Canada · Current published guidance
UBC Personal Profile
UBC's Personal Profile asks most high school applicants to reflect on identity, what matters to them, activities, learning, and academic context. Individual answers have limits between 500 and 2,100 characters, depending on the question.
Writing format
Personal Profile short essays with character limits
What to prepare
- 1Choose one or two important activities and explain your role and what you learned.
- 2Use the values and identity questions to show a specific choice or relationship, not a list of adjectives.
- 3Use the additional-information field for academic context only when it adds something the transcript cannot show.
- 4Plan two referees who can speak to your experiences; a school official is required for current high school students.
How to approach the writing
- UBC evaluates engagement, leadership, substance, and voice. Reflection matters as much as the size of an achievement.
- Draft against the character limit shown in the portal; word count alone can mislead.
Before you submit
Some UBC degrees add program-specific questions and a few are exceptions to the general Personal Profile rule. Confirm your campus and degree requirements.
Read UBC Personal Profile guidance ↗Official source checked 2026-09-25.