Today, we’re covering 4 of the best UC San Diego essay examples we’ve ever seen.
And yes: UCSD accepted these essays.
*cue streamers*
These essays were pulled from a client who received our college admissions consulting and essay help services for the 2022-23 admissions cycle. We managed to help them craft 4 very strong UC PIQs that helped them secure a spot in UC San Diego.
But first, let’s cover their stats.
UC San Diego Accepted Student Stats
- Unweighted UC GPA (Year 10-11): 3.70
- SATs and ACTs: N/A
- Major: Cognitive Science, General
- Extracurriculars:
- Key club member
- Chess club member
- Tennis team
- Ballet dancer
- Private tutor for free (Middle School level Math)
As you can see, our student wasn’t exactly the most competitive student that UCSD had seen. Nonetheless, they were a strong enough candidate to get accepted.
Note that our student did NOT need to submit SAT and ACT scores to the University of California schools due to their test-blind admissions policy, which you can find more about here.
If you write a strong UC essay, you may be able to compensate for a low GPA. But, keep this in mind: just because you have a strong set of UC PIQs does NOT guarantee acceptance into the University of California schools.
For more information on the requirements for application to the University of California, you can check out the link here.
With that said, let’s get right the examples and what made them work.
Table of Contents
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UCSD Essays That Worked.
Below, we’ve listed four of our successful UCSD essay examples. The prompts were for UC PIQ 1, 3, 6, and 8. You can find guides to all of these in the following links below.
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #1
“3. What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
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 it, 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?”
UC Essay Prompt 3
“It’s good to be bad.
We hear it from cheesy romances all the time. The bad boy reluctantly working the diner job finally getting a break as he pulls up to his good-girl partner’s house in a new, polished Mustang as he takes a comically Hollywood-like drag from a cigarette. “It’s good to be bad,” he says with a smolder, while his partner sends a giggle in his general direction.
But, I’m not talking about that. I’m not one for muscle cars or gendered romance stereotypes.
This is more a philosophy.
Growing up, I was told by a lot of my peers, teachers, and even family members that I was a fast learner. Everything came easy to me. Well, it wasn’t just that; but, it was hammered into my head early in life that I should live up to the expectations that came with this. Perfection was key. And, not living up to those expectations was a sign of a bad life.
It led me to believe that everything I did had to be flawless. I could not accept anything other than that; it was like an arrow to my pride. And that pride, that fragile, delicate pride, was so easy to shatter with just a simple touch. I just couldn’t accept anything I saw as imperfect.
This inexorably led to a loss of opportunities: a self-sabotaging nightmare of thinking everything is beneath me, and therefore losing out on perfectly good experiences.
It wasn’t until I gave a real, hard look at myself in the mirror that I realized what was wrong. Perfection wasn’t the solution. It was the problem.
The solution was a failure.
As difficult as it was, I let go of perfection and embraced doing things poorly. I let myself join games of Chess knowing I was at a disadvantage. I tried spicy foods with friends knowing I couldn’t handle it as well as they could. I regularly went to the gym to become fit, rather than wait to be fit before being “ready” for the gym.
And, it was good.”
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #1
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #2
“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 the lead role in organizing an event or project. Think about what you accomplished 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?”
UC Essay Prompt 1
“Shut up.
That’s all. That’s all you need to do as a leader.
Sounds crazy, right? Well, let’s be fair: there are some leadership positions where communication is key. Drill sergeant? It’d be a miracle if your lungs didn’t burst. Head chef? Say goodbye to that esophagus. Alright, alright. We can be fair and say a decent amount of communication is crucial to leadership positions.
But, sometimes, in lesser positions of leadership with fewer moving parts, the everyday kinds where others rely on your basic intuition and straightforward guidance, the best thing you could do is seriously…
…zip it!
Here’s an example.
Let’s say you’re driving with your mother and you both stop by the grocery store for milk and cheese. Did you also want muffins? A box of those might be good for a quick breakfast when you’re too lazy to cook a meal so early in a Winter morning; after all, less executive acti…
“OH GOOD GRIEF WATCH IT OH MY…”
“…oh, you were just tailgating the car in front of us. Yeah, I know my perspective from the passenger side looks scari…”
“WOAH WOAH WOAH OH GOODNESS GRACIOUS WHAT WAS THA…”
“…oh, it’s just a bee. How did it get in here?”
Most if not everyone has had this kind of experience. They’re not a bad driver by any means; but, it’s when one’s parents and their anxiety starts to get in the way that the panic sets, spreads like wildfire, and boom. You’ve got a crisis!
Serving as a police officer and put in a situation where you need to de-escalate? Good luck when civilians scream and wave within the scene!
Teaching a student how to do addition? All you need is a stern “are you sure?!” to persuade them that 2+2 is not in fact 4!
I’ve translated this experience into my teaching technique as president of the MathSense club. In it, I teach aspiring students how to start their own math tutoring side business. It includes not just Math lessons, but also people management skills and basic communication techniques. Sometimes, my club members make mistakes. Sometimes not. Other times, their side-hustle blows up in popularity! There’s just one key:
Stop talking so much.
Zip it!
The more unnecessary wordiness I add, the more panicked meetings, the more anxiety I add to the fire in response to mistakes, the more panicked my students become.
Perhaps the most prominent example involved my recent Vice President’s marketing strategy. I let them experiment with unconventional marketing tactics such as paying for social media ads to increase conversions. In that, our club lost a total of $6,000 and made up with only $1,000 in revenue.
Many were upset and rightfully furious. They asked me for things I should say to our VP; what should I tell them?
I said this:
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #2
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #3
“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 future 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?”
UC Essay Prompt 6
“Math is weird.
It constitutes the basis of our everyday life. Cars. Food. Electricity. The phones we fiddle with during awkward conversations.
The idea that even our ancient civilizations articulated the concept of “nothingness”, zero, the absence of “is”, is just absolutely fascinating. It’s everywhere, and absolutely fascinating yet terrifying. Even the fact that we’ve managed to even consider ideas in abstraction and articulate them through symbols and numbers is incredible.
Perhaps even more terrifying than this is just how logic and numbers have helped us achieve technological feats otherwise thought impossible when put in practice. How have we managed to calculate the measurements needed to make vehicles faster, and more aerodynamic, and resistant to forces, and…
It’s mind-boggling! Math has launched our society into a world we never could have even imagined. The phones made of precious metals that were milled through the use of machinery that implements mathematical calculations have allowed us to communicate ridiculous memes and revolutionize an entire generation. Data analysis and simulations have helped large institutions such as banks to create plans for important clients to maximize the value of their portfolios.
To explore more of the fascinating applications of Math, I’ve gathered a group of other fellow interested Math lovers to found the Numbers club. We’ve used this club to articulate difficult concepts in fields such as Geometry and Calculus and visualize them through charts to post on social media streams such as TikTok and Instagram. Funnily enough, this has actually connected us with other online users who find Math equally fascinating, terrifying, and exciting.
Though, that’s not all.
Some days, I like to just admire works of Math. I don’t need to see the physical works of applied Math like rockets or towering skyscrapers. Sometimes, I can just admire it from afar in theory. There’s a beauty to it just being. The fact that Pi is seemingly everywhere. The idea that stats dictates everything from the population of trees to wins I earn in video games. I can just just sit back, and admire.”
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #3
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #4
“8. 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?
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.”
UC Essay Prompt 8
“I wasn’t thrilled. Traveling to Hong Kong to learn about business during their business management meetings was “sort of” exciting but also dreadful in that “wow-thanks-mom-and-dad-I’ll-be-a-good-girl-and-do-my-best” way that constituted the convoluted experience of overwhelming privilege and responsibility. I should be grateful. Yet, it hurts having to live up to such expectations —even speaking of such grievances feels insensitive to those less fortunate. Yet, it was during my first night there I happened upon…
A girl.
She waved. I waved back.
Then… that was it.
The next day, I was dragged to my family’s first meeting. They insisted learning during their meetings was important. The business elements of any industry were where “true profit” came from. I trusted their judgment; Again, am grateful for all I learned.
Coming home that day was tiring. It was late. But, curiosity conquered tiredness. “Would she still be there like before?” I thought. I strolled outside once more.
There she was, again.A smile.
The next day: “The fiduciary obstacles contradict our core…” “Optimizing efficiency…” “maximize ROI…” “streamlining the…”
Yet, after every day, I came across the same smile.
Until one day…
It stopped.
I never saw her again and I’d return to Irvine resuming my everyday life.
The lesson: I’m not quite sure.
I know these stories should come with some lesson. But, It’s hard to say. Why does it make me a strong candidate? Why does there need to be a lesson, anyway?
Let’s see…
One midsummer August, amongst the busy bustle, the bumbling business, the money making for the next “stuffs of sanctimonious sensibilities”, I happened upon a girl. She smiled. I did too. And, in that, I learned to appreciate things for what they are. Not for more money, better business, and another academic advantage to write in my long, lengthy letter here today. I learned to appreciate life as it is. As a student, who can appreciate the beauty as it is.
I can stop mid-race.
I can appreciate the subtle things in life.
I can breathe.
Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #4
Things That Made These Essays Strong.
Next, we’ll be covering the 4 elements that made these essays strong and arguably stand out from the rest of the admissions pool.
Note: these aren’t REQUIRED in your UC San Diego essay. But, they help with drastically increasing your chances of acceptance.
Transparency
Transparency is a given in all college essays, not just the UC PIQs.
If you want to write a strong set of college essays, especially one that will help you get into prestigious institutions with a lot of competition such as UC San Diego, you’re going to need to open up.
Now, this is quite difficult. Most students who apply to competitive schools are going to have a hard time being open and honest about their backgrounds. They may have trouble feeling like they’re too “exposed” to admissions officers. And, they may also feel like they don’t want to reveal ANY negative aspects about themselves.
Here’s a general life dictum: most if not everyone has had a few skeletons in the closet. Not everyone is perfect. But, college admissions officers KNOW this.
Your UC admissions officers know this because they’re human. And, you’re human. We all know that everyone has some negative elements that they’re hiding from the rest of the world. These elements may actually have some positive parts about them that reveal good traits that you may not have initially taken into consideration.
Let’s take a look at this part of the perfectionism essay for example.
“The solution was a failure.
As difficult as it was, I let go of perfection and embraced doing things poorly. I let myself join games of Chess knowing I was at a disadvantage. I tried spicy foods with friends knowing I couldn’t handle it as well as they could. I regularly went to the gym to become fit, rather than wait to be fit before being “ready” for the gym.”
Excerpt From Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #1
Normally, most students would talk about how their perfectionism was overcome. However, this only serves to make them look more… well, perfect. It doesn’t really sit right with admissions officers. And, perhaps more importantly, the lack of transparency about weaknesses makes students seem disingenuous.
Remember that the admissions officers need to trust you. To do that, one of the best ways you can garner trust is to make sure they see the vulnerable side. That may include showing parts of you that are not always strong and how you’ve overcome it.
Humility
This works in line with the previous statement about transparency.
To gain the admissions office’s trust, it’s useful to demonstrate humility in your UC PIQs. Showing that you can be humble is a form of maturity and personal growth which proves to your readers that you can admit to weakness. From the UC San Diego essay examples we gave, you can see humility in the second UCSD essay example.
“Perhaps the most prominent example involved my recent Vice President’s marketing strategy. I let them experiment with unconventional marketing tactics such as paying for social media ads to increase conversions. In that, our club lost a total of $6,000 and made up with only $1,000 in revenue.”
Excerpt From Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #2
In this example, we showed how our client did not succeed in their advertising experiment. With most business strategies, students like to brag and boast about the great things they’ve done. Many of these are also hard to believe.
But, you’ll notice that it’s actually the students who are humble and transparent enough to share their failures in business who are often the most trustworthy. Those are the ones who have experienced failure; and, therefore, they have the capability to demonstrate their strength through experience in later projects.
Humility is often the best way to garner trust from the admissions office. Those who are open about their imperfections are more believable than those who are seemingly perfect in every way. And, with how real you can be, you’ll have more leverage to persuade admissions officers of other things (such as letting you into the University of California!)
Openness to Change
One of the best features in a college essay is an openness to change.
Admissions officers are looking to find students who are flexible. That is, they are capable of handling the difficulties that are presented to them and changing based on that.
Being able to change to an adapting environment is a crucial element to student success. If you enter college with a closed mindset, you’ll have a hard time making the most of your experience.
One of the best ways to show that you’re open to change is to tell admissions officers when your strategy has failed. Tell them about how a technique during a sports game didn’t go as expected, how you failed to earn 1st place, or how any preconceived notions did not executed as planned.
By admitting to plans going awry, you can be open about vulnerabilities and times requiring a change of plan. So, this opens up the opportunity to talk about how you were able to change the pace of your work for the better.
The important part here is to demonstrate to admissions officers that you chose to change out of your own free will. You need to emphasize the depth of strength, will, and determination to change. That will help admissions officers believe you more when you tell them about your experience.
Strong Articulation and Communication Skills
Throughout all of our UC San Diego essay examples, the writing has demonstrated strong articulation and communication skills. This is going to be particularly important in your college essays.
Almost all colleges are going to expect that you’re writing at a sophisticated level. This means communicating sometimes difficult and abstract ideas in simplified and straightforward language for readers to understand.
So, if you’re feeling grief or anguish at a particular experience, the admissions office would hope to hear and understand your experience clearly and effectively. You can’t do this without a proper level of sophistication in explaining your ideas well.
Expect to be writing with a diverse array of punctuation, creative diction, strong imagery, and varied sentence length. This will help the flow of your prose. And, it’ll also help you write essays that actually stand out very well amongst the rest of the admissions pool.
Take this passage from one of our example essays.
“We hear it from cheesy romances all the time. The bad boy reluctantly working the diner job finally getting a break as he pulls up to his good-girl partner’s house in a new, polished Mustang as he takes a comically Hollywood-like drag from a cigarette. “It’s good to be bad,” he says with a smolder, while his partner sends a giggle in his general direction.
But, I’m not talking about that. I’m not one for muscle cars or gendered romance stereotypes.
This is more a philosophy.“
Excerpt From Successful UC San Diego Essay Example #1
In this example, we can see how the length of sentences are not all the same. While the first sentence is rather short, the next one following is rather long and expressive in imagery. In addition, the essay is not afraid of peppering in modifiers to provide a deeper reading experience that portrays a detailed perspective to admissions officers.
Consider the way that you articulate your words to the admissions office. There are going to be times when you can show off your creative writing abilities. And, at the same time, there are going to be moments when you’ll need to tone it down a bit and keep things simple to give your readers some breathing space.
It’s all about balance. Once you’ve got that covered, you’ll have written a solid UC San Diego essay that articulates your background and experience better than what most others could do.
If you’re still struggling to write a solid UC San Diego essay, or just need help with your UC PIQ essays in general, we’re here to help! Schedule a free consultation with us, and our expert college admissions essay editors will help you craft a fantastic set of PIQ essays that will get you accepted into your dream UC schools. We’ve also helped students write essays that got them into some of the most prestigious schools in the nation outside of the UC system, including NYU, USC, Cornell, U Penn, Brown, and more!