2026–27 application
University of California-Riverside supplemental essays
Every prompt and word limit, from the application itself.
Leadership in Action
Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.
How to approach it. Goals prompts fail when they stay noble and vague. Pick one real problem you care about. Connect it to something you’ve already touched in real life. Make the goal clear enough that a reader could disagree with it. Specific beats impressive.
Your Creative Side
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.
Your Greatest Talent
What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?
Opportunity or Barrier
Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.
Facing a Challenge
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?
How to approach it. The challenge is the setup, not the essay. Spend most of the words on what you did and how you changed. Readers are wary of a hard story used as currency. Growth is the currency.
A subject that inspires
Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.
Making It Better
What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?
How to approach it. Here, specific beats important. A small, true community described from the inside beats a broad label. Write it as someone who was there, not as an observer. End on what you carry into a campus, not on a moral.
Beyond the Application
Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
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