Personal Insight Question Presentation

Hi everyone.

We'll get started in about a minute.

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You can go ahead and type perfect. Thank you awesome.

Great thank you all awesome very cool.

Great thanks. Will get started in a few minutes OK.

Great things, I know this is a new platform. Thank you for joining on here and glad you all can hear.

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Cool, we're going to wait, maybe another minute to let folks come in. We have quite a large group today.

Thank you all for registering during your summer break.

Great thank you all.

Perfect.

Cool, thank you all. You can also see it in the chat, so I'll give it maybe one more minute.

I can still see folks trickling in.

Great thank you for letting me know the audio is good.

Perfect great thank you.

And I did see a question in there already. Yes, this is going to be recorded, so it will be available. I think probably later tonight. Definitely by tomorrow. So if you just go to the same link it will link you to the recording that we're doing right now.

I believe you should see the chart. Uhm, but I would do not need to double check, but definitely check in sometime tomorrow in the recording will be available for you so if you have to leave if you miss something it will be here for you.

For a thing, folks have slowly started.

To slow down again, it is going to be recorded so folks can always come back and listen to this. I want to be respectful of everyone's time here today. I know it is summer break for all of you. What a year it has been right. Especially you rising seniors. What a way to end your junior year and the start of your senior year. So I'm going to go ahead and get started again for the sake of time and this should be no more than an hour and you will have my contact at the end of this. So if I don't get to all of your questions, just know that you do have a contact at UC Davis 2.

Ask any of those questions. So hi everyone, my name is Melanie David with UC Davis undergraduate admissions. I am the regional representative for the Bay Area, so I am your representative. Thank you again for joining me today. I do have my colleague in the chat. Her name is Miss Christy Blain. She is located in Southern California but we do the same thing. Recruitment evaluation. We work with both freshmen and transfer students so she will be in the chat today. I did want to warn you or give you a heads up.

That the chat is going to be moderated. There is a large group of you today and it is just her and I so if you don't see your question right away in the chat, don't worry, we will try to get it as soon as possible. If your question somehow gets lost in there and we don't get to it again, my contact information will be available. So if you have any questions we can get to them personally or individually as well. I also want to let you know that there is close captioning available in your top right. I believe this way that way.

There should be the CC on there. It is going to show up in your chat for the closed captioning. It is probably maybe not the most accurate, but it is available for folks that need it. So fantastic. So again. My name is Melanie David. I am here to help you kind of navigate the application as well as going to more detail about the personal insight questions. I know there's a lot of questions about that, especially in this day and age.

Right, so I know this is affecting a lot of our students and families in many different ways, so I'm hoping to give you insight on where you can respond to those in the personal insight questions or where to put it elsewhere in the application. So let's go ahead and get started.

So just a little bit of an overview about the UC system as a whole, so there are nine undergraduate campuses in which you could be applying into. We do have a 10th one, so it is kind of a trick question. There is UCSF which is primarily for graduate schools, so you need to come to one of our nine campuses first to get your undergraduate degree before you can apply into UCSF. So some things to consider. I'm sure many of you have already looked into this, but the location some of you really want to stay close to home.

Fantastic, I think you see Davis is a great distance just far enough away from home, but definitely close enough to come home for the day or for the weekend. We also know some students want to go to Southern California, right? Especially if you've been born and raised in the Bay Area. Some of you might want to go to UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara. So again, considering the location, are you interested in a more rural area? Suburban area, more of an urban area. We also want you to consider size right? So a lot of the UCS again, we're going to have large campuses. I think that's one of the perks about going to A.

You see, is that we are a large campus. UC Merced is going to have less students. They were going to have about 18,000 students I believe, and then UCLA is going to be the largest with close to 3030 + 1000 students. So something to consider as well, and majors right?

A lot of us are going to have the exact same majors. They might be called the same thing like your Biological Sciences, but we also might have. Majors are very similar, if not the same, just called something different like marine biology. It might be called aquatic biology elsewhere, so again, be considerate of those. Some of our campuses also have very unique majors. We're the only you see with an animal science or animal bio major at UC Davis. So again, consider those when you are looking at your choices of applying to the UC system.

Explore all nine campuses. You might be surprised at what you might find out at any of the other campuses. You may not have considered or were on the top of your list, but you might find something interesting there, so we really want you to find what is going to be the best fit for you. Any of our UC campuses are going to be great, right? They're going to provide you research opportunities. You can be ATA you can do internships. You could study abroad. You can live on our campuses. We have sororities and fraternities and clubs.

However, we again want you to find the best fit for yourself and where you see yourself for the next four years, so I can consider all nine campuses and then you can narrow it down from there, 'cause you'll be surprised at what you'll find out about our campuses.

So that you see application there are there is only one application for all of the uses, which makes it easier for you. Makes it easy for us also so you only have to fill it out one time. Everything you fill out is going to be read by the. We're all going to read the exact same thing. OK, so it's one application for all of the uses. The application website is here. The deadline is November 1st to the 30th. OK, so you can actually start working on it August 1st, which is in a couple weeks. Can you believe that?

I can't believe that I'm so August 1st. They use the application opens up so you rising seniors. I'm going to call you seniors right now seniors. The application opens up August 1st. You can start working on it. Start filling out the basic information, leave it alone. Leave it alone for another week or two. Come back to it. I'd like to to students to just start it as early as possible so you can see the lay of the land. What it looks like, what is expected of you and then leave it alone and then come back to it. There is no interview process for the UC system, so.

The personal insight questions I say are essentially your interview with us, 'cause we don't have the opportunity nor the bandwidth to interview all of the students that apply to the UC system unfortunately. So the closest thing we have is everything that you include in your application. The cost is $70 per campus. I will go back one slide, so this is what the UC application will look like. You will check which you sees. You will be applying into an unfortunately.

Uhm, you will have to pay for each campus that you do apply into. Sorry do see some comments. Can you guys hear me? OK? I know there is some dropping in the audio, so hopefully it's better now. There is a fee waiver available for our students, so make sure students make sure you fill out your family size and income. If you would like to be considered for that fee waiver, it is automatically built into the application. OK, so again.

An application for all U CS thank you for letting me know you could hear me fantastic Alright? So navigating the UC application this is what it looks like when you go in. I think they did make some tweaks in here so it's a little bit more manageable and more I appealing In this sense. So there are going to be Seven categories that you will be completing or 7 section so you have the about you which I say start it as soon as August 1st. They loudly about you information then you have your campuses in major section.

See your academic history, your test scores, your activities and awards section, your scholarships and programs. This is important. Your scholarship application is already built into your UC application, which is fantastic. You don't need to do anything extra. OK scholarship application is right here. It's a section in your UC application and then you have your personal insight questions which I will be in there. We will be going over today and then you just have your review and submit section. I know this is going to sound ridiculous but I have to plug it in here.

Please make sure you press submit in your application. Some students just go through the review process, but they never submit it. So please make sure you get an email that says you know. Thank you for applying to the University of California. Here is your UC application ID. OK, I know it sounds ridiculous, but every year we still get phone calls saying hey, where's my admission letter? I thought I press submit an we check and they don't have their application submitted. OK so make sure seniors submit look after each other. Check on your friends to make sure they submit it in time.

So the campuses in major is. This is what it looks like. So it will list all of the campus is that you will be applying into and then you have the option option to choose whatever major you'd like to go into. All of our eight campuses except you see Berkeley will give you an option for your first major. An alternate major. OK, so it will give you first major choice. In an alternate nature. Feel free to put it alternate major down if you would like. If you have any questions whatsoever, see this circle right here.

You can track the quick links to to get more information about that, and I think that you see Office of the president did a good job to kind of provide those questions and the response is there. The FAQ available there.

So based on majors, right? So I like to say there's a lot of majors that students can choose from the UC system has a ton of them. We also offer different ones, right? I do also want to save some students don't know what they want to go into, and that's absolutely fine. A lot of students actually changed their major once they come to campus, so if you absolutely have no idea and you want to come in undeclared, that's absolutely fine. I did want to put this slide up here because it does show you which you seize, kind of how they break.

Up their undeclared so you see Davis specifically, we have undeclared under three of our different colleges, and the other uses like Riverside, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Santa Barbara. You come in undeclared. Under there, you see.

Um, under there just general you see. So it's very important to know what that is. OK, so again, just be mindful of that. If you have a major that you really want to go into, absolutely, go ahead and apply into that major as well just now. Again, if you come into a campus one major I will say if you want to go into you should definitely declare it as your first major is engineering because some campuses will not allow you to transfer into engineering just because our engineering programs.

Some are very competitive to get into, so if you really want to go into engineering, please put that as your first major and I get asked this a lot. Is there I guess. Is it easier to get in under undeclared or is it better to come in undeclared? I say it's not easier. I also say it's not better to come in undeclared. I say what is best for you if you have a major in mind, definitely put that down if you don't have an idea of what you want to do, then put undeclared, that's fine.

Put on declared just because you think you're going to get in because it your chances are equally the same across the board.

OK Christy, are there any questions in the chat that I should be aware of?

I think I Chrissy has some. So yes, August 1st is when the application opens up and so I recommend if you can fill it out the 1st or the 2nd just to put on sub. Just put in the basic information.

Are we here? Can you hear me?

Yes, I can see me.

OK.

When everybody yes, we do have quite a few questions. Thank you guys. I'm trying to keep up and have Melanie answers. We kind of progressed it application so I will be typing in most of them and I will have many kind of progressed through the through the slides to answer most of those. But a lot of Mars. When is the application open and then the letters of recommendation and again guaranteed housing. Do we guarantee housing for our freshmen applicants across our campus an across online campuses?

All right, great question. So August versus when the UC application opens up but you do not submit until November 1st to the 30th, so that's great and then housing was another one that you got asked a lot. So yes, all of our campuses, all nine UC campuses do offer housing for our first time freshmen even are transfer students as well. So it could vary a lot of some campuses might require their students live on campus. Some campuses don't.

However, across the board we do offer housing for our freshmen and transfer students.

There is another question in there that oh letters of recommendation. Sorry, so letters of recommendation are not required at all. If a student gets an email that they need to provide, you know unofficial transcripts or a letter of rec or supplemental information, then that is when you will submit it. But right off the bat uses do not require letters of recommendation. We only want you to submit your UC application and just again, everything is self reported. So we are trusting everything you put on your application.

Is true? OK, so be reminded of that. Everything is self reported in your UC application and that's all what we will be going based off of. So that's why it's important to fill out your activities and awards section, which I'll be going over next and then your personal insight questions as thoroughly as possible, because that's all we get. We can't pick up the phone and say, Hey, can you tell me about this? Unfortunately, Chrissy and I nor the rest of the Seas have the ability to do that. OK, so fill it out as.

Thorough as possible and to be as honest as possible.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Z.

And then one last question out, while we're on our undeclared. So if a student is applying for an engineering major, how do they know if they should go undeclared engineering or actually into a mechanical soul? Which engineering major?

Yeah, that's a great question, so depending on the college that you're applying into right, it will determine if if they even offer an undeclared in the engineering option, which some of the Seas do. So in that case, if you really have no idea what kind of engineering you want to go into, then you can choose undeclared under the College of engineering. If you kind of have an idea between you know, like electrical and computer or electrical and.

I don't know.

What's another one environmental? You know? You can put one as your first choice and the other as an alternate if you would like to do that.

The.

Yeah, I did see a question about a letter of recommendation and having them just ready right off the bat. I think it is. If you can have letters of recommendations available for not only again, just being prepared if we do ask you as a UC system, but more importantly if you're applying into private schools or scholarships, they're very important to have as well, so again, not required to have letters of rec. But if you can at least have people in mind of who you could potentially ask for a letter of rec.

That would be very helpful.

Thank you.

Yeah, so more on activities and say for example like work experience, does it need to be in my life? I'm an animal science major, doesn't need to be my field of study again, how?

Oh, there's somebody, uhm?

I guess just talk more about like the application like that the activity section.

And then one other thing I want to add is obviously we know that Covid has impacted every single applicant, so there's not one applicant it hasn't impacted. So again, you have your personal statement. You have your additional comments, so I know a lot of the questions are all my sports and activities got cancelled. So again, you can use your personal insight questions, which Melanie will discuss in a later slide. And you also have the additional comment. So again, we are aware of that, so again, you.

We know that every single student has been impacted, so we are. We are aware of that. So go ahead, Millie.

Yes yeah alot alot alot of questions so a couple of them are. Should I include any? I've not done any any of these things. Can I still get in? Should I include mental health issues?

We'll start with those the next one is covid. How do I include in? My impacts will start with their.

So the your questions are your PQ questions are not going to change before the application opens in August, so it is not going to be a sudden like how did I respond? How did I handle Cove it so you can use one of the current peak use and use that to explain how covid change impacted your current situation.

And I just want to Add all of the essay or PQ responses are confidential. So anything that you include in the application is 100% confidential and again as Melanie's, discussing some of the characteristic site makes a great PQ respond.

Is again a lot of students write about family friends. We want to make it about you. I can admit your family or friend. I can only emit you and again is using those big words. So a lot of one of the example that I use is I like white fluffy dough fresh out of the oven. Gooey cheese sauce, a little bit spicy. No. I like pizza like you need to be clear direct again. You only have 350 words. We wanted to be clear, concise 'cause again you know Melanie are both moms. I could give you 350 words about my kids.

In an instant that really be clear, concise and again, I mean you know I have a high schooler I it's just heartbreaking, but you guys are going through, so you all have unique situation circumstances. Again, use additional comments just to kind of give us another layer of information again about what you're going through. So one of the last things I wanted to bring up is college courses, so I'm getting a lot of questions right now on college courses, so again, you know.

Attending high school you suddenly got, you know, thrown into you know a whole new circumstances where you taking classes. So a lot of you brought up questions about college. So BYU, yes, we do like the way you again. You need to be aware of whether it's a high school class or a college course. And with BYU just in particular, you need to make sure you have an end date. So you need to make sure that it ends within the school year so we don't want it to go above and beyond. So and again, if you are taking.

College courses, whether it was in your senior year or your junior, your senior year or now, even in this summer, yes, please include those on the UC application so you know I went to Homestead High school I took classes at Deanza and Foothill during the summer. I'm going to list, you know, math 16, a calculus, my grade an as a college course. So yes, those do count into your your UC GPA as a college course. So definitely list high school and college courses so.

We can make sure that we are full aware of where you completed your A through G courses. Alright, thank you Melanie.

I.