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For 1a on the UC personal statement it says

How have you taken advantage of the educational opportunities you have had to prepare for college?

I know it says "opportunities" plural, but I've read somewhere that it's better to pick one "thing" and describe why that "thing" is important to you and how you've utilized that "thing", than to pick many things and write like a laundry list of what you've done with those things.

What should I do? I want to write about one opportunity in depth (even though it'll only be ~ 200 words), but I'm afraid the admin will think I haven't taken advantage of any other opportunities.

Thanks for the help

By Me1 (Me1) on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - 04:10 pm: Edit

Could you say something like, "Although I've taken advantage of numerous opportunities including AP classes, whatever, whatever else, etc., one opportunity of particular importance to me is ____________." How I phrased it isn't the most interesting, but if you say something along those lines, you can mention numerous things w/o having to go into detail about every AP or honors class you've taken. Good luck!

By Jennyzsong (Jennyzsong) on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - 04:14 pm: Edit

i chose that one for my 600 word one, and talked about various things. i dunno though. there are pros and cons to each side ;)

By Alethio (Alethio) on Tuesday, November 11, 2003 - 04:37 pm: Edit

One of the difficulties I'm having with this is that I was told you shouldn't mention or discuss things that can be already surmised by the application itself...for instance, I didn't want to mention that I've taken a rigorous courseload because they will be able to infer that just from looking at my classes...do you guys think these things need to be mentioned or perhaps explained more thoroughly or am I going in the wrong direction entirely?

Thanks =)

By Jennyzsong (Jennyzsong) on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 - 11:46 pm: Edit

i think you should explain them more thoroughly if there IS something to be explained. if you're simply talking about how hard it was blah blah blah then NO. but if you want to talk about how you developped a love for something and wanted to learn all you can etc etc and go into stuff like that, by all means, do it! as long as you don't sound repetitive and resume like