That does sound helpful. I think my school does the same thing with the UC essays, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, I don't understand why so many people from my school choose to go there. It's just way too close. 25 minutes isn't too bad, but I'd probably still prefer to go farther away. The closest schools I'm applying to are Claremont McKenna and Pitzer which I think are about an hour away. I guess UCLA is about the same distance.