UC Prompt #7: Improving Your Community
by Molly R.
- What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
Things to consider: Think of community as a term that can encompass a group, team or a place like your high school, hometown or home. You can define community as you see fit, just make sure you talk about your role in that community. Was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community?Why were you inspired to act? What did you learn from your effort? How did your actions benefit others, the wider community or both? Did you work alone or with others to initiate change in your community?
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This prompt is also very flexible and open ended. There is plenty of opportunity for students to share their passions and accomplishments in this essay. This essay also doesn’t have to include specific academic achievements. Think about something impressive that you have done in high school that isn’t already mentioned in your other essays. As usual, it’s best to not repeat themes that you have already addressed in other prompts.
At Ivy Boost, we encourage you to use this essay to express yourself! How have you spent your summers? Have you been part of non-mandatory service opportunities? Student activism is important on the UC campuses. You can use this essay to highlight how you’d like to transfer some of your high school activism to college. Write about why you engaged in an activity and what you learned from it or how you navigated a challenge during it.
If you haven’t pursued too many community service or volunteer opportunities, what are some family activities that you have been part of that helped others? Perhaps you even took an academic assignment outside of your classroom, such as visiting a senior citizen’s center after learning about some challenges seniors face, including isolation and limited mobility.
Use this essay to show how your passion and motivation extend beyond the classroom. Admission officers at UC want to see that students are performing community service because it means something to the students and shows they are not just doing it for the sake of doing it. Admissions officers will be impressed when they can understand that applicants are passionate about something and have ideas to continue pursuing it throughout college to contribute to the campus life. For example, one IvyBoost student wrote about how she wants to join an Entrepreneurs Club on a college campus after volunteering at a business incubator in her hometown.
One common pitfall that we see is when applicants use the words ‘passionate’ and ‘hard-working’ in their essays without SHOWING their passion and hard work.
Remember, you can use this UC essay prompt to clearly display your dedication.