How to Write the “Creative Side” UC Essay
What’s Covered:
- How to Brainstorm for the “Creative Side” Prompt
- Tips For Writing the “Creative Side” Essay
- Mistakes to Avoid with the “Creative Side” Essay
- Where to Get Your UC “Creative Side” Essay Edited
The second University of California system essay prompt reads:
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.
Many people, when seeing the word “creative,” automatically think of something artistic, such as theater, visual arts, or music. If those pursuits don’t apply to you, you may be intimidated by this prompt.
However, almost everyone should be able to write a strong response to this prompt, if you use a broader definition of the word “creative.” Everyone has something they do or think that makes them different from the people around them. Simply, this prompt gives you the opportunity to talk about what makes you unique–even if it has nothing to do with the arts.
How to Brainstorm for the “Creative Side” Prompt
Classic Creative Pursuits
Of course, just because you don’t have to write about something traditionally creative doesn’t mean you can’t. Many students are immediately drawn to this prompt because they have an artistic talent that’s a big part of their identity.
Maybe you love drawing, or go to a ceramics studio once a week, or enjoy playing the flute. Any of these activities could anchor a strong response to this prompt.
This prompt can be especially appealing if your artistic passion is more of a hobby, and thus doesn’t show up in your activities list. Many students feel pressure to show off their most impressive achievements in each and every part of their application. In reality, though, admissions officers aren’t expecting that.
You can definitely elaborate on something that is in that list, but the college essay can also be an opportunity to share something brand new, that doesn’t appear anywhere else in your application. Colleges understand that you’re more than just your grades and awards, and telling them about something you do just for fun can add a new dimension to even the strongest applications.
Unconventional Creativity
As noted above, there are also more creative (no pun intended) ways to approach this creativity prompt! Don’t be afraid to think a little outside the box with your definition of creativity. If you feel drawn to this prompt, but no topic immediately comes to mind, here are some questions you can ask yourself as you brainstorm:
- Is there something you do or enjoy that your friends/family think is unusual?
- Do you have a hobby or passion that’s not typical for a high schooler?
- Do you have any interests that are niche in general?
For example, maybe you love learning about the battle formations used by the Roman Empire. You could write about how, because of your obsession with this seemingly obscure topic, you connected with a group of historians that reenacts famous battles, and even had the opportunity to travel to Italy to do a reenactment at an academic conference.
In this example, your creative side manifests in a fearlessness about diving deeply into interests that may seem strange on the surface, and readers get to see that that fearlessness has helped you meet people you never would’ve known otherwise, and have once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Remember, admissions officers are always evaluating your readiness for college life, and this story proves that you’re ready to take advantage of all that a particular UC has to offer.
Alternatively, you could write about all the things you do to help your dog have the most enriching life possible, from creating an obstacle course for her in your backyard to teaching her how to stand on a paddleboard during a family vacation. Having a dog is common, but taking your responsibility as a dog owner so seriously is not. So, this example shows that for you, creativity means marching to the beat of your own drum in even the most ordinary situations.
Don’t Get Tripped Up By “innovative thinking”
Something about this prompt that can trip people up is the phrase “innovative thinking.” What exactly do the UCs mean? To be clear, they don’t expect you to have invented your own theory of economics, or found a hidden meaning in War and Peace by reading it backwards.
Rather, this prompt wants to know how you might approach a particular problem or idea differently than the people around you. In other words, think about how you are innovative in context–you don’t have to have changed the world, just brought an original perspective to a class, club or group of friends, or even to your family.
For example, maybe you pride yourself on your fantasy football prowess, and credit your success to your unusual draft strategy. Or maybe when your parents sold your childhood home, to prevent everyone from getting too down, you created your own version of Monopoly, where each square was a favorite memory you had at the house.
Neither of these examples involves solving climate change or curing cancer. But as noted earlier, sometimes showing who you are in mundane situations can add a lot to your application. That gives admissions officers confidence that you’ll contribute to their school not just with insightful discussion points and original research projects, but also as a kind roommate and a friendly face in the dining hall.
Tips For Writing the “Creative Side” Essay
Show, Don’t Tell
This is perhaps rule #1 for college essays across the board, but when you’re writing an essay about creativity specifically, one of the best ways to take your essay from good to great is to showcase your creativity through your writing itself.
Not everyone is going to be Shakespeare, of course, and you never want to insert fancy adjectives that don’t actually make sense, as that takes your reader out of the flow of your story. What you do want to do is be extra thoughtful about the examples you use to illustrate your points, and about how stylistic choices can help underscore your creativity for your readers.
For example, maybe you play the guitar, and you start each paragraph of your essay with one of your favorite songs to play, and then explain why that song is so meaningful to you. Or maybe your favorite color is green, and you take pride in incorporating as much green into your life as possible, so you mention as many different shades of green in your essay as you can.
These examples are both meta-creative, in that they describe something that’s already creative in a creative way. Just talking about how much you love green could make an impact, but using the word “sagebrush” (in a context that makes sense, of course) assuredly will.
Explain the Broader Significance
Even though this prompt is only directly asking you to talk about your creative side, the unwritten instruction is “and what it says about you as a whole person.” Admissions officers want you to show them what kind of college student you’re going to be. If you only tell them that you like collecting seashells, and not about the bigger picture personality traits that hobby has helped you develop, they won’t understand why this essay is relevant to your candidacy.
Now, you don’t want to go too far in the other direction, and try to connect collecting seashells to everything else in your application. Keep your focus narrow. But your reader should be able to see how this hobby fits into your broader identity.
For example, you could talk about how collecting seashells has taught you patience, or to be okay with imperfection, or to appreciate the interconnectedness of life. These are all lessons that will help you succeed in college. What exactly you learned doesn’t matter–just honestly reflect on why this thing matters to you, and make sure to express that in your essay.
Don’t Be Afraid to Mix Up Your Tone
Many college essay prompts are inherently quite dry–a “Why Major?” essay is, by definition, going to be academic. That doesn’t mean your whole application has to be serious and straight-laced, though.
Of course, you always want to present yourself as a mature, respectful person. But you can do that while also injecting some humor or lightheartedness into your application when opportunities arise to do so. Admissions officers can get tired as they’re reading applications all day long, so one with energy is likely to be more memorable.
To give you a concrete idea of what we mean here, compare the tone of “I like knitting sweaters for my sphynx cat to wear in the winter” to “While I hardly consider my creations high couture, I like to think that when the weather starts to turn, my cat feels some excitement about what this year’s collection will bring.”
While the first example is informative, the second communicates the same point using a somewhat self-deprecating approach, by mixing pride with an ability to laugh at yourself. This personality trait isn’t the kind of thing that usually pops up in college apps, and thus is likely to catch an admissions officer’s eye.
Mistakes to Avoid with the “Creative Side” Essay
Clichés
Not that you want any of your college essays to be cliché, but especially in an essay that’s specifically supposed to be about creativity, falling into this trap would be disastrous. Now, you can still write about a common “creative” topic, like drawing or singing. You just want to be extra careful that your personal connection to this topic comes across clearly.
For example, say you wrote something like “I’ve always had a hard time expressing myself, but when I discovered singing, it became an outlet for even my deepest emotions, especially during hard times like the pandemic.” That is one of the most cliché statements people make about singing, so it won’t do anything to distinguish you in the eyes of UC admissions officers.
In contrast, take: “Singing helped me label my emotions even when I didn’t fully understand them. While practicing for a zoom performance of ”the last great american dynasty” by Taylor Swift during the pandemic, I realized that I wasn’t just nostalgic for pre-lockdown days, but also for my childhood, which wasn’t going to come back even once the world reopened.”
The basic point in these two examples is the same. But the second one takes the cliché and makes it personal, by explaining how this common sentiment has impacted the student’s development and understanding of themselves.
It’s okay if the broader lesson you learned is somewhat cliché–the definition of a cliché is something that many people relate to, after all. Just make sure that rather than stating the cliché directly, just as people have heard it so many times, you explain what happened in your own life that led you to this realization. Even if a lot of people have learned the same lesson, none of them have learned it exactly the way you did.
Don’t Get Too Creative
Some students see this prompt as an opportunity to blow admissions officers’ minds, by having the whole essay rhyme to illustrate their love of poetry, or by quoting a different 80s movie in every other line to prove their passion for this decade of film.
This kind of super outside the box approach can sometimes land. But it’s incredibly hard to execute, and it’s all or nothing: either your reader’s mind is blown, or they have no idea what you’re trying to say and you’ve wasted this opportunity to enhance your candidacy.
If you’re a confident writer and have family members, teachers, or friends who you know will be honest with you about whether your essay is working, then you can give hyper-creativity a try. Just be ready to pivot in case the words on the page don’t look the way you envisioned them in your head.
If you’re feeling iffy from the get-go, though, don’t stress. The vast majority of UC applicants, including accepted ones, take a conventional approach to this prompt. A straightforward essay that’s well-written and personal will impress much more than a wild ride that doesn’t take you anywhere in particular.
Where to Get Your UC “Creative Side” Essay Edited
Do you want feedback on your UC “Creative Side” essay? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool, where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.
If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!
Finally, if you want more information on how to write responses for the other UC essays, consider reading our breakdown of each personal insight question! Or, check out these examples of strong UC essays, including responses to the “creative side” prompt, which were written by real students!
