HTML Preview Sample Transfer College Essay page number 1.
Writing a Transfer Essay
Transferring to a dierent university can be a stressful process. The transfer essay, which is usually 500-words, is one of the most important features
of your transfer application. The essay is your chance to show an admissions ocer their school is the right t for you.
Transfer essays are dierent than the original application essay you wrote to be accepted in the rst place; transfer essays are more focused on:
1) how you have grown from your time at your current university and
2) your specic goals for your future at your new university.
Since there are much fewer transfer students than freshman applicants, admissions ocers often have more time to devote to each application.
This is why it is very important for your transfer essay to convey thoughtful reasons for transfer and to pay close attention to detail.
This handout oers some helpful strategies to writing a persuasive transfer essay – and oers some common pitfalls to avoid.
• Explain some specic goals you hope to achieve at the new university. What is the specic major you hope to undertake?
Do you want to work with a prominent professor in that department? Is there a class you nd very interesting that you want to
take? Focus on the future.
• Mention how you have benetted from your old university, in terms of education and growth. You may have absolutely
hated it, but it is important that you show the admission’s ocer how you have learned from your experience.
• Talk about specic academic features of the college that you are excited to take part in. Are you interested in a particular
program or professor? A specic facility?
Do:
Don’t:
• Trash-talk your old university, or sound bitter about your experiences there.
• Make excuses for why you might have gotten bad grades at your old university. Many transfer students have weaker
academic records, whether because their social life negatively aected their academic performance or because they got stuck
in a major they were no longer interested in. Focus instead on the future.
• Give reasons for transferring that do not have academic motivations, or can be construed as trivial. For example,
because you are homesick, your original university was too hard, you want to be closer to your signicant other, etc.