I’m a political science major with a 3.91 and decent EC’s however, I am very worried about my personal statements. My personal statements are pretty uninteresting and I really would like to know if that will hurt my chances of getting in to UCLA. I know UCLA is big on numbers, but many people say that they have really been looking at the personal statement these past couple of years, and I am really scared that I won’t get in.
Short answer: no, not at all. If you will be completing your prereq’s and IGETC, then you should get in (provided you maintain your GPA).
Longer answer: The PS is not a massive factor in the decision for regular majors like PoliSci. UCLA is more focused on numbers than UCB (Berkeley has the holistic admissions thing - but even so, your PS wouldn’t be a massive factor that could break your application for Berkeley).
Other majors can be/are different - for Berkeley, a Haas applicant ought to have a good PS, same with a CoC applicant. But for a major like PoliSci, you’ll be fine. They don’t weigh the PS heavily - you have good stats and decent EC’s. UCLA cares much less about the PS than Berkeley does.
As far as I know, the PS is generally a big factor for borderline or under-qualified applicants. This makes sense, as it is the only part of the application in which the applicant is able to convey factors/stressors that may have hindered academic achievement, played a major role in their desire for education, etc.
You are a competitive applicant. For admission purposes, the PS will not be extremely significant. Scholarship offices look at your PS - so it may alter that, but as far as admissions goes, you are fine.
Even so, trying to improve your PS couldn’t hurt. It’s not incredibly long, and making it interesting can only help.
In a webinar hosted by UCB regarding the personal statement, they mentioned that any information in the PS will not count against you; everything is either beneficial or neither good nor bad. Nothing is looked at as negative.
Maintain your GPA through this semester, and you should be fine.
Personal statements can only be one of two things: neutral or they help. In other words, you won’t be in the accept pile, and then they read your PS and kick you out. It will never negatively affect you. For the most part, unless stated in very selective majors (such as Haas), the personal statement is mainly of value to borderline students who can use it to push themselves into the accept pile.
Obviously, write it as well as you can, but I would say your PS is probably a fairly neutral player. True story: I know two students - one wrote the PS on how much he wanted to get into Berkeley, and the other wrote his PS on a major which wasn’t the same major he applied to. (I mean it wasn’t remotely similar.) Both got into UCLA.