UCLA Undergraduate Admission Essay Sample

Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university.

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Working hard for what I want has always come naturally to me because in my entire life, working hard has been the norm for the people surrounding me. I could not have accomplished most of the things in my life without having put extra effort. After getting my high school diploma in France with an honorable mention in the field of Economics and Sociology with a specialization in British Literature, World History, and Geography, I decided to attend university in Paris, where I am currently majoring in Business Economics and English. As part of my undergraduate degree, I have already become familiar with a significant portion of the upper-division Economics curriculum, and over the course of three semesters, I have gained a lot of knowledge in the field of economics, primarily through my classes in financial and public accounting, advanced microeconomics and macroeconomics, business theory, statistics, advanced calculus, and advanced courses in English. I am also prepared to continue pursuing a second major in English at the University of California.

As part of my joint Economics and English degree, I have taken classes in advanced English composition, translation, and economic and legal terminology. This has contributed to my Economics degree because my economics classes focused more on the current American economic context, rather than the typical European one that most majors in France offer, while also perfecting my writing skills so I can prepare for my post-graduate law classes. In addition to my studies, last year I had the opportunity to intern for a French driving school, where I worked with the company's marketing department and mostly learned about what factors influence a company's commercial outreach, including customer service skills, business theories, and managerial skills in order to tap into different demographic pools. Both my inside and outside classroom experiences have trained me to understand the logic and philosophy behind successful businesses truly. I look forward to learning more about business trends at the University of California, and to doing more internship in potentially larger companies to truly understand how business works in practice, while also pursuing a degree that will focus more on the theoretical side of the market, equally as important. Next fall, I would like to transfer to the University of California to complete my Bachelor's degree in Business Economics.

As a young adult about to enter a career in the 21st century, I decided that acquiring a bachelor's degree in business and economics at the University of California would be a great idea. The bachelor degree would allow me to have the chance of applying for law school which would be important when starting a study program to take my LSAT before senior year. Furthermore, i would stand a chance of attaining all the requirements needed to complete my juris doctor program in California. Going to the University of California would also allow me to take full advantage of what California's business culture has to offer and to get a hands-on business experience while gaining industry knowledge to one day start my own business.

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 represent your creative side.

I have a strong belief that food is a representation of everything we are. Anthony Bourdain teaches that food is an extension of nationalist and ethnic feeling, our personal history, the provinces and regions we come from, even our grandmothers. By growing up in a traditional tight-knit Armenian family, food has always held a special place in our lives. An Armenian grandmother stuffing her grandchildren, with a smile on their face, is how she shows her love to us. When I was younger, my dad took me to Musso and Frank, the oldest steakhouse in LA. He told me to first pay attention to the presentation: no frills, just a perfect rib-eye. Simple, I thought to myself, but this very simplicity was the ingredient of their success- sticking to traditional methods and offering a wholesome and satisfying experience, just like my family has always done.

When I moved to France, I did everything to fully take advantage of the "food capital" of the world. I had an excellent opportunity to attend workshops and classes in which some were led by the most renowned chefs in the culinary world, but more importantly, personal heroes of mine who I have been following since that day in Musso and Frank. Thanks to people like my family and Anthony Bourdain that have allowed me to use cooking as a form of expression, I can tap into the creative side of my brain after being exposed to economic theories and equations all day. After Anthony's death, my mind started to wander off and find inspiration in things that would otherwise seem obsolete to me. The same freeway that I took to school every day became the place where my mind went to escape in its creativity, where different flavors and images flashed through my mind. I felt liberated like I finally knew what my passion was in life, and this is when I started to develop my techniques and recipes, humoring my friends and family with some of my more dubious methods. My degrees would have helped in adding to the knowledge that i have in the business industry.

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?

At the age of 15 years, my mom got a job opportunity in France which forced me to leave behind all my friends and family behind in California where I was born and raised. Even though I started practicing my French beforehand, I was nowhere near ready to finish my sophomore year of high school, since my classes would solely be taught in French. Not only did I struggle to adapt to the French education system, with no less than ten levels, ringing in at about forty hours a week, I also experienced a massive drop in my confidence. To suddenly not be able to communicate with or understand my classmates or professors because of a vast language and cultural barrier was overwhelming, and I was left feeling academically and socially discouraged. After a challenging adaptation period in an unfamiliar country, I realized that I had to overcome this challenge, just like I will the many others that arise throughout my life. I took advantage of the rare opportunity to study abroad by going to the library until closing every day after seven hours of school. I dedicated myself to my studies and to become fluent in French, and started talking to my classmates, even with a weak grasp on the language. Thanks to my schoolwork and enrollment in the schools debate team, I was able to fluently speak French by the end of my junior year in high school, a year and a half after coming to France. This transition was the first and most important challenge I have faced. Growing up in a big family, the hardest thing to come to terms with was being left out of so many things that I was always a part of my whole life- watching my baby cousins grow up, leaving my older sister, my best friend since childhood, and my grandparents.

Being separated from my old life, however, forced me to focus on myself and grow, mentally and emotionally. It was not always comfortable, it hurt and broke me, but this journey also changed me, as it was meant to, and left a mark on my consciousness. It is incredible how social environment plays such a significant role in a person's holistic development. It is like the butterfly effect on an individual, yet grand scale. Each decision is like a ripple that spreads out uniformly and eventually changes the personal future. And I am so grateful to have experienced these decisions that changed my future, many times over, because it prepared me for what I want out of life, and has allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and truly to be to grow as a person.

Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

I decided that I needed transferring to The University of California from Paris because I believed that it is an environment that where I can truly thrive and be challenged, in a way that will inspire me and make me the best possible version of myself. First, I am eager to be in a place where I am encouraged to experiment, ask questions and try new things. I am extremely serious about the journey ahead of me and am hungry to learn and take advantage of the many opportunities that students have at the University of California. If allowed to join the student body, what I am most looking forward to is the school organizations and clubs that I can be a part of, since schools in France do not offer a wide array of extracurricular activities. I also look forward to making unique and meaningful intellectual and social contributions to fellow students and faculty, because I now feel that it is my time to share my thoughts and ideas while getting inspired by other student's journey's, all in an environment that I believe recognizes and nurtures the best in people, intellectually and personally. I also think that I stand out as a strong candidate because I have had the privilege of learning in two different countries, gaining two different academic approaches. Living in Europe made for a great excuse to travel around the world. Because of how close everything is, I was able to visit a few countries such as England, Italy, Austria, as well as Thailand and Japan.

Traveling has been extremely rewarding in my personal growth, because it has genuinely broadened my mind, in inexplicable ways. I was amazed at how human beings from all over the world has overcome time to create a history that remains alive through generations while developing and adapting all to exist in the present. Moreover, traveling across Europe and Asia has shown me the various ways in which culture affects business and consumption decisions, and, as part of my higher education, I gained insight in a potential international market by learning how to attract tourists from all over the world. This is particularly useful in my field of study because Los Angeles has been gaining ground as a favorite touristic spot in the US. Both my inside and outside classroom experiences have trained and mentally prepared me to understand the logic behind successful businesses. I look forward to learning as much as I can about business trends, theories, and laws at the University of California, while also being a part of the school community.