Three simple moves for UC applicants: bookmark your login page, turn on spell-check, and read the official guidance on Personal Insight Questions before you write. Most students skip these, which gives you a real edge.
I'm gonna walk you through some important points, but before you touch this application, let's do 3 boring things because boring things prevent those notorious 11:00 PM meltdowns in November, those horror stories you've heard about. All right, so number 1, bookmark the login page. You're going to visit it more than you own, than your own bank account this fall. All right, number 2, turn on spell check in your browser. I say this every year and every year someone tells me they didn't know browsers had spell check. They do. Google it. I'm not your IT department. My IT department goes to high school every day. I'm begging you, please put on your spell check. All right, number 3, and this is the one people skip. Read the UC's own tips on the personal insight questions before you write a single word. Not because they're thrilling to read, but because half the mistakes I see every year are just students not knowing what the prompt is actually asking. All right, so here's the insight: the UC application is not designed to trick you. Most applicants do Don't. That's it. That's the whole advantage available to you right now for free before we've even started. Read the instructions. Revolutionary, I know. Please read the instructions and you're already ahead of 98.43% of the applicants.
