Featured Supplemental Essay Prompt For UC San Diego Applicants:

Student’s Selected UC Personal Insight Prompt: Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. 350 Word Maximum.

Successful Supplemental Essay Example From Our Accepted Alumni Student:

My foray into programming began well before I entered high school. The Rubik’s cube got me interested in algorithms, as I learned that there wasn’t one way to tackle a problem, while [Redacted] Robotics introduced me to the concepts of logic. Little did I know that blending logic and algorithms with particular commands was the recipe to create a “program.” What started as a casual hobby in my middle-school years became a passion I incessantly chased in the years to come.

I’ve since fine-tuned my programming skills through advanced computer science classes, a web code and design summer course, device-based programming, and active participation in my school’s CS club. But what truly solidified my computer science career visions was my participation in Hackathons, where I collaborated with like-minded computer enthusiasts to transform ideas into working prototypes overnight.

As I prototyped [app]—a smart security device—for one such hackathon, I started gravitating toward Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Integrating my Raspberry Pi kit with a camera allowed me to prototype a security camera with facial recognition capabilities.

And my weeks-long summer project [app name], a web-based audio/video transcriber, got me interested in yet another aspect of Artificial Intelligence: Natural Language Processing (NLP). Converting audio and video content into text using NLP libraries introduced me to another challenge: how to effectively store and search large volumes of data.

All of these endeavors, mishaps, and solutions I encountered along the way sparked my curiosity—and invoked pressing questions. I have continued to wonder how we can utilize machine learning and natural language processing to create tools that further enhance educational opportunities and efficiency of large-scale projects.

Through integrating my passion for computer science with my desire to promote equity, I hope to discover how we can make computer-science-based frameworks and learning tools a more accessible reality in our world—not only in ease-of-use, but also in bridging boundaries.