(STEM Specific) Personal Insight Questions + Crafting a Competitive Application Workshop

Context

I am a Moorpark College student majoring in data science, aiming to transfer to a UC, so, I am currently a participant is UC Berkley’s Community College Transfer Services (CCTS) webinar series, which is all about preparing for the application and your future. CCTS Logo

Meeting Notes

*not all slides or notes are transcribed here. This is just what I personally noted down for the future.

Part one: UC Transfer PIQs

  • 4 total PIQS, 1 is required and choose 3 out of 7 additional questions
  • max 350 words
  • all prompts are weighed equally; prompts are designed to get to know you better
  • share your life experiences, intersts, ambitions, and inspirations
  • PIQS provide important context in your overall application
  • be authentic and reflective, share your unique voice; express who you are and what matters to you most. keep information recent, focus on experiences at CC
  • focus on talking about yourself, not others

PIQ Do’s:

  • capture your reader with a hook
  • 3Cs: Content, character, cohesiveness
  • active voice, depicts you as the doer

PIQ Don’t’s:

  • Don’t wait until the last minute to write PIQs
  • Don’t fluff (creative writing and poems), direct
  • spell out acronyms!
  • don’t use passive voice

Active: The subject of the sentence performs the action. “I did that.” verus “that happened to me.” Show don’t tell: Provide context as to how the action occurs, from point A to point B.

Part Three: PIQ Breakdown:

  • I am a — “What are the three big things about myself I want to showcase?”

Required Prompt:

  • clubs, experiences, activites, research, hackathon, any extracurriculars
  • what you did in ADDITION to required cources
  • sentence or two as to why you are choosing this major
  • Why are you passionate?
  • Online courses
  • see topics avaiable for major once you transfer, then mention them in the essay to demonstrate you are knowledgeable about the major you chose

Leadership Prompt:

  • Consider your roles at work, home, stuednt clubs? What does leadership mean to you?
  • teamwork, encouragement, collaboration
  • What does it mean to be a leader … Steps you took … Describe your impact/influence on others

Creativity Prompt:

  • Part 1: Explain your creative side: share your creative process, how you became interested, how you developed that skill
  • Part 2: How you express it: How do you practice your creativity, share 1-2 projects you’ve undertaken where you used your creativity

Talent or skill Prompt:

  • indentify a talent or skill that is meaninful to you: it can be anything (public speaking, music, resolving conflict, dance, coding, multitasking, etc)
  • how have you devloped this talent over time? what did you do to improve/learn?
  • how have you demonstrated your talent or skill?

Educational Opportunity/barrier Prompt:

  • slightly different, asking about one or the other
  • Likely not the prompt I will end up doing *

Significant Challege Prompt:

  • Identify and describe the challenge
  • steps you took to overcome it: share in chronological order how you approached and overcame the challenge
  • affected academic achievement: 2-3 ways te challenge impacted your ability to thrive academically
  • how do you showcase resilience and perservance when faced w/ obstacles?
  • It’s not a sob story, you’re providing context to your abilities, progress, and your story
  • Showing off strengths and overcoming these challenges

School/Community Service Prompt:

  • Define the commmunity you are part of and emphasize your role in that community
  • was there a problem that you wanted to fix in your community? How did you approach it? » identify the problem and the steps you took to solve it, focus on your individual contribution, what were you responsible for?
  • How did your actions benefit others or the wider community? » what was the result, impact (how many people attended/volunteered)

Strong candidate for admission prompt:

  • internship
  • save this for last, most open ended
  • unique experences, traits/characteristcs
  • check if your topic lands in any of the other topics first

PIQ resources/QnA:

  • additional comment section is not for PIQs, just personal/academic context
  • avoid using metaphors
  • most majors do not require a letter of recommendation or portfolio Pages to Bookmark

They covered plagerism a solid amount toward the end of the meeting, but at the end of the day, just don’t do it. Don’t falsify your application, use AI, etc etc etc. I’m not noting the details down when it is simple not to do it!

Thank you to the CCTS team:

Final Thoughts

This was so full of information, and I am incredibly grateful for all of the hard work the team has invested into this webinar series. I cannot wait for more, and thank you for reading!

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