How are you answering UC's Personal Insight Questions?

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Hi everyone — I’m an editor with the San Francisco Chronicle’s California College Guide.

In early September college advisers from around the country gathered in San Jose to soak up insider knowledge at UC’s annual admissions conference.

The Chronicle was there, too.

We learned that for high school students hoping to become a University of California freshman, just 1,400 words could make all the difference.

The UC application offers students the chance to succinctly introduce themselves to the university by answering four out of eight Personal Insight Questions, the all-important “PIQs.”

(Why are we posting here? The Chronicle has partnered with College Confidential to bring the information from our California College Guide to this platform. We’re looking to hear more about how people are searching for colleges in California, and what kinds of information and tools are the most important to you. And we’re hoping we can help answer some questions on topics ranging from “impacted majors” to the cost of college.)

“This is the only opportunity for students to have a conversation with us,” Jeanette Sanders, a senior admissions counselor at UC Irvine, said.

Here are the tips that UC experts say will increase your chance of PIQ success — and the pitfalls to avoid.

When answering PIQs, UC wants you to do this:

• Each response should reveal something different — and new — about you personally. It should be something you haven’t already told them in your application
• Use “I” and “my” statements
• Include your recent experiences that directly correlate with high school, or describe something from the past that is relevant because it dramatically affected you
• Set aside your modesty and talk about your achievements and your hopes
• Make yourself — not your family or friends — the main character
• Get to the point immediately
• Fully answer all parts of each question
• Use a conversational tone

Things to avoid when answering PIQs

• Do not write an essay
• Do not use rhetorical questions
• Do not use famous quotes
• Do not use your precious 1,400 words to provide definitions for PIQ readers
• Do not try to hook the reader with a clever lead-in sentence. Just get to the point
• Do not use flowery language. Keep the thesaurus closed
• Do not use artificial intelligence or the internet to answer for you. Your application could be disqualified

Tips from UC

• Try reading the question aloud and recording your first-draft answer. This might inspire an even better second draft
• To help decide which questions to choose, list the four most important things you want someone to know about you. Use the prompts to talk about these things. The content is more important than the questions you choose
• Ask yourself: Does my answer need more details? What do I want the admissions office to learn about me with this answer? Why am I including this specific information? Is it new — or have I already shared it?

What additional tips do you have for answering the Personal Insight Questions? How are you or your student using these short opportunities to stand out in a crowded application pool? Let us know.

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To show how UC admissions officers judge the PIQs, here are two sample answers to the same prompt – one weak and one strong. Can you tell the difference? (Answers below.)

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?

Sample Answer 1

I love being a kid with no worries or problems. I was in my little world, having the best time, but that’s when my alarm clock hit; I was back to reality; rubbing my eyes, I looked across my room and noticed my older sister wasn’t in her bed; strange, I said to myself I didn’t see her get home last night either. Walking towards the bathroom, I turn to my right, my parents’ door wide open, bed neat. When doing school at home, I realized problems as I hadn’t seen them before. Our money problems were worse than I thought: opening the fridge and not seeing any food, the inability to find a house, no necessities. My older sister could not balance work and college while doing college during the day and work at night, while my dad worked the whole day and rarely saw him. My mom could not cook for us as there was no food in the fridge, and I slept on an empty stomach, seeing my older sisters crying from the stress. Watching this made me feel useless. I would be overthinking what to do, and I couldn’t focus on academics. Everything around me distracted me. I couldn’t help finding a job as my parents didn’t want that. In these moments, the best way to help was to have my grades up.

Looking at my older sister and Dad’s physiques, I saw their red eyes, eyebrows, and weak bodies. My eyes watered, and my mom and I stared at each other, seeing our loved ones were overworked. But something was missing in our tiny home. The atmosphere was dull and dark, needing a spark of optimism. I wanted to be a positive family member, so that is what I became. I started helping around the house more with my mom and little sister, giving out messages of positive advice. I learned that life hits in the wrong places, but we don’t let it get inside our heads. No matter what strikes my family and me, we will be okay.

Sample Answer 2

During my childhood, I was forced to grow up very rapidly. At the age of 6 years old, I was working at the local grocery helping my mom. The difficulty of obtaining money, paying bills, and buying food always filled my mom with stress. Although I was only six years old, I understood the economic difficulties that my mom and I were facing. The challenge of always having to think if we had enough food while seeing other kids with fewer struggles made me wonder about how I was going to overcome this. This economic hardship affected my learning and academic opportunities where I had moments when I couldn’t do my homework because I had to help my mom prepare food. I wasn’t able to access school supplies or resources because I would spend the majority of my time helping my mom rather than focusing on my education. I didn’t have access to brand-new uniforms at the beginning of each school year, so I had to sew my uniform and my shoes so they could last a few more months.

Our life changed when my mom was able to obtain a sustainable job at a hospital as a receptionist and with financial help from my dad. I was able to return to school not having to worry about if there was going to be food to eat if the bills were going to be paid on time, or if my home was going to be lost. As a first-generation student, this affected my academic achievements throughout high school as well, the acknowledgment of the hardships my parents had to overcome motivated me to strive for academic validation and take advantage of the academic opportunities. The hardships I had to face at a young age have always marked my life and been an ineffaceable experience that will be my biggest motivation to achieve my career goals and reward my parents for all the sacrifices.

How UC evaluated these sample answers:

Sample 1: “Missed opportunity.”

• Unclear explanation of the challenge/hardship or timeline
• Did not fully answer the prompt — how did you overcome this?
• Not clear how student’s situation affected their academics
• Focused on family members rather than self

Sample 2: “Value added.”

• Clearly explained economic hardship and how it negatively affected academic preparation
• Included pivot point where the student was able to overcome their hardships and move forward
• Student’s story fit well with the selected PIQ