray a certain personality trait.

Covering all of this will make you very attractive to admissions officers.

We understand that making good imagery is very difficult for a lot of applicants. That’s why we highly suggest having your admissions essay checked by an expert.     

3. Connect Your Essay’s “Theme” With the Rest of the Application

 This technique can be quite difficult to execute, but here’s how to do it in simple terms.

First, you need to determine what sort of persona you want to demonstrate through your application. Are you an empathetic person who is willing to go the extra mile for those you care about? Are you a headstrong person who can tackle all obstacles in front of them? Determine what sort of person you want to appear as to your admissions officers.

Second, try to string your overall theme to the words of all of your essays. Like the rest of the UC schools, UC Santa Barbara requires multiple personal insight questions. Try to implement the theme in each of those essays so that the admissions officers understand who you are as a whole.

Have questions about how you can get into UC Santa Barbara? Have any questions about our UC Santa Barbara essay that worked? Need professional editing and counselling? We’re here to help. Simply fill out our contact form in the link provided and we will get back to you as soon as possible.