Experiences with information. What experiences do you have that concern data, design, or development of information technologies for the good of people, organizations, or society? How did these experiences affect your interest in studying information? These experiences might be individual, part of your family, in your community, at school, at work, or otherwise, including experiences such as class projects, hackathons, workshops, hobbies, jobs, internships, community service, entrepreneurship and more. If you’re not sure what experiences are related to information, browse the online book Foundations of Information for relevant topics. Rationale: students thrive most in our major when they are interested in the study, design, and development of information technology.
Experiences with diversity, equity, and inclusion. What experiences do you have with diversity, equity, or inclusion in relation to technology? These might be the same experiences with information you described, or different ones. These experiences might include learning, volunteering, activism, community organizing, mentoring, teaching, or personal experiences with exclusion or oppression. We are especially interested in experiences in which you took action to address issues of fairness, bias, or exclusion, whether advocacy or self-advocacy, social or technical. Rationale: it’s important that Informatics majors are attentive to ways that people can be excluded and oppressed by information technology, and in general. We’re seeking students who are committed to making information technology more just, equitable, and inclusive.
Goals after college. How do you see the Informatics program and community furthering your goals and visions for your life, community or society after college? You don’t necessarily have to have a particular goal, but having one or more goals and being able to explain how Informatics would help you achieve them is better than having no sense of how studying Informatics will help you after college. Rationale: it is important that Informatics is actually well-positioned to support your goals, whatever they are, and however vague they are. Informatics doesn’t support every goal.
Learning skills. What grade or grades on your transcript best show your ability to successfully learn in Informatics and why? Tell us the story or stories behind how you earned these grades and why you believe these stories are a good indicator of your ability to thrive in Informatics classes. (We do not expect these to be Informatics classes, since transfer students don’t have access to them, though they may be). Rationale: Informatics majors need the ability to thrive academically in subjects related to their goals. We focus on indicators of meaningful indicators of success, and aren’t worried about courses you struggled in, since they are more often indicators of unrelated things, like hardship, transitions to college, and other factors that don’t tell us much about your ability to succeed in the future. We do not use your GPA.
Writing. We expect students to already be capable of writing clearly and coherently in English; your response helps us evaluate that. Rationale: Clear communication is central to thriving in our courses, as most involve writing. Do your best to avoid spelling and grammar errors, but note that we will not penalize them for you unless they significantly interfere with our ability to comprehend your writing.
