<p>Wait, I thought UCLA doesn’t accept letters of recommendation?</p>
<p>At my son’s high school, there is some sort of idea/rumor? that the UC 's like to hear about a hardship in your essays. Some of my son’s friends wrote some pretty far fetched essays about their hardships (one girl wrote about her terrible ankle pain she got as a member of the varsity track team). My son wrote about two important activities in his life - FIRST robotics (and how it reinforced his love of physics and decision to pursue it in college) and playing jazz trombone. Yesterday, in my son’s group of friends, only he and one other student got accepted to UCLA. And that other student has a real hardship - he works to help support his very low income family.</p>
<p>That said, both my son and his friend who were accepted had solid GPA’s and test scores. And they both have a hardship that UCLA was well aware of - they were both ELC (eligible in the local context) at a Title 1 high school that does not meet API standards.</p>
<p>So if you do have a hardship, you should write about it if you feel it helps the school understand something important about you. A compelling essay explaining that a personal loss led to a drop in grades might be accepted if test scores met UC standards.</p>
<p>I will do the hardships for my college essay.Can you tell me what compelling essay means please?</p>
<p>Sent from my LG-VM696 using CC</p>
<p>Sorry,I don’t know about that.I am studying in Sandy Spring Friends School in Maryland as a sophomore now.</p>
<p>Sent from my LG-VM696 using CC</p>
<p>I used “compelling” to mean well written with strong reasons that a hardship played a significant factor in your life.</p>
<p>I was accepted with a borderline supplement that talked about my personal circumstances (low income, single parent, lots of responsibility). I had a good SAT score (2110) but my GPA was meh (UC 3.95 uncapped). I had good essays and EC’s too so my grades were the only blemish. The home hardship showed why my grades weren’t stellar and I also got good grades first semester senior year (3.67, 4.3).</p>
<p>I was accepted without a supplement. However in my essays I talked about growing up in a single parent low income household, helping my mother around the house, and how my grandmother’s death influenced me to pursue a career in health. I had good grades and decent EC’s but a below average SAT (1590).</p>