The UCLA supplemental essays (which are just the UC PIQs) are some of the most commonly requested essays we get. And, there’s a good reason for that: UCLA is a coveted school all across the world.
Surprisingly, it seems to even have more demand than UC Berkeley.
Why?
Well, who wouldn’t want to live in Los Angeles and enjoy a beautifully diverse community? Who doesn’t want a world-renown education that can push them to a great career?
Oh, and who can forget the food?
Almost every client we’ve worked with said their #1 reason for applying to UCLA is for the food.
…which is probably not a good reason.
Nonetheless, most of our clients got their wish! So, win-win right?
For the sake of this article, though, we’ll be covering one particular client and the successful application essays we helped them craft and brainstorm. When we worked with them on their UCLA application, they were applying knowing that they had a rather slim chance of acceptance.
It’s important to note that practically EVERYONE has a slim chance of getting accepted into UCLA. After all, the class of 2025 had an acceptance rate of 10.77%. The class of 2026 had an acceptance rate of 8.57%.
So, our client wasn’t exactly an outlier here.
Nonetheless, we’re quite impressed and proud of them for the quality of their essay. Working with them throughout the brainstorming, editing, and writing process was a pleasure; we’re hoping to provide everyone with the same quality of help!
In this article, we’ll be covering how to write the UCLA Supplemental Essays by showing you 4 example essays that worked. We’ll also cover what made these example essays get our client accepted.
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About Our Client’s Stats
During the application process, our client was quite pessimistic about their acceptance chances.
They had a lower GPA than the average applying year. In addition, they had a few incongruencies during their academic years that made applying a bit difficult.
This was partly due to a late diagnosis of ADHD, compensating for this learning condition as a neuroatypical student, and a conglomeration of other unusual circumstances such as business operations and other externalities.
Though, they did have some level of work experience, startup small business experience, and experience at an internship.
Long story short, due to unusual circumstances and an abnormal background, our client didn’t have as competitive of a GPA and extracurriculars/work experience as other highly qualified candidates to be competitive.
That’s why it took quite a lot of time, effort, and elbow grease for our team to collaborate with them and make a solid set of UCLA essays that worked.
And, hey! They got in!
*cue streamers*
Now, what does this mean?
It does NOT mean that you can get accepted into UCLA just by writing a solid essay.
UCLA weighs the GPA heavily into its admissions decision process. So, just having a great essay alone is not going to guarantee your foot in the door.
However, if you do have a lower-than-average GPA, it’s important that you use the UCLA essays as a way to subtly explain the reason for your low performance. You can even use the additional information section to elaborate on strange or unusual parts of your application!
Alright, with that said, let’s go over 4 of our UCLA supplemental essay examples that worked.
UCLA Supplemental Essay Examples
UCLA Essay 1: The Labor of Baking
0. Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university.
UC Essay Prompt –Required Question
“As a Labor Studies major, I believe every experience we have in the workforce is one that can prepare us for the future.
When I was a child I spent my summers in Zürich, Switzerland surrounded by the smell of fresh pastries and chocolates in my grandma’s house. As a young adult, I chased after that nostalgia by recreating it in a career that would bring me closer to feeling that same amount of contentment.
So in the beginning of 2020 I started my own business right out of culinary school. I didn’t have the textbook knowledge that most entrepreneurs would’ve liked to begin with; but, I had a network of people supporting my endeavor. Being a business owner was a dream of mine, and it demanded quick learning. My experiences as an employee in my adolescent years greatly shaped the way that I held myself as an employer in my own company. Through trial and error, I successfully scaled it for nearly a full year before the effects of the global pandemic hit. I wasn’t willing to give up so quickly and persevered through a second year, which gave me the opportunity to connect with other business owners like myself. Through all of the tribulations, I found a community of people I felt I could identify with and learn from.
This first-hand experience lets me understand the dynamics of labor in our modern world on a personal level.
Those years I spent staying up late, working weekends, and missing friends and family gave me so much more than I could imagine. I learned how to pace myself, connect with others, and it gave me a determination to succeed that I didn’t know I had in me. At the end I discovered that I had so much more than one singular dream and I began to accept that making new memories is better than chasing old ones. The entirety of it all, made me someone who’ll always be a student ready to learn new concepts even if they aren’t the ones I was expecting.”
Successful UC Essay for Required Question
UCLA Essay 2: ADHD
Note: If you’re looking to write your UCLA essay on ADHD, we understand how it could potentially be troubling and difficult to write. If you’re NOT certain you can write a UCLA essay on ADHD, we STRONGLY recommend checking out our sister article here.
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?
UC Essay Propmt 5 –Challenge Question
“There’s no more shockingly profound moment before they come back from the room and give you an official title of, “So, you happen to have attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)” because, like trumpets roaring in unison, the mind finally goes…
“Aha! So that’s what it was this whole time!”
Though, personally, I don’t think it’s entirely accurate. It’s more than just the stereotypes, and the scatterbrained-ness. It’s literally being incongruent from others. It’s masking said difference as “oh, silly me; how quirky, teehee!” and hoping, hoping, that I won’t somehow get “discovered” as if hiding were so necessary. It’s that… and, like, a million more.
Here’s an example.
My diverted attention in action during class: A discussion on Poe’s “Raven”. I’d think, “there-was-a-guy-from-a-show-I-watched-who-was-surrounded-by-ravens-and-wow-he-was-attractive-I-wish-I-could-move-like-a-ninja-like-him-I-wonder-how-ninjas-even…” before having my stream of consciousness interrupted by “[client name], what did Poe really mean?” to which I’d scan the board for context clues at mach 5 speed to answer.
And, what else would a teacher feel other than sassed? Here’s some girl, who looks like she’s not paying attention, and then answers questions anyway. So: punishment.
When my best friend suggested I see a professional, I initially thought she was joking. But, I went anyway. Hearing a professional deconstruct every element of my life in perfect surgical detail was stunning.
It’s hard to navigate the world once you realize you’ve been disadvantaged in certain ways that you never knew were possible. It felt like I was running a marathon, only to discover half way through that I started five miles behind everyone else. It shattered my world… for a moment.
But, I adapted using my newfound knowledge to catch up on academic goals otherwise unreachable. This adaptation required Herculean mental strength to overcome old habits and condition my divergent mind to modern sensibilities. Don’t give in to instant gratification; stare intently at a single object without breaking attention; pace the workload and transition when needed; listen and rewatch lectures when the mind is tame. Most importantly: forgiveness. It’s biting my shameful pride and accepting at teams my imperfection. I forgive myself for not meeting other people’s standards. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s progress and I’m better for it.”
Successful UC Essay Prompt 5 Example Essay
UCLA Essay 3: Life of a Pretty Girl
3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
UC Essay Prompt 3 –Talent or Skill Prompt
“She looks over the edge of the cliff, or at least what she can make of it being just inches away from the precipice of falling from a horrible height. She doesn’t want to look, and her imagination runs wild into just how steep the fall is; yet, there’s a brutalizing crawling atop the cliff that she can’t stop. She keeps walking, and it gets closer. She doesn’t want to see. She gets closer. It’s coming.
This is the life of a “pretty girl” –metaphorically, of course.
I don’t really like the label of being called a “pretty girl”… wait. I can’t even continue that thought without also saying I don’t fully believe I’m that pretty. I would feel vain and arrogant if I didn’t at least acknowledge that I don’t see myself that way. The topic of Aestheticism is just like that: a minefield where you can’t talk about one thing without triggering another topic.
So, if my prose is still bearable, I’d like to share what my life being labeled as “aesthetically gifted” is like. It’s hard. Hard in what way?
Well, it’s dreadful. Dread for the future. Those with our label can’t think in the future; or, at least, we shouldn’t. How does that work?
When I was in elementary and middle school, I was always told by strangers and family members that I was pretty. It taught me something subtle: that there’s quite a lot of value to be pretty. I am nothing without beauty, as beauty is everything to young women in society. But, what happens as I age and the collagen runs dry? Life no longer holds meaning because I don’t mean anything to society once my beauty fades. It’s a nihilism bomb. Tick, tick, tick.
I do not develop my talent in beauty; I overcome it.
How? It means looking past that cliff. It means seeing what’s beyond and accepting that, at some point, that beauty fades. But, I’ll no longer have my value as a human be determined by the whims of others’ standards. And, with that ego death, I started to live.”
Successful UC Essay Prompt 3 Example Essay
UCLA Essay 4: Asking for Help
7. 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?
UC Essay Prompt 7 –Strong Candidacy Prompt
“After closing my business in March, I didn’t have high expectations for this summer. In June, I was given an opportunity to work with my half-sister in a company she’s been at for a while. When I accepted, I couldn’t anticipate that I would grow so quickly into a managerial position or that I would come to meet and love the people I do now. The team that I’m working with at the moment has given me the faith to lean on my teammates and really come together to exceed our own expectations. I’m aware that the area we’re in, San Gabriel Valley, is a very close-knit area so the sense of cultural community that it provides is astounding. I’m grateful to have been given the chance to manage this team over the summer and into next year as they’ve really branched out my world view. Having been born and raised here in southern California, I previously felt that I already had a broad cultural experience given the diversity of Los Angeles.
Working with this team has shown me that we can always broaden our horizons and that there is so much more this world has to offer. Even against our own volition, we’d hear, “It’s ‘okay’ to ask for help” and we’d brush that off with a “yeah, yeah…” knowing full well we won’t. But, now we don’t.
That’s because it’s not just ‘okay’ to ask for help. It’s necessary.
I have more pride in the richness of my own cultural background after participating in this project and I believe I can bring a new perspective to any table that I may have the opportunity to sit at. My time with this group has extended my patience, and deepened my empathy and compassion. I choose to see this and all of my previous experiences as adventures that have strengthened my integrity and I am beyond appreciative for that. I’m eagerly awaiting the opportunity to use the knowledge I’ve accumulated to enrich any future experiences I’ll have, whether it be in an academic or social setting.”
Successful UC Essay Prompt 7 Example Essay
Why They Worked
There are a lot of elements that make up a strong college essay. For our example UCLA supplemental essays, we’ve needed to take a lot of time editing, writing, rewriting, and brainstorming before coming to the final product.
Here are the 4 elements that made these essays strong.
Creativity, flow and readability, honesty and transparency, and growth over time.
Note that you do NOT need to have ALL of these elements to write a winning set of UCLA supplemental essays. However, it certainly helps to have all of these elements in your writing if you want to maximize your chances of getting accepted.
Creativity
One of the best elements you can implement into your UCLA supplemental essays —and all college essays for that matter— is creativity.
Having creative prose can help your essay stand out from the rest of the admissions pool.
But, there are many ways you can be creative in your UCLA supplemental essays. You can be creative by using analogies to explain your situation. You can be creative through your imagery and prose. You can be creative by answering the UC PIQs in an unconventional manner.
Here’s an example of our implementing creativity into our client’s essay.
“She looks over the edge of the cliff, or at least what she can make of it being just inches away from the precipice of falling from a horrible height. She doesn’t want to look, and her imagination runs wild into just how steep the fall is; yet, there’s a brutalizing crawling atop the cliff that she can’t stop. She keeps walking, and it gets closer. She doesn’t want to see. She gets closer. It’s coming.
This is the life of a “pretty girl” –metaphorically, of course.”
Example of Creatvity in the UCLA Essays –PenningPapers
Note that our client could have just written about how hard life was as a pretty girl. However, she knew that many people suffer the same problems that pretty women endure. Thus, they can have a more powerful essay by implementing creative prose into the essay.
We advised our client to start the essay with an analogy of what being a pretty girl was like. Then, we suggested using an unconventional sentence structure and length that would diversify the feel of the writing.
This was especially effective, and gave her story a much more rich experience for the admissions officers compared to just stating, “Being pretty is hard.”
Interestingly enough, it’s this creativity that actually allows students to write about college essay topics that they feel they’re not too comfortable discussing. Topics like death, ADHD, money, and other controversial topics may seem too risky. It’s why few people write about it, which makes them uncommon and unique topics.
But, creative prose allows students to approach such topics beautifully to captivate admissions officers.
Flow and Readability
Flow and readability constitute the backbone of your college essays.
If you want to write a successful UCLA supplemental essay that gets you accepted (and perhaps even is usable for other college essay questions) you will need to have a strong flow and readability that admissions officers can understand.
If you don’t have flow in your writing, you risk having a choppy sentence structure that makes following your words difficult.
Here’s a good example of flow in our example UCLA supplemental essays.
“My diverted attention in action during class: A discussion on Poe’s “Raven”. I’d think, “there-was-a-guy-from-a-show-I-watched-who-was-surrounded-by-ravens-and-wow-he-was-attractive-I-wish-I-could-move-like-a-ninja-like-him-I-wonder-how-ninjas-even…” before having my stream of consciousness interrupted by “[client name], what did Poe really mean?” to which I’d scan the board for context clues at Mach 5 speed to answer.
And, what else would a teacher feel other than sassed? Here’s some girl, who looks like she’s not paying attention, and then answers questions anyway. So: punishment.
Example of Flow and Readability in the UCLA Supplemental Essays –PenningPapers
Pat attention to the way the writing here reads. The first sentence is quite long and verbose. However, the way the subjects and predicates are strung together is consistent and easy enough to read for an admissions officer to skim through in one sitting without having to read twice.
You can make the flow and readability of your writing easier to understand by writing all events in the order of when they occur. In this case, there are no jumps in the timeline. It’s just our client detailing what their experience with boredom in class is like. Then, they move to the teacher testing their attention. Then, the client scans the board. Then, the teacher feels sassed. Then, punishment.
The order of events follows a timeline and does not jump between events. So, it’s easy for admissions officers to follow the events occurring in the essay.
In addition, you’ll notice we helped our client bring variety in sentence structure, punctuation, and sentence length. By diversifying these elements of writing, the text appears more interesting and appealing to the eye.
Make sure to use different punctuation like semicolons, em dashes, and colons. Vary the length of sentences. And, vary the order of predicates and subjects.
By doing this, you prevent your writing from sounding choppy and boring. This also keeps admissions officers interested and makes the overall flow easier to understand.
Honesty and Transparency
We give this point to practically every college essay example and guide, and for good reason.
To write a successful UCLA supplemental essay that gets you accepted, you must speak honestly and transparently. This is perhaps one of the most understated pieces of advice given to UC applicants.
If you write with honesty and transparency, the best parts of your personality are going to shine through your writing. You won’t sound fake. You won’t sound ostentatious. You’ll sound like a candidate that the admissions office can trust.
And, in the modern age of college admissions scandals, fake extracurriculars, and lazy students looking to game the system at every corner, trust is worth more than gold.
We’ll repeat that.
If you can gain the admissions officer’s trust in the essay section, that trust is worth more than gold. Period.
Got it?
Good!
Here’s a super cool example of what being honest and transparent can do.
“I don’t really like the label of being called a “pretty girl”… wait. I can’t even continue that thought without also saying I don’t fully believe I’m that pretty. I would feel vain and arrogant if I didn’t at least acknowledge that I don’t see myself that way. The topic of Aestheticism is just like that: a minefield where you can’t talk about one thing without triggering another topic.“
Example Honesty and Trasnparency in the UCLA supplemental essay –PenningPapers
The interesting thing about this passage of our UCLA example PIQ is that it interrupts the flow of dialogue to introduce meta ideas that our client was feeling. They don’t like being called a “pretty girl”. But, before they can even continue talking about that, they recognize that the potential to be called “vain” and “arrogant” hangs over their head like a Sword of Damocles.
This is therefore a loaded conversation that is impossible to discuss without stepping over eggshells. And, the client’s recognition of said conversational trickiness opens her up to the admissions officers.
Opening up to the admissions officers and recognizing when some things are hard is a great way to get close to your readers. It, of course, needs to be approached with tact and delicate writing skill.
If you wish to cover an unconventional or difficult topic in your UCLA supplemental essays, but don’t know how to do so correctly, consider speaking with us for a free consultation. Our college admissions essay editors and advisors can help you craft a strong supplemental essay that stands out without raising any red flags.
Growth Over Time
We’re going to be upfront about this.
You don’t technically have to write about growth over time in your essay explicitly. That is, you don’t need to dedicate any lines or paragraphs explaining how you grew or developed in character over the years. There doesn’t need to be a dedicated section to it.
But, it is still useful to demonstrate such growth over time subtly through inference.
Here’s an example of showing growth over time.
“But, I adapted using my newfound knowledge to catch up on academic goals otherwise unreachable. This adaptation required Herculean mental strength to overcome old habits and condition my divergent mind to modern sensibilities. Don’t give in to instant gratification; stare intently at a single object without breaking attention; pace the workload and transition when needed; listen and rewatch lectures when the mind is tame. Most importantly: forgiveness. It’s biting my shameful pride and accepting at teams my imperfection. I forgive myself for not meeting other people’s standards. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s progress and I’m better for it.“
Example of Growth Over Time in the UCLA Supplemental Essay –PenningPapers
You don’t need to directly state that you’re growing and developing in your essay. But, it’s helpful to demonstrate it subtly through the language in your writing.
In this UCLA supplemental essay example, we used techniques for overcoming a scattered mind to demonstrate the client’s willingness to change for the better. We show HOW our client is improving in their condition rather than SAYING it directly. It’s this “show don’t tell” mindset that actually makes the writing much more convincing to admissions officers.
By showing growth over time subtly through the efforts you do rather than just stating it as fact, you can gain your reader’s trust. And, as we mentioned previously: trust is worth more than gold.
If you’re still unsure of how to approach the UCLA supplemental essay or are still looking to write strong essays that stand out from the rest of the admissions pool, don’t hesitate to ask for help. Schedule a free UC admissions essay consultation with us. Our expert college admissions consultants and essay editors will provide you with the best practices needed to write a winning set of PIQ essays that get you accepted into UCLA.