Before you start answering the UC Essay Prompt 1, stop.
Stop, and consider this one statistic: most people do not get accepted into a University of California campus.
Sounds obvious, right? Sure! But, most people don’t realize just how daunting admissions is today. Let’s take UCLA as an example.
For the 2023 school year, UCLA received 145,910 applications. Only 12,737 students were accepted. That makes its acceptance rate 8.73%. While there are many schools with single-digit acceptance rates, let’s see what these numbers actually mean. Below we’ve visualized it for you.
This means 133,173 people were rejected by UCLA. To visualize, that’s enough people to overflow the Michigan Stadium.
If we’re being particularly dramatic, UCLA rejected about as many people as Genghis Khan’s army during his conquest of Russia plus Eastern and Central Europe —which was about 150,000 people.
You get the point.
Now, UCLA has the lowest acceptance rate of all campuses. So, maybe it’s not fair that we cherry-pick the school with the most competitive acceptance rates. Let’s instead look at some of their mid-level difficulty schools: Davis and Irvine. The former had an acceptance rate of 41.8%. The latter, 25.7%.
That’s over half of UCD applicants getting culled. And, about 3/4 of applicants for Irvine.
Poof. Gone.
This is why having the right UC PIQ advice is so crucial.
With numbers like these, you need to do everything you can to maximize your chances of acceptance. And, that includes strong PIQs. In this current college admissions climate, when getting in is practically a lottery, strong essays will help your chances a lot.
So, here’s how we can help.
Over the past few years, we’ve gathered all the advice we found was most helpful in writing winning UC essays. And, this guide is everything we’ve curated through trial and error. This will essentially include everything you need to answer UC essay prompt 1.
Note: If you’re looking for an example essay that worked for UC essay prompt 1, you can check out our sister article with the link here.
With that out of the way, let’s get to it. Below you’ll find the table of contents covering each section of our guide.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: The Ultimate Guide to the UC Essay Prompt 1.
- Most UC Prompt 1 Essays Suck.
- How to ACTUALLY Make a Good Prompt 1 Essay.
Professional College Application Help.
Contact us. We'll get to you within 24 hours.
Introduction: The Ultimate Guide to the UC Essay Prompt 1.
Below we’ve provided our ultimate guide to the UC essay prompt 1. It will contain all of the things you need to answer UC PIQ 1 properly.
Additionally, this advice aims to make your application essay stronger than the rest of the admissions pool.
Before we get to all of the points below, consider reading through the prompt pasted.
“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?”
University of California PIQ 1 Prompt
Hey, this sounds like a pretty good essay prompt, right?
Well, there’s a bit of a problem here. This prompt is actually one of the harder ones out of all the UC PIQs.
Most UC Prompt 1 Essays Suck.
Most people don’t know how to answer the UC essay prompt 1. A lot of UC PIQ 1 essays fall short of expectations. Additionally, many of them even leave a negative impression on admissions officers.
Why is that? Well, it starts with the topical UC Prompt While students with leadership experience may believe their topic is strong, it does NOT mean they can write it well. It actually makes this prompt one of the harder ones to answer; but, it’s worth it!
How to ACTUALLY Make a Good Prompt 1 Essay.
Below we’ve provided 7 major points to consider before answering the UC essay prompt 1. As mentioned previously, we specifically hand-picked these points because they helped our students best when crafting solid essay drafts for prompt 1.
And, well, making solid prompts suck. It’s painful.
So, hopefully, these topics will make the UC essay prompt 1 writing process much more stress-free.
Beware of Golden Topic Syndrome. Just Pick One Topic.
The first lesson of UC essay prompt 1: Beware of Golden Topic Syndrome (GTS).
GTS is actually a variant of the Shiny Object Syndrome. Shiny Object Syndrome, or SOS for short, is a mental state where people constantly chase new, trendy, or exciting ideas without dedication to one idea.
It’s often used in a business context to describe leaders who continually chase new trends, which takes valuable time and energy away from existing projects.
In the context of college essays, GTS consists of students constantly cycling through different topics without settling down. Students with GTS will choose a topic, only to find it less than ideal than another one. They’ll jump ship to another topic, and repeat ad infinitum.
The problem with students constantly jumping ship to better and better topics is twofold:
- Students are often not choosing a “better” topic. Instead, they’re only seeing topics through rose-tinted glasses. GTS makes students impulsively choose topics that initially seem perfect, only to discover their topic has flaws like any other.
- The constant chase prevents students from actually producing real drafts. Cycling through different topics in search of a “golden” topic may seem like progress. But, it’s not. It’s only the illusion of progress.
The best way to overcome GTS is to stick to one decent (not perfect, but decent) essay topic and ACCEPT that the topic is not perfect.
This will initially trigger the perfectionistic mind; but, you must come to accept the topic as decent but not perfect. Resist the urge to give in to a “better topic,” and you’ll realize whilst writing your essay that it actually looks much better than expected.
Give Leadership a Unique Definition.
Everyone defines leadership differently.
Some believe leadership is defined as guidance through thick and thin.
Others define leadership as an understanding and empathy of all team members’ strengths and weaknesses.
Some even define leadership as being the strongest or superior to that of others in a chosen team.
But, most people can agree that leadership often involves two things: one person who is in charge of stuff, and a group of people who follow said person.
When answering the UC essay prompt 1, it’s useful to define the word “leadership” in your own words. After all, most people may view leadership differently than you. Additionally, it’s good to give leadership a unique definition that most other students wouldn’t’ve thought of.
For example, one may define leadership not by the titles and fancy positions that people hold, but by how a leader handles chaotic situations with their peers and teammates. So, leadership is not a “thing” but an “action.”
Having a very specifically defined limit of what leadership entails helps your essay stand out from the rest of the admissions pool.
Note: You CAN write your UC essay prompt 1 about leading your family or friends. It does NOT need to be limited to clubs or activities where you hold positions or titles like “treasurer” or “president.”
Write Less About WHAT You Did and More About How it Felt.
Let’s be frank: chances are, if you’re answering UC essay prompt 1, you’re writing about a topic that’s already put on your extracurricular list.
If you’re talking about how you led a team to win a competition in your computer science club, you probably don’t need to repeat EVERYTHING that happened in the essay. After all, a good chunk of what happened is probably in your extracurricular list anyway.
Instead, try to make the events of your leadership experience as short and sweet as possible. Don’t remove any of the context. Just be concise. Think of it as writing the events with a hammer: you’re trying to scrunch it up into as short of a passage as you can without removing the important parts.
This gives you space for the more important parts of your essay. And trust us: you’re going to appreciate that extra space, especially since you want to have extra words for things like imagery, how it impacted you, etc.
Oh, and don’t forget about the 350-word limit. That’s going to demand you to keep things very, very short!
Use Imagery… But Don’t Be Cheesy.
We all love imagery. Really, we do!
Great imagery helps admissions officers in many ways. For one, it’s a great way to stand out from the rest of the admissions pool with exciting, compelling writing. Additionally, It’s a clever method for students to sneak in nuanced ideas and themes between the subtext.
But, if there’s one thing to note about UC essay prompt 1, it’s that most people suck at writing imagery in leadership topics! More often than not, people write their PIQ 1 essays too cheesy!
Now, what do we mean by this?
College essays are cheesy when they’re embarrassingly unoriginal and cliche, often due to overdramatization. However, one defining characteristic of cheesy writing is writers pushing/forcing their readers to feel a certain way.
This is a very, very important point. We’ll say it again for the fellers in the back.
Cheesiness comes from pushing/forcing your readers to feel a certain way.
Here’s an example:
“The atmosphere was filled with anticipation as the ball I shot into the air twirled daintily in an otherwise dramatic scene; and, as it fell perfectly in place into the hoop, my whole team lifted from the floor as the crowd cheered louder than I ever could have imagined. This was it. This was the concluding shot of my game. And, I would be the player who turned the tide and won our championship.”
Example of a Cheesy College Essay Introduction –PenningPapers
What makes this example cheesy is just how over-the-top the descriptions are about the writer’s own accomplishments. While it’s nice to brag about it, it reads a bit like some of Reddit’s R/Thathappened stories. They often involved the original poster creating a fictional story where they were the hero in a scenario, a maiden falls in love, everyone claps, and someone gives them a $100 bill.
Preposterous? Sure. But, the big the main point here is that the descriptions are written in a manner that forces the reader to view them in nothing but positivity. There’s no room for nuanced interpretation. That’s what makes it cheesy.
Okay, so now the question is: how can you make a description with deep imagery without forcing the reader to view you positively? How can you make a nuanced essay that’s more open or genuine?
Well, it’s actually in sounding more genuine and open. The more you sound like a real and down-to-earth person who isn’t forcing an impression on admissions officers, the less cheesy you’ll sound.
Think of it like flirting: when you’re pushing onto a man/woman/person all the ways you’re great, nice, caring, cool, and totally rich, you end up forcing the person to view you positively. There’s no space to actually get to know you as a person as you are.
Now, here’s an example of a passage from a UC essay prompt 1 essay being less cheesy by being more open:
“Look: it’s the nerdiest thing in the world. I’m not even going to defend myself here —being president of the Medieval Fiction Writing club makes me the nerdiest of nerds.
Though, ironically enough, no matter how much roleplaying, dressing up, and deep-dive worldbuilding, and integration into the world of fantasy with friends and peers and clubmembers while trying to live in said worlds, I never quite felt like I really belonged in the club; for, I never quite fit MFW’s “style” if one could call it that. Weird, right? Feeling like a pretender in a club for fiction and pretending.
I’ve always felt that way because, as a girl who considers herself quite sporty —and yes, I do consider cheer a sport, and a strenuous one at that— my background never made me fit in with fellow fiction writing nerds; and, likewise, my penchant for fiction writing and roleplay never made me fully fit in with my fellow cheer memebers. Each community had their own prejudices for one another, making me, who holds leadership positions as both MFW club and cheer team, the weird wallflower in some strange contradictory sort of way. It’s like being in limbo; or, like two limbos: one, a fiery pit that no D20 roll could save me from; the latter, the uncomfortable middle ground when you’re lifted mid-air during a cheer rewind and thinking to yourself, “maybe, maybe, no, no, no…” only to just barely land on your feet.“
Example of Being Less Cheesy in an Essay
Notice how in this second example, the writer is more open whilst still using imagery to paint a picture. The writer can still write in-depth about what it feels like to not belong in either community. And, they can use stream-of-consciousness as a method of communicating mental thoughts throughout their imagery. This lets them be more open instead of forcing the reader into thinking they’re only positive. Instead, it gives them a full image of the applicant: someone who, while conflicted and wishing to belong to both communities, can admit to her own yearning for belonging in a transparent way. Ultimately, the key to avoiding cheesiness in your UC essay prompt 1 essay is to have a more open and genuine essay that’s open interpretations outside of positive only.
Focus on 1-2 Character Traits.
This is an important aspect of answering UC essay prompt 1.
When writing the PIQ 1 essay, remember to keep around 1-2 character traits in mind. These can be anything strong and admirable such as intelligence, cleverness in stressful situations, empathy, courage, humility, etc.
Try to think of character traits that admissions officers would find useful on a college campus. And, consider what kind of character traits would make the University of California campus culture better.
Additionally, character traits that are considered unconventional yet powerful in leadership positions work wonderfully. Often, students only imagine things like courage, charisma, and intelligence are important to leadership. But, they typically miss the other soft skills that are just as if not more important to leadership.
For example: traits like transparency and empathy work very, very well in this essay. Most students are surprised, especially when interning at a workspace, just how powerful soft skills like transparency and empathy can get them into leadership positions. Empathy is used by venture capitalists to measure and understand their prospective client’s perspectives by looking from their shoes. Transparency helps assist the communication process, which is a crucial element to many if not all operations processes.
These are just one of many skills that help students show that they have a stronger understanding of leadership than most others. So, in short: don’t just show any random positive character traits. Show something that unconventionally helps leadership positions and would make you a great addition to campus.
Learn to Avoid College Essay Cringe.
Alright: here’s what’s going to happen.
Because most UC PIQ 1 essays are hard to write, most of you dear readers will believe your essays are cringey. You’ll reread your essays, and this is what will ring throughout your mind:
“Ewwww, this is so gross. I don’t know what I was thinking! Yuck!”
Then, you’ll start from scratch. You’ll try to answer the UC essay prompt 1 once more. And, this time, it might seem okay-ish. Perhaps it’s decent, even. But, the next morning when you wake up and reread it, you’ll say…
“Ick! This is so cringey and stupid. I don’t even know what I was thinking! Let me just redo it.”
We’ve come across students who have done this continually. This is called an editing loop: it’s when you can’t seem to stop re-editing your work from the ground up because one or more things will continually pop up because they look “cringey.”
Now, while cringe can certainly exist in some circumstances, here’s the thing.
Most instances of cringe in the UC essay topics are not actually cringe. In fact, the feeling of cringe comes from an anxious mind born of low self-esteem.
Here’s a more in-depth description below.
“…Do not write your college essay with the hopes of avoiding cringe. Instead, learn to avoid cringing.
The anxious part of your mind may search for any possible reason your college essay is cringey. That’s what fear does. It’ll look for reasons to justify itself even if it makes no sense. “Oh my god! They’re going to think I’m a total weirdo and the admissions officers are going to laugh and I’ll get rejected because they think I’m “that guy!” Oh no!!!”
Come to accept that, as a student, you’re most probably cringey no matter what you do. Once you accept being cringey, you can start to understand yourself more and therefore write more honestly about yourself in college essays…”
Why Your College Essays Are “Cringe”: Advice From an Editor –PenningPapers
You can find more in our Reddit post below.
One very cool trick to avoid hypersensitive cringe in your essay is to do “Mad Libs” on your own essay. That is, replace little bits of your essay with arbitrary topics, items, or ideas. Just get creative and redo your essay a million times. Then, notice what happens in your mind. If your mind habitually cringes at anything you write NO MATTER what topic or words you replace in your essay, then it’s not your essay that is cringe. It’s your mind that’s conjuring the feeling of cringe due to low self-esteem.
Another thing you can do while writing is to sit with the feeling of discomfort at your essay feeling cringey. Sit with how uncomfortable it feels and DO NOT act on it. Don’t edit it, don’t change it, don’t write a new essay because you have a new idea. Just sit there and stare at your essay. That’s it. Soon, you’ll realize the anxious part of your mind is starved of attention; and, it’ll get weaker. You’ll then realize that your essay doesn’t actually look all that stupid or cringey at all! And, trust us: this has worked wonders in helping countless students and clients of ours escape from their neverending editing loops!
Remember: the Essay is Primarily About YOU.
At the end of the day, a college essay about leadership is not about leadership. It’s about you.
The essay topic can be about something else like running the coding club or leading the cheer team. The topic can be about any leadership experience you want. But, that topic you choose should primarily be supporting the main “meat of the dish”: you.
At the end of the day, the essay exists to help admissions officers understand more about you as a candidate. So, the leadership topic you select should help readers understand what kind of person you are.
Thus, when answering UC essay prompt 1, make sure the admissions officers can clearly infer what kind of person you are. Be sure to make it easy for them to analyze your character throughout your essay to make an inference about your personality.
If you want to write about being the president of the chess club, show how your experience as president demonstrated your strengths like helping teach newcomers how to play openings. Or, on a deeper level, talk about how your teaching is different —and, better yet, how this communication made you a great person for others to follow.
Remember: don’t get too lost in the topic of leadership itself. While you’re trying to answer the prompt clearly, you still want to make it easy for admissions officers to analyze and infer your character traits and positive attributes. It’s still about you, at the end of the day!
It’s not just UC essay prompt 1, but also for the rest as well!
If you have any other questions about how to answer the UC essay prompt 1 well, consider seeking editing and writing help. Schedule a free consultation with us here, and our custom college admissions consultants will get back to you within 24 hours. We’ve helped students with lower GPAs and weaker extracurricualrs write powerful essays that still got them accepted into prestigious UCs like UCSD, UCLA, and UCB!