Spotlight on the University of California Irvine

About the University of California Irvine

Location: Irvine, CA

Undergraduate Population: 29,503

Most Popular Majors: Biology, Computer science, Psychology, Business Economics, Political science

Motto: Fiat lux (“Let there be light”)

Demographics:

Asian/Asian American 38.6%
Latinx 26.2%
White 12.9%
Multiracial 6.4%
Black/African American 1.9%
Native American less than 1%

History:

The University of California, Irvine (with San Diego and Santa Cruz) was one of three newer UC campuses established in the 1960s via the California Master Plan for Higher Education, inspired by the post-war baby boom. An area of agricultural land, the Irvine Ranch, around Orange County, Los Angeles was chosen as one of the campuses. On June 20, 1964, then-U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson inaugurated UC Irvine in front of a crowd of 15,000 people, and on October 4, 1965, the campus began operations with 1,589 students, 241 staff members, 119 faculty, and 43 teaching assistants. At the time, the campus was only 75% complete, with most buildings under construction. UC Irvine was named after James Irvine, a landowner who administered the Irvine Ranch.

The campus’s first academic plan was built around a College of Letters and Science, a Graduate School of Administration, and a School of Engineering. The UCI College of Letters and Science was supposed to be divided into five divisions which together would initially offer about a dozen majors: Biological Sciences, Fine Arts, Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences.  In 1967, however, the UCI Academic Senate voted to redesignate the divisions as “schools” instead.

Today, the University of California Irvine has eight schools for undergraduate students, which offer over 85 majors and 70 minors.

Notable UC Irvine alumni include British actress and activist Nazanin Boniadi, actor and comedian Jon Lovitz, Olympic diver Greg Louganis, physician and politician Ami Bera, and baseball player Keston Hiura.

Traditions:

• “Zot!” is the UCI Anteater athletics war cry, led by the CIA (Completely Insane Anteaters), a student group whose members wear bright gold T-shirts and passionately cheer Anteater sports teams to victory.
• The annual Rainbow Festival, sponsored by the UCI Cross-Cultural Center, offers speakers, workshops and a cultural fair open to campus and community.
• Each October, UCI recognizes the start of the men’s and women’s basketball season with Midnight Magic, which typically includes player and coach introductions, scrimmages, a slam dunk contest and a three-point shootout.

Noteworthy Features:

• The University of California, Irvine (UCI) has eight schools for undergraduate students: Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences, The Paul Merage School of Business, School of Education, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, School of Humanities, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies.
• There is a big pre-med life on campus. To support students’ endeavors, the university houses multiple medical research centers focusing on areas like aging and dementia, neurological disorders, and spinal cord trauma.
• Like the other UC schools, UC Irvine runs on a 10-week quarter system

Admissions Profile

Average GPA: Not reported

Test Scores (mid-50% range): Test blind

Admit Rate: 25.8%

Test-optional? Test blind

Offers Early Admissions? No

Supplemental Essays

Alongside other UC schools, the University of California Irvine asks students the following questions, known as Personal Insight Questions, or PIQs. Applicants must choose four of the eight questions to answer. Each response should be no more than 350 words.

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 a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California

When approaching the UC PIQs, think about which prompts will give admissions officers the best sense of who you are and what you care about. Remember that you only need to answer four of them, so you should choose the prompts that are most relevant to your own experience. To make the most of your PIQs, keep this advice in mind:

• Focus on you. Whatever the question, consider your experience: what you did, felt, thought, or learned. If you’re describing a challenge you faced or a subject that inspires you, for example, it’s very easy to spend a lot of your essay writing about the challenge or what you like to study. But that doesn’t tell admissions officers much about you. What did you feel when you faced your challenge, and what concrete steps did you take to overcome it? What excites you about a particular academic subject, and how have you actively pursued it?
• Highlight impact. The prompts about leadership and community are specifically asking about your contributions, but there are other ways to make an impact as well. When writing your essays, think about where and how you’ve made a positive difference.
• Provide depth. Some of these prompts could probably be answered by writing on topics you’ve listed in the Activities and Awards section–this can be a great place to look for a topic you want to say more about. If you feel like the description you gave in that section tells most of the story, it’s probably not a good topic for a PIQ. You want topics that will let you add your perspective and showcase who you are, not just what you participated in.
• Think outside the box. Leadership doesn’t have to mean a title, creativity doesn’t have to be artistic, and your community doesn’t have to be your school or a local organization. Leadership can be mentoring others or organizing a project or event. You can be creative in how you approach problems or make connections between ideas. And a community can be geographically diverse, as long as there is mutual connection and influence within it.

For more tips on common supplemental essay prompts, see our blog post here.