Meh as in not well written or meh as in failing to make a compelling argument as to the quality of his character? I don’t have a problem if it was the first, but I do have issues with the second.
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The UCs don’t use PIQ to evaluate an applicants quality of writing. I wouldn’t say they are evaluating quality of character either.
you will not be evaluated on grammar, spelling or sentence structure
Imagine UC was a person. If we met face-to-face, what would you want us to know about you? These personal insight questions allow you to tell us. You could write about your creative side. Your thoughts on leadership. A challenge you’ve faced. Whatever questions you answer, make sure you show us your personality—just as you would in real life.
It’s about getting to know your personality, background, interests and achievements in your own unique voice.
So it’s a personality test.
The UCs don’t all treat the PIQs the same way. But in general, as I’ve learned more about the PIQs, I actually think it’s less of a “personality test” than a standard college essay is. Anecdotally, students seem to do well in admissions when their PIQs are relatively direct and to the point, actually answering the questions raised by the prompts. Looking at that last quote, I have the sense that the PIQs emphasize the “background, interests and achievements” more than just “personality.” I feel that the emphasis on the student using their “own voice” and “personality” is intended to encourage students to be direct and genuine.
Of course, this is just my perspective as a parent (and of course we know a lot of kids who have applied to the UCs too). I am not an AO at any UC.
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They say this, but it’s only human nature for any reader that if the writing is poor or incoherent, it’s not going to be read in its entirety.
An average reader will read 1500-2500 applications and there are anecdotes that suggest they can spent anywhere between 2-8 minutes per application.
So I would think grammar and proper sentence structure are very important.
I don’t. I believe them when they say it isn’t. There is no benefit to them to pretend something like this unimportant if it actually is. Why would they be intentionally misleading about that?
Well, yes, if it’s so incoherent that the reader can’t parse it, of course that will hurt. If they can’t understand what you’re talking about, then that will not support your application. But I think you can make a number of grammatical mistakes and have a generally weak writing style and still be perfectly understandable. You need to get your point across. That does require some coherence, but not perfect grammar.
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It would be important to the extent that it affects how easily the reader can understand and comprehend what is written. That is different from the level of importance that it would have if it were a paper being graded in an English class.
Please move on from discussing essays or start a new thread. Thank you!
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