On Saturday, October 20th
ATS took a group of 12th grade students to College Information Day at UC
Berkeley. The day was packed with numerous workshops ranging from discovering
career paths to an overview of the UC application. Students also took advantage
of the college fair on campus by talking to admission representatives from
CSUs, UCs, private colleges and out-of-state schools.
 |
| ATS seniors at UC Berkeley |
With ATS’s UC online application
workshop just around the corner, our college-focused seniors made it their
priority to attend the workshops that pertained to the UC application. The
first workshop our seniors sat in was “Presenting yourself in the UC
Application.” An admissions
representative from UC Berkeley walked the seniors (and advisors) through the
online UC application, stopping at every slide to provide insightful advice on
the type of information students should include on their college app (i.e. A-G
classes, extracurricular activities and awards). He also mentioned that,
despite the common notion that extracurricular activities only pertain to
school clubs/ organizations and other academic related activities outside of
school, this is not the case. Responsibilities students are required to uphold
(and in most cases, have normalized in their everyday lives) after school at
home are considered as extracurricular activities, therefore students should
mention this on their college application. Most importantly, students were advised to
utilize the additional comments section on the application to include
information that is not otherwise found in other areas of the application. It’s
imperative for students to know that any information they list in the
additional comments section is viewed as neutral or added information, meaning
they won’t increase or decrease their chances of getting accepted into a
UC!
 |
| High School seniors ready to learn |
The second popular workshop ATS
seniors attended was “Writing the Personal Insight Questions For High School
Seniors Interested in applying to UC for fall 2019.” In this workshop, students
learned that the personal insight questions is a way for them to introduce
themselves to the admissions committee. They also learned that they’re only
required to answer four out of the eight total questions listed on the UC
application. In previous years, the UCs required the responses to be in the
form of essays, but that is no longer the case! Responses are limited to 350
words max for each question. Another important thing to note is that there is
no key question that will increase students’ chances of getting accepted to a
UC, despite what some applicants and their mentors may think. Therefore,
students should select the four questions that most resemble with them, their
experiences and their unique circumstances. The presenters could not emphasize
enough the fact that there is no special question that will increase a
student’s chances of getting accepted to a UC.
Don’t write about the topic or subject you are being asked
to write about, write how that topic or subject has shaped you --the applicant was a common theme the presenters
tried to drill into the students’ minds. Students learned that context is key
when writing their responses to the personal insight questions. The application
review committee is less concerned with a background story of a student’s
family experience, than they are in wanting to know how the student dealt with
a challenge, and how it shaped them. Admissions officers told students they’re
looking for specific examples and responses that go into depth in the student’s
lived experiences. To get the point across, the presenter showed the audience
examples of past students’ responses to the personal insight questions. This
helped a lot because students, parents and advisors were able to read the type
of context and specific examples admissions committees are looking for in an
applicant’s response to the insight questions.
 |
| Khristina playing the piano |
Finally, after all the workshops
were over, ATS students and staff enjoyed a delicious Mexican grill delight
from Chipotle while they relaxed in the restaurant’s patio. Once everyone’s
tummies were satiated and full, we headed back to Sonoma State, making it back
by 3:30pm to our sunny wine country hills.
