An Efficient Manner in the Organization Case Study

An Efficient Manner in the Organization - Case Study Example From this discussion it is clear that  financial data in a company is of much consequence. In order to ensure accurate financial data collection and its correct use, the company must make sure that the IT function and Finance team collaborate and use the expertise of one another for better data and analysis. Both teams must be on the same page.  This study declares that another important aspect is to make it simple and understandable to the extent that all stakeholders of a particular kind of data know what to do with it; however, it should not be broken down so much that it loses the essence of its purpose. For this reason, metrics are very important. It is extremely important to note what is measured. Off the mark measures will waste time and money, force people into performing on wrong parameters, all rendering the collected data unusable. To give meaning to any meaningless collection of data and convert it into useful and interpretable information, it is imperative that key t ools and techniques are in place which a) collect the right kind and data and b) make the conversion into useful information easy.  The very first step in this process is to assess whether the data collected is important in the first place. Was the purpose of collecting data to answer an important business question such as sales figures, costing information, employee satisfaction, etc.?  To have efficiency in the overall system, it is important that the data collected is for a reason.

Lit Review on Sociopath Essay Example for Free

Lit Review on Sociopath Essay Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) is characterized by a lack of regard for the moral or legal standards in the local culture. There is a marked inability to get along with others or abide by societal rules (APA, 2000). This pattern of behavior is seen in children or young adolescents and persists into adulthood. It is also often known as sociopath, psychopath or dyssocial personality disorder. People who are diagnosed with ASPD have no conscience, move through society as predators and pay little attention to the consequences of their action. They cannot understand feelings of guilt or remorse. Their lack of empathy is often because of their strong sense of self-worth and a superficial charm that tends to mask an inner indifference to the need or feelings of the other. They are also really good at manipulating situations. However, sociopaths with lower education are still really good liars but tend to be more violent and aren’t as good at manipulation. (NICE, 2010) Psychopath is actually different from sociopath. According to Professor Alan Basham from EWU’s Psychology Department, psychopath is more like an advance version of sociopath. They don’t have capacity to feel attachment, empathy or shame. They simply don’t care about the others. They are even capable of killing their friends or families. Sociopaths are not necessary killers. They manipulate to gain their own benefit but still can feel emotional attachment to other individuals. The sociopath will still lack empathy and attachment for society and won’t feel guilt harming a stranger or breaking the law in any form, but won’t lack empathy for those to whom he feels attached. Both genetic and environmental factors influence the development of ASPD. Adopted children have an increased risk of developing ASP D. Children born to parents diagnosed with ASPD but adopted into other families resemble their biological more than their adoptive parents. However, the environment of the adoptive home may also lower the childs risk of developing ASPD. Also, both male and female can be sociopath or psychopath. (NICE, 2010) â€Å"Attachment is the process through which people develop specific, positive emotional bonds with others. John Bowlby proposed the notion of the attachment behavior system as an organized pattern of infant signal and adult responses that lead to a protective, trusting relationship during the very earliest stage of development.† (Newman Newman, 2006) Through the attachment theory, we know that children learn how to love, trust and care about each other by learning this from their parents in early childhood. As a child grown up in an abusive environment, they usually lack of parents caring and led to failure to attach. â€Å"Factors and events have been linked to developmental psychopathology and its antisocial consequences or sequelae. These include abuse and neglect, exposure to interpersonal/interparental violence, intergenerational substance abuse, maladaptive attachments in early life, maltreatment such as abandonment, and neurodevelopment.† (Armstrong Kelley, 2008) The experience of rejection or loss of love during early childhood appears to create a root cause for underlying emotional pain and poor individuation that are subsequently played out in abusive behaviors. Everyone is their enemies, they have to protect themselves and that is how they become anti-social. â€Å"Multiple interacting forces contribute to childhood maltreatment and trauma, leading to the development of psychopathology. How early interpersonal relationships are formed may be a contributory mechanism in coping strategies later in life. These factors in turn may contribute to a lack of basic trust, detachment from relationships, and affective experiences causing maladaptive behaviors later in life.† (Armstrong Kelley, 2008) â€Å"The therapists primary task is to establish a relationship with the patient, who has usually had very few healthy relationships in his or her life and is unable to trust others. The patient should be given the opportunity to establish positive relationships with as many people as possible and be encouraged to join self-help groups or prosocial reform organizations.† (NICE, 2010) However, Antisocial Personality Disorder is highly unresponsive to any form of treatment, usually because persons with ASPD rarely seek treatment voluntarily. They do not think there is anything wrong with them, it is always the others. If they do seek help, it is usually in an attempt to find relief from depression or other forms of emotional distress. â€Å"Given that those with antisocial personality disorder actively resist having to accept help, and that coercion into treatment directly challenges their core personality structure, it is clear that therapeutic interventions are also likely to be under threat in such circumstances. Hence, one might expect a high drop-out rate from treatment and indeed that is what has been found.†(Huband, 2007) Also, many people who are diagnose with ASPD use therapy sessions to learn how to turn the system to their advantage. Their pervasive pattern of manipulation and deceit extends to all aspects of their life, including therapy. Generally, their behavior must be controlled in a setting where they know they have no chance of getting around the rules. Medication could only treat some of the symptoms of ASPD. The only solution would be prevention. â€Å"Antisocial Personality Disorder usually follows a chronic and unremitting course from childhood or early adolescence into adult life. The impulsiveness of the disorder often leads to in prison or an early death through accident, homicide or suicide. There is some evidence that the worst behaviors that define Antisocial Personality Disorder diminish by midlife; the more overtly aggressive symptoms of the disorder occur less frequently in older patients. This improvement is especially true of criminal behavior but may apply to other antisocial acts as well. (NICE, 2010) Therefore, to prevent antisocial personality disorder must begin in early childhood, before the children are at risk for developing conduct disorder. Education for parenthood to lower the incidence of child abuse is necessary. â€Å"The only long-term solution, I believe, is Westmans proposal that we require prospective parents to meet the same minimum requirements that we now expect of couples hoping to adopt a baby: a mature man and woman, sufficiently committed to parenthood to be married to each other, who are self-supporting and neither criminal nor actively psychotic.† (Lykken 1996) References 1. APA, DSM-IV-TR, 2000. Print 2. National Institute for Health Clinical Excellence, The British Psychological Society The Royal College of Psychiatrists, Antisocial Personality Disorder: Treatment, Management Prevention, 2010. Print. 3. Huband, N., McMurran, M., Evans, C., et al. Social problem solving plus psychoeducation for adults with personality disorder: pragmatic randomized controlled trial, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 190, 307-313, 2007. Print. 4. Professor Alan Basham, Eastern Washington University’s Psychology Department (Interview) 5. Newman, Barbara M. Newman, Philip R., Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach. Ninth Edition, 2006. 6. Armstrong, Greg J., LMHC, CAP, CCJAS, Kelley, Susan D. M., PhD, Early Trauma and Subsequent Antisocial Behavior in Adults, 2008. Print. 7. Lykken, David T., Psychopathy, Sociopathy, and Crime, 1996. Print.

Corporate Governance Mechanisms Essay -- Business Administration

INTRODUCTION The relationship between the owners of a company and those who run the company is classified as an agent/principal relationship. In most cases this kind of relationship gives rise to a potential problem called the agency problem. This agency problem usually will occur where there is a conflict of interest between the desires of the principal and that of the agent. This is not a rare occurrence. It has been predominantly found to occur in companies where the directors are the agent and the shareholders who are the owners of the company is the principal. It is not unusual for managers to sometimes want to pursue their own interests at the expense of the company to whom they have a duty to act in its best interest. Certain decision-taking may not be in the interest of the company for example, excessive risk taking without foresight of the long term consequences. Most times the action and inactions of management may have dire consequences on the company which may in the long run stigmatize a company as an underperforming one. Consequently, managers who pursue their own interests rather than that of the company may underperform its duties. The following corporate governance mechanisms can play a major role in preventing managers from engaging in activities that lower firm value thereby incentivizing management to perform excellently. This essay will briefly consider three of those mechanisms that gear management towards excellent performances. Board Composition: This is a principal mechanism through which the shareholders can check managerial performance. If a management team is not performing well, the shareholders could direct the board of directors to fire the incumbent team and replace them with better perfor... ...eves that it â€Å"has changed the attitudes and practices of U.S managers†, stating that â€Å"it represents the most effective check on management autonomy ever devised. And it is breathing new life into the public corporations†. Works Cited Scharfstein David, ‘the Disciplinary role of Takeovers’ [1988] 55 the review of economic studies 185 accessed 27 November 2009 p 185. Julian Franks, Collin Mayer, ‘Hostile takeovers and the correction of managerial failure’ [1996] 40 Journal of Financial Economics 163 accessed 27 November 2009 p163. Ibid

Amazon.com †a case study Essay

Amazon’s Mission â€Å"Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.† Amazon.com’s quest to become earth’s most customer centric company is largely driven by its use of technology. In fact, its continuous innovations are all driven by huge investments in information systems (Laudon and Laudon 2005). Information systems not only support their mission, but in fact drive their business strategy. In this paper , Amazon’s use of information at each stage of Porter’s value chain will be considered. Their innovative and forward looking use of information systems to generate competitive advantage will be analysed in the context of Porter’s five forces and we will also have a look at how they have formed Amazon have formed strategic alliances to overcome certain competitive forces. Future plans to sustain competitive edge will be examined; Amazon not only continue to use technology to improve their customer centric operations, but are now in fact opening up this technology and providing technical and logistics solutions to other firms. The Value Chain The concept of ‘Value Chain Anaylsis’ is described at length by Michael Porter (1985). He notes that every firm is a collection of activities that  are performed to design, produce, market, deliver and support its products or services. He identifies specific, critical-leverage points where a firm can use information technology most effectively to enhance it’s competitive position (Laudon and Laudon , 2005). In his value chain model, ‘Primary Activities’ such as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, sales and marketing and service, are seen as basic activities that add a margin of value to a firm’s products and service. Since Amazon’s inception in 1995, they have used information technology to manage each stage of the value chain. Inbound logistics – including receiving, storing, inventory control – are managed by sophisticated technology such Transportation Optimization and Management Systems (TOMS). They, us e a set of applications for accepting and validating customer orders, placing and tracking orders with suppliers and managing and assigning inventory to customer orders. In fact in 2007, Amazon’s systems have become so efficient in managing inventory that they generally collect from customers before their payments to suppliers come due (SEC1 2007). Amazon’s marketing strategy is designed to increase customer traffic to their websites, drive awareness of products and services, promote repeat purchases, develop incremental product and service revenue opportunities, and strengthen and broaden the Amazon.com brand name. (Amazon Annual Report 2007). Technology, again, is the conduit for their marketing strategy. Amazon were the first to deliver personalized Web pages and services. For instance, their technology keeps track of user preferences for books and CD purchases etc, and can recommend titles purchased by other customers. Their advertising consists primarily of online advertising, including through their Associates program –Amazon.com’s affiliate marketing program, where web developers, by linking to Amazon products and services to their sites, can receive up to 10% in referral fees, – sponsored search, portal advertising, e-mail campaigns, and other initiatives. Customer service is another key area where technology adds value to Amazon’s offer. From the outset, in line with their customer-centred mission, Amazon  tried to provide superior customer service through email and telephone customer support, online tracking and shipping information, and the ability to pay for purchases with a single click of the mouse using credit card and personal information provided during a previous purchase. This was called â€Å"1-click† express shopping, and was considered so attractive that Barnes and Noble, Amazon’s direct competitor in the online book retailing markets attempted to ape it with its â€Å"Express Lane† system (McAfee 2005). Amazon later obtained an injunction on Barnes and Noble and sparked a huge debate around the question of which software, and even business processes can or cannot, be patented. (http://www.oreilly.com/news/patent_archive.html) The Extended Value Chain in e-Business In their book, Strategic Planning for Information Systems, Ward, J and Peppard, J (2002), discuss how the value chain information flow is now being challenged by e-Business They refer to Rayport, J.F and Sviokla (1995), who have identified two crucial new areas in this information flow, namely ‘promotional’ information flow and ‘intelligence gathering’ information flow. These two areas seems to be paramount in Amazon’s value chain management.. According to Ward and Peppard, the implications of the promotional flow of information which informs customers further down the chain of the products and services available have to be understood. David Chaffey (2007) speaks of Amazon’s automated email measurement and optimization system. As users of Amazon will know, once we’ve bought something on Amazon, we are regularly sent emails with information on books or product recommendations. In order for this promotional system not to descend into what one might call Spam, and for it to remain relevant and customer centred, Amazon have put IS systems into place to control this activity. A new system: automatically optimizes content to improve customer experience; avoids sending an e-mail campaign that has low clickthrough or high unsubscribe rate; includes inbox management (avoid sending multiple emails/week); has growing library of automated email programs covering new  releases and recommendations. In this way, Amazon add value to the promotional flow of information through their value chain, and intelligently use and disseminate the information provided to them by their technology. Ward and Peppard conclude that E-business offers huge potential to gather information and intelligence about consumer and customer preference and attitudes online, rather than through traditional market research. When customers shop on Amazon, their choices are stored in the information systems which can then use this intelligence to forecast future demands. Industry Value Chain – Supply Chain Management The Value Chain of the business unit is only one part of a larger set of value-adding activities in an industry – the â€Å"Industry Value Chain† (Ward & Peppard 2003). A firm’s value chain is linked to the value chains of its suppliers, distributors and customers, and each of these players can add, or indeed take away from advantage which has been earned along the way. (Laudon & Laudon 2006). Amazon has one of the most-sophisticated supply chain systems in the world. Proprietary applications handle nearly every aspect of its supply chain: warehouse management, transportation management, inbound and outbound shipping, demand forecasts, inventory planning, and more. (Information Week) Amazon’s supply chain is so tightly integrated that when an online customer buys a book, for example, the order-management system communicates with inventory- and warehouse-management systems to find the optimal distribution centre or centres for fulfilling the order. The customer knows in less than a minute how long it will take to ship the items and whether they will come in one package or separately. Effective supply chain management, has been identified in a survey by The Economist, as being an essential contribution to gaining competitive advantage. It says that all market leaders have supply chains that are more responsive to customer demand. And effectively managing the informati on flow throughout the supply chain is key to gaining competitive advantage. Porter’s Five Forces As we have seen, competitive advantage can be gained through effective use of information systems at each stage of the internal and the external value chain. The other value creation dimension, as defined by Porter is the â€Å"Market/Industry Attractiveness†. He has identified five forces affecting the latter, namely, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of customers, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute products and competitive rivalry within an industry. E-commerce and the internet provide customers with the ability to search the whole chain for information directly or via intermediaries (Ward and Peppard 2003). The internet provides consumers with near perfect product and price visibility. Customers are free to use any internet portal they choose to search for goods, and can use price comparison portals such as www.kelkoo.com to compare prices between suppliers. Changing suppliers will cost the buyer nothing – switching costs are l ow – and alternative suppliers are plentiful. Consequently, Amazon are forced to keep their prices down and accept lower margins. In the context of Porter’s five forces, the facility for customers in changing suppliers can be classified as high customer bargaining power. Mr Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, saw this threat coming and prepared for it – in 2000 he invited other retailers to sell their goods on his website (The Economist). No traditional seller had ever done this before – to allow others to sell second-hand books on their own door step, was indeed a revolutionary move by Mr Bezos, and many people, even some within the company, thought this would cannibalise Amazon’s own sales. Yet it eventually helped to lift overall sales. Amazon says sales of third-party items, from which it takes a commission, have increased from 6% of all items sold in 2000 to 28% in 2005. Over that time, the company says its own retail revenues were up three-fold (BusinessWeek). Bezos claims that by keeping custome rs on the Amazon site buying other retailers products, Amazon’s direct revenues also increased. This is because with the help of some sophisticated technology driven marketing techniques, customers having already chosen something from Amazon’s partners, are at the same time tempted by Amazon’s own offerings. Today, hundreds of thousands of retail brands and individual sellers reach new customers by leveraging the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform. In 2006 Amazon went further with this concept and launched their â€Å"Fulfilment† program, which allows businesses to  use Amazon’s own order fulfilment and post-order customer service infrastructure, and enables Amazon.com customers to receive the benefit of Amazon.com shipping offers when buying from third-party sellers. In this way Amazon, seem to be effectively combating a number of competitive forces, including the threat of substitute products and the threat of new entrants to the market. Due to the low cost for new-entrants to e-Commerce – it requires relatively little capital investment to set up an e-Business- the threat of competing websites is omni-present for Amazon. Amazon’s challengers come from two directions. First, other online retailers are growing rapidly. As people become more accustomed to shopping on the internet, they are ordering a greater variety of goods and services from a wider range of websites. From auctioning people’s second-hand goods, eBay now also hosts fixed-priced virtual shops offering new goods for sale. (The Economist). Google, for one, has replaced retail sites such as Amazon as the place where many people start their shopping. And more personalized and social upstarts such as News Corp.’s, MySpace and YouTube, which Google has bought, have become the prime places for many people to gather online – and eventually shop. Microsoft’s taking of a 5% stake in Facebook, the online networking website, last Friday, which now values the two year old networking website at a whopping 15b$ -, could also be perceived as a potential threat to Amazon. People may choose to start their shopping from their social networking sites, rather than from the mor e traditional retail or portal site. Says consultant Andreas Weigend, Amazon’s chief scientist until 2004: â€Å"The world has shifted from e-business to me-business.† (Businessweek and The Economist). Secondly, traditional retailers are rapidly moving part of their trading online. This pits Amazon against giant retailers with huge purchasing power, like America’s Wal-Mart and Britain’s Tesco. These â€Å"multichannel† retailers make a virtue of their ability to offer both â€Å"bricks and clicks†. Many provide online customers with the option of picking up goods from the shop down the road. This is proving popular with web buyers who want things immediately or are keen to avoid shipping costs and staying in to accept a delivery. Amazon may be attempting to fight off this threat with their AmazonPrime program, which allows customers unlimited shipping for $79 per year. As we have seen, the relatively low costs of setting up business on the Internet, means that the  threat of substitute product/ services and the threat of new entrants also become more apparent. Internet technology is based on universal standards that any company can use, making it easy for rivals to compete on price alone and for new competitors to enter the market (Laudon and Laudon 2006). Clarke (2001) says that consequently, if we are competing in an industry where all our competitors have access to the same technology, it follows that competitive advantage comes from the use of information, as opposed to technology, and sustainability of advantage lies in an organisation always being better at this than its competition. Amazon would appear to be doing a fairly good job in keeping up – for instance with the technology enables personalization of the customer – but as Jeff Bezos reiterated in the reprinting of his 1997 letter to shareholders for the Amazon 2006 Annu al Report, â€Å"It’s all about the long-term†. Sustainability of Competitive Advantage – The Future for Amazon In the long-term, Amazon are aiming to re-invent themselves. An article in the Economist claims the e-commerce giant wants to be more than just a retailer. Having established the internet as somewhere to buy things, Amazon is again spending heavily on development in anticipation of consumers wanting to download music, video and books instead of having them delivered in the post. In September, the company introduced the Amazon MP3 digital music store to sell tracks without the anti-piracy technology known as digital rights management, or DMR. The music companies EMI and Universal are participating in Amazon’s store, making the service a significant competitor to Apple’s iTunes service. Unless the Amazon, the pioneer of online retailing can provide downloadable media it risks being â€Å"disintermediated†2 —just as only a decade ago high-street bookshops, music and video stores were disintermediated by Amazon itself. Amazon, in fact have a history of strateg ic alliances with various firms – Borders and SmugMug, to mention just a few. A strategic alliance is a partnership of two of more corporations or business units to achieve strategically significant objectives that are mutually beneficial, Wheelan and Hunger (2005). These alliances have allowed Amazon to use their established technological lead in the e-Commerce platform to generate revenues as well as their other strategic objectives. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is another example of a  strategic move to maintain advantage. With AWS, Amazon say they are building a new business focused on a new customer set †¦ software developers. They currently offer ten different web services and have built a community of over 240,000 registered developers. In order to cope with the Christmas rush, Amazon has far more computing capacity than it needs for most of the year. As much as 90% of it is idle at times. Renting out pieces of that network to other businesses, such as SmugMug, an online photo site that uses the S33 service, is a way to get extra return on Amazonâ⠂¬â„¢s $2 billion investment in technology (The Economist). Conclusion In this paper, a number of ways in which Amazon add value to their internal and external value chain have been identified. We have looked at how they optimize their utilisation of information in forging closer relations with their customers; operate a lean supply-chain management strategy and fight off numerous threats posed by competing in the e-Business environment with strategies such as offering new services to smaller retailers, digital downloads, and opening up their technologies to developers. However in a fast moving global economy, no future is certain. Amazon are conscious of the threats posed by failed alliances (Border’s will pull out of their agreement to use Amazon’s e-commerce platform in 2008, www.bloomberg.com) and the constant threat posed by Google, even Facebook and other technology driven Web2.0 companies. Jeff Bezos will be hoping to overcome these threats by, as he says, by â€Å"opening up the guts of his organisation† to developers (Busin essWeek). Information systems are at the core of Amazon’s business, and going forward, as Jeff Bezos said in his 2007 SEC filing, their biggest challenge â€Å"will be to continue to build and deploy innovative and efficient software that will best take advantage of continued advances in technology†. Amazon have made massive investments in technology – $186 million in the last quarter alone – (The Economist), and with 2007 3rd quarter sales up 41% and a quadrupling of profit, it looks like these technology investments may finally be paying off! References â€Å"Amazon.com – Click to download†, The Economist, Aug 17th 2006 Amzn Investor Relations http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?p=irol-irhome&c=97664 Accessed 28th October 2007 â€Å"Borders to Introduce New Internet Site in Early 2008 (Update3)† www.bloomberg.com Accessed on 28th October 2007 Clarke, Stephen (2001) Information Systems Strategic Management –an integrated approach, Routledge, London David Chaffey: â€Å"Amazon Case Study 9.1 Learning From Amazon’s Culture of Metrics† www.davidchaffey.com Accessed on 13th October 2007. â€Å"Friend Accepted†, The Economist, Friday 26th October 2007 â€Å"From scratch: Amazon keeps supply chain close to home†, Beth Bacheldor, InformationWeek, March 5, 2004 â€Å"Jeff Bezos’ Risky Bet† Business Week, Cover story, November 13, 2006 www.businessweek.com â€Å"Jeff Bezos’ Risky Bet† www.businessweek.com November 13, 2006. Accessed 27th October 2007 â€Å"Lifting the bonnet† The Economist Oct 5th 2006 Porter, Michael E. (1985) Competitive advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance pg 33 The Free Press Laudon, J and Laudon K (2006), Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm (10th Edition) Prentice Hall R. Preston McAfee (2005) Competitive Solutions: The Strategist’s Toolkit, Princeton University Press Rayport, J.F and Sviokla (1995) ‘Exploiting the virtual value chain’, Harvard Business Review, November – December, 1995 SEC (2007) United States Securities And Exchange Commission submission Form 10-K from Amazon. For the quarterly period ended September 30, 2007 Ward, J and Peppard, J (2002) Strategic Planning for Information Systems, 3rd Edition John Wiley & Sons, Bedfordshire. Wheelen, T and Hunger J, (2004) Strategic Management and Business Policy, 9th Edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, New Jersey.

Assessment for planning and sustainability Essay

?Tourism is an integrated system where all the elements are linked taking into account the relationships between tourism and economic, social, cultural and physical environment. In order to develop Strathnagar village as a sustainable tourist and habitable destination, a harmony is required between the needs of a visitor, the destination and the community. Tourism creates an incentive for environmental conservation, preservation of sensitive areas. There are many examples from Scotland where tourism has promoted restoration and preservation of historic sites also tourism encouraged conservation of natural resources. Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park created in 2002 and Cairngorm National Park created in 2003 were designed under the national Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. The main aim was to conserve, enhance and promote the natural beauty and cultural heritage for current and future generations. Transport has been heavily blamed in the last few years because of fuel emissions. For this reason cycling has been promoted across the UK as environmentally friendly transport type by a charity called Sustarns. Since then over 10. 000 miles of cycle paths have been created to decrease the harm of environment. In Strathnagar village along the bird sanctuary is a site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) managed by Scottish Natural Heritage. It is likely that this organization will continue and extend conservation and preservation works in the future if there are sustainable developments involved in the village. However, there are a number of negative impacts on environment as a consequence of tourism growth and activities taken by tourists. This includes erosions, pollution and wild life disturbance. To minimize the harmful impacts in the area certain procedures should be taken in Srathnagar village. Business owners should become members of Visit Scotland’s Green Tourism Assurance Scheme. It aims to help businesses working in the hospitality sector achieve efficiency and marketing benefits by managing their environmental responsibilities. Tourists are coming to Scotland and natives are travelling around the country, because of a desire to see the natural scenery and wildlife Scotland has to offer. However, irresponsible tourism and properly unmanaged sites lead to the destruction of biodiversity. Tourist activities impact directly and indirectly on ecosystems. Indirect pressure on plants and animals may result from increased levels of emissions of various trace-gases through leisure-related transport. Direct impact on the ecosystems would have if natural environments are put under strain when the â€Å"Carrying Capacity† of the area or resource is exceeded. Also Through destruction of ecosystems and habitats, draining of wetlands, unsustainable use of land, trampling, tent camps, etc. tourist contribute directly to the disturbance of ecosystems. 85% of European coasts are at high or moderate risk from development related pressures as 2/3 of Europe’s tourism is based on coastlines. Coral reefs are the most vulnerable in the ecosystem, easily can be damaged from snorkelers and scuba divers. In Trinidad and Tobago island massive developments have damaged beaches and destroyed the habitat of turtles where they lay their eggs. While in Jamaica unsustainable constructions has caused severe beach erosion due to the obliteration of sand dunes and also cause wetland destruction. The tourism sector as a whole, along with tourists should be encouraged to minimize any negative impacts and maximize positive impacts on biodiversity and local cultures associated with their consumption choices and behavior, for example through voluntary initiatives, information events, controlling the number of visitor and implementing codes of conduct. Generally, every country wants to attract tourists and generate as much income from tourism as possible. Tourism has been seen as a positive factor, it provides jobs and people have personal empowerment. In Strathnagar village tourism would allow to preserve and revive the cultures, traditions and crafts. Good example is â€Å"Rumsiskes† the open- air museum in Lithuania. It displays the heritage of Lithuanian rural life in authentic resurrected buildings where people lived and worked. The traditions, crafts and dances where revived that was almost forgotten. The money from Tourism and tourist demand helped to restore and keep it for the future generations. However, according to Doxey’s irritation index (1975) a four stage model of the slow decline in host visitor relations exists: Euphoria (delight in contact) Apathy (increasing indifference with larger numbers) Irritation (concern and annoyance) Antagonism (convert and overt aggression to visitors) The most recognized negative cultural impacts are cultural degradation and trivialization, also when cultural events are turned into staged events that have direct adverse effects on traditional ways of life on the distinctiveness of local cultures. The places like Spanish Resorts and Caribbean Islands have become identikit resorts that have nothing in common with traditional culture. Locals are basically annoyed by tourists as they lost the privacy and tranquility. People understand the benefits that tourism gives, but on the same time feel as they are losing the traditions and authentic culture. Benidorm reached critical stage- full physical â€Å"carrying capacity† is exceeded during the high season; there is no accommodation and certain services available. Aboriginal or indigenous communities such as Australia, Masi Mara are transformed (in order to earn some money) and requested to display significant cultural events for tour companies no matter the time and adequacy. Strathnagar is going to start at Euphoria stage; community is excited about the new life. However, to avoid quick decline in host visitor relations community should control the number of visitors, modify their behavior by extending the season, spreading the busy seasons and adapting the resources. Separate, reasonable size car parking should be provided in order to avoid visitors parking at local’s windows. Most common negative impacts on socio- culture are tradition degradation, trivialization and when cultural events are turned into staged events. According to VisitScotland Statistics, Tourism in Scotland is worth approx ? 4bn, employs 9% of the workforce and pays more wages than oil, gas and whisky industries combined. Moreover it gives a chance for communities in rural areas such as Strathnagar village to have jobs and not to consider moving from the place they have been living happily for since birth. However, Tourism not only creates jobs in the sector, it also encourages growth in the primary and secondary sectors of industry. This is known as the multiplier effect which is how many times money spent by a tourist circulates through a country’s economy. The money spent by a tourist in Strathnagar village for example in a hotel would help to create jobs directly in the hotel, also would create jobs indirectly elsewhere in the economy. If hotel buys food from local farmer, that farmer can spend some of this money on clothes. The demand for local products increases as tourists often buy souvenirs, which increases secondary employment. The multiplier effect continues until the money eventually ‘leaks’ from the economy through imports – the purchase of goods from other countries, tourists not spending money at the destination, tour operators sending tourists on all- inclusive package and leaving the great deal of profit at tourists generating country not receiving. In Thailand estimated that 70% of all money spent by tourists ended up leaving Thailand (via foreign-owned tour operators, airlines, hotels, imported drinks and food, etc. ). The positive fact is that the employment level will rise in Strathnagar village and the tourists will use the services and spend money. Direct jobs will be available for tour guides, housekeeping, catering staff, and gardeners. Indirect jobs for joiners, builders and induced- improvements in health and transport services. However there will arise and negative aspects such as low wages, no highly skilled jobs, no chance to keep younger generation. Also village could be highly affected by seasonality; it is hard to attract tourists during the winter. Community might not get any support from council as it is a small and badly impacted by seasonality. There is a chance to extend the season or to attract visitors by launching traditional food, arts and crafts festivals and corporate events in Crafts and Arts Centre which might be a good way to minimize the seasonality. Dumfries and Galloway is a very popular tourist destination during the summer, but not so much in low seasons. The Art festival called Spring Fling was launched to attract visitors and it is on every April. However, in order to protect the natural and built environments that tourism is dependent on, certain measures should be in place. Visitor Management is an approach that which aims to protect environment (social, environmental) while providing for visitor enjoyment. Visitor Management can be at the Micro level (national, regional, or area) or at the Macro level (settlement, site or attraction). There are many organizations across the globe that is considered as the main tools for sustainability and managing tourism. Historical Scotland helps towards conservation and preservation of cultural and historic buildings, landscapes and sites. Visit Scotland provides signage, code of conducts to minimize negative impacts, national designed National Tourist routes, theme trails for tourists to navigate easily, increase the geographical spread and avoid unnecessary wandering. Also provides marketing, promotion to the area and encourage visitor behaviour through education and interpretation methods. Tourism Management Programmes (TMPs) are designed to benefit visitor, place and host by adopting a multifaceted planning approach. National Parks aims to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage and promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of National Parks by public. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that aims to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values. It contributes to sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, communication, culture and information. There are three main visitor management techniques used to overcome or minimize negative impacts from tourism developments: Control Volume of visitors: limit numbers, encourage alternative visiting times, extend tourist season Modify Behaviour of visitors: codes of conduct, interpretation, education Adapt resources: harden footpaths, construct purpose built facilities (walk- ways hides etc) The visitor management techniques can be divided in to two following forms: Hard measures occur when restricting physical and financial on access. (Parking fees, road closures, zoning, fencing, limited visitor numbers) Zoning and paid roads are common thing in big cities such as Moscow and London. Certain fees need to be paid in order to pass the bridge or enter other zone. Also hard measures are applied when during the festival or any other celebration the city centre is closed and any type of motor transport in not permitted. In Edinburgh that happens during the Hoghmoney when all action takes in the city centre. Soft measures – associated with encouraging desired behaviours rather than restricting undesirable ones. (Education, interpretation, marketing and promotion) In Scottish Boarders Forest District the soft measures has been implemented to manage the tourists and minimise the impacts from tourism activities. Signposting for mountain- trail has been provided. The Osprey Visitor Centre offers a variety of information and education for people of different ages. A lot of illustrative material is offered. Local volunteers are integrated in the educational activities. Available rangers on site to help and give needed advice. In Strathnagar village it is recommended to apply soft measure management techniques through education and interpretation. The signage should be provided to direct and guide visitors in the area. Moreover the community should consider establishing the Visitor Information Centre where leaflets, guides and verbal advice could be given to visitors. Also it is recommended to provide car parking facilities in order to avoid conflicts with locals as visitors may park on locals’ driveway. There are plenty examples for educating tourism suppliers, tour operators and visitors on sustainable tourism practice: Codes of Conduct for Visitors SNH outdoor access code The Code is based on three key principles and these apply equally to the public and to the land owners: Respect the interests of other people Care for the environment Take responsibility for your own actions Responsible access can be enjoyed over most of Scotland including urban parks, hills and woods, beaches, lochs, rivers and canals. VisitScotland Responsible Visitors Guide It is a guide for visitors to follow the simple steps to play the part in caring for our outstanding natural environment, fantastic wildlife and rich cultural heritage whilst supporting the local communities along the way. Codes of Conduct for tourism Suppliers Wild Scotland Wild Scotland produced Responsible Professional Wildlife Watching guide in order to provide a safe, professional and responsible wildlife watching experience for the tourists. VisitScotland Sustainability Team There is a clear mandate for VisitScotland to help drive sustainability within the tourism sector in Scotland. This is provided by the Scottish Government Economic Strategy and the Tourism Framework for Change, and is reflected in the VisitScotland Corporate Plan 2010/13. VisitScotland’s Sustainable Tourism Strategy 2010 – 2015 provides a clear rationale and plan for delivering our aspirations for sustainable tourism over the next five years. We will contribute to a more sustainable future for Scotland through taking direct action on issues under our control and playing an influencing role where this is not possible. This will include support for the implementation of sustainable tourism strategies at the national and local level. Business events programme The National Funding Programme complements the International Funding Programme and plays an integral role in developing domestic tourism across Scotland. By supporting events which take place outside the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, EventScotland is also growing Scotland’s wider events portfolio which forms the backbone of our events industry. Guidance Booklets The Business Waste Guidance Booklet is provided by VisitScotland for tourism businesses gives for tourism suppliers more detailed information on waste management and how to reduce your business waste. Tourist Signposting in Scotland- the purpose of this document is to explain which visitor facilities may be eligible for Tourist Signposting in Scotland and how to apply. Tourist Signposting is a fundamental part of providing a welcome for our visitors. In determining who is eligible for Tourist Signposting accreditation, VisitScotland uses Quality Assurance schemes to ensure that our visitors are directed to facilities that offer a consistent quality experience. Conclusion There are many positive and negative impacts on environment, socio- culture, economy from tourist activities and generally the travel and tourism industry. Tourism providers need to bear in mind that they are responsible for the damage the irresponsible tourism does and ensure that the experience for the visitors will be provided in sustainable and less harmful way Strathnagar is beautiful village with loads of potential to develop a sustainable tourism destination with a help of organizations involved.

How to Write a Perfect UC Essay for Every Prompt

How to Write a Perfect UC Essay for Every Prompt SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you're applying to any University of California campus as an incoming freshman, then you have a special challenge ahead of you. Applicants need to answer four UC personal insight questions, chosen from a pool of eight unique prompts different from those on the Common App. But not to worry! This article is here to help. In this article, I'll dissectthe eight UC essay promptsin detail. What are they asking you for? What do they want to know about you? What do UC admissions officers really care about? How do you avoid boring or repulsing them with your essay? I'll breakdownall of these important questions for each prompt and discuss how to pick the four prompts that are perfect for you. I'll also give you examples of how to make sure your essay fully answers the question. Finally, I'll offer step-by-step instructions on how to come up with the best ideas for your UC personal statements. What Are the UC Personal Insight Questions? If you think about it, your college application is mostly made up of numbers: your GPA, your SAT scores, the number of AP classes you took, how many years you spent playing volleyball. These numbers only reveal so much. The job of admissions officers is to put together a class of interesting, compelling individuals- but a cut and dried achievement list makes it very hard to assess whether someone is interesting or compelling. This is where the personal insight questions come in. The UC application essays are your way to give colleges a sense of your personality, your perspective on the world, and some of the experiences that have made you into who you are. The idea is to share the kinds of things that don’t end up on your transcript. It's helpful to remember that you are not writing this for you. You're writing for an audience of people who do not know you, but are interested to learn about you. The essay is meant to be a revealing look inside your thoughts and feelings. These short essays- with a 350 word limit- are different from the essays you write in school, which tend to focus on analyzing someone else’s work. Really, the application essays are much closer to a short story. They rely heavily on narratives of events from your life, and on your descriptions of people, places, and feelings. If you’d like more background on college essays, check out our explainer for a very detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application. Now, let’s dive into the eight University of California essay questions. First I’ll compare and contrast these prompts. Then I’ll dig deep into each UC personal statement question individually, exploring what it’s really trying to find out and how you can give the admissions officers what they’re looking for. Once upon a time, there was a mouse who really, really wanted to get into your college. Comparing the UC Essay Prompts Before we can pull these prompts apart, let's first compare and contrast them with each other. Clearly, UC wants you to write four different essays, and they're asking you eight different questions. But what are the differences? And are there any similarities? The Actual UC Essay Prompts #1: Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time. #2: Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. #3: What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? #4: Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced. #5: Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement? #6: Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. #7: What have you done to make your school or your community a better place? #8: Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California? How to Tell the UC Essay Prompts Apart To help tell the UC personal statement prompts apart, sort them into big-picture categories, so when you’re brainstorming ideas you can see where your event or life experience would fit: Topics 1 and 7 are about your engagement with the people, things, and ideas around you. Consider the impact of the outside world on you and how you handled that impact. Topics 2 and 6 are about your inner self, what defines you, and what makes you the person that you are. Consider your interior makeup, the characteristics of the inner you Topics 3, 4, 5, and 8 are about your achievements. Consider what you’ve accomplished in life and what you are proud of doing These very broad categories will help when you’re brainstorming ideas and life experiences to write about for your essay. Of course, it's true that many of the stories you think of can be shaped to fit each of these prompts. Still, think about what the experience most reveals about you. If it’s an experience that shows how you have handled the people and places around you, it’ll work better for questions in the first group. If it’s a description of how you express yourself, it’s a good match for questions in group two. If it’s an experience that tells how you acted or what you did, it’s probably a better fit for questions in group three. For more help, check out our article on coming up with great ideas for your essay topic. "And that's the last time I went to a psychic." Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: How Is This Guide Organized? We analyze all eight UC prompts in this guide, and for each one we give the following information: The prompt itself and any accompanying instructions What each part of the prompt is asking for Why UC is using this prompt and what they hope to learn from you All the key points you should cover in your response so you answer the complete prompt and give UC insight into who you are Dissecting Personal Insight Question 1 The Prompt and Its Instructions Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time. Things to consider: A leadership role can mean more than just a title. It can mean being a mentor to others, acting as the person in charge of a specific task, or taking a lead role in organizing an event or project. Think about your accomplishments and what you learned from the experience. What were your responsibilities? Did you lead a team? How did your experience change your perspective on leading others? Did you help to resolve an important dispute at your school, church in your community or an organization? And your leadership role doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to school activities. For example, do you help out or take care of your family? What’s the Question Asking? The prompt wants you to describe how you handled a specific kind of relationship with a group of people- a time when you took the reigns and the initiative. Your answer to this prompt will consist of two parts: Part 1: Explain the Dilemma Before you can tell your story of leading, brokering peace, or having a lasting impact on other people, you have to give your reader a frame of reference and a context for your actions. First, describe the group of people you interacted with. Who were and what was their relationship to you? How long were you in each others’ lives? Second, explain the issue you eventually solved. What was going on before you stepped in? What was the immediate problem? Were there potential long-term repercussions? "We couldn't decide between butter and cream cheese frosting in the final round of the baking competition!" Part 2: Describe Your Solution This is where your essay will have to explicitly talk about your own actions. Discuss what thought process led you to your course of action. Was it a last-ditch effort or a long-planned strategy? Did you think about what might happen if you didn’t step in? Did you have to choose between several courses of action? Explain how you took the bull by the horns. Did you step into the lead role willingly or were you pushed despite some doubts? Did you replace or supercede a more obvious leader? Describe your solution to the problem, or your contribution to resolving the ongoing issue. What did you do? How did you do it? Did your plan succeed immediately or did it take some time? Consider how this experience has shaped the person you have now become. Do you think back on this time fondly as being the origin of some personal quality or skill? Did it make you more likely to lead in other situations? What’s UC Hoping to Learn about You? College will be an environment unlike any of the ones you’ve found yourself in up to now. Sure, you will have a framework for your curriculum, and you will have advisers available to help- but for the most part, you will be on your own to deal with the situations that will inevitably arise when you mix with your diverse peers. UC wants to make sure: That you have the maturity to deal with groups of people That you can solve problems with your own ingenuity and resourcefulness That you don’t lose your head and panic at problems "And that's how I saved Christmas with a single crushed can!" How Can You Give Them What They Want? So how can you make sure those qualities come through in your essay? Pick Your Group The prompt very specifically wants you to talk about an interaction with a group of people. Let’s say a group has to be at least three people. Raise the Stakes Think of the way movies ratchet up the tension of the impending catastrophe before the hero swoops in and saves the day. Keeping an audience on tenterhooks is important- and makes the hero look awesome for the inevitable job well done. Similarly, in your essay the reader has to fundamentally understand exactly what you and the group you ended up leading were facing. Why was this an important problem to solve? Balance You vs. Them Personal statements need to showcase you above all things. Because this essay will necessarily have to spend some time on other people, you need to find a good proportion of them-time and me-time. In general, the first, setup, section of the essay should be shorter, since it will not be focused on what you were doing. The second section should take the rest of the space. So, in a 350 word essay, maybe 100-125 words go to setup, while 225-250 words to your leadership and solution. Find Your Arc Not only do you need to show how your leadership met the challenge you faced, but you also have to show how the experience changed you. In other words, the outcome was double-sided: you affected the world, and the world affected you right back. Make your arc as lovely and compelling as a rainbow. Dissecting Personal Insight Question 2 The Prompt and Its Instructions Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. Things to consider: What does creativity mean to you? Do you have a creative skill that is important to you? What have you been able to do with that skill? If you used creativity to solve a problem, what was your solution? What are the steps you took to solve the problem? How does your creativity influence your decisions inside or outside the classroom? Does your creativity relate to your major or a future career? What’s the Question Asking? This question is trying to probe the way you express yourself. Its broad description of â€Å"creativity† gives you the opportunity to make almost anything you make that didn’t exist before fit the topic. What this essay question is really asking you to do is to examine the role your brand of creativity plays in your sense of yourself. The essay will have three parts. Part 1: Define Your Creativity What exactly do you produce, make, craft, create, or generate? Of course, the most obvious answer would be a visual art, a performance art, or music. But in reality, there is creativity in all fields. Any time you come up with an idea, thought, concept, or theory that didn’t exist before, you are being creative. So, your job is to explain what you spend time creating. Part 2: Connect Your Creative Drive to Your Overall Self Why do you do what you do? Are you doing it for external reasons- to perform for others, to demonstrate your skill, to fulfill some need in the world? Or is your creativity private and for your own use- to unwind, to distract yourself from other parts of your life, to have personal satisfaction in learning a skill? Are you good at your creative thing or do you struggle with it? If you struggle with it, why is it important to you to keep doing it? Part 3: Connect Your Creative Drive With Your Future The most basic way to do this is if you envision yourself actually doing your creative pursuit professionally. But this doesn’t have to be the only way you draw this link. What have you learned from what you’ve made? How has it changed how you interact with other objects or with people? Does it change your appreciation for the work of others or motivate you to improve upon it? "As the sole living practitioner of the ancient art of rock bodybuilding..." What’s UC Hoping to Learn about You? Nothing characterizes higher education like the need for creative thinking, unorthodox ideas to old topics, and the ability to synthesize something new. That is what you are going to college to learn how to do better. This essay wants to know whether this mindset of out-of-the-box-ness is something you are already comfortable with. They want to see: That you have actually created something in your life or academic career That you consider this an important quality within yourself, and that you have cultivated your skills That you can see and have considered the impact of what you’ve done on yourself or on the world around you Think outside the box- unless there are donuts in the box. How Can You Give Them What They Want? How can you really show that you are committed to being a creative person? Be Specific and Descriptive It’s not enough to vaguely gesture at your creative field. Instead, give a detailed and lively description of a specific thing or idea that you have created. For example, I could describe a Turner painting as â€Å"a seascape† or I could call it â€Å"an attempt to capture the breathtaking power and violence of an ocean storm as it overwhelms a ship.† Which painting would you rather look at? Give a Sense of History The question wants a little narrative of your relationship to your creative outlet. How long have you been doing it? Did someone teach you or mentor you? Have you taught it to others? Where and when do you create? Hit a Snag and Find the Success Anything worth doing is worth doing despite setbacks, this question argues- and it wants you to narrate one such setback. So first, figure out something that interfered with your creative expression. A lack of skill, time, or resources? Too much or not enough ambition in a project? Then, make sure this story has a happy ending that shows you off as the solver of your own problems. What did you do to fix the situation? How did you do it? Show Insight Your essay should include some thoughtful consideration of how this creative pursuit has shaped you, your thoughts, your opinions, your relationships with others, your understanding of creativity in general, or your dreams about your future. (Notice I said â€Å"or† not â€Å"and†- 350 words is not enough to cover all of those things!) "And that's when I knew I was destined to become a master confectioner!" Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Dissecting Personal Insight Question 3 The Prompt and Its Instructions What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time? Things to consider: If there’s a talent or skill that you’re proud of, this is the time to share it. You don’t necessarily have to be recognized or have received awards for your talent (although if you did and you want to talk about, feel free to do so). Why is this talent or skill meaningful to you? Does the talent come naturally or have you worked hard to develop this skill or talent? Does your talent or skill allow you opportunities in or outside the classroom? If so, what are they and how do they fit into your schedule? What's the Question Asking? Basically, what’s being asked for here is a beaming rave. Whatever you write about, picture yourself talking about it with a glowing smile on your face. Part 1: Narrative The first part of the question really comes down to this: tell us a story about what's amazing about you. Have you done an outstanding thing? Do you have a mindblowing ability? Describe a place, a time, or a situation in which you were a star. A close reading of this first case of the prompt reveals that you don’t need to stress if you don’t have an obvious answer. Sure, if you’re playing first chair violin in the Symphony Orchestra, that qualifies as both a â€Å"talent† and an â€Å"accomplishment.† But the word "quality" really gives you the option of writing about any one of your most meaningful traits. And then, the words â€Å"contribution† and â€Å"experience† open up the range of possibilities that you could write about even further. A contribution could be anything from physically helping put something together, to providing moral or emotional support at a critical moment. But the key to the first part is the phrase â€Å"important to you.† Once again, what you write about is not as important as how you write about it. Being able to demonstrate the importance of the event that you’re describing reveals much more about you than the specific talent or characteristic ever could. Part 2: Insight and Personal Development The second part of the last essay asked you to look to the future. The second part of this essay wants you to look at the present instead. The general task is similar, however. Once again you're being asked to make connections- how do you fit this quality you have or this achievement you accomplished into the story of who you are? A close reading of the second part of this prompt lands on the word â€Å"proud.† This is a big clue that the revelation this essay is looking for should be a very positive one. In other words, this is probably not the time to write about getting arrested for vandalism, unless you can spin that experience into a story about how you been on the straight and narrow path ever since. Even if your vandalism was really, really, cool, don't write about it. What's UC Hoping to Learn About You? Admissions officers have a very straightforward interest in learning about your accomplishments. By the end of high school, many of the experiences that you are most proud of don’t tend to be the kind of things that end up on your resume. They want to know what makes you proud of yourself. It is something that relates to performance, to overcoming a difficult obstacle, to keeping a cool head in a crisis, to your ability to help others in need? At the same time, they are looking for a sense of maturity. In order to be proud of an accomplishment, it’s important to be able to understand your own values and ideals. This is your chance to show that you truly get the qualities and experiences that make you into a responsible and grown-up person, someone who will thrive in the independence of college life. In other words, while you might really be proud that you managed to tag 50 highway overpasses with graffiti, that’s probably not the achievement to brag about here. Unless you were hired to paint the overpasses. Then definitely brag about it. How Can You Give Them What They Want? The trick with this prompt is how to show a lot about yourself without listing accomplishments or devolving into cliche platitudes. Let's take it step by step. Step #1: Explain Your Field Make sure that somewhere in your narrative (preferably closer to the beginning) you let the reader know what makes your achievement an achievement. Not all interests are mainstream, so it helps your reader to understand what you’re facing if you give a quick sketch of, for example, why it’s challenging to build a battle bot that can defeat another fighting robot, or how the difficulties of extemporaneous debate compare with debating about a prepared topic. Keep in mind that for some things the explanation might be obvious. For example, do you really need to explain why finishing a marathon is a hard task? Step #2: Zoom in on a Specific Experience Think about your talent/quality/accomplishment in terms of experiences that showcase it. Conversely, think about your experiences in terms of the talent/quality/accomplishment they demonstrate. Since you're once again going to be limited to 350 words, you won’t be able to fit all the ways in which you exhibit your specific piece of awesomeness into this essay. This means that you’ll need to figure out how your ability can best be shown through one event when you displayed it. Or if you’re writing about an experience you had or a contribution you made, you’ll need to also point out what personality trait or characteristic it reveals. Step #3: Find a Conflict or a Transition The first question asked for a description, but this one wants a story- a narrative of how you do your special talent, or how you accomplished the thing you were so great at. The main thing about stories is that they have to have: A beginning: This is the setup, when you weren’t yet the star you are now. An obstacle or a transition: Sometimes a story has a conflict that needs to be resolved: something that stood in your way, a challenge that you had to figure out a way around, a block that you powered through. Other times, a story is about a change or a transformation: you used to believe/think/be one thing and now you are different/better. A resolution: When your full power/self-knowledge/ability/future goal is revealed. "And that's how I negotiated peace with the aliens of Tarkon V." Dissecting Personal Insight Question 4 The Prompt and Its Instructions Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced. Things to consider: An educational opportunity can be anything that has added value to your educational experience and better prepared you for college. For example, participation in an honors or academic enrichment program, or enrollment in an academy that’s geared toward an occupation or a major, or taking advanced courses that interest you - just to name a few. If you choose to write about educational barriers you’ve faced, how did you overcome or strive to overcome them? What personal characteristics or skills did you call on to overcome this challenge? How did overcoming this barrier help shape who are you today? What's the Question Asking? Cue the swelling music, because this essay is going to be all about your inspirational journey. You will either tell your story of overcoming adversity against all (or some) odds, or of pursuing the chance of a lifetime. If you write about triumphing over adversity, your essay will include: A description of the setback that befell you: The prompt wants to know what you consider a challenge in your school life- and definitely note that this challenge should have in some significant way impacted your academics rather than your life overall. The challenge can be a wide-reaching problem in your educational environment or something that happened specifically to you. The word â€Å"barrier† also shows that the challenge should be something that stood in your way: if only that thing weren’t there, then you’d be sure to succeed. An explanation of your success: Here, you’ll talk about what you did when faced with this challenge. Notice that the prompt asks you to describe the â€Å"work† you put in to overcome the problem- so this piece of the essay should focus on your actions, thoughts, ideas, and strategies. Although the essay doesn’t specify it, this section should also at some point turn reflexive. How are you defined by this thing that happened? You could discuss the emotional fallout of having dramatically succeeded, or how your maturity level, concrete skills, or understanding of the situation has increased, now that you have dealt with it personally. Or, you could talk about any beliefs or personal philosophy that you have had to reevaluate as a result of either the challenge itself, or of the way that you had to go about solving it. If you write about an educational opportunity, your essay will include: A short, clear description of exactly what you got the chance to do: In your own words, explain what the opportunity was, and why it’s special. Also explain why you specifically got the chance to do it. Was it the culmination of years of study? An academic contest prize? An unexpected encounter that led to you seizing an unlooked-for opportunity? How you made the best of it: It’s one thing to get the opportunity to do something amazing, but it’s another to really maximize what you get out of this chance for greatness. This is where you show just how much you understand the value of what you did, and how you’ve changed and grown as a result of it. Were you very challenged by this opportunity? Did your skills develop? Did you unearth talents you didn’t know you had? How does this impact your future academic ambitions or interests? Will you study this area further? Does this help you find your academic focus? "When I had a chance to go to Wizarding School..." What's UC Hoping to Learn About You? Of course, whatever you write about in this essay is probably already reflected on your resume or in your transcript in some small way. But UC wants to go deeper, to find out how seriously you take your academic career, and how thoughtfully you’ve approached either its ups or its downs. In college, there will be many amazing opportunities, but they aren’t necessarily simply there for the taking. Instead, you will be responsible for seizing whatever chances will further your studies, interests, or skills. Conversely, college will necessarily be more challenging, harder, and potentially much more full of academic obstacles than your academic experiences so far. UC wants to see that you are up to handling whatever setbacks may come your way with aplomb rather than panic. How Can You Give Them What They Want? Define the Problem/Opportunity Not every challenge is automatically obvious. Sure, everyone can understand the drawbacks of having to miss a significant amount of school due to illness, but what if the obstacle you tackled is something a little more obscure? Likewise, winning the chance travel to Italy to paint landscapes with a master is clearly rare and amazing, but some opportunities are more specialized and less obviously impressive. Make sure your essay explains everything the reader will need to know to understand what you were facing. Watch Your Tone An essay describing problems can easily slip into finger-pointing and self-pity. Make sure to avoid this by speaking positively or at least neutrally about what was wrong and what you faced. This goes double if you decide to explain who or what was at fault for creating this problem. Likewise, an essay describing amazing opportunities can quickly become an exercise in unpleasant bragging and self-centeredness. Make sure you stay grounded- rather than dwelling at length on your accomplishments, describe the specifics of what you learned and how. "But learning to be a wizard wasn't easy..." Dissecting Personal Insight Question 5 The Prompt and Its Instructions Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement? Things to consider: A challenge could be personal, or something you have faced in your community or school. Why was the challenge significant to you? This is a good opportunity to talk about any obstacles you’ve faced and what you’ve learned from the experience. Did you have support from someone else or did you handle it alone? If you’re currently working your way through a challenge, what are you doing now, and does that affect different aspects of your life? For example, ask yourself, â€Å"How has my life changed at home, at my school, with my friends, or with my family?† What's the Question Asking? It’s time to draw back the curtains and expand our field of vision, because this is going to be a two-part story of overcoming adversity against all (or some) odds. Part 1: Facing a Challenge The first part of this essay is about problem-solving. The prompt asks you to point at something that could have derailed you, if not for your strength and skill. Not only will you describe the challenge itself, but you’ll talk about what you did when faced with it. Part 2: Looking in the Mirror The second part of Topic B asks you to consider how this challenge has echoed through your life- and more specifically, how your education has been affected by what happened to you. What's UC Hoping to Learn About You? In life, dealing with setbacks, defeats, barriers, and conflicts is not a bug- it’s a feature. And colleges want to make sure that you can handle these upsetting events without losing your overall sense of self, without being totally demoralized, and without getting completely overwhelmed. In other words, they are looking for someone who is mature enough to do well on a college campus, where disappointing results and hard challenges will be par for the course. They are also looking for your creativity and problem-solving skills. Are you good at tackling something that needs to be fixed? Can you keep a cool head in a crisis? Do you look for solutions outside the box? These are all markers of a successful student, so it’s not surprising that admissions people want you to demonstrate these qualities. "I realized that if I wanted to become the Junior Champion Snake Shifter, I would have to do something drastic." How Can You Give Them What They Want? Let's explore the best ways to show off your problem-solving side. Show Your Work It’s one thing to be able to say what's wrong, but it’s another thing entirely to demonstrate how you figured out how to fix it. Even more than knowing that you were able to fix the problem, colleges want to see how you approached the situation. This is why your essay needs to explain your problem-solving methodology. Basically, we need to see you in action. What did you think would work? What did you think would not work? Did you compare this to other problems you have faced and pass? Did you do research? Describe your process. Make Sure That You Are the Hero This essay is supposed to demonstrate your resourcefulness and creativity. The last thing you want is for you to not actually be the person responsible for overcoming the obstacle. Make sure that your story is clear that without you and your special brand of XYZ, people would still be lamenting the issue today. Don't worry if the resource you used to affect a good fix was the knowledge and know-how that somebody else brought to the table. Just focus on explaining what made you think of this person as the one to go to, how you convinced them to participate, and how you explained to them how they would be helpful. This will shift the attention of the story back to you and your doings. Find the Suspenseful Moment The most exciting part of this essay should be watching you struggle to find a solution just in the nick of time. Think every movie clichà © ever about someone defusing a bomb - even if you know 100% that the guy is going to do it, the movie still ratchets up the tension to make it seem like, well, maybe... You want to do the same thing here. Bring excitement and a feeling of uncertainty to your description of your process to really pull the reader in and make them root for you to succeed. You're the superhero! Dissecting Personal Insight Question 6 The Prompt and Its Instructions Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. Things to consider: Many students have a passion for one specific academic subject area, something that they just can’t get enough of. If that applies to you, what have you done to further that interest? Discuss how your interest in the subject developed and describe any experience you have had inside and outside the classroom - such as volunteer work, internships, employment, summer programs, participation in student organizations and/or clubs - and what you have gained from your involvement. Has your interest in the subject influenced you in choosing a major and/or career? Have you been able to pursue coursework at a higher level in this subject (honors, AP, IB, college or university work)? Are you inspired to pursue this subject further at UC, and how might you do that? What's the Question Asking? This question is really asking for a glimpse of your imagined possibilities. For some students, this will be an extremely straightforward question. For example, say you’ve always loved science to the point that you’ve spent every summer taking biology and chemistry classes. You can just pick a few of the most gripping moments from these experiences and discuss the overall trajectory of your interests, and your essay will be a winner. But what if you have many academic interests? Or what if you only discovered your academic passion at the very end of high school? Let’s break down what the question is really asking into two parts. Part 1: Picking a Favorite At first glance, it sounds as if what you should write about is the class where you have gotten the best grades, or the class that easily fits into what you see as your future college major or maybe even your eventual career goal. There is nothing wrong with this kind of pick- especially if you really are someone who tends to excel in those classes that are right up your interest alley. But if we look closer, we see that there is nothing in the prompt that specifically demands that you write either about a particular class or an area of study where you perform well. Instead, you could take the phrase â€Å"academic subject† to mean a wide field of study and explore your fascination with the different types of learning to be found there. For example, if your chosen topic is the field of literature, you could discuss your experiences with different genres or with foreign writers. You could also write about a course or area of study that has significantly challenged you, and where you have not been as stellar a student as you want. This could be a way to focus on your personal growth as a result of struggling through a difficult class, or the way you’ve learned to handle or overcome your limitations. Part 2: Relevance The second part of this prompt, like the first, can also be taken in a literal and direct way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with explaining that because you love engineering and want to be an engineer you have pursued all your school’s STEM courses, are also involved in a robotics club, and have taught yourself to code in order to develop apps. On the other hand, you could focus on the more abstract, values-driven goals we just talked about. Then, the way you explain how your academics will help you can be rooted not in the content of what you studied, but in the life lessons you drew from it. In other words, for example, your theater class may not have created a desire to be an actor, but working on plays with your peers may have shown you how highly you value collaboration. And the experience of designing sets was an exercise in problem-solving and ingenuity. These lessons would be useful in any field you pursue and could easily be said to help you achieve your lifetime goals. My favorite subject is underwater basketweaving. What's UC Hoping to Learn About You? If you are on a direct path to a specific field of study or career pursuit, admissions officers definitely want to know that. Having driven, goal oriented, and passionate students is a huge plus for a university. So if this is you, be sure that your essay conveys not just your interest but also your deep and abiding love of the subject, and maybe even includes any related clubs, activities, and hobbies that you’ve done during high school. But of course, more traditionally, college is the place to find yourself and the things that you become passionate about. So if you’re not already committed to a specific course of study, don’t worry. Instead, you have to realize that in this essay, like in all the other essays, the how matters much more than the what. No matter where your eventual academic, career, or other pursuits may lie, every class that you have taken up to now has taught you something. You learned about things like work ethic, mastering a skill, practice, learning from a teacher, interacting with peers, dealing with setbacks, understanding your own learning style, and perseverance. In other words, the admissions office wants to make sure that no matter what you study you will draw meaningful conclusions from your experiences, whether those conclusions are about the content of what you learn or about a deeper understanding of yourself and others. They want to see that you’re not simply floating through life on the surface, but that you are absorbing the qualities, skills, and know-how you will need to succeed in the world- no matter what that success looks like. How Can You Give Them What They Want? Focus on a telling detail. Because personal statements are short, you simply won't have time to explain everything you have loved about a particular subject in enough detail to make it count. Instead, pick one event that crystallized your passion for a subject, or one telling moment that revealed what your working style will be, and go deep into a discussion of what it meant to you in the past and how it will affect your future. Don’t overreach. It’s fine to say that you have loved your German classes so much that you have begun exploring both modern and classic German-language writers, for example, but it’s a little too self-aggrandizing to claim that your 4 years of German have made you basically bilingual and ready to teach the language to others. Make sure that whatever class achievements you describe don’t come off as unnecessary bragging rather than simple pride. Don’t underreach. At the same time, make sure that you have actual accomplishments to describe in whatever subject you pick to write about. If your favorite class turned out to be the one you mostly skipped to hang out in the gym instead, this may not be the place to share that lifetime goal. After all, you always have to remember your audience. In this case, it's college admissions officers who want to find students who are eager to learn and be exposed to new thoughts and ideas. "This is how I realized my passion for horticulture." Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: Dissecting Personal Insight Question 7 The Prompt and Its Instructions 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? What's the Question Asking? This topic is trying to get at how you engage with your environment. It’s looking for several things: #1: Your Sense of Place and Connection Because the term â€Å"community† is so broad and ambiguous, this is a good essay for explaining where you feel a sense of belonging and rootedness. What or who constitutes your community? Is your connection to a place, to a group of people, or to an organization? What makes you identify as part of this community- cultural background, a sense of shared purpose, or some other quality? #2: Your Empathy and Ability to Look at the Big Picture Before you can solve a problem, you have to realize that the problem exists. Before you can make your community a better place, you have to find the things that can be ameliorated. No matter what your contribution ended up being, you first have to show how you saw where your skills, talent, intelligence, or hard work could do the most good. Did you put yourself in the shoes of the other people in your community? Understand some fundamental inner working of a system you could fix? Knowingly put yourself in the right place at the right time? #3: Your Problem Solving Skills How did you make the difference in your community? If you resolved a tangible issue, how did you come up with your solution? Did you examine several options or act from the gut? If you made your community better in a less direct way, how did you know where to apply yourself and how to have the most impact possible? "And that's how I saved the children of MiceTown." What's UC Hoping to Learn About You? Community is a very important thing to colleges. You'll be involved with and encounter lots of different communities in college, from the broader student body, to your extracurriculars and classes, to the community outside the University around you. UC wants to make sure that you can engage with the communities around you in a positive and meaningful way. How Can You Give Them What They Want? Make it personal. Before you can explain what you did in your community, you have to define and describe this community itself- and you can necessarily only do that by focusing on what it means to you. Don’t speak in generalities, but instead show the bonds between you and the group you are a part of through colorful, idiosyncratic language. Sure, they might be â€Å"my water polo team,† but maybe they are more specifically â€Å"the twelve people who have seen me at my most exhausted and my most exhilarated.† Feel all the feelings. This is a chance to move your readers. As you delve deep into what makes your community one of your emotional centers, and then as you describe how you were able to improve it in a meaningful and lasting way, you should keep the roller coaster of feelings front and center. Own how you felt at each step of the process: when you found your community, when you saw that you could make a difference, when you realized that your actions have resulted in a change for the better. Did you feel unprepared for the task you undertook? Nervous to potentially let down those around? Thrilled to get a chance to display a hidden or underused talent? "After brokering peace between the two rival cat clans of my neighborhood, I feel like I can do anything!" Dissecting Personal Insight Question 8 The Prompt and Its Instructions Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California? Things to consider: If there’s anything you want us to know about you, but didn’t find a question or place in the application to tell us, now’s your chance. What have you not shared with us that will highlight a skill, talent, challenge or opportunity that you think will help us know you better? From your point of view, what do you feel makes you an excellent choice for UC? Don’t be afraid to brag a little. What's the Question Asking? If your particular experience doesn’t quite fit under the rubrics of the other essay topics, or if there is something the admissions officers need to understand about your background in order to consider your application in the right context, then this is the essay for you. Now, I’m going to say something a little counterintuitive here. The prompt for this essay clarifies that even if you don’t have a â€Å"unique† story to tell, you should still feel free to pick this topic. But, honestly, I think you should only choose this topic if you have an exceptional experience to share, and that any everyday challenges or successes of regular life could easily fit one of the other insight questions instead. What this means is that evaluating whether your experiences qualify for this essay is a matter of degrees. For example, did you manage to thrive academically despite being raised by a hard-working single parent? That’s a hardship that could easily be written about for Questions 1 or 5, depending on how you choose to frame what happened. Did you manage to earn a 3.7 GPA despite living in a succession of foster families only to age out of the system in the middle of your senior year of high school? That’s a narrative of overcoming hardship that easily belongs to Question 8. On the flip side, did you win a state-wide robotics competition? Well done, and feel free to tell your story under Question 4. Were you the youngest person to single-handedly win a season of BattleBots? Then feel free to write about it for Question 8. What's UC Hoping to Learn About You? This is pretty straightforward. They are trying to identify students that have unique and amazing stories to tell about who they are and where they come from. If you’re a student like this, then the admissions people want to know: What happened to you When and where it happened How you participated or were involved in the situation How it affected you as a person How it affected your schoolwork How the experience will be reflected in the point of view you bring to campus The reasons that the university wants this information are: It gives context to applications that otherwise might seem mediocre or even subpar It can help explain times in a transcript where grades significantly drop It creates them the opportunity to build a lot of diversity into the incoming class It’s a way of finding unique talents and abilities that otherwise wouldn’t show up on other application materials How Can You Give Them What They Want? Let's run through a few tricks for making sure your essay makes the most of your particular exceptionalism. Double-Check Your Uniqueness There are many experiences in all of our lives that make us feel elated, accomplished, and extremely competent, that are also near-universal. This essay isn’t trying to take the validity of your strong feelings away from you, but I think it would be best served by for stories that are on a different scale. Wondering whether what you went through counts? This might be a good time to run your idea by a parent, school counselor, or trusted teacher. Do they think your experience is widespread? Or do they agree that you truly lived a life less ordinary? Connect Outward The vast majority of your answer to the prompt should be telling your story and its impact on you and your life. But the essay should also point toward how your particular experiences set you apart from your peers. One of the reasons that the admissions office wants to find out which of the applicants has been through something unlike most other people is that they are hoping to increase the number of points of view in the student body. Think about, and include in your essay, how you will impact campus life. This can be very literal- if you are a jazz singer who has released several acclaimed albums, then maybe you will perform on campus. Or it can be much more oblique- if you are disabled, then you will be able to offer a perspective that differs from the able-bodied majority. Be Direct, Specific, and Honest Nothing will make your voice sound more appealing than writing without embellishment or verbal flourishes. This is the one case where what you’re telling is just as- if not more- important than how you’re telling it. So the best strategy is to be as straightforward in your writing as possible. This means using description to situate your reader in a place/time/experience that they would never get to see firsthand. You can do this by picking a specific moment during your accomplishment to narrate as a small short story, and not shying away from explaining your emotions throughout the experience. Your goal is to make the extraordinary into something at least somewhat relatable- and the way you do that is by making your writing down to earth. "Is it accurate to say that I saved the entire world?" "No." Writing Advice for Making Your UC Personal Statements Shine No matter what personal insight questions you end up choosing to write about, here are two tips for making your writing sparkle: #1: Be Detailed and Descriptive Have you ever heard the expression â€Å"show, don’t tell†? It’s usually given as creative writing advice, and it will be your best friend when you're writing college essays. It means that any time you want to describe a person or thing as having a particular quality, it’s better to illustrate with an example than to just use vague adjectives. If you stick to giving examples that paint a picture, your focus will also become narrower and more specific. You’ll end up focusing on details and concrete events, rather than not particularly telling generalizations. Let’s say, for instance, Adnan is writing about the house that he’s been helping his dad fix up. Which of these do you think gives the reader a better sense of place? Version 1 My family bought an old house that was kind of rundown. My dad likes fixing it up on the weekends and I like helping him. Now the house is much nicer than when we bought it and I can see all our hard work when I look at it. Version 2 My dad grinned when he saw my shocked face. Our â€Å"new† house looked like a completely rundown shed: peeling paint, rust-covered railings, shutters that looked like the crooked teeth of a jack-o-lantern. I was still staring at the spider web crack in one broken window when my dad handed me a pair of brand new work gloves and a paint scraper. â€Å"Today, let’s just do what we can with the front wall,† he said, and then I smiled too, knowing that many of my weekends would be spent here with him, working side by side. Both versions of this story focus on the fact that the house was dilapidated and that Adnan enjoyed helping his dad do repairs. But the second does this by: Painting a picture of what the house actually looked like by adding visual details ("peeling paint," "rust-covered railings," "broken window"), and through comparisons ("shutters like a jack-o-lantern," "spider web window crack") Showing emotions by describing facial expressions ("my dad grinned," "my shocked face," "I smiled") Using specific and descriptive action verbs ("grinned," "shocked," "staring," "handed") The essay would probably go on to describe one day of working with his dad, or a time when a repair went horribly awry. Adnan would make sure to keep adding sensory details (what things looked, sounded, smelled, tasted like), using active verbs, and illustrating feelings with spoken speech and facial expressions. If you're having trouble checking whether your description is detailed enough, read your work to someone else. Then, ask that person to describe the scene back to you. Are they able to conjure up a picture from your words? If not, you need to beef up your details. It's a bit of a fixer-upper, but it'll make a great college essay! #2: Show Your Feelings All good personal essays deal with emotions. And what marks great personal essays is the author’s willingness to really dig into negative feelings as well as positive ones. As you write your UC application essays, keep asking yourself questions and probing your memory. How did you feel before it happened? How did you expect to feel after, and then how did you actually feel after? How did the world that you are describing feel about what happened? How do you know how your world felt? Then write about your feelings using mostly emotion words ("I was thrilled/disappointed/proud/scared"), some comparisons ("I felt like I'd never run again/like I'd just bitten into a sour apple/like the world's greatest explorer"), and a few bits of direct speech ("'How are we going to get away with this?' my brother asked.") Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. There's "it was exciting." And then there's "I felt at once exhilarated and terrified, as if I had just jumped out of an airplane for the first time." What’s Next? This should give you a great starting point to attack the UC essay prompts and consider how you'll write your own effective UC personal statements. The hard part starts here- work hard, brainstorm broadly, and use all my suggestions above to craft a great UC application essay. Making your way through college applications? We have advice on how to find the right college for you, how to write about your extracurricular activities, and how to ask teachers for recommendations. Interested in taking the SAT one more time? Check out our highly detailed explainer on studying for the SAT to learn how to prepare best. Worried about how to pay for college after you get in? Read our description of how much college really costs, our comparison of subsidized and unsubsidized loans, and our lists of the top scholarships for high school seniors and juniors. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points? We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: