[This article is part of a new series where we will be dissecting each of the UC essay prompts in depth, providing examples and tips on how you can make your application stand out.]
Click here to read yesterday’s post about UC Prompt #6.
Struggling with writing your college application essay? We've got you covered! Read our Ultimate Guide to Stand Out College Essays to learn the tips and techniques on writing a winning essay and maximize your college admission chances!
Prompt #7: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
This prompt gives you an opportunity to show UCs the type of role you have in your current communities, and how you plan on carrying that to their campus communities.
But what exactly defines a community? This prompt is actually a lot broader than many might think, because the word “community” encompasses so many different groups. Every single student belongs in some sort of community, including but not limited to your:
Family
Neighborhood
City
Church
Online
The list goes on! This would be the essay to talk about all those hours you spent volunteering at the library or that time you motivated your school to donate to a cause you care deeply about. An important thing to remember is that the experience or community doesn’t necessarily have to be a super unique and impressive opportunity. What matters is the individual contribution and impact you were able to make on this group. 7EDU can help you identify your impact or connect you with experiences that will help you make a difference. Get started early with a free consultation with our experts.
For example, UC admissions officers would rather see that you helped implement a summer reading program for kids at your local library than read about how you just filed papers at your senator’s office. In the same vein, focus on specificity rather than being broad about your contributions.
Moreover, I think it’s important to also explain how your impact on this community affected you. What did you learn from the experience, and how will you apply that to the future? Admissions officers are trying to figure out how your past experiences will translate into future contributions to their campus community.
Here’s how you might structure this essay:
Describe your community and how it was like before you stepped into it
Explain your thought process in determining the necessary impact that you wanted to make
Detail the steps you took to implement the specific impact you made
Reflect on how the experience affected or changed you
Think about how you might bring the lessons you learned from this experience to college or the future
7EDU has helped hundreds of students connect their experiences to a compelling story. Get started early with a free consultation with our experts.
If you found this article helpful, check out the rest of our deconstructed UC Prompts below :)
UC Prompt #1 Leadership Experience
UC Prompt #2 Your Creative Side
UC Prompt #3 Greatest Talent
UC Prompt #4 Educational Experiences
UC Prompt #5 Significant Challenge
UC Prompt #6 Favorite Subject
UC Prompt #7 Improving your Community
UC Prompt #8 How do you Stand Out?
Curious about what UC students really think about their schools? We asked real college students the questions you've always wanted to ask. Check out the whole series with other universities here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8rpS1l4XePwDA9PfTBwAYMyLOFvlrLp9
Our Mission
"For success in academics and beyond, our foremost goal is to guide and support our students through all types of challenges, preparing them to exceed their current capabilities." - Founder of 7EDU, Jun Liu
Our Service
7EDU’s primary mission is to deliver the most effective quality of education to every student we serve. We believe that all individuals learn differently, each with varying of needs, preferences, and degrees of readiness; thus, our educators understand that strategically personalizing every student’s learning experience is the key to unlocking their academic potential. Furthermore, 7EDU Impact Academy has embraced technological advances with adaptive teaching principles since its conception in 2014, with our programs routinely delivering tremendous results and academic breakthroughs for all 7EDU students. By consistently nurturing young minds to unearth their hidden capabilities while maintaining our position as a leader in educational technology, 7EDU Impact Academy promises to continue advancing our teaching methodology to accommodate for modern learning environments and to provide unique, personalized learning experiences designed for students to reach their highest goals in academics.
