how to write a successful transfer essay

• Search All Scholarships
• Exclusive Scholarships
• Easy Scholarships to Apply For
• No Essay Scholarships
• Scholarships for HS Juniors
• Scholarships for HS Seniors
• Scholarships for College Students
• Scholarships for Grad Students
• Scholarships for Women
• Scholarships for Black Students
• Scholarships
• Student Loans
• College Admissions
• Financial Aid
• Scholarship Winners
• Scholarship Providers

Student-centric advice and objective recommendations

Higher education has never been more confusing or expensive. Our goal is to help you navigate the very big decisions related to higher ed with objective information and expert advice. Each piece of content on the site is original, based on extensive research, and reviewed by multiple editors, including a subject matter expert. This ensures that all of our content is up-to-date, useful, accurate, and thorough.

Our reviews and recommendations are based on extensive research, testing, and feedback. We may receive commission from links on our website, but that doesn’t affect our editors’ opinions. Our marketing partners don’t review, approve or endorse our editorial content. It’s accurate to the best of our knowledge when posted. You can find a complete list of our partners here .

How to Write a College Transfer Essay (With Examples)

Lisa Freedland is a Scholarships360 writer with personal experience in psychological research and content writing. She has written content for an online fact-checking organization and has conducted research at the University of Southern California as well as the University of California, Irvine. Lisa graduated from the University of Southern California in Fall 2021 with a degree in Psychology.

Learn about our editorial policies

Bill Jack has over a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. Since 2008, he has worked at Colby College, Wesleyan University, University of Maine at Farmington, and Bates College.

Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Undergraduate transfers continue to increase, growing 5.3 percent from the fall of 2022 to fall of 2023. Students may transfer for a variety of reasons, ranging from academics to athletics to geography. Some students simply want to be closer to home or found that the culture of the college started out in is not a fit for them. 

If you are in the process of transferring colleges, it’s likely that you will have to write a personal essay as part of your transfer admissions process. Ultimately, there’s no one way to write a college transfer essay. Everyone is unique, and this individuality should shine through in your essays.

However, there are some recommended things to include, and even a real example essay that was used to successfully transfer college! In this post, we’ll help you write a powerful transfer essay so you can tell your story to the admissions committee.

Jump ahead to…

• Do’s and don’ts
• Why did you choose your current school?

What are your main reasons for transferring out of your current school?

Why do you want to attend the transfer school.

• Example essay

Additional resources

• Key takeaways
• Frequently asked questions

College transfer essays: The do’s and don’ts

Before we start, we want to cover a few basics do’s and don’ts about what your transfer essays should be about.

• Elaborate on how your current school has helped you progress towards your goals. Positivity is always a good thing!
• Research your prospective school (e.g. specific classes, organizations, opportunities) for why you want to go there.
• Make sure to follow the standard/correct essay format! Transfer essay prompts may vary from college to college so you should make sure that you’re answering the exact question.
• Use up your limited word count by listing negative aspects about your current school. Instead, focus on how it has helped you grow, but how another school could further help you develop your interests/passions 
• List a group of random classes or opportunities available at your new school. Mention opportunities you’re (genuinely) interested in that relate to your goals and passions – make sure you’re telling a story through your essay.
• Copy your initial admissions essay (the one that you used when applying to colleges in high school) – you’ve changed a lot during your time in college so you will want to write a brand new essay.

Apply to these scholarships due soon

$10,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

$2,000 Sallie Mae Scholarship

Making the Leap Scholarship for Transfer Students

BigFuture $40k Essay-Free Scholarship

Tennessee HOPE Scholarship

Niche $25,000 “No Essay” Scholarship

NMU Presidential Scholars Competition

Minnesota State Workforce Development Scholarships

$10,000 CollegeXpress Scholarship

What is the goal of the transfer essay.

Potential transfer students should know that not all colleges and universities require transfer essays, so when in doubt definitely check-in with the college in question for clarification. For the purposes of this article and the sample transfer essay, we’ll be using this prompt:

Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve. 

Most colleges will be interested in learning why you want to transfer and how transferring will help you achieve your goals. However, specific prompts will vary from college to college, so you should definitely pay attention to the specific prompt you are asked to respond to.

Some of the common questions you’ll come across include:

• How will your transfer school help you accomplish your goals?

Below I’ll break down how to respond to each of these questions and include an example from a successful transfer essay.

Also see: Can you transfer into an ivy league school?

Why did you choose your current school? 

To answer this question, you’ll have to go back in time when you were in 12th grade and selecting your college. Did you choose the college because it had a program you liked? Maybe you really wanted to take classes with a specific professor? Maybe you thought you wanted to attend college in a specific part of the world? Whatever the reason you should lay it out in the most factual way possible.

Here’s how I responded to this question:

Just like Jeopardy, Criminal Minds is also a show that I have watched from a very young age, and one that I continue to watch quite regularly. Being exposed to this interesting world of FBI profilers for so long inspired me to want to dive into the world of psychology myself. Due to this, I originally chose the University of Wisconsin, Madison for its amazing psychology program, and because I wanted to try something new. Being from California, this “something new” came in the form of watching snow fall from the sky, seeing cheese curds being sold in all the grocery stores, and simply living somewhere far away from home.

Also see: How to write a 250 word essay

This is always an important question for transfer admissions officers: why did your current college not work out? We recommend that students be as honest as possible and stick to the facts (as opposed to simply complaining about your current school).

Students have very different reasons for changing schools, which often depend on what type of school you’re transferring from (a 2-year or 4-year). While many community college students transfer because their plans did work out and they’ve accomplished what they wanted to at their school, those transferring from four-year universities often do so for less positive reasons (which was my experience).

If the situation at your college didn’t exactly pan out as you thought it would, you should also try to talk about some of the ways you are making the most of the situation. This shows the admissions officers that despite the less-than-ideal circumstances, you have continued to learn, grow, and contribute to your community.

Here’s how I accomplished this:

Arriving in Wisconsin, I got exactly what I wanted: an amazing psychology program and the experience of being somewhere quite different from the place I called home. My classes were interesting, my professors were helpful and caring, and experiencing the first snow was quite exciting. However, as winter progressed, walking back from class everyday under the progressively gloomier sky seemed to be a cruel reminder that I was no longer in sunny Southern California. While eating dinner in our many dining halls, I always viewed the wide array of food available: quesadillas, Chinese food, burgers, even pecan pie. The food was all delicious, but going day after day without even seeing Korean food once made me miss those fun dinners with my family. Back at my dorm, my “home away from home”, it started to feel like anything but being at home. To feel more comfortable where I was, I decided to pursue things I liked, and that I was familiar with. My passion for psychology led me to join the university’s Psychology Club, where I was able to learn about recent revelations within the field of psychology, furthering my interest in the subject. 

Going through the admissions process as a transfer student is interesting, because you have learned a lot about yourself and your preferences at your first college. This should provide you with a great perspective on what you are looking for next.

The two major things you’ll want to accomplish when answering this question are why the transfer college in question is a good fit for you and how it can help you accomplish your goals as a student.

Specificity is always more ideal here so you can show that you have spent some time thinking about what you want and also how the new college fits.

Here’s how I did this:

I plan on using the knowledge I gain in psychology, either from organizations or classes, to help people. I want to one day apply this knowledge to research, to discover possible methods to help the people suffering from the psychological problems I study. Alternatively, I hope to use this knowledge as a criminal profiler, using my understanding of psychology to narrow down pools of suspects.  To be able to accomplish either of these, I need to develop a much deeper understanding of both people’s motivations for the things they do as well as of the many psychological issues people face. For these reasons, I am very excited at the prospect of exploring and enrolling in the classes offered by USC’s Department of Psychology. In particular, Psych 360: Abnormal Psychology would be an amazing introduction to psychological disorders and their causes. Psych 314L: Research Methods would then help me put this knowledge about disorders to good use by teaching me how to properly conduct research and find possible solutions for people’s problems.

College transfer essays: an example

Here we go! Throughout this article, I’ve shown you my college essay divided into sections, and now’s time for the full thing. I can honestly say that this essay had a 100% success rate! Without further ado, here is my full college transfer essay (and prompt):

Prompt: Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve. 

I wake up from my daily after-school nap to realize that it is already dinner time. As I walk downstairs, I smell the delicious fragrance coming from my mom’s samgyetang (Korean ginseng chicken soup), one of my favorite meals. Soon enough, everyone sits down to watch the newest episode of Jeopardy , a tradition we’ve had going on for as long as I can remember. As I take that first sip of samgyetang, and miss yet another geography question on Jeopardy – and wait for my family to inevitably tease me about it – I feel at home, like I am somewhere that I belong. Wherever I go, I hope I can encounter that same warm feeling. Just like Jeopardy , Criminal Minds is also a show that I have watched from a very young age, and one that I continue to watch quite regularly. Being exposed to this interesting world of FBI profilers for so long inspired me to want to dive into the world of psychology myself. Due to this, I originally chose the University of Wisconsin, Madison for its amazing psychology program, and because I wanted to try something new. Being from California, this “something new” came in the form of watching snow fall from the sky, seeing cheese curds being sold in all the grocery stores, and simply living somewhere far away from home. Arriving in Wisconsin, I got exactly what I wanted: an amazing psychology program and the experience of being somewhere quite different from the place I called home. My classes were interesting, my professors were helpful and caring, and experiencing the first snow was quite exciting. However, as winter progressed, walking back from class everyday under the progressively gloomier sky seemed to be a cruel reminder that I was no longer in sunny Southern California. While eating dinner in our many dining halls, I always viewed the wide array of food available: quesadillas, Chinese food, burgers, even pecan pie. The food was all delicious, but going day after day without even seeing Korean food once, it made me miss those fun dinners with my family. Back at my dorm, my “home away from home,” it started to feel like anything but being at home. To feel more comfortable where I was, I decided to pursue things I liked, and that I was familiar with. My passion for psychology led me to join the university’s Psychology Club, where I was able to learn about recent revelations within the field of psychology, furthering my interest in the subject. I plan on using the knowledge I gain in psychology, either from organizations or classes, to help people. I want to one day apply this knowledge to research, to discover possible methods to help the people suffering from the psychological problems I study. Alternatively, I hope to use this knowledge as a criminal profiler, using my understanding of psychology to narrow down pools of suspects.  To be able to accomplish either of these, I need to develop a much deeper understanding of both people’s motivations for the things they do as well as of the many psychological issues people face. For these reasons, I am very excited at the prospect of exploring and enrolling in the classes offered by USC’s Department of Psychology. In particular, Psych 360: Abnormal Psychology would be an amazing introduction to psychological disorders and their causes. Psych 314L: Research Methods would then help me put this knowledge about disorders to good use by teaching me how to properly conduct research and find possible solutions for people’s problems. With so many opportunities available at USC, I hope to not only help others feel more comfortable, but to find a second home for myself after all.

And that’s it! This essay touches on all of the tips listed above, and should serve as helpful inspiration as you begin your writing. Hopefully, it gives you an idea of how to integrate everything you should mention in a cohesive essay. With that, I wish you good luck with your college transfer essays (and applications)!

Don’t miss: What looks good on a college application?

If you finish your essay and still have questions about the transfer process, consider checking out these Scholarships360 resources:

• How to transfer colleges
• How to transfer from a community college
• Top scholarships for transfer students
• How to choose a college
• What’s the difference between a private and public university?

Key Takeaways

• Explain why you want to transfer, what you need that you are not getting at your current school, and why you chose your current school to begin with
• Always present things in a positive light
• Share how the transfer school will help you achieve your goals and why you are a good fit for the school

Start your scholarship search

• Vetted scholarships custom-matched to your profile
• Access exclusive scholarships only available to Scholarships360 members

Frequently asked questions about writing college transfer essays 

How are college transfer essays different from regular application essays, do all schools require transfer essays, can i reuse my old college essays for a transfer, what should you not say in a transfer essay, scholarships360 recommended.

10 Tips for Successful College Applications

Coalition vs. Common App: What is the difference?

College Application Deadlines 2024-2025: What You Need to Know

Trending now.

How to Convert Your GPA to a 4.0 Scale

PSAT to SAT Score Conversion: Predict Your Score

What are Public Ivy League Schools?

3 reasons to join scholarships360.

• Automatic entry to our $10,000 No-Essay Scholarship
• Personalized matching to thousands of vetted scholarships
• Quick apply for scholarships exclusive to our platform

By the way...Scholarships360 is 100% free!

Are you seeking one-on-one college counseling and/or essay support? Limited spots are now available. Click here to learn more.

How to Write a Winning College Transfer Essay

December 27, 2021

Much like snowflakes, DNA profiles, or interpretations of a David Lynch film, no two college transfer applicants are alike. Even if two prospective transfers to Boston University are both named Fred and each hail from Farmington, CT, their paths, and the contours of their academic journeys are probably quite different from one another. Perhaps Fred #1 is a first-generation college student who, for financial reasons, had to complete his freshman year at the local community college. Perhaps Fred #2 underachieved a touch in high school, gained admission into a less-selective state school where he excelled freshman year and is now highly-motivated to study at top school. Each Fred possesses an equally valid story to tell the BU admissions office, and doing so adeptly may well be the key to their acceptance. After all, 42% of all U.S. colleges—and close to 100% of highly-selective schools—cite the essay as being “important” to their transfer application decisions.

To cite another relevant statistic, 37% of all college students transfer at some point in their academic career and each has a worthwhile pathway to chronicle. Whether you’re Fred #1, Fred #2, or someone not even named Fred (imagine that!), you need your transfer essay to be so strong that it leaps right off the page and captures the attention (or, even better, heart) of an admissions officer. In the following article, the College Transitions team will explain precisely how to master this essential component of the transfer application.

Which Transfer essay prompt should I pick?

Starting in 2020-21, the Common App granted its member institutions the option of allowing their transfer applicants to select one of the seven current Common App essay prompts (that are available to freshman applicants).

Some schools will offer you this option, while others will simply ask you the equivalent of “Why are you applying to our university?” If you are given the choice between prompts, it is generally best to select the one that is most broad (note: a broad prompt is good, a broad essay is not) and allows you to compose an essay containing the following essential elements:

• 1) Why your prospective transfer school is a perfect fit for you.
• 2) Why your journey has led you away from your current institution.
• 3) What unique attributes and talents you will bring to campus.
• 4) How your past achievements and efforts can bolster your case.
• 5) Share your academic and career ambitions.

Let’s dive in and take a more thorough look at each component, beginning with #1.

1) Why this college is the perfect fit for you

Share with your prospective new academic home exactly what makes them attractive to you. Smaller class size, a particular academic program, a more diverse environment, or the opportunity to for hands-on learning/research opportunities are just a sampling of the legitimate selling points you can cite. Mention specific courses that you are eager to take at their institution, certain distinguished professors who you desire to study under, and unique clubs, activities, or campus traditions in which you are excited to partake. Take advantage of this chance to impress admissions officers with you expansive knowledge of their institution as well as a highly-specific accounting of how you will take advantage of your 2-3 years there. Doing so will separate you from the pack of similarly-qualified transfer applicants.

2) Why you want to leave your current college

Make sure that the reasons that you communicate for wanting to transfer do not end up sounding like a nasty Yelp review of your present school. While you may want to leave College X because the professors are all centenarian windbags and your roommate is breeding capybaras to sell on Craigslist (is there really a market for that?), remember that the school to which you are applying wants to feel wanted. Think about it—would you rather listen to your girlfriend/boyfriend rant about their ex or hear them tell you what makes you awesome? Admissions officers considering a transfer student feel the same way.

3) What unique attributes you will bring to campus

Even in the transfer admissions process, admissions officers are tasked with enhancing the diversity of their undergraduate student body and adding individuals who are likely to be contributing members of the campus community. Is there a particular club that you are eager to join or do wish to start your own? Do you desire to assist a professor in conducting research? Are you an a cappella star or club volleyball diehard? What books do you read for pleasure? Do you have a hidden talent or area of expertise? Are you an introvert or extrovert (both can be selling points)? What ideas, activities, or dreams keep you up in the middle of the night? Give the admissions reader a full picture of what your life will look at their school and how you will make more of an impact (in any form) than many of your fellow applicants.

4) Talk about your academic and extracurricular record

This is also a perfect opportunity to demonstrate your record of involvement on your current campus. It is far easier to sell yourself as someone who will be a contributing member of the campus community if you displayed these qualities at your previous college. Students with an eye on transferring are sometimes so focused on escaping their first institution that they fail to become involved in anything outside of the classroom and thus miss out on valuable opportunities to demonstrate leadership and passion—the very traits needed to transfer to a prestigious school. Write about what you are most proud of—a challenging physics exam you mastered, a philosophy paper you wrote arguing the compatibility of science and religion, or how you started a campus chapter of an organization dedicated to fighting pancreatic cancer.

5) Share your academic and career ambitions

The more you can use your essay to communicate your genuine passions and what makes you tick, the better. Doing so gives your essay broader context and deeper meaning, as it explains the true significance of all of the info shared in steps #1-4. If you want to major in biology, where do you see that taking you down the road? Are you considering graduate or medical school? Do you want to work in research in a specific area? You don’t have to be 100% sure of your career and future academic path at 19 or 20 years old, but as a transfer student, you should share where your experiences and interests may someday take you.

College Transfer Essay – Do’s and Don’ts

• Make a coherent and well-researched case for why the school to which you are applying would be a perfect fit for you.
• Explain how you spend your time outside of school whether it’s participation in a club or sport, paid work, or a hobby to which you are extremely dedicated.
• Paint a picture of the reasons why this new university is the right place to pursue your academic interests.
• Give the committee a sense of your talents and character/personal qualities. If your school does not offer interviews, this essay will be primary vehicle through which you can forge a personal connection to a fellow human being.
• Bash your current school or overly-focus on the negative.
• Make excuses for past academic performance of lack of outside the classroom involvement.
• Say that you want to attend a new school for the prestige, the pretty campus, or for a personal reason (close to home, girl/boyfriend attends, etc.).
• Forget to do adequate research on your prospective academic home. Details matter!
• Application Strategies
• College Essay

Andrew Belasco

A licensed counselor and published researcher, Andrew's experience in the field of college admissions and transition spans two decades. He has previously served as a high school counselor, consultant and author for Kaplan Test Prep, and advisor to U.S. Congress, reporting on issues related to college admissions and financial aid.

• 2-Year Colleges
• ADHD/LD/Autism/Executive Functioning
• Best Colleges by Major
• Best Colleges by State
• Big Picture
• Career & Personality Assessment
• College Search/Knowledge
• College Success
• Costs & Financial Aid
• Data Visualizations
• Dental School Admissions
• Extracurricular Activities
• Graduate School Admissions
• High School Success
• High Schools
• Homeschool Resources
• Law School Admissions
• Medical School Admissions
• Navigating the Admissions Process
• Online Learning
• Outdoor Adventure
• Private High School Spotlight
• Research Programs
• Summer Program Spotlight
• Summer Programs
• Teacher Tools
• Test Prep Provider Spotlight

“Innovative and invaluable…use this book as your college lifeline.”

— Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Nationally Recognized College Expert

College Planning in Your Inbox

Join our information-packed monthly newsletter.

• [email protected]
• (650) 338-8226

Cupertino, CA

• Our Philosophy
• Our Results
• News, Media, and Press
• Common Application
• College Application Essay Editing
• Extracurricular Planning
• Academic Guidance
• Summer Programs
• Interview Preparation

Middle School

• Pre-High School Consultation
• Boarding School Admissions

College Admissions

• Academic and Extracurricular Profile Evaluation
• Senior Editor College Application Program
• Summer Program Applications
• Private Consulting Program
• Transfer Admissions
• UC Transfer Admissions
• Ivy League Transfer Admissions

Graduate Admissions

• Graduate School Admissions
• MBA Admissions

Private Tutoring

• SAT/ACT Tutoring
• AP Exam Tutoring
• Olympiad Training

Research Programs

• Science Research Program
• Humanities Competitions
• Passion Project Program
• Ad Hoc Consulting
• Athletic Recruitment
• National Universities Rankings
• Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings
• Public Schools Rankings

Acceptance Rates

• University Acceptance Rates
• Transfer Acceptance Rates
• Supplemental Essays
• College Admissions Data
• Chances Calculator
• GPA Calculator

National Universities

• College Acceptance Rates
• College Overall Acceptance Rates
• College Regular Acceptance Rates
• College Early Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Overall Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Regular Acceptance Rates
• Ivy League Early Acceptance Rates

Public Schools

• Public Schools Acceptance Rates
• Public Schools Overall Acceptance Rates
• Public Schools Regular Acceptance Rates
• Public Schools Early Acceptance Rates

Liberal Arts

• Liberal Arts Colleges Acceptance Rates
• Liberal Arts Colleges Overall Acceptance Rates
• Liberal Arts Colleges Regular Acceptance Rates
• Liberal Arts Colleges Early Acceptance Rates

How to Write a College Transfer Essay: All You Need to Know

By Eric Eng

Write a College Transfer Essay: All You Need to Know

Writing a college transfer essay can be a daunting process. For those wondering “How to write a college transfer essay,” not only do you need to express your desires and goals coherently, but you also need to convince the admissions officers that the transfer is the best decision for your academic future. Fear not, this comprehensive guide is here to help you make sense of it all and deliver a clear, compelling transfer essay.

Understanding the Purpose of a College Transfer Essay

The first step in writing a successful college transfer essay is understanding its purpose. Unlike your typical application essay, a transfer essay serves multiple purposes. Most importantly, it gives you a platform to explain why you want to transfer to a new college.

Transferring to a different college can be a significant decision, and it’s essential to convey your reasons effectively. Your transfer essay serves as a bridge between your current educational journey and your aspirations for the future. It allows you to articulate your motivations, goals, and how the new college aligns with your academic and personal growth.

The Role of a Transfer Essay in Your Application

Your transfer essay plays an indispensable role in your application. It supplements your academic records and test scores by giving admissions officers a deeper understanding of your motivations and aspirations. This is your chance to explain why the school should consider you and why you believe it’s the right fit for you.

When crafting your transfer essay, it’s crucial to showcase your self-awareness and maturity. Admissions officers want to see that you have carefully evaluated your current college experience and have valid reasons for seeking a transfer. Additionally, they are interested in understanding how the new college can provide you with the opportunities and resources you need to thrive academically and personally.

Key Elements Admissions Officers Look For

Admissions officers are keen to discern a few key elements in your transfer essay. One, they want to know why you’re looking to transfer. The reasons should be specific to academics, not generic or personal issues.

It’s essential to reflect on your current college experience and identify any limitations or gaps that have hindered your academic progress or personal growth. Perhaps your current college lacks certain courses or research opportunities that are vital to your academic interests. Or maybe you have discovered a new passion or career path that the new college specializes in. Whatever the reasons may be, it’s crucial to articulate them clearly and convincingly.

They are also interested in what you’ve achieved in your current college and how you aim to contribute to their campus community. Admissions officers want to see evidence of your engagement and involvement in extracurricular activities, leadership roles, or community service. Highlighting your accomplishments and demonstrating your potential to make a positive impact on the new college community can significantly strengthen your transfer essay.

Lastly, your future goals in relation to the prospective college’s offerings are crucial. Admissions officers want to understand how the new college can help you achieve your academic and career aspirations. Whether it’s through specialized programs, renowned faculty, or unique research opportunities, it’s important to showcase how the new college’s resources align with your goals and how you plan to make the most of them.

Preparing to Write Your Transfer Essay

Before you put pen to paper, you have to do some preliminary work, which is crucial in understanding how to write a college transfer essay. This includes determining why you want to move to a different college and researching your prospective college.

Self-Reflection: Identifying Your Reasons for Transferring

Identifying your reasons for transferring is a critical step. Reflect on your experiences in your current college. Work to distinguish the academic opportunities you felt were lacking that led to your decision. This exercise helps you construct a convincing case in your essay.

When reflecting on your reasons for transferring colleges , it’s important to consider both the academic and non-academic aspects of your college experience. Think about the courses you’ve taken and whether they align with your academic goals and interests. Are there any specific majors or programs that your current college doesn’t offer, but your prospective college does? Additionally, reflect on the social and cultural environment of your current college. Are you looking for a more diverse and inclusive community? Do you want to be closer to home or have access to certain extracurricular activities? These are all valid reasons for considering a transfer.

Furthermore, it’s essential to delve deeper into your personal growth and development during your time at your current college. Reflect on any challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve overcome them. Consider the relationships you’ve built with professors, classmates, and mentors. Have these relationships positively impacted your academic journey? Have you been able to engage in meaningful research, internships, or community service? By evaluating these aspects, you can better understand how your current college has shaped your aspirations and what you hope to gain from a transfer.

Researching Your Prospective College

Thorough research on your prospective college is a must. Gain an understanding of the curriculum, faculty, student life, and opportunities available. The more informed you are about the college, the better you can articulate why it’s the right fit for you.

Start by exploring the college’s website and familiarize yourself with the different academic departments and majors they offer. Look into the faculty profiles and see if any professors align with your research interests or have notable accomplishments in your field of study. Consider the college’s approach to education and whether it aligns with your learning style and goals. Are there any unique programs or initiatives that stand out to you?

Additionally, delve into the student life aspect of the college. Research the various clubs, organizations, and extracurricular activities available. Are there any specific clubs or groups that align with your interests and passions? Consider the campus culture and the opportunities for personal and professional growth outside of the classroom. Are there internship or study abroad programs that intrigue you?

Furthermore, it’s crucial to gain insights from current students or alumni of the prospective college. Reach out to them through social media or online forums to ask questions about their experiences. Attend virtual information sessions or college fairs to interact with admissions representatives and get a better sense of the college’s community.

By conducting thorough research, you will not only gather valuable information about the college but also demonstrate your genuine interest and commitment in your transfer essay. This knowledge will allow you to highlight specific aspects of the college that resonate with your academic and personal goals, making your essay more compelling and persuasive.

Structuring Your College Transfer Essay

Now that you’ve done your groundwork, it’s time to write the essay. A well-structured essay usually has an engaging introduction, well-outlined body paragraphs, and a strong conclusion. However, there are additional aspects to consider when crafting your college transfer essay that can make it even more compelling and impactful.

Crafting an Engaging Introduction

Your introduction should be engaging and set the tone for the rest of your essay. While it is important to immediately address your intention to transfer and give a brief hint on why, you can also consider adding a personal anecdote or a captivating story that highlights your journey and the challenges you have faced. This will not only grab the reader’s attention but also create a connection between you and the admissions committee.

Furthermore, you can incorporate relevant statistics or research findings about the benefits of transferring to colleges. This can help support your decision and provide a solid foundation for your essay. By including these additional details, you demonstrate your dedication to thorough research and showcase your ability to make informed decisions.

Outlining Your Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs provide a detailed explanation of your reasons for transferring, your academic achievements, and how you can contribute to the new college community. While it’s advisable to have a paragraph for each point to maximize clarity, you can also enhance your essay by including specific examples and experiences that illustrate your reasons for transferring.

For instance, instead of simply stating that you want to transfer to a college with a stronger program in your major, you can share a story about how you discovered your passion for that field and how your current college lacks the resources or opportunities to fully nurture that passion. By providing concrete examples, you not only make your essay more engaging but also demonstrate your ability to reflect on your experiences and make informed decisions about your academic journey.

Writing a Strong Conclusion

A strong conclusion does more than repeat the essay’s main points. While it is important to summarize your reasons for transferring and reiterate your future goals, you can also consider expanding on the prospective college’s role in achieving these objectives.

By researching specific programs, clubs, or initiatives offered by the college, you can demonstrate your enthusiasm and commitment to making the most of your transfer experience. Additionally, you can discuss how the college’s values align with your own and how you envision contributing to the campus community. This not only shows your genuine interest in the college but also highlights your potential as a valuable addition to their student body.

In conclusion, by incorporating personal anecdotes, research findings, specific examples, and a discussion of the prospective college’s offerings, you can expand and enrich your college transfer essay. These additional details will not only make your essay longer but also make it more compelling, memorable, and persuasive. Remember to revise and edit your essay thoroughly to ensure that it flows smoothly and effectively communicates your reasons for transferring and your aspirations for the future.

Essential Tips for Writing a Successful Transfer Essay

Writing a transfer essay can be a daunting task, but with the right approach, you can create a compelling narrative that showcases your unique qualities and reasons for seeking a new academic environment. In this article, we will delve into some valuable tips that can enhance the quality of your transfer essay, helping you stand out among other applicants.

Highlighting Your Academic Achievements

One crucial aspect of a transfer essay is highlighting your academic achievements in your current college. Don’t shy away from flaunting your accomplishments, such as high grades, research projects, or any other notable academic endeavors. By doing so, you’re not only showcasing your abilities but also demonstrating to the admissions officers that you can excel in their learning environment too.

Additionally, it is essential to provide context for your achievements. Explain the challenges you faced, the skills you developed, and the impact these achievements had on your personal growth. This will give the admissions officers a deeper understanding of your academic journey and the dedication you bring to your studies.

Discussing Your Future Goals

Articulating your future goals is another crucial aspect of a transfer essay. By sharing your aspirations, you show that you have a clear direction and purpose in seeking a new academic setting. Be sure to link these goals with the curriculum and opportunities that the prospective college affords. Research the specific programs, courses, or extracurricular activities that align with your interests and explain how they will contribute to your personal and professional development.

Moreover, it is important to demonstrate how your current college has prepared you for these future goals and how transferring to the new institution will provide you with additional resources, experiences, or mentorship that will further enhance your journey toward achieving them.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Transfer Essays

While writing your transfer essay, it is crucial to avoid common pitfalls that can diminish its impact. One common mistake is focusing on criticizing your current college. Instead, focus on the positive aspects that are driving you to transfer. Highlight the opportunities you seek, the academic environment you desire, or the specific resources that the prospective college offers.

Another pitfall to avoid is being vague about your reasons for transferring. Be specific and honest about why you believe the new institution is a better fit for your academic and personal growth. Explain how the new college aligns with your values, interests, and ambitions, and how it can provide you with the support and opportunities you need to thrive.

Lastly, ensure that your transfer essay reflects your authentic voice and personality. Admissions officers are looking for students who will contribute to the campus community, so let your true self shine through your writing. Share personal anecdotes, experiences, or challenges that have shaped your academic journey and demonstrate how these experiences have prepared you for the next chapter in your education.

By following these essential tips, you can craft a transfer essay that not only showcases your achievements and goals but also highlights your unique qualities and potential contributions to the new academic environment. Remember to proofread your essay carefully, seek feedback from trusted individuals, and submit your application with confidence.

Editing and Polishing Your Transfer Essay

Once your draft is complete, it’s time to edit and polish your essay. This process helps you enhance clarity, correct errors, and bring out a well-structured piece.

Proofreading for Grammar and Spelling Errors

Proofread your essay carefully to correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors. These mistakes could distract the reader and undermine your credibility.

Ensuring Clarity and Coherence

Ensuring your essay is coherent and clear is important. The flow of thoughts should be logical, and each paragraph should reinforce your central argument.

Seeking Feedback and Making Revisions

Don’t underestimate the power of a second pair of eyes. Seek feedback from teachers, friends, or family and make necessary revisions to elevate your essay.

In conclusion, writing a college transfer essay requires thorough preparation, clear communication, and an eye for detail. With these tips in hand, you’re ready to write an outstanding transfer essay. Good luck!

Want to assess your chances of admission? Take our FREE chances calculator today!

Why College Admissions Isn’t Perfect

US News Rankings

The Personal Statement: The Holy Grail of College Admissions

The Modern Day 4.0 and 1600 SAT Score Student Is No Longer Impressive

The Competitive Nature of College Admissions for Asian Americans

The College Application

Our Comprehensive Approach

Ivy League Schools

How Early Should You Prepare for College?

Featured in US News & World Report Best Colleges Publication

Congratulations to AdmissionSight Students and their Acceptances!

College Rejection

College Rankings

College Consultants Could Make A Difference

College Admissions Scandal and Higher Education

Joining the National Business Honor Society (NBHS)

How Long After Interview to Send Thank You: Tips + Email Templates

Top Target Schools for Investment Banking Worldwide

Honors Classes: Are They Worth Your Time?

How to Write a Graduation Speech: Tips and Examples

Duke Legacy Acceptance Rate

A List of UCLA Notable Alumni

The Highest Paying College Majors for a Rewarding Career

100 Good Argumentative Essay Topics: Examples and Tips

The Best Forensic Psychology Schools in the US

A Comprehensive Guide to UC Berkeley Essays this 2024

Creative Club Ideas for High School Students

Does Stanford Offer Early Action?

Everything You Need To Know About Direct Admit Nursing Programs

Is College Harder than High School? Insights and Tips

The Best Extracurriculars For Business Majors

How Many Colleges Are in Boston? A Complete Guide

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Recent Articles

Joining the National Business Honor...

How Long After Interview to...

Top Target Schools for Investment...

Honors Classes: Are They Worth...

How to Write a Graduation...

A List of UCLA Notable...

The Highest Paying College Majors...

100 Good Argumentative Essay Topics:...

The Best Forensic Psychology Schools...

A Comprehensive Guide to UC...

Creative Club Ideas for High...

Sign up now to receive insights on how to navigate the college admissions process..

Admissions Counseling

• Academic & Extracurricular Profile Evaluation

Copyright © AdmissionSight 2024

Privacy Policy - Terms and Conditions

How to Write a College Transfer Essay: A Step-by-Step Guide

Reviewed by:

Former Admissions Committee Member, Columbia University

Reviewed: 4/24/24

If you’re considering switching colleges and want to learn how to write a college transfer essay, read on.

There are multiple reasons to transfer colleges: you weren’t able to get into your top choice in your first round of applications, you want to change your major , or maybe you just have the world’s worst roommate. 

Whatever your reason may be, you should know the transfer process can be lengthy and will differ from your original college applications. For instance, now that you’ve completed some postsecondary education, your undergrad grades will be considered more than your high school GPA. 

Additionally, you’ll have to write a college transfer essay to introduce yourself to the committee and explain why you’d like to join their school. This essay tends to be the hardest part of transfer applications. 

If you’re unsure of where to begin or how to write a successful college transfer essay, this guide has got you covered!

How to Write a College Transfer Essay

Here is a breakdown of how to write an impressive college transfer essay.:

How to Start the Transfer Essay

Your introduction is arguably the most important part of your essay because it’s the first paragraph the committee will read. Accordingly, it has to be intriguing enough to urge them to continue reading. 

Many students start their essays with a statement or story related to their reason for transferring. A safe way to begin your essay is to share a specific principle you have about education that is rooted in an authentic experience.

Maybe you’ve always valued hands-on learning and have a famous story about taking apart your dad’s favorite replica aircraft and putting it back together to learn how it works.

Or, maybe you had a sick relative whose experience in and out of the hospital made you appreciate scientific experimentation and discovery, leading you to pursue medicine at a research-intensive school. 

Regardless of your educational principles, ensure you use a memorable experience to share it. Immerse the readers into your narrative so they feel more connected to you and your words! Here are some tips to keep in mind when writing your introduction:

Reconsider Using Famous Quotes 

While there have been successful college transfer essays that used quotes as their opening line, you should avoid overused quotes. If you’re beginning your essay with the phrase “knowledge is power,” it’s time to revisit your list of motivational quotes. 

If you’re set on opening your essay with a quote, choose one the committee hasn’t heard before and think outside the box! You could choose a quote from your favorite book, a show, or a movie. An even better way to ensure you use a unique opening is to quote a family member or friend! 

Maybe your mother always told you to stand up for yourself and that “if someone hits you, you hit them right back!” This seemingly unrelated quote could be used to explain how you’ve always been your biggest self-advocate and fight hard to have what you want, including a high-quality education. 

Forget the Theatrics

You don’t have to choose a story with a nail-biting hook or dramatic ending. Your story doesn’t need to involve a near-death epitome, a tragic loss, or a heroic save. Keep it simple! 

By that same token, don’t use exaggerated or false stories just to prove a point. The admissions committee will see through this and will dock you points for being ingenuine. 

Explain Why You Chose Your Current School

Once you’ve written an attention-grabbing introduction, the next step is to explain why you chose your current school. Perhaps the school boasted its Socratic teaching method that allows students to take charge of their education. Or, it offered a program of specific interest to you. Maybe you chose it simply because it’s one of the top colleges to transfer to .  

Regardless of your reasons, you must include them in your essay to explain how your expectations were not met. This part should be fact-focused. Be succinct and list the reasons you chose your current school over others.

Explain the Reasons You Want to Transfer

Once you’ve recounted the reasons you chose your current school, think about the reasons you decided to leave it. A large part of learning the art of essay writing is knowing what not to say! While you want to remain honest, your answer should revolve around the education you received at your school.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you write this part of your essay:

• Did your program/institution live up to all of your expectations?
• Did you receive the education and support you hoped for?
• Were there enough opportunities for intellectual, personal, and professional growth?
• Are you closer to achieving your career goals after attending your current school?
• What’s missing from your education? What makes you hesitant to stay at your current school?
• Have your career plans changed? Can your current school offer you the resources you need to pursue this new path?

Even if you’re transferring because your roommate never washes the dishes or you’re trying to escape a clingy ex, the admissions committee won’t be interested or amused by these reasons. 

Focus on the positives of your school but explain how they fell short. Perhaps the Socratic teaching method you hoped for fell short of equal dialogue and was more of a typical lecture. Maybe you had a eureka moment in an elective that made you want to switch to a program your current school doesn’t offer.

On the other hand, your current school may have already fulfilled the role it was meant to play. For instance, you may have chosen your current school to stay close to home and care for a sick family member or to take general courses to boost your GPA. 

Explain how these goals were fulfilled and how you’d like to move on to the next stage of your education. No matter what your reasons for transferring are, you’ll need to provide concrete examples to support your claims. Share specific experiences that led to your decision to transfer schools.

This part of your college transfer essay can be tricky. You’ll want to provide concrete examples of how your current school fails to meet your expectations without badmouthing it. To find this balance, avoid making these mistakes:

Placing Blame

Don’t blame your current school for failing to meet your expectations. 

Explaining how the professors were monotonous robots with no enthusiasm for teaching or that the class sizes were far too big to feel connected to your mentors will make you seem too critical. 

You want to phrase your issues in a way that still sheds a positive light on their curriculum and community. In essence, you want to follow a “it’s not you, it’s me” type of explanation! You should explain how your current university offers great resources but not the best ones for your personal aspirations. 

Throwing In the Towel

You should also mention the ways you tried to make the best of your situation at your current school. Even though you ultimately realized your school couldn’t offer you the education or resources you need, you should demonstrate your determination to make it work. 

If your main issue was the lack of connection between you and your professors, you could share how you attended office hours regularly to have more one-on-one conversations. Demonstrate you tried to remedy your issues before deciding to transfer. This will show maturity, perseverance, and adaptability!

Explain Your Academic and Career Goals

This next part of your essay should be tied to what you’ve said previously. Think about your academic goals and what your plans are for the future. 

Here are some questions to guide this part of your essay:

• Where do you hope your education takes you? 
• What will your education be used for? 
• What grades do you hope to receive? 
• What program will help you achieve your career goals?
• What kind of mentors do you believe will help you achieve your academic and career goals?
• What school-based extracurriculars will aid you in your aspirations?

Use these questions to figure out what your specific academic and career goals are. 

Explain Why You Want to Attend the Transfer College

Using the ideas you brainstormed from the previous sections, you want to focus your attention on explaining how your academic and career goals will be best met through your transfer college. 

Research your transfer college well and provide specific reasons explaining why you want to attend. Go deeper than simply retelling the school’s main values, and explain why you’re choosing it in detail. 

Focus on the type of education it provides, the school community and environment, and unique educational offerings, such as a particular program, teaching method, or experiential learning opportunities.

This part of your essay should be tailored specifically to your transfer college. If you can plug in any college name and use the same essay, you’ll need to add more details and continue working on it. 

Take Responsibility for Any Hiccups

Another factor to consider is taking responsibility for any shortcomings. If you’re transferring colleges and have low grades or otherwise unfavorable aspects on your application, you should hold yourself accountable in your essay.

Do not blame your current school for your low grades. Even if you had a poor experience that made it difficult to excel, your grades are ultimately your responsibility. Explain how you will improve in your transfer school and the steps you’ve taken to become a stronger student. 

Focus on Reflection

Your college transfer essay is essentially a reflection on your university experience and goals. This helps narrow things down and ensure you don’t choose a taboo essay topic . Just keep it simple and truthful by sharing your academic journey and why it’s brought you to where you are today.

As important as it is to share your next steps and eagerness to join your transfer school, it’s equally as important to reflect on the present and past. 

You should reflect on your own educational principles, your reasons for attending your current school, the ups and downs that influenced you to transfer, and finally, how your transfer school will assist you in the next stage of your educational journey.

Keep It Casual

Your transfer statement isn’t your typical structured, formal three-body paragraph essay. Keep it casual, and don’t be afraid to use contractions or more colloquial language. 

While you, of course, want to avoid using slang or distasteful language, you should let your personality shine through and give your essay a more conversational feel. 

The admissions committee should feel like they’re getting to know more about your essence and values, not just your impeccable writing skills—although those are essential to demonstrate too!

Have Clear Intentions

Admissions committees will appreciate if you can demonstrate clear direction and intention in your essay. Provide specific examples of what you need your university to provide to help you reach your goals and how these needs are not being met currently.

Demonstrate Your Growth

Your university experience should offer you more insight and perspective on education. Share this perspective in your essay and prove you are a mature and insightful student. 

A good indicator of maturity is speaking positively about your current school despite its limitations. You should portray both an eagerness to pursue other options and an appreciation for your current university. In other words, you should prove that while your current school isn’t the best fit for you, it’s still an excellent school!

Make it Personal

We’ve said it multiple times, and we’re saying it one last time in hopes you won’t forget. Use as many concrete examples as you can throughout your essay. Do not rely on any vague aspirations or reasons for transferring. 

Go deeper than simply wanting a higher quality education! What made your current school’s education unsatisfactory? What experiences led to the conclusion that you needed more? How can your transfer school fill in this gap? 

Keep in mind that this advice also applies to a transfer applicant’s personal statement. The overall goal is to be as genuine as possible while staying true to your goal - communicating your desire to attend the college. 

Edit Multiple Times

You may have great ideas and an excellent story to tell in your essay, but having poor grammar or spelling errors will reduce your essay’s effectiveness.

Ensure you edit your essay multiple times before submitting it. Take time between your editing sessions so you can look at it with fresh eyes each time. You’re more likely to catch errors this way!

How to Conclude the Transfer Essay

Overlooking the conclusion of your essay can make what would be an amazing essay a good essay. Considering schools are highly selective with transfer applications , especially Ivy League schools , a good essay is unlikely to win you any points with the admissions committee. 

Imagine your essay as a circle. To complete the circle, your final paragraph should reiterate the themes and principles mentioned in your introduction. Revisit the story you shared and reflect on the educational principle that guided your essay. 

Briefly reiterate what type of education you could receive at your current school—a great but ultimately unsuitable one—and mention the better-suited education you’d receive at your transfer school. 

The final conclusion in an essay for transfer students should be short, sweet, and straightforward. It should not:

Leave the Readers Wanting More

There should be no cliffhangers in your essay. You aren’t writing a novel with a sequel; this essay is all the admissions committee will receive, so you want it to paint a comprehensive and complete picture of yourself.

Introduce New Information

Don’t use your conclusion to throw in any afterthoughts you had while revising your essay. You’ll have a lot of ideas for what to include in your essay, but you shouldn’t try to fit all of them into such a limited space. 

Make Promises

Don’t try to convince the admissions committee to accept you into their programs by making bogus promises. You don’t need to promise them you’ll be a stellar student at the top of your classes or that you’ll make great contributions to their school community. 

There should be no ultimatums in your essay! If you find yourself writing a sentence along the lines of “If you accept me into your school, I promise to…”, dial it back and refocus your conclusion. 

Mistakes to Avoid in Your College Transfer Essay

When crafting your college transfer essay, it's essential to steer clear of common pitfalls that can hinder your chances of acceptance. This is especially important in writing effective transfer essays for Ivy League schools that are looking for the best of the best.

Clarity Is Key

Make sure your essay is crystal clear in explaining your reasons for transferring and what you hope to achieve at your prospective new college. Avoid vague or overly broad statements that might leave the admissions committee perplexed about your motivations.

Emphasize Positivity

Another crucial mistake to avoid is adopting a negative tone throughout your essay. While acknowledging your reasons for transferring is important, dwelling solely on the negative aspects of your current college experience can be off-putting. Instead, emphasize your desire for fresh opportunities and personal growth.

Tailor Your Essay

One-size-fits-all essays are also to be avoided. When you look at an 

sample of a transfer statement or an essay that’s been successful, you’ll notice that it’s not generic. So, do your best to tailor your essay to the specific college you're applying to, highlighting what makes that institution the right fit for your educational goals. 

Focus on Aspirations

Additionally, resist the urge to place blame on your current college, professors, or classmates for your decision to transfer. Focus on your aspirations and what you hope to achieve at the new college.

Stay Realistic

Be realistic in your expectations; avoid making it sound like the new college is a magical solution to all your academic or personal challenges. Keep your essay concise and within the prescribed word limit, as admissions officers have many essays to review.

Thorough Research Matters

Thoroughly research the new college and mention specific programs, professors, or resources that align with your goals. Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes can detract from your essay's impact, so proofread it carefully.

Highlight Personal Growth

Lastly, don't forget to showcase personal growth and the lessons you've learned from your current college experience. Admissions officers appreciate applicants who demonstrate self-awareness and a commitment to growth.

Hopefully this breakdown has inspired you to write your own memorable essay.

College Transfer Essay Example

Understanding the steps to write a college transfer essay and what to avoid is a great place to start, but you might still be struggling to visualize what an excellent transfer essay looks like. Take a look at these examples of transfer essays to get started.  

Essay Example #1

Here is a successful college transfer essay example that got a student into Duke University—a school with a transfer acceptance rate ranging from 3% to 7% in the past five years.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish, and I don't consider myself to be a wishful thinker, but a person of practical approach. And so, when I began my freshman year of college, Louisiana State University was strategically the best available option. 

LSU offered the scholarships I needed, including the statewide TOPS program which, at the time, guaranteed the price of tuition for anyone with an ACT score of twenty-seven or above. 

Additionally, LSU had no cap on early credit, which allowed me to put to use the seventy-four hours I had amassed in high school towards pursuing majors in political science, economics, and French with an Arabic minor.

However, I didn't know the hindrances I would face at LSU in pursuit of my chosen career path until I was plugging into the campus community, at which point I found a number of pragmatic reasons that LSU is no longer appropriate for the goals towards which I am working.

The obstacles began to arise when I finally honed my interests. I distinctly remember change brewing as I sat in my biweekly social contract seminar listening to my professor discuss the paper he was working on, in which he aimed to tie human prosociality to neuroplasticity, all of which, he argued, would undermine Hobbes’ social contract theory.

That’s what I wanted – not the subject matter, but the principle. I wanted the attempt; I wanted to learn and to theorize and even to be wrong sometimes. I wanted to translate my interdisciplinary interests in political and economic theory into applicable policy.

Given my passion for writing and discussion, sharing theories and findings with colleagues and inspiring students, too, was ideal. And so, I finally knew I wanted to be a professor of public policy.

Sadly, LSU did not have a public policy program, and so I defaulted to political science. However, the political science department is inherently theory-based rather than policy-oriented. From studying the public policy curricula of other universities, I know that a public policy program is more suited to my own interest in applications of governance.

Undeterred by this initial setback and eager to begin my journey in the world of academia, I immediately sought research opportunities, but I quickly learned that they weren’t easily accessible.

Upon meeting with counsellors, I was told I would have to find professors to work with on my own, as there was no designated undergraduate research database or protocol. 

This in itself was another stark concern as I need a university in which conducting research is an integral part of the collegiate experience as it is a necessity in my education and preparation for the future. 

Though I have contacted professors, happy to take any experience I can get, I have found that most positions are reserved for upperclassmen and are primarily data entry oriented. 

Also, the lack of a public policy program has meant that the available work I have found does not meet the particular needs of the future policy-oriented research in which I hope to engage.

Though I know I could do well at LSU and receive an amazing education, staying at the university would mean, at best, having to overcome serious curricular deficits in achieving my goals or, at worst, having to change my plans altogether. 

And so, I have resolved to transfer in an effort to give myself the best possible opportunity to prepare for and succeed in my future.” 

Why This Essay Works

Like the Duke admissions committee, you were likely impressed by this essay! To ensure you know exactly what to include in your own essay, here are the aspects that make this Duke-approved essay successful:

Its Interesting Opening

This student uses their own quote to open their essay. As simple as their introduction is, it gets the point across and intrigues the reader to learn more. 

Right off the bat it also proves this student has a sense of direction; they have plans that they are determined to fulfill. This not only shows ambition but proves to the admission committee this student has actually put thought into their choice to transfer.

Its Use of Concrete Examples

The student recounts the exact moment they realized their current school did not offer the resources they needed to succeed. This personal story makes the essay more authentic and immerses the readers into their life and thought process.

Its Positive Outlook

While the student lists all the reasons for their transfer, namely that their current school does not offer the right program and that it has limited research opportunities, they remain positive throughout.

They still praise their current school for its excellent scholarship program, early credit approval, and thought-provoking lectures, but contend they require more to reach their goals.

This student also demonstrates their willingness to persevere and make the best of their situation by searching for research opportunities and joining the next best program available. Yet, despite their efforts, they decided a transfer was in their best interests. These traits, perseverance and self-awareness, are key to a great transfer essay!

Its Effective Conclusion

This essay proves your conclusion doesn’t have to be elaborate to work. This student’s conclusion reiterates their opinions on their current school, that it is great but not perfect, and states their opinions on their transfer school, that it can offer them the most opportunity. It is simple yet highly effective!

Essay Example #2

Take a look at this second transfer essay example . It was provided by Miami Dade College, which also has a collection of successful examples of personal statements for transfer applicants to refer to. 

Though the school this particular essay example was written for is unknown, it was indeed a successful essay and has much to offer. 

“On a dark and breezy night after a hurricane sped through town, a tall little girl sat on her great-aunt’s porch in Santa Clara and stared at the stars she had never before seen. They’re so bright, she thought in awe. 

They seemed so near, she might be able to reach out to the ashy vastness and grab one, maybe put it under her pillow to brighten her dreams. With eyes wide open, she listened to her momma tell stories of men with belts, and twin sisters, and brother bears, such fantastical worlds that made more sense than her own.

 A crooked smile adorned her chubby face as she sat on her momma’s lap amidst the laziness of a late summer weeknight. Her warm, mud pie eyes seemed to be too big for her little face every time they opened with wonder or grew with curiosity. The light that would shine from within them was something to behold. 

The way she would perk up at the mention of an adventure or a possible journey was almost comical. She was such an expressive child it felt almost as if you were watching a miniaturized adult. Sometimes, she would place her awkwardly big hands on her little hips and furrow her dark eyebrows as she reprimanded her dog for chewing apart her favorite Reptar quilt. 

A brave little thing she was, that charcoal-haired girl. She walked across the river before the others, making up a little trail on the rocks as she went so they weren’t scared. She challenged the fastest runner in third grade to a race; even though she lost, all the girls in fifth grade suddenly wanted to become her best friend. 

She wasn’t popular, but people knew her as the one who they could talk to. She wasn’t wise or all-knowing, but she always had something to say. She was an odd child, if not strange. 

She was quite tranquil, she never really cried when she fell from her bicycle. Instead of playing house, she played librarian. Instead of drawing pink flowers and blue skies, she would write her momma letters. 

Defining her was as difficult of a task as separating the different flavors of a melted Napolitano ice cream on a sticky Sunday afternoon. Yes, she was simple, but she had these moments where she would take the ordinary out of the world and make you forget there was something rather bland about everyday life. 

As that little girl grew older, she reminded herself of who she was, and promised never to forget. She vowed to remember how she grew up and reaffirm her belief in herself. She grew quickly, almost skipping through the teenage years like a child would through a hopscotch game. 

It happened so fast, it was almost impossible to distinguish at one point she was a little girl with a big dream, and when she turned into a woman with great hopes for her future.”

It’s clear why this essay was a success. Keep reading to learn why it resonated with the admissions committee. 

Compelling Storytelling

This essay begins with a captivating story set against the backdrop of a hurricane. It describes a young girl sitting on her great-aunt's porch, gazing at the stars with awe. This vivid imagery immediately draws the reader into the narrative, making it easy to picture the scene and the girl's sense of wonder.

Emotional Connection 

As the story unfolds, the reader is not just told about the girl's experiences but is made to feel them. We witness her curiosity, her bold challenges (like racing the fastest runner in her class), and her unique quirks (such as playing librarian and writing letters instead of drawing). This emotional connection helps us relate to the girl and understand her character.

Smooth Transition and Reflection

The essay smoothly transitions from describing the girl's childhood to her growth into a young woman. It skillfully highlights her commitment to maintaining her sense of self and personal growth. This transition bridges her past experiences with her future aspirations, making her transfer to a new college a natural and logical step in her journey.

Symbolism and Metaphor

The use of symbolism and metaphor enhances the essay's impact. The comparison of the girl's personality to "melted Napolitano ice cream on a sticky Sunday afternoon" vividly conveys her complexity. It suggests that she can transform ordinary situations into something extraordinary, hinting at her potential contributions to a new academic environment.

Resonance and Promise

The essay closes on a reflective note, emphasizing the girl's promise to remember her roots and her rapid transformation into adulthood. 

This conclusion creates a sense of resonance with the reader, leaving a lasting impression of her character and determination. It implies that she is ready for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in her college journey.

Hopefully, these samples of transfer essays have inspired you. To learn more, check out these other transfer essay examples .  

FAQs: Writing a College Transfer Essay

We’ve provided an in-depth tutorial on writing a college transfer essay that’ll impress the admissions committee and get you into your dream school. For any remaining questions, read on to find your answers.

1. How Do You Start a College Transfer Essay?

The best way to start a college transfer essay is by sharing a memorable experience that either influenced your decision to change schools or is integral to your perspective on education. 

2. How Long Should My Transfer Essay Be?

The exact length of your transfer essay will depend on the university you are applying to. However, these essays are typically around one to two pages long. 

3. How Do You Write a Short Transfer Essay?

Some universities will ask that your transfer essays do not exceed one page or around 250 words. In this case, it’s essential you still include all the necessary information listed in this guide but do so in a succinct way. Here are some general tips to make sure your short transfer essay still packs a punch:

• During the brainstorming process, separate all the great ideas from the excellent ones; only use the excellent ideas
• Share only one concrete experience that influenced you to transfer colleges
• Keep your introduction and conclusion short, preferably only a few sentences each
• Use simple, straightforward language and avoid overly flowery language that takes up valuable space 
• Focus on the big reasons you want to attend your transfer college, leave smaller perks out

While it may seem counterproductive, you should write your first rough draft without paying attention to the word count. If you worry too much about staying within the limits, you may leave out important ideas or overthink your narrative.

Once you’ve written out a good rough draft, spend time revising and cutting down to meet the requirements. This way, you’ll have all of your ideas written out and can pick the best ones.

4. What Should You Not Write in a Transfer Essay?

You should avoid the following in your college transfer essay:

• Overused or generic quotes
• Badmouthing your current school
• Blaming your current school for its inability to meet your expectations
• Exaggerated stories
• Vague reasons for your transfer
• Generic reasons to join your transfer school
• A conclusion that leaves the readers with more questions 

You should avoid making any grammatical, syntax, or spelling errors in your essay, as doing so will make it less effective. Also, keep in mind that using the same college essay for your transfer application is not a good idea. It may make you appear insincere and not fully engaged in your new academic path.

5. How Important Are Transfer Essays?

Your transfer essay isn’t the only application material the admissions committee will consider. However, it can play a large role in their selection process. In a recent survey, it was found that almost half of all participating colleges stated the transfer essay has considerable or moderate importance.

Hence, it’s essential you spend an adequate amount of time perfecting your essay to ensure it helps rather than harms your chances of acceptance. 

6. How Do You End a College Transfer Essay?

You should end your college transfer essay by revisiting the principle, experience, or statement you used in your introduction. Reiterate this sentiment and expand on it after sharing your experience with your current university and the experience you hope to have at your desired school.

Keep your conclusion brief and avoid making any promises to the admissions committee or including new information that would require further explanation. 

7. Are College Transfer Essays the Same as Personal Statements?

No, you’ll write personal statements during your first round of applications. These statements are more open-ended and broad than college transfer essays. They simply give the admissions committee more insight into who you are. 

Students may choose to write more about their academics, extracurriculars, or life experiences that influenced them to pursue a certain career path. The main purpose of your transfer essay is to explain why you’re switching schools. 

Final Thoughts

Don’t underestimate the power of your words! Understanding how to write a college transfer essay can be a game changer. A strong college transfer essay can convince the admissions committee you’re a mature, determined, and ambitious student who would make a great addition to their university.

Follow the tips and strategies shared in this guide to ensure you write a memorable and winning college transfer essay! 

Access 20+ Transfer Essay Examples Here

Get A Free Consultation

You may also like.

What Is the Academic Index?

Ivy League Acceptance Rates vs. Other Schools

Common App Transfer Essay Examples

Common app transfer essay — introduction.

If you’re considering transferring colleges , you’ve likely started thinking about your college transfer essay. At CollegeAdvisor, we’re here to fill you in on the Common App transfer essay, as well as the overall transfer application process. 

In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about the college transfer essay. We’ll also provide you with some Common App transfer essay examples and other transfer essay tips. 

Additionally, we’ll go over:

• What a college transfer essay is
• How to craft a strong Common App transfer essay
• College transfer requirements at top schools
• Other transfer essay tips

Understanding the College Transfer Essay

The college transfer essay process differs a bit from the essay process you likely went through as a first-year applicant. Instead of writing one Common App transfer essay that you’ll send to every school, each college transfer essay is school-specific. In fact, some colleges don’t even include a college transfer essay in their application requirements—though most selective institutions do. 

To help you prepare, we’ve gathered a variety of sample transfer essays from top schools nationwide. We hope these Common App transfer essay examples help you feel confident as you begin crafting your own college transfer essays. 

In our guide, we’ll look at transfer essays that worked from the following colleges:

• Emory University
• Wesleyan University
• University of Southern California (USC)
• University of Miami

But before we look at a sample transfer essay, let’s get back to basics: what is a college transfer essay? 

What is a college transfer essay?

Put simply, a college transfer essay is an essay you’ll write as part of the college transfer process. At their core, most Common App transfer essay prompts will ask a similar question: why do you want to transfer to our school? 

This prompt is similar to the “why school” essays you likely encountered as a first-year applicant. However, with transfer students, colleges may look for a bit more detail. 

Your Common App transfer essays should try to address the following: 

• Why do you want to transfer to this particular school? What programs and offerings attract you to this institution?
• What makes you unique, and why will you enrich the campus community at your new college? 
• Why was your former college not the right fit for you, and why is this college a better place for you to pursue your goals?

Of course, you should never outright speak negatively about your current college in your Common App transfer essays. However, your college transfer essays should clarify why you and why your next school will be a better fit than your current one. 

Later, we’ll look at some Common App transfer essay examples in more detail. Keep the questions above in mind as you read our sample transfer essays. While there’s no universal Common App transfer essay prompt, there are many similarities in the transfer college essays for different colleges. Reading different college essays that worked and sample transfer essays can prepare you for any Common App transfer essay prompts you encounter. 

Common App Transfer Essay Requirements

Unlike in the first-year application process, transfer students using the Common App won’t submit a single personal statement to every school. Instead, students will use the Common App for transfer—that is, the version of the Common App designed for transfer students. Each school specifies application requirements within the Common App for transfer; that’s where you’ll find any Common App transfer essay requirements. It’s also where you can select specific programs within your desired schools.

Moreover, not every college will have a standard transfer essay format. Rather, you might find different prompts, word counts, and other requirements for different transfer applications. With that said, you can likely repurpose a certain amount of information from your college transfer essays for different schools. 

Additionally, note that not every college where you may want to transfer will use the Common App. While the Common App has over 1,000 member institutions at the first-year level, around 600 colleges use the Common App for transfer. So, you should always check each college’s application requirements. Some schools may also use the Coalition Application. Schools like UIUC , UMiami , and USC will all have their own transfer essay requirements. 

Next, let’s take a closer look at transfer application requirements. Then, we’ll look at some sample transfer essays and discuss different college essays that worked. 

Understanding Transfer Application Requirements

In general, most colleges will ask for a similar set of transfer application requirements. These include: 

• The Common App transfer application  
• A writing supplement, including your college transfer essay(s)
• Standardized test scores, though some colleges remain test-optional
• Official college transcript
• Dean’s/College’s/Registrar’s Report
• College instructor recommendations (2)
• Official high school transcript

As you begin the transfer application process, make sure you’re prepared for these requirements. Additionally, while you may or may not submit a full resume when you apply to college, it’s good to have one on hand. 

Staying Engaged on Campus

Note that as a transfer student, colleges will pay attention to how you’ve used your time on your original college campus. So, to increase your admissions odds at top schools, you should earn high grades and engage in various extracurricular activities. Even if you don’t want to complete your college experience at your current school, you should still make the most of your time there. 

On some of your college transfer essays, you might be asked to discuss an extracurricular activity or engagement. You won’t see this kind of prompt in most of our transfer essay examples. However, you should be prepared to discuss your involvement on campus in your college transfer essays. Colleges want to see that you’re an engaged member of your community. 

Common App Transfer Essay Prompts

Next, let’s take a look at some Common App transfer essay prompts and review some transfer essays that worked. 

As we’ve discussed, students won’t all answer one Common App transfer essay prompt. Instead, you’ll respond to a different Common App transfer essay prompt for each school. However, as you’ll notice from our collection of transfer essays that worked, college transfer essay prompts tend to be similar. 

Comparing Some Common App Transfer Essay Prompts

To begin, let’s look at the Common App transfer essay prompts from Harvard University: 

• Briefly, please indicate the most influential factors in your decision to attend your present college (for example, location, cost, size of student body, only option, special program offered, Early Decision plan, etc.) 
• What alternatives to transferring to Harvard are you considering?
• Please indicate your field of specialization and briefly outline your academic plans at Harvard College.
• What are your current postgraduate/career plans?
• Briefly discuss one book that has strongly influenced you.

As you can see, if you apply to Harvard as a transfer student, you’ll have to write several college transfer essays. In our college transfer essays that worked, successful students make the most of every Common App transfer essay prompt. 

Notre Dame transfer essay prompt

Remember, each of your college transfer essays offers the admissions team a chance to learn more about you. So, you should make the most of every one of your Common App transfer essays. Regardless of the college transfer essay format, view each college transfer essay as a chance to teach your reader something new. 

While we won’t see Common App transfer essay examples from Harvard here, we’ll read sample transfer essays from other competitive colleges. You can apply these transfer essay tips to any college transfer essay. 

Let’s take a look at another Common App transfer essay prompt—this time, from Notre Dame.

Unlike Harvard, Notre Dame does not ask students to complete a collection of Common App transfer essay prompts. Instead, when it comes to college transfer essays, Notre Dame just asks for one thing :

“a well-crafted personal statement explaining your interest in Notre Dame, your academic and professional goals, and how transferring to Notre Dame can help you achieve them.”

Clarifying your academic goals.

You might notice one similarity between the Common App transfer essay prompts for Notre Dame and Harvard. Both schools ask you to have a clear sense of your academic and professional goals. 

As a first-year applicant, your choice of college major matters less than it does as a transfer applicant. In fact, in some cases, the major you indicate will have little to no bearing on your admissions odds. However, as a transfer student, colleges expect you to have some sense of your future goals. In light of that, you should be able to articulate your future college major in your college transfer essays. 

When you read our Common App transfer essay examples, you’ll notice the authors clearly explain their academic and future goals. This allows the writers of our sample transfer essays to clarify why a given school meets their academic needs. 

Look for these strategies in our UMiami essay examples, USC transfer essay examples, Emory essay examples, and other college essays that worked. Now, let’s dig into some targeted transfer essay tips and read some great Common App transfer essays. 

College Transfer Essay — Emory Essay Examples

Let’s start by reviewing Emory essay examples from accepted transfer students. By reading these Common App transfer essay examples, you can learn more about how to approach the college transfer essay process. 

Here’s our Emory transfer essay example: 

Emory Transfer Essay Example

My time at Texas Christian University has been an orienting and insightful experience. Despite the brevity of my stay, I grasped a better understanding of the type of qualities that I desire from a college. In addition, I gained new perspectives, forged relationships, and made memories that I’ll cherish for life. The decision to apply to Emory was made with careful consideration, but ultimately with confidence. While I will always be grateful for my experience at TCU, I’ve concluded that Emory is where I can thrive academically and socially.

I took a medley of courses during my first semester at TCU to ensure that I chose my path with confidence. Comparative Literature was the major I was searching for. It allows me to channel my desires for a diversified education, and pairs well with my ardor for foreign languages.  Unfortunately, despite the enthusiasm, it isn’t offered at TCU, but it is at Emory. However, the ability to pursue Comparative Literature may have drawn me to Emory, but it was the breadth of the academic curriculum and resources that helped me to conclude that it was the right school for me.

The breadth of the curriculum itself covers a broad range of topics ranging from Post-Colonial Literature to “Love & Sex in the Italian Renaissance.” I would truly be able to get a diversified education through a host of interesting topics. Attending Emory would allow me to supplement my education with curriculum outside the classroom, allowing me to enrich my educational experience. Through the thesis during senior year I could gain insight from conducting intense exploration on a subject I deeply care about.

As a research assistant I conducted research on Horace Walpole’s influence in early British Parliament. Through this, I learned how to organize and structure knowledge, how to communicate and how to be a more attentive and critical interpreter of history. Those are the kind of skills I want to amplify and Emory’s focus on Undergraduate Research would give me support for that in spades. I could also have fun attending poetry readings, symposiums, and film screenings. In terms of my major, the depth of the classes and the sheer possibilities enabled by Emory’s academic resources would truly allow me to make the most of my education at Emory.

What stands out about Emory for me and makes it so desirable is the intimate approach in the faculty-to-student relationship. Engaged professors who genuinely care for the wellbeing of the student is the type of setting fostered at Emory and would allow me to flourish as a student.

Diversity, not just in race, but in socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and most importantly, perspective, both academically and socially, is the type of variation fostered at Emory. This is the type of college experience I want as I’ve learned that only through differences can intellectual curiosity truly be fostered.

Emory’s location would allow me the amenities of Atlanta without having to forego a traditional college experience. I could try authentic Persian food one night and go karaoke the next. Art is a personal hobby of mine and I can foresee many art crawls given Atlanta’s vibrant art scene. Of course, a visit to Emory’s own Michael C. Carlos museum would be due first.

Beyond the city, Georgia is host to a myriad of beautiful landscapes. I could hike at Tallulah Gorge or enjoy the scenic view at Amicalola. Emory’s active campus life would also mean weekends filled with prominent guest-speakers and exploring new hobbies. What I appreciate about Emory is the balance between academics and social life because while college is a place to learn, it is also a place to make memories.

I’ve never regretted my time here. I simply exhausted all the available resources and it’s my responsibility to go where I can flourish as a student in every sense, and this place for me, is Emory University.  

Why This Essay Worked

Successful Emory essay examples will specify what makes Emory the right place for an applicant. This essay does just that. Moreover, it offers a great example of a common college transfer essay format. Namely, it describes why the student wishes to transfer while detailing what makes Emory the perfect fit for them. 

As one of our Emory essay examples, the writer of this sample transfer essay makes it clear why Emory is the right fit for them. First, the writer describes how they’ve used their time at TCU to gain a sense of their academic interests and goals. They then clarify how, in this journey of self-discovery, they have realized why TCU isn’t the right place for them. 

This sample transfer essay then uses specific examples of why Emory would be a better fit. They mention specific courses, programs, and other offerings. This sample transfer essay also highlights why Atlanta would be a better college setting for this student than Fort Worth. Strong Emory essay examples will be specific—that is, they’ll discuss particular programs and offerings only found at Emory. 

Overall, this transfer essay example excels at describing who this student is, why they wish to transfer, and how they’d leverage Emory’s resources. 

Next, let’s look at some more transfer essays that worked—namely, a successful Wesleyan essay. 

Wesleyan Essay — Transfer Essays That Worked

Next, let’s dig into another one of our Common App transfer essay examples. Like the first of our Common App transfer essay examples, the essay below includes detailed and specific information about how the writer will thrive at their new institution. 

Our next transfer essay example is for Wesleyan . Let’s take a look at the essay and explore why it stood out to Wesleyan admissions:

Wesleyan Transfer Essay Example

My need for academic diversity marks the first reason behind my desire to transfer. The reality is that there is a disproportionate emphasis placed on business and natural sciences at my current college. While these majors deserve merit, the situation here translates to a lack of the same quality of opportunities and resources for the humanities. I realized that I need a setting where every academic field is equally regarded because it is in these types of environments that intellectual curiosity is truly fostered.

While I spent my initial months as a pre-major, I took a medley of courses to ensure that I chose a path I was genuinely passionate about. I am unable to pursue my academic desires here, but at Wesleyan, I can. My first year of college helped me to narrow down my want for a cosmopolitan education. During a class, I was introduced to literary and post-colonial theory and discovered a new passion. I want to pursue certification in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory for a diversified education, and with the interdisciplinary coursework at Wesleyan, I could do so. With intense courses and guidance from caring faculty, Wesleyan would allow me the strong and intimate academic foundation that I desire.

Wesleyan has what I am looking for and am unfortunately unable to find at my current school: enthusiasm for languages. I possess a passion for foreign languages and with Wesleyan’s orientation intense curricula for foreign languages, I would have a supportive environment. While I am currently taking 2 languages, I hope to pursue Arabic language and culture, and in addition, live in the Turath Program House. Foreign languages are usually regarded as a side-study but with the open curriculum and programming at Wesleyan, I could allow foreign languages the space in my academic schedule that it deserves. 

My first year made me realize how I took diversity for granted. Diversity, not just in ethnicity, but in socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, and most importantly, perspective, is the type of representation I want on a campus. Wesleyan truly reflects the concept of equal opportunity in every sense. Coming from a background where food stamps were normalized and then moving to a school where most of the student body comes from the upper socioeconomic trend has been eye-opening.

The notion that there is a disparity in resources and experiences between polar financial levels is swept under the rug here. I appreciate that Wesleyan not only acknowledges but acts towards lessening the gap by providing resources and opportunities to low-income/first-gen families. It’s this type of effort that will allow those without equal access to have the stability for their academic merits to shine through.

Wesleyan’s location also offers me the scenic nature-based and intimate small-town vibe that I desire. While I love Fort Worth, the climate, people, and attractions in Middletown would fit me better. Whether I’m hiking at Cockaponset or attending a play by ArtFarm with my friends, I would get the college experience that I desire without foregoing an intimate college community. 

Why this essay worked

While this Common App transfer essay prompt isn’t in use anymore, this Wesleyan essay answers a standard question: why do you wish to transfer, and why Wesleyan? 

Once again, the writer of this transfer essay example gives reasons why their current school isn’t the right fit. They express their desire for more academic, cultural, racial, and social diversity than is available on their current college campus. Many college essays that worked discuss diversity and inclusion; this Wesleyan essay writer showcases how they’ll enrich their future campus community. In doing so, it gives Wesleyan admissions officers a strong sense of the student’s values. 

Additionally, this Wesleyan essay uses specific details to show what makes Wesleyan the right fit for this student. In particular, this sample transfer essay describes in detail the writer’s passion for studying languages. The writer details how they would use Wesleyan’s resources to explore this passion. 

In reading this essay, the Wesleyan admissions team can see clearly how the student would make use of Wesleyan’s resources. 

Like our other Common App transfer essay examples, this Wesleyan essay illustrates why the writer wishes to transfer. At the same time, it emphasizes how they would make the most of their new institution. 

USC Transfer Essay Examples

Let’s move on to more college transfer essay examples and take a look at some USC transfer essay examples. We hope these Common App transfer essay examples help you prepare to craft your own essays. 

In the 2021 admissions cycle, the USC transfer acceptance rate was about 26% according to the USC admissions office. While USC does not widely publicize the USC transfer acceptance rate, it’s generally reported as around 24-26%. In other words, you can assume that the USC transfer acceptance rate is relatively low. That means you should do all you can to prepare your transfer application ahead of the USC transfer deadline. Note that the USC transfer deadline is February 15th for most programs. 

Overall, the USC transfer requirements are similar to those for other schools. They include the Common Application, your high school transcript, and your college transcript. Some academic programs require additional letters of recommendation, portfolio materials, and other supplements. You’ll complete the USC college transfer essays through the Common App. 

USC Transfer Essay Examples — Long Answer

The USC transfer requirements will vary by major. However, regardless of additional USC transfer requirements for certain programs, you’ll need USC college transfer essays.

Unlike the rest of our transfer essay examples, the USC transfer essay examples also include short answer responses. So, in addition to the main USC college transfer essay, you’ll find some short-form USC transfer essay examples below. 

Let’s start with the main USC transfer essay: 

USC Transfer Essay Example

The feature that appeals the most to me about USC is the zeal that the English department displays. It was the amount of English-oriented events that hooked me and the quality of them that finally reeled me into USC’s shore. Numerous poetry readings, prominent guest speakers, and enthusiastic organizations geared towards English would help immensely with supplementing my learning experience. The cherry on top is the study abroad program entwined with English, allowing for total immersion into the culture and subject.

These types of academic opportunities are integral to making the most of my studies. Furthermore, I would be remiss to not acknowledge the world-class faculty at USC’s English department. What USC presents is an academic environment where the ardor I have for English is matched. It’s a community where college isn’t viewed as a method of job placement but a place to foster intellectual curiosity.

Socially, my current school has been full of learning experiences as I navigated a social scene that starkly contrasted against the ones I grew up with. However, I knew this was a common experience and stayed optimistic. I dabbled in clubs, finding some that piqued my interest, and rushed a sorority before discovering what I wanted to direct my time and effort towards.

While I opted out of Greek life, I did find organizations and people on campus that I enjoyed, such as Spectrum (LGBTQ+) and Hall Crew, an organization geared towards dorm-community bonding. However, some contemplation allowed me to recognize that the people I had gravitated towards drew me in due to a recurring sentiment: my desire for a more diverse setting.

When the word “diversity” is mentioned, people naturally assume ethnicity. While this factor is an important component in the multi-faceted topic of diversity, it isn’t all-encompassing. My current school has helped me realize that diversity, not just in race, but in sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and most importantly, perspective, is a necessary aspect of a college environment. Attending USC would give me a chance to experience the kind of diversity I crave; a campus comprised of students from all over the globe would ensure this. 

The first of our USC transfer essay examples indicates exactly what attracts this applicant to USC. In this sample transfer essay, the writer describes their interest in USC’s English program and why it would fit them. As you read this transfer essay example, you can imagine this student thriving on USC’s campus. 

Once again, like other transfer essays that worked, this transfer essay example shows why the writer was dissatisfied with their college. However, it doesn’t dwell on the negatives—instead, this sample transfer essay looks forward to the writer’s goals at USC. 

To make the most of your USC essays, make sure you draft them well ahead of the USC transfer deadline. This gives you enough time to polish your essays and make sure they highlight your strengths. Transfer essays that worked are often initially written well before the deadline and revised several times.

USC Transfer Essay Examples — Short Answer

Next, let’s take a look at more Common App transfer essay examples—namely, the short answer USC transfer essay examples: 

1. What is the most fun you’ve had lately?

On the Fourth of July, I braved the scorching heat at Six Flags over Atlanta, my favorite childhood vacation spot. I got drenched on Thunder River, lost my voice on Goliath, and won a giant stuffed Pokemon in a ball toss game. As the sun set, I admired the fireworks while devouring two plates of food at the all-you-can-eat buffet.  

2. If you had to give yourself a nickname, what would it be?

After joining the middle school swim team, I discovered that I was a terrible diver and would always painfully belly flop into the water. I begged my parents to let me volunteer at the library instead. While watching the librarian’s favorite movie, “Ella Enchanted,” she affectionately shortened my name to Ella. I moved the next summer, so the nickname always evokes nostalgia for my hometown. 

3. What are three things you don’t care about at all?

The difference between white and yellow onions (I use them interchangeably in my recipes.)

The iOS versus Android debate (I have a Galaxy phone and a Macbook.) 

The correct way to hang toilet paper (I keep the rolls in a cabinet to hide them from my two mischievous cats.) 

4. Describe a situation in which you didn’t get something you felt you deserved.

With plans to diversify the fundraisers and collaborate with community partners, I campaigned to be UNICEF Club president my junior year of high school. I was excited to be more involved in the organization I had volunteered with for years. Unfortunately, I had to miss the election day to receive my green card and was ultimately not selected.

5. What do you see as the physician’s role in Public Health? Please answer the question in 150 words or less.

Especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, I see physicians as educators and advocates for their communities. While conducting research and volunteering at my local food pantry, I saw how the pandemic led to rising medical misinformation and mistrust and exacerbated barriers to accessing healthcare. When unemployment soared in March 2020, I noted the strain on clients at the local food bank, who struggled to afford groceries, utilities, and medical bills. I believe that physicians should advocate for increasing access to affordable healthcare, from expanding subsidized coverage to lowering surprise medical bills.

As a Research Assistant, I discovered that a quarter of the rural patients with HIV in our study believed that COVID-19 vaccinations were dangerous or linked to autism. Through creating trusting relationships and supportive environments, I believe physicians can guide patients to make informed health decisions that optimize their clinical outcomes. 

Why these essays worked

Like any college essays that worked, these USC transfer essay examples showcase what makes the writer unique. The best Common App transfer essay examples clearly demonstrate the writer’s personality and how they’ll enrich their next college campus. 

Remember, every college transfer essay gives you the chance to tell the admissions team something new about you. Certainly, these short answer responses follow a different college transfer essay format than our longer Emory essay examples or the Wesleyan essay. However, they manage to include a lot of valuable information in a limited number of words. 

Let’s look at the last of our transfer essays that worked—our UMiami essay examples. 

UMiami Essay Examples — College Transfer Essay

Next, we’ll dig into UMiami essay examples to get a better understanding of college essays that worked. 

Here’s one of our UMiami essay examples from an admitted transfer student:

UMiami Transfer Essay Example

I took a medley of classes to ensure that I chose my major with confidence, which led to my decision to apply as an English major and Modern Language and Literature minor to UMiami. I hope to study Japanese and Arabic, along with French if my schedule permits. Beyond the depth, rigor, and range of the courses themselves, the sheer breadth of the programming would allow me to supplement my education with a curriculum outside the classroom. Both the English and the MLL department have enthusiastic programming ranging from lectures given by prominent guest-speakers, friendly gatherings, and study abroad programs that would really allow me to make the most of my education.

I fully intend to pursue research as well, as my time as a research assistant has fostered my passion for knowledge and discovery in the humanities. The experience will also help me while I pursue the Departmental Honors Program in English Literature. Beyond purely academic resources, the intimate approach to advising and the close faculty-to student ratio is what drew me to UMiami. The dedication to providing students with resources like research grants, internships, and career connections is the type of care that I want. I learned that while the right academic environment is important, support is essential to thrive not only as a student, but as a person.

Socially, UMiami leaves nothing left to be desired. I could take a stroll on the beach or finally get to try the famous Cafecito. The active campus itself would mean opportunities to discover new hobbies or make new memories with friends. I want to be able to look back fondly at the memories I made in college and UMiami would allow me to do that. I would also love to start a Dream Outside the Box chapter at UMiami as my experience with this organization geared towards better access to education has been profound and I am a staunch believer in bettering local communities first.

In the last of our Common App transfer essay examples, the writer includes specific details about why UMiami is the right place for them. 

Once again, the writer of this sample transfer essay delineates what UMiami offers that their current college does not. Successful UMiami essay examples will be specific to the school. So, as you read UMiami essay examples like this one, look for ways to link your interests to the school’s offerings.

In this transfer essay example, the writer outlines the specific programs, foreign languages, and offerings that they plan to pursue at UMiami. They also include specific details about the college’s location and culture. These details make obvious their interest in the institution and the time they’ve taken to research their (prospective) future home.

Understanding the UMiami Transfer Acceptance Rate

In general, transfer acceptance rates are not widely published online—the UMiami transfer acceptance rate is no different. While it’s generally reported to be around 50%, students should still assume that the UMiami transfer acceptance rate is relatively competitive . To put it another way, don’t take the UMiami essay for granted. After all, UMiami is one of the best colleges in Florida, so admission is never guaranteed. 

By now, we’ve read UMiami essay examples, Wesleyan essays, and other transfer essays that worked. We hope you now have a better understanding of what makes a successful college transfer essay. Next, let’s dig into some more transfer essay tips to help you succeed. 

How is a college transfer essay different?

Overall, the transfer application process is slightly different from the first-year application process. As you’ve likely noticed in our successful transfer essay examples, most transfer essays look rather different from standard personal statements. 

When applying as a transfer student, admissions officers want to know why you’ve decided to transfer and what interests you about their school. They also want to learn about your educational plans (including your choice of major) and your career goals. 

Similar to our transfer essays that worked, college transfer essays often revolve around an applicant’s character as a student and future professional. Compare this to a Common App personal statement, which usually focuses on who you are as a person. Clearly, your academic and career pathways matter a bit more as a transfer student. 

Of course, you should take every opportunity to show the admissions committee what makes you unique. However, you should also ensure you include specific details about what makes your future academic program a better fit. 

College Transfer Essay Format

In general, most schools use a similar college transfer essay format. The Common App transfer essay prompts you’ll find will also often have some similarities. Most schools will ask students to state their reasons for transferring and explain why they’ve chosen to apply. 

As you approach this type of prompt, think about:

• The major you’d like to pursue
• Academic programs that are not available at your current school
• Important differences between your current campus community and the school where you’re applying

Word counts will vary by school, so always check each institution’s requirements. You should also read each Common App transfer essay prompt carefully to ensure you follow the right format. 

You can also write an initial college transfer essay and adapt different sections to suit different prompts. However, you should always include specific details about how you plan to spend your time at your next college. 

Additional Transfer Essay Tips

We’ve looked at some successful Common App transfer essay examples. Next, let’s review three transfer essay tips to help your essays shine:

• Be specific. Tailor each college transfer essay to your chosen school, even if you start with the same basic details about yourself. Make sure you indicate specific things that school offers that you can’t find at your current institution.
• Keep it positive. As a transfer student, it might be tempting to write negatively about your current school. However, focus instead on what your current school has taught you about yourself and prepared you to succeed elsewhere.  
• Be thorough. Your college transfer essays are one of the few chances you get to address the admissions committee on your own terms. Make the most of the word count to highlight who you are and how you’d enrich their campus. 

We hope these transfer essay tips give you confidence as you approach the college transfer essay process. 

Other CollegeAdvisor Essay Resources to Explore

As we’ve discussed, while there are some key differences, writing a college transfer essay is relatively similar to writing a first-year admissions essay. For more transfer essay tips, check out some of our other resources below:

• AO Advice: How to Write Great Supplemental Essays That Stand Out — In this webinar, our former Admissions Officers share how to write supplemental essays that shine. 
• Columbia Essay Examples — This guide includes several successful essays from Columbia University and explains what made them work. 
• Editing Your Supplemental Essays —  This webinar walks you through the process of editing your Common App transfer essays to make them strong, clear, and concise. 
• How to Write a Personal Statement — Read more college essays that worked and learn expert tips to make yours unique. 

For more guidance, you can also check out Carnegie Mellon’s tips on writing strong Common App transfer essays. Amherst also offers useful tips, including a successful Common App transfer essay. Finally, Moorpark College has a great slide deck featuring some advice on the UC transfer process. 

If you’re certain about transferring but unsure about where you want to go, we can help. Our three-part College Finder series covers the college search process, making a college list , and comparing colleges . Although many of our free articles are aimed at first-year applicants, their advice is broadly applicable. They can help you figure out how to frame your college transfer essays or research where you want to go.

College Transfer Essay — Final Thoughts

In this article, we walked you through different sample transfer essays and Common App transfer essay prompt responses. Additionally, we offered some transfer essay tips to help you write the strongest college transfer essays you can. We hope our Common App transfer essay examples help you feel more confident as you navigate the transfer application process. 

If you want more support as you complete your Common App transfer essays, we’re here to help. Click here to schedule a consultation with our Admissions Specialists. We’ll help you learn more about how CollegeAdvisor can help you maximize your admissions odds.

This article was written by Abbie Sage. Looking for more admissions support? Click here to schedule a free meeting with one of our Admissions Specialists. During your meeting, our team will discuss your profile and help you find targeted ways to increase your admissions odds at top schools. We’ll also answer any questions and discuss how CollegeAdvisor.com can support you in the college application process.

Personalized and effective college advising for high school students.

• Advisor Application
• Popular Colleges
• Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice
• Student Login
• California Privacy Notice
• Terms and Conditions
• Your Privacy Choices

By using the College Advisor site and/or working with College Advisor, you agree to our updated Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy , including an arbitration clause that covers any disputes relating to our policies and your use of our products and services.

How to Write a Successful College Transfer Essay & Examples

• Icon Calendar 18 May 2024

When students want to change their higher education institutions, they need good guidelines for writing a college transfer essay. In this case, the article provides essential insights, including the definition and meaning of a college transfer essay, the seven sections that students should consider, common prompts that they can use to produce their papers, and 20 tips for creating a high-standard transfer paper, including what to do and not to do. Students also get a glimpse of a sample outline and an example for a practical impression of how a college transfer essay should appear. Therefore, reading this guideline is helpful to students who need to convince college admission committees that a transfer request is genuine and why they should grant it.

How to Write an Outstanding College Transfer Essay & Examples

Reading scholarly texts is intellectually refreshing and essential in grasping insights into the mechanics of writing different types of papers. Moreover, students write different types of essays to assess their course content understanding continuously. Therefore, learning to write academic papers is critical to one’s performance in those assessments. This article provides a guideline for writing a successful college transfer essay, covering key insights and crucial details that students and anyone interested in writing should study to create high-standard documents. Some insights include the definition and meaning of a college transfer essay and its main features when to write this document, possible topics, a sample essay outline template, practical examples of this work, and 20 tips for producing a high-standard paper. In turn, critical details include the easy step-by-step process of starting a college transfer essay, emphasizing the technical aspects of creating the piece. As a result, reading the guideline can help all writers to understand the attitude they should adopt to have a high-quality essay.

Definition of a College Transfer Essay and Its Meaning

From a simple definition, a college transfer essay is an academic document that college students write to move from one educational institution to another. Essentially, students communicate their desire to transfer and highlight details that can help a committee to accept the request by following a well-organized essay structure. This structure comprises seven sections, each providing details that allow the audience to understand the student and the reason for requesting a college transfer. The essential information includes the student’s core values, the reason they chose their current college, why they want to transfer to another education institution, a demonstration that they have maximized or optimized their current situation, their dream, how the new place will help them to actualize the goal, and a memorable closure. Therefore, a college transfer essay means that people must convince the audience, mainly a college admission committee, to accept them as new students.

Use exceptional writing services that guarantee original and well-researched papers.

Unique Structure of a Winning College Transfer Essay

💠 section/paragraph 1: how to write about core values & example.

As stated above, Section 1 of a college transfer essay highlights the student’s core values. For example, core values determine people’s behavior, what they can and cannot accept in their social circle, and what inspires them. When outlining these values, students should focus on making a first impression. Therefore, core values should convince the audience to accept the student’s transfer request. In turn, some core values that can help to make the first impression in such a request include a family; caring; a willingness to serve, learn, grow, fight injustice; and solve problems. Students can communicate effectively by using personal stories to emphasize these values and explain how the current college does not align with some of these values in an essay. Writers should avoid exaggeration and use a hook to keep readers interested in continuing reading.

An Example of a Paragraph for Section 1

I hold dear core values that define my personality and identity, including a desire to do good, dependability, hard work, commitment, integrity, generosity, and moral uprightness. One reason for seeking a transfer to your institution is your anti-plagiarism policy. While my current college has been valuable in helping me to demonstrate most of these values, it could have been more helpful regarding integrity. Academic honesty is the most relevant issue in demonstrating integrity in college. Typically, colleges and professors clarify to students with solid emphasis the penalty of academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism. While my current college does this activity, I do not find the penalties sufficient to dissuade academic dishonesty. Such laxity may expose me to circumstances where I may violate my value system. For example, I have faced a dilemma severally of whether to report my peers who plagiarize their work.

💠 Section/Paragraph 2: The Reason Why I Decided to Choose Your College & Example

Section 2 of a college transfer essay should explain why students chose their current college. Basically, students should understand that the audience is interested in hearing why they want to transfer and about their college. While a negative issue may compel the transfer request, one should communicate the problem without painting the college negatively. Essential details in this section include what made the student choose the college; the current experience, including what one is doing to develop intellectually; how the college has helped to meet a learning objective, such as going on field trips to gain practical experience. When writing this section of an essay, students’ focus should be to demonstrate to the audience that they are using their time in the current college optimally. In turn, one should focus on positive aspects rather than negative ones of the institution in an essay.

An Example of a Paragraph for Section 2

My current college has proven helpful to my quest for intellectual development because of its various programs. However, I chose it primarily because it is in the same city as my home, and I could save on accommodation money. Nonetheless, I have made important leaps in knowledge since I joined. I am in the second year of college education and spend most of my time researching topics in the library. Indeed, my research skills have developed incredibly during my time at the institution. I credit this intellectual development to professors and other instructors who give assignments, including essays and research papers, requiring students to research materials. As such, the college library has been like a second home to me. As I seek to leave, I take these experiences as a ladder for greater intellectual development in my next destination.

💠 Section/Paragraph 3: The Reason Why I Want to Leave the Current College

Section 3 of a college transfer essay should convince the audience why the student seeks to transfer to their institution. Ideally, students should not paint their current college negatively but focus on explaining why they think the college they want to move to is ideal for achieving their goal. Students should explain why they want to leave their current college, such as a lack of critical resources like a science lab, limited opportunities for exposing students to the corporate world, or a new policy like mandatory online learning. When writing this section of an essay, students should convince the audience that the current college can not push them toward their goal and that the one they seek to join is ideal. The most crucial detail in an essay is not to talk badly about the current college.

An Example of a Paragraph in Section 3

One reason for requesting a transfer from my current institution is the limited opportunities for career exposure. For example, it is normal for students to go a whole year without a field trip despite course content insisting on the need to link theory and practice. While researching the college to transfer to, I came across your website and how the institution prioritizes field trips as a pillar of students’ practical learning. As a nursing student, I must get first-hand experience with the dynamics that influence healthcare in the clinical environment, such as the relationship between nurses and patients, including the issues that nurses confront daily in developing or nurturing the relationship. As I investigated your college, I learned that nursing students have at least two field trips each academic year. This orientation is ideal for my dream.

💠 Section/Paragraph 4: Maximizing or Optimizing Time and Achievements

While students may want to explain why they think the college they wish to transfer to is better than their current one, one should also tell the audience how they maximize or optimize their time in the current college. Section 4 of a college transfer essay allows students to tell the audience how productive their time in the current institution is. This message is essential to convince the audience that one is not preoccupied with a desire to leave at the expense of their academic development. Instead, they should show that they are working on their intellectual growth but see a transfer as more effective in accelerating it. Doing so in an essay convinces readers that a transfer is necessary during the learning process. Moreover, students should state their accomplishments in the current college and how they have met instructors’ expectations when writing their essays.

An Example of a Paragraph in Section 4

My time in my current institution is productive and intellectually engaging. Although there are reasons why I want to transfer from the college, I am spending my time to get the best of what I have. For example, I use the college library to gain insights into nursing topics and interact with instructors to seek clarification on complex concepts. Some resources in my current college are still beneficial to my intellectual development and career preparation. A core value that enables me to optimize my time in college is commitment, and I am deeply committed to my intellectual growth, not allowing a desire to transfer derail me from what is essential. While an institution may be supportive, the student’s attitude determines their success.

💠 Section/Paragraph 5: My Study Dream

Section 5 of a college transfer essay focuses on the student’s dream, career aspirations, or what they want to become after college. Ideally, people have different reasons for pursuing a college education. Students should use this section to educate the audience about the end goal of their college education. Therefore, writers should tell readers about their dream and how they intend to achieve it. At this point, authors should state how the transfer request is open to the plans because it allows them to get into a resourceful learning environment. When the audience reads this section, they should answer “Why us?” because the student emphasizes how the new college differs from their current institution. However, one should briefly mention the new college’s positives because the focus of an essay is on their dream.

An Example of a Paragraph in Section 5

My dream to become a registered nurse is the reason for my college transfer request. All my life, I have dreamed of becoming a healthcare professional to enable people to live healthier lives. A college education is a prerequisite for this dream. While my current institution has taught me the fundamentals of a nursing career, it has not immersed me fully into the practical environment. This gap is why I seek to transfer from the college to your institution. While searching for an alternative college, I learned how your institution considers practical education integral to holistic learning. Your college immerses learners into the career environment through field trips and student attachment programs. This orientation is critical and beneficial to my quest to become a registered nurse knowledgeable in theory and practice.

💠 Section/Paragraph 6: How Your College Will Help Me

Section 6 of a college transfer essay is about the competitive advantage of the college a student seeks to transfer to, meaning that writers inform the audience about the aspects of their institution that make it attractive. These aspects may include education programs, student policies, and resource availability. Moreover, writers must emphasize the college’s advantages over their current institution and how they support their career aspirations. In their essays, students should inform the audience about what they need and how their college has helped to meet it. An example of a need may be practical skills, and the resources that a particular college has at the moment may help them to develop themselves, including attachment programs that immerse learners into a realistic environment, such as a workplace. Besides, a college transfer essay must emphasize how the target institution beats the rest as an ideal place to achieve a learning outcome.

An Example of a Paragraph in Section 6

Prioritizing students’ practical knowledge is central to your college’s identity and the primary reason for my college transfer request. I have learned how nursing students get at least two field trips per academic year and how an attachment program allows learners to work in a clinical environment during holidays. These orientations are fundamental to gaining insights into the dynamics in the healthcare environment and their impact on the nurse-patient relationship. Unfortunately, my current college has limited opportunities for such exposure, questioning its commitment to students’ holistic learning. As a nursing college that minds students’ practical skills, your institution stands above the rest as the institution of choice for students aspiring to a nursing career. In this respect, I am confident I have made the right choice to seek a transfer to your institution.

💠 Section/Paragraph 7: Memorable Closure

Section 7 of a college transfer essay summarizes the students’ communication with a college admission committee. As such, writers must make it short, relevant, and impactful. These outcomes are essential in making it memorable to the audience and a reason to grant the transfer request. Various strategies for writing this section include using an academic tone to wrap an essay. This inspiring ending emphasizes one’s personality, ending with a statement beginning with “I have a dream,” commenting on how the new college will be a new or second home or how one will benefit the new family as much as they can. Regardless of the ending of an essay, students should refrain from introducing further information in this section because they must exhaust all they have to say in the preceding paragraphs.

An Example of a Paragraph in Section 7

I firmly believe my college transfer request is timely. The information I have offered is genuine and shows my desire to join your college as my new family. I promise to do my best to contribute to the welfare of this family without losing sight of my core values. As you consider my transfer request, please, consider the resources lacking in my current institution but available in yours and how they are essential to my career aspiration.

Example of a Full College Transfer Essay

Comment: The details in each section of a college transfer essay should help students to produce a persuasive paper as below:

The core values that define my personality and personal identity are a desire to do good, dependability, hard work, commitment, integrity, generosity, and moral uprightness. One reason for this transfer request is your institution’s anti-plagiarism policy. While my current college has been valuable in helping me demonstrate most of my core values, it could have been more helpful regarding integrity. Academic honesty is the most relevant issue in demonstrating integrity in college. Typically, colleges and professors clarify to students with solid emphasis the penalty of academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism. While my current college does this, I do not find the penalties sufficient to dissuade academic dishonesty. Such laxity may expose me to circumstances where I may violate my value system. For example, I have faced a dilemma severally of whether to report my peers who plagiarize their work.

A host of programs in my current college has proven valuable in my quest for intellectual development. However, I chose the institution primarily because it is in the same city as my home, and I could save on accommodation money. Nonetheless, I have made important leaps in knowledge since I joined. I am in the second year of college education and spend most of my time researching topics in the library. Indeed, my research skills have developed incredibly during my time at the institution. I credit this intellectual development to the professors who give assignments, including essays and research papers, requiring students to research materials. As such, the college library has been like a second home to me. As I seek to leave, I take these experiences as a ladder for greater intellectual development in my next home.

One reason for requesting a transfer from my current institution is the limited opportunities for career exposure. For example, it is normal for students to go a whole year without a field trip despite course content insisting on the need to link theory and practice. While researching the college to transfer to, I found your website and information about how the institution prioritizes field trips as a pillar of students’ practical learning. As a nursing student, I must get first-hand experience with the dynamics that influence healthcare in the clinical environment, such as the relationship between nurses and patients and the issues that nurses confront daily in developing or nurturing the relationship. As I investigated your college, I learned that nursing students have at least two field trips each academic year. This orientation is ideal for my career aspiration.

My time in my current institution has been productive and intellectually rewarding. Although there are reasons why I want to transfer from the college, I am spending my time to get the best of what I have. For example, I use the college library to gain insights into nursing topics and interact with instructors to seek clarification on complex concepts. Some resources in my current college are still beneficial to my intellectual development and career preparation. A core value that enables me to optimize my time in college is commitment, and I am deeply committed to my intellectual growth, not allowing a desire to transfer derail me from what is essential. While an institution may be supportive, the student’s attitude determines their success.

My dream to become a registered nurse is the reason for my college transfer request. I have dreamed of becoming a healthcare professional to help people live healthier lives. A college education is a prerequisite for this dream. While my current institution has taught me the fundamentals of a nursing career, it has not immersed me fully into the practical environment. This gap is why I seek to transfer from the college to your institution. While searching for an alternative college, I learned how your institution considers practical education integral to holistic learning. Your college immerses learners into the career environment through field trips and student attachment programs. This orientation is critical and beneficial to my quest to become a registered nurse knowledgeable in theory and practice.

Therefore, the primary reason for my college transfer request is your institution’s tradition of prioritizing students’ practical knowledge. I have learned how field trips and an attachment program allow learners to work in a clinical environment. These orientations are fundamental to gaining insights into the dynamics in the healthcare environment and their impact on the nurse-patient relationship. Unfortunately, my current college has limited opportunities for such exposure, questioning its commitment to students’ holistic learning. As a nursing college that minds students’ practical skills, your institution stands above the rest as the institution of choice for students aspiring to a nursing career. In this respect, I am confident I have made the right choice to seek a transfer to your institution.

Why and Where Do You Need to Write a Creative College Transfer Essay

Students write a college transfer essay to move from the higher learning institution they are currently in to another. As such, various reasons compel students to write this essay, such as an unsatisfactory learning environment, new unfriendly policies, increased fees, or any other reason that might make one want to leave. However, transfers are not automatic, and students must convince the institution they seek to transfer to that their request is valid. In other words, colleges do not encourage students to transfer for the sake of it. Student admission committees demonstrate this attitude by requiring students to explain through their essays why they want to transfer to the institution. Therefore, when writing a college transfer essay, one should approach it with some seriousness because the student admission committee can reject it if it finds the reasons for wanting to transfer are invalid.

Most Common College Transfer Prompts

• Some students believe their college transfer request is complete with a mention of their background, identity, interest, or talent, which they consider meaningful. If this statement describes you, kindly share your story in an essay.
• Obstacles can provide lessons that prove fundamental to later success. Please share your experience of a challenge, failure, or setback, how it affected you, and the lesson(s) you learned.
• Recall when you challenged or questioned a belief or an idea and reflect on it, commenting on what prompted the thinking and the outcome in an essay.
• In an essay format, describe a problem you have solved or would like to solve, stating its significance and the steps you took or would take to find a solution. Consider problems important to you regardless of their orientation or magnitude, such as a research question, ethical dilemma, or intellectual challenge.
• Discuss how a personal accomplishment, event, or awareness triggered a period of personal growth and a deeper understanding of self or others in an essay.
• Describe an idea, concept, or topic that captivates you to the extent of losing track of time. Explain why it has this effect and what you do to learn more about it.
• Choose a topic for an essay. Feel free to consider topics you have written about, topics that respond to a different prompt, or a topic you design from the knowledge you have gained.
• Explore some ideas that make you hungry for intellectual development. State how these ideas can help describe your life perspective.
• Discuss how a career aspiration can propel one’s desire for academic achievement and state some behaviors students demonstrate when pursuing a career goal.
• How do you define a dream, and how is it relevant to one’s education? Describe how your dream underscores your choice of a college in an essay.
• What are motivations? What motivations underscore your desire to join a specific college?
• Discuss life experiences as educational. Describe a personal experience that has taught you important life lessons that underscore your value system in an essay.

The Prompt That Represents Your Strength the Most

Typically, student admission committees ask students to describe certain aspects of their education as a basis for their transfer request. While addressing all the prompts above in a college transfer essay is standard, students may need to focus on one or several themes. The best way to write a perfect college transfer essay focusing on a few prompts is to choose those that represent their strength the most. For example, one may select prompt #7, which asks students to write some essay topics of their choice. The reason for choosing the prompt is that it gives one enough room to generate ideas. Since college essay topics decide the quality of a college transfer essay one can produce, allowing students to determine a specific theme is helpful because they can choose what they are passionate about or knowledgeable about.

Sample Outline Template for Writing a Good College Transfer Essay

I. Introduction

• Starting with a hook.
• A personal statement that highlights one’s core values in an essay.
• Provide reasons for choosing the new college.
• Include reasons for wanting to leave the current college.
• Explain how one has or is optimizing time in the current college.
• Emphasize career aspiration.
• Explain why the new college will make the aspiration come true.

III. Conclusion

• End a college transfer essay with memorable information that impresses the audience enough to grant the transfer request.

Sample College Transfer Essay

I am ambitious because I always make the best of every opportunity and seek personal development. My personality’s core values include altruism, ambition, hard work, generosity, commitment, empathy, and dependability. Indeed, these values have been fundamental in shaping my experiences with people and institutions. I write to request a college transfer to the University of Pennsylvania because Amherst College no longer supports my career aspiration.

Undoubtedly, Amherst College is a wonderful place because it promotes students’ social and intellectual development. I chose the college because I have heard stories about it being the home of liberal arts. Coming from a home with a father who practices as a family therapist and a mother who spends most of her working time attending to patients in a psychiatric institution, I have always dreamed of being a psychologist. Amherst College has been instrumental in my quest to attain this career aspiration.

However, I want to transfer from Amherst because I wish for a place committed to cutting-edge research and innovation. For the time I have been at Amherst, I have seen students travel to distant colleges to have a deeper insight into the research world. While this tradition has benefits, it inconveniences students’ intellectual development. Moreover, how a college invests in a course or program reflects its commitment to the academic and intellectual welfare of the concerned students. From this perspective, Amherst College has work to do.

While I seek to transfer to Penn, I do not take my time at Amherst for granted. I continue to focus on my academic work, utilizing the available resources, including professors and the physical and online libraries, to the maximum. The core values of ambition, hard work, and commitment propel me to use every minute at Amherst to develop intellectually and move closer to my dream.

As stated, becoming a psychologist is my life-long aspiration. I dream of helping people with mental health problems because evidence shows psychiatric disorders are increasingly becoming common. Indeed, the pressures of life that continue to mount amid compounding problems trigger mental health issues, including anger, depression, stress, and suicidal ideation. Psychologists are in demand because they can prevent these experiences and conditions from resulting in severe outcomes like death.

While searching for an alternative college, I learned about Penn’s commitment to cutting-edge research and innovation, which enrich its brand in the United States and beyond. Psychology is an evolving discipline; only research can help equip students and practicing psychologists with evidence-based knowledge to address contemporary mental health issues. Moreover, innovation empowers psychologists to know how to use limited resources to achieve optimal results. Penn’s research and innovation orientation can propel me to a career where I become knowledgeable in using available resources to help the greatest number of people with mental health problems.

In conclusion, I write this request for a college transfer because I believe that while Amherst is an incredible institution that has taught me the fundamentals of psychology, it lacks what I need to achieve my dream. Penn’s commitment to cutting-edge research and innovation is a ladder I intend to climb to become a psychologist who is responsive to the mental health issues of the time .

Join our satisfied customers who have received perfect papers from Wr1ter Team.

4 Easy Steps for Writing an Amazing College Transfer Essay

Writing a college transfer essay is a technical process that demands students’ utmost focus and commitment to academic writing conventions. The technicality of producing this kind of document underscores the details students should consider to create a high-standard essay. These details include preparation, stage setup, writing an essay, and wrap-up.

Step 1: Preparation

Preparation is the first step of writing a college transfer essay. Since the document must address why a student wants to transfer from one college to another, writers must consider such reasons and how to defend them. In other words, one must brainstorm to generate essay ideas about their current college and the institution they seek to join.

Step 2: Stage Setup

Setting up the stage is the second step of creating a college transfer paper. Students must understand that ideas are not enough, and they must know how to organize them to create a coherent composition. As such, this step involves adopting an attitude and approach that leads to a persuasive high-standard essay. One approach to consider is a seven-section essay outline that helps people to communicate effectively their reason for requesting a college transfer.

Step 3: Writing an Essay

Writing a first draft of a college transfer essay is the third step. In this case, students should focus on producing an initial draft to demonstrate a coherent flow of ideas and thoughts. Typically, this document has numerous mistakes because the writer’s focus is to have a complete essay communicating their reason for wanting a college transfer.

Step 4: Wrap-Up

In this last step of writing a college transfer essay, students should perfect their initial drafts into final essays. As such, the priority is eliminating all flaws, including grammar errors and inconsistent ideas and statements. Revising and editing an essay helps students to produce a perfect document.

20 Tips for Writing a College Transfer Essay

Considering the preceding sections, a college transfer essay is a complex document that requires writers to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of essential details, like a seven-section structure and common prompts. The tips for demonstrating such understanding include staying focused on the topic while being creative in content, knowing why one is writing the essay, focusing on an aspect of the current college that does not support one’s career dream, focusing on making oneself marketable, aiming to be the best among many candidates, demonstrating a logical progression of ideas and thoughts throughout the text, not bad-mouthing the current college, emphasizing the competitive advantage of the new college, convincing the audience that the reason for wanting to transfer is genuine, and concluding a paper with a memorable ending that leaves a lasting impression or do not impact on readers.

10 things to do when writing a college transfer essay include:

• writing a personal statement that underscores one’s core values in an essay,
• describing the strengths of the new college,
• stating the weaknesses of the current college,
• emphasizing the competitive edge of the new college,
• explaining one’s career aspiration,
• being specific in why one wants to transfer from their present to the new college,
• following a seven-section essay structure,
• not talking negatively about the current college,
• not exaggerating issues,
• ending a college transfer essay in a way that makes a lasting impression on the audience.

10 things not to do include:

• failing to emphasize one’s value system in an essay,
• attacking one’s current college,
• exaggerating the positives of the new college,
• being informal in writing,
• assuming the audience knows why one wants to transfer,
• overthinking about impressing the audience at the expense of being genuine in expressing one’s desire to transfer,
• thinking a college transfer essay is not academic because it is not related to a course,
• being simplistic in communication without aiming to impress,
• assuming the audience will have only one application to consider,
• writing an essay in a hurry and making numerous grammatical mistakes.

Summing Up on How to Write a Perfect College Transfer Essay

• Find the best way to express yourself without exaggerations in an essay.
• Adoptive a narrative approach to communicating details about the current college, such as personal experiences.
• Integrating humor but remaining formal in communication.
• Using one paragraph to communicate a single idea or aspect of the transfer request, such as the strengths or weaknesses of the current college.
• Asking for help from the professor(s).
• Brainstorming ideas to make a college transfer essay impressive.
• Assuming the audience comprises scholars to avoid careless mistakes, like grammar errors.
• Focusing on an aspect of the current college that is unsupportive of one’s career dream in an essay.
• Emphasizing aspects of the new college that support one’s career aspiration.
• Proofreading a college transfer essay several times.

To Learn More, Read Relevant Articles

Examining Gatsby’s Pursuit of Daisy: Love or Obsession?

• Icon Calendar 19 August 2023
• Icon Page 773 words

Causes and Effects of Climate Change on Global Food Production

• Icon Calendar 18 August 2023
• Icon Page 828 words

Guide to Writing a Great Transfer Essay

Here is the most common prompt for transfer students applying through the Common App :  

“Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve.” (250-600 words)

The three key steps to mastering the transfer essay are as follows:

Step One: Establish why you want to transfer.

Tell admissions why you want to transfer, and do so without speaking negatively about your current institution. Are you looking for a bigger school? Do you want to attend a university in a tech-centric city? Did you just discover your passion for a major that your current institution doesn’t offer? Transferring is a big decision, so it’s important to show that your intentions are clear. Whatever the reason, refrain from speaking ill of your current school. You want to come off as optimistic and forward thinking to admissions.  

Step Two: Demonstrate your interest.

Why are you applying to this school in particular? You’ve been through the admissions cycle before and you are wiser than you were a year or two ago. Admissions officers will expect that you’ve done your research and are making a calculated, thoughtful decision to transfer. Your interest in transferring to one school should be directly related to your reason for leaving your current school: What gaps or unmet needs will your prospective institution address? Do you want to transfer for the school’s humongous alumni network, award-winning journalism program, or non-profit affiliations? Have you always dreamed of living in the city in which the school is located? Make sure admissions knows that you aren’t applying because “it’s gotta be better than my current school” but because this school is where you feel you truly belong. Illustrate your drive and maybe you’ll be hitting the ground running come the fall. (Hint: the best way to get the information you need is by setting aside a chunk of time to pore over the school website. Sorry, there’s no shortcut, even the second time around.)

Step Three: Establish the highlights of your collegiate career so far.

You have an edge that most freshman don’t: You’ve already been to college, so you know a bit more about the experience as well as your own academic and career goals. Being able to say that you know you will succeed at your school of choice because you flourish in small classrooms, lead in group projects, excel in the math and sciences or whatever your reasoning may be is crucial. Talk about what you have enjoyed about college thus far (again, be positive!) and how you hope to build on your experience at your (hopefully) new school!

Once you complete these three steps, you will have all the ingredients for a fantastic transfer essay! But before you hit submit, a final word of warning: some schools require transfer applicants to submit supplemental essays (remember those?). Do yourself a favor and compile a list of these in advance to ensure that every essay you write reveals something new and special to admissions. But first, give yourself a pat on the back. By reading this post, you’ve already given yourself a leg up (at least we think so). Go you!  

About Kat Stubing

View all posts by Kat Stubing »

We're here to help.

Written by Kat Stubing

Category: Admissions , advice , College Admissions , Essay Resources , Essay Tips , Essay Writing , Quick Tips , Tips

Tags: brainstorming , College , college admissions , college admissions essay , college applications , college essay , college essay advisors , college essay tutor , essay , essay advice , personal statement , transfer , transfer admissions , transfer application , transfer applications , transfer essay , transfer help , transfer student , transfer students , writing , writing advice , writing help

Want free stuff?

We thought so. Sign up for free instructional videos, guides, worksheets and more!

One-On-One Advising

Common App Essay Prompt Guide

Supplemental Essay Prompt Guide

• YouTube Tutorials
• Our Approach & Team
• Undergraduate Testimonials
• Postgraduate Testimonials
• Where Our Students Get In
• CEA Gives Back
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Graduate Admissions
• Private School Admissions
• International Student Admissions
• Common App Essay Guide
• Supplemental Essay Guide
• Coalition App Guide
• The CEA Podcast
• Admissions Stats
• Notification Trackers
• Deadline Databases
• College Essay Examples
• Academy and Worksheets
• Waitlist Guides
• Get Started

Login or sign up

Get Started

• College Search
• College Search Map
• Graduate Programs
• Featured Colleges
• Scholarship Search
• Lists & Rankings
• User Resources

Articles & Advice

• All Categories
• Ask the Experts
• Campus Visits
• Catholic Colleges and Universities
• Christian Colleges and Universities
• College Admission
• College Athletics
• College Diversity
• Counselors and Consultants
• Education and Teaching
• Financial Aid
• Graduate School
• Health and Medicine
• International Students
• Internships and Careers
• Majors and Academics
• Performing and Visual Arts
• Public Colleges and Universities
• Science and Engineering
• Student Life
• Transfer Students
• Why CollegeXpress
• CollegeXpress Store
• Corporate Website
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• CA and EU Privacy Policy

Articles & Advice > Transfer Students > Articles

How to Write a Transfer Essay That Will Impress Admission Officers

Before writing your transfer essay, you need to ask yourself: Why are you applying to this college? Learn what else you should (and shouldn't) do here!

by Emily Dauenhauer Former Director of Undergraduate Enrollment Marketing, Sacred Heart University

Last Updated: Jun 8, 2023

Originally Posted: Oct 19, 2012

The transfer essay is your chance to introduce yourself to your dream school. As with your first college essay, there are certain strategies that work and others that should be avoided in order to make a lasting impression. But one simple question can be your main guideline: W hy are you applying to this school? A clear, concrete answer to this question should be a large part of a transfer student’s application essay. The application essay also provides transfer students with the opportunity to take responsibility for less-than-perfect grades, recognize academic challenges, and explain the steps they have taken to conquer them. And like a first-time, fresh-out-of-high-school college application essay, it should paint a picture of who you are. Here’s how to write an essay for what transfer admission counselors are looking for.

What admission counselors look for

“Transfer students generally have a very specific reason for wanting to leave one college and attend another, and that’s what I want to read about in the application essay,” says Cara Jordan, former Director of Transfer Admission at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut. “A student can share other information with me as well, but that ‘why’ must be included somewhere. I want to see why the student believes they and Sacred Heart are a good match.” And though these examples may be specific to one school, they reflect elements relevant to any transfer essay!

One student transferring from a local community college expressed in her essay her desire to be part of a diverse student body and taught by experienced professors invested in students’ success. “The staff and students I met during my campus visit showed me the potential Sacred Heart students have to achieve and succeed. It seems to be a real partnership, with teachers who are truly interested in helping their students meet challenges and be the best they can be. For me, a Business major, it was also impressive to see that many of the adjuncts who teach at Sacred Heart’s John F. Welch College of Business are not just well-respected instructors, but well-respected leaders out in the business field,” the student wrote. Available majors, social environment, internship opportunities, and class size are all common reasons that lead students to leave one school for another. In their essay, transfer students should explain these or other reasons as clearly and concisely as possible, taking advantage of the opportunity to show what they have learned about themselves and the kind of college they believe is right for them.

Related: 6 Important Pieces of the Transfer Admission Process

Follow the directions carefully

For the application essay and all aspects of the college or university application, transfer students also need to be sure to follow directions exactly : stick to word counts, submit all requested materials and information, meet deadlines, and pay close attention to details. The latter is especially important, Jordan says, because transfer admission officials generally pay close attention to details about each applicant too. She pointed out that although the National Association for College Admission Counseling says as many as one in three students enrolled in a two- or four-year college or university will at some point transfer, most school admission officials are able to give potential transfer students more personalized attention than first-time undergrads, since the overall volume of transfer applications is lower.

“It’s nice, because it gives admission officials like me the chance to really look at and meet each applicant and make sure we’re a good fit,” Jordan says. “Most transfer applicants have already proven they can do college-level work, so for many applicants, it’s a matter of determining whether they’re right for [the school], and whether [the school] is right for them. Successful college transfers occur when both sides communicate clearly, fully, and honestly. And from the student’s end, the transfer application essay is a big part of that.”

Transfer essay do’s and don’ts

Transfer essays should also serve as examples of your best work and should follow general college application essay/personal statement do’s and don’ts, including the following:

What you should do

• Keep your focus narrow:  You only have a few hundred words to tell a memorable story and show who you are. Focus on a single point or thesis.
• Be specific:  Develop your main idea with specific facts, events, quotations, examples, and reasons. Avoid clichéd, generic, and predictable writing by using vivid details. What concrete examples from your life can you include to distinguish yourself from other applicants?
• Write first, edit later:  The first objective in writing anything is to get it on the page first . Then you can go back and edit. Trying to edit as you go interrupts the process of getting your ideas out of your head and onto the page, causing you to lose your thoughts and forget what you were saying.
• Remember the “show, don’t tell” rule :  Be descriptive when writing. Use all of your senses and fill each paragraph with details. It’s specifics that will grab the attention of admission officials and give them something to hold onto—and remember you by.
• Put words in people’s mouths:  Dialogue, used appropriately, always makes an essay more interesting.
• Start your essay with an attention-grabbing introduction:  A compelling anecdote, quote, question, or engaging description will often capture admission officials’ attention.
• Proofread several times:  Typos and spelling or grammatical errors are a sign of carelessness. Also, don’t rely on your computer’s spell check program. Many software programs don’t know the difference between “there” and “their,” “its” and “it’s,” or similar words.

Related: How to Write a Strong and Unique Application Essay That Works for You

What you shouldn’t do

• Write what you think admission officials want to hear:  They read plenty of essays like that. Be yourself. Surprise them. Give them something unique.
• Write focus on information listed elsewhere in the application:  If you just rewrite your résumé, you’ve wasted the opportunity the essay affords and offered nothing new.
• Make things up:  Dishonesty shows—so just don’t do it.
• Summarize yourself in the introduction:  Remember that you’re telling a story that describes who you are, not introducing yourself at a party.
• Include information that doesn’t support your thesis:  Stick to the main idea you want to get across.
• Try to impress your reader with your vocabulary:  Simple language is generally the best and most effective. Plus, it’s easy to misuse thesaurus-generated synonyms.
• Do it alone:  Give your essay to a mentor and/or counselor to review your work —preferably someone who knows you well, who may be from your hometown or high school—both for errors and content. Friends and family can be helpful as well.
• Rush:  Give yourself the time needed to thoroughly work through the brainstorming, writing, and editing processes.

Related:  Admission Essay Ideas That Just Don't Work

For most transfer students, the picture of what you want your college life to be is significantly different than what it was just one or two years ago. “Transfer students generally have a clearer, more concrete picture of what they want out of their lives and where they want to be,” Jordan says. “They’re older and have experienced more, and they’ve had the chance to find out what college is like and whether a certain type of institution works or doesn’t.” Use this knowledge to highlight how your new school can help you attain this goal and you’ll be well on your way to a bright future.

Make transferring as easy as possible with  Our Best Advice for the Transfer Admission Process ,  filled with helpful blogs and articles written by experts and real transfer students alike. 

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Tags: application advice application essay transfer applications transfer essay transfer process transfer students transferring colleges

Join our community of over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information. Swipe left if you're not interested.

St. Catherine University

St. Paul, MN

SUNY Oneonta

Oneonta, NY

High Point University

High Point, NC

Grace College

Winona Lake, IN

University of Illinois Springfield

Springfield, IL

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA

Pepperdine University

Dallas Baptist University

Carlow University

Vermont State University

Randolph Center, VT

Georgian Court University

Lakewood, NJ

University of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, OH

Texas Christian University

Fort Worth, TX

New York Institute of Technology

Old Westbury, NY

Marymount Manhattan College

New York, NY

Iona University

New Rochelle, NY

Holy Family University

Philadelphia, PA

Waynesburg University

Waynesburg, PA

Dominican University of California

San Rafael, CA

Hofstra University

Hempstead, NY

Sacred Heart University

Fairfield, CT

The University of Tampa

University of Colorado Denver

Emerson College

Houston Christian University

Houston, TX

That's it for now!

High School Class of 2019

My college search began at CollegeXpress. Due to this helpful tool, I was able to gather a lot of information to guide my college planning decisions. Through CollegeXpress, I was also able to apply to several scholarships to help pay for my tuition. I would definitely recommend this website to anyone who wants to explore colleges and get more information from admission experts, counselors, and real students.

High School Class of 2021

CollegeXpress helped me find Allegheny College with the super-user-friendly search tool for both schools and scholarships. Using CollegeXpress, I was able to search for programs I was interested in studying and find colleges that offered those programs. Also, once you search for the college, CollegeXpress can get you connected!

Jessica Rinker

Student, Fairhaven High School; CollegeXpress Student Writer

My high school counselor introduced me to CollegeXpress freshman year. It has made such a difference in high school, and I plan to continue relying on it in college. CollegeXpress is my go-to because it addresses each aspect of being a student. There are the articles you’d expect regarding college applications and financial aid, but you will also find advice on things like de-stressing and maintaining relationships while balancing a heavy course load. CollegeXpress will also keep you updated on current scholarships through e-mails each Saturday. (They don’t harass you with any product promotion like so many other sites do.)  CollegeXpress is a lot like an older sibling who has already conquered the challenges you are facing. Now, they are reaching out a helpful hand. I say take it.

Courtney Smith

High School Class of 2022

CollegeXpress has been a huge help! The website is very organized with finding the right scholarship for anyone and anything. With CollegeXpress, I've been able to find many scholarship opportunities to apply for. Not only that, I'm also able to search for the colleges I have interest in and see what’s required and what scholarships they offer. I've learned a lot from CollegeXpress. They've helped me in many ways to achieve my goals!

Josiah Kegg

I want to sincerely thank you all for this amazing website that's legitimately helped me find so many different scholarship opportunities. I've been stressing out for the longest time about paying for college since I would rather stay out of debt and have been working days trying to find any scholarship opportunity. When I found CollegeXpress, I discovered many easy scholarships that have given me hope for the future. Thank you and God bless!

•   Fighting for Your Education: An Expert Look Into Transfer Credits
•   Our Best Advice for the Transfer Admission Process
•   Great Colleges and Universities in the West for Transfer Students
•   Great Colleges and Universities in New England for Transfer Students
•   Great Colleges and Universities in the Northeast for Transfer Students

Personalize your experience on CollegeXpress.

With this information, we'll display content relevant to your interests. By subscribing, you agree to receive CollegeXpress emails and to make your information available to colleges, scholarship programs, and other companies that have relevant/related offers.

Already have an account?

Log in to be directly connected to

Not a CollegeXpress user?

Don't want to register.

Provide your information below to connect with

Pay Your Deposit

Have you been admitted and need to lock in your decision?

Click the link below to pay your deposit now!

Deposit Today

5 Tips for Writing a Great College Transfer Essay

Reviewed by Jacob Imm

Nov 19, 2021

5 Tips to Write a Great College Transfer Essay

Starting college is a once in-a-lifetime experience—well, for some people. For others, the first college they attend may not be the right fit. That’s why most schools give students the option to transfer.

Transferring schools, whether you transfer from community college or another institution, is a lot like the initial college application process. You’ll need to provide your college transcript or college report, letters of recommendation, ask whether your college credits transfer , and write a transfer essay.

There are a few key points you’ll want to hit when writing your college transfer essay. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the required content a transfer student should expect to include in their essay, along with a few tips and tricks to help seal the deal. Remember that every school is different, so be sure to check your prospective new school’s website for details on what your essay should include. For now, read on to find out what you need to know about writing your college transfer essay.

Tip #1 – Be Yourself

It may sound cheesy, but it’s true: being yourself is crucial to writing a successful college transfer essay.

More specifically, it’s important to allow your voice and personality to shine through when writing your transfer essay. Colleges get thousands of local and international applicants each year— both first-year and prospective transfer students. To stand out from the crowd, you’ll want to make sure your transfer essay is uniquely yours . 

In addition to being honest and using your unique voice, you’ll also want to hit a few key points when writing your personal statement or transfer essay.

• Your core values 

What are your unwavering beliefs? How do you view the world? What is important to you in this life? These are some high level concepts that you may not actively think about on a daily basis, but they define you  on a deeper level. By touching on these points, you’ll paint a more vivid picture of who you are and what you stand for. This will also help your personal statement stand out from the run-of-the-mill format that many others may follow.

• Your background 

Your background has shaped who you are today, and colleges want to understand where you’re coming from. Include any important details about your identity, your community, your family and your home that you think may add to the story you’re telling. 

• Previous college experience 

Part of your background information should also include the time you spent at your previous college. While there may be reasons you want to leave, it’s also crucial to include any meaningful experiences you’ve had and how they’ve shaped you and your college experience. Never paint your current school in a negative light; focus on what you’ve learned while you’ve been there--more about this to come.

• What you want 

After you’ve shared your experiences at college, it’s time to talk about what you want out of your new school. This will help the university determine whether they can provide the educational experience you’re seeking.

Don’t settle for the average essay. Be specific, draw from your real life, and don’t be afraid to use humor and creative language when appropriate. Try your best to convey who you are through your writing—especially if your prospective school doesn’t conduct in-person interviews. 

Tip #2 – Your Educational Journey

While it’s important to avoid talking badly about your current school, there is a way to discuss your reasons for leaving in a positive light. Include why you’re looking to transfer in your essay, but try to place a greater focus on what you want rather than what you’re trying to get away from. 

This would be a great time to mention:

• Your interests 

Start by explaining which program you’re interested in and why you’re interested in it. Make a note of any specific classes or resources that you believe would help prepare you for your future career. Add any extracurricular activities that relate to your educational experience, as well. 

• Your future 

Speaking of your future career, this is the time to outline your professional goals and ambitions. Believe it: your new school wants to admit prospective students with a plan, and outlining ambitious (but achievable) goals is the perfect way to prove you’re prepared.

• Changes 

It’s also crucial to talk about how your goals have changed over time. Obviously, you’ve changed paths for one reason or another, so take this time to explain what motivated your change of heart.

• Defend your decision 

Now, this doesn’t mean you should be defensive , but you should be able to explain why you believe this new path is right for you. Use this section to prove that you’re committed to this change and ready to get started. 

• Talk up your potential new  school 

There must be reasons why you’ve chosen the school you’re applying for. Take some time to discuss what you like about this new school, and be prepared to mention specifics in order to show you’ve done your research.

• Why you chose your current school 

If you’re discussing the reasons you’d like to transfer, it may also be helpful to talk about why you chose your current school. This will give your new institution a better understanding of who you are, who you were, and who you’re looking to become.

Tip #3 – Sell Them on You

If there’s any place where a little humble bragging is allowed, it’s a college essay. Don’t be afraid to explain what makes you a great student and why the college should choose you over other applicants--that’s what the reader wants to know. For this portion of the essay, try including the following information:

• Any academic or personal achievements related to your field of study
• Your GPA (if it’s high, and if it’s not, display how it’s improved or your goals for getting it higher)
• Any challenges that you’ve overcome during college, and how you’ve grown from them
• What makes you a good student, both in class and outside of class, and how you’ll make your new college a better place

At the end of the day, this essay should make you look like a prime candidate. While it’s important to be honest about any challenges you’ve faced at your current college, the focus of your essay will need to be your positive qualities as a desirable student. Don’t be afraid to give yourself some credit here!

Tip #4 – Explain How You’ve Made the Most of Your Current Situation

Colleges don’t want to read an essay that’s filled with complaints. While your previous school may not have been a good match, this is an opportunity to show your future school what a resilient, flexible, and hardworking student you are. 

Here, you’ll want to display the following points:

• Show how you’ve made things work 

Tell the story of how you’ve managed to make your current situation work for you. Even if the program you’ve been enrolled in isn’t the right fit for your future career, there may be ways to prove that you embraced your classes and resources with open arms. Use this opportunity to show just how dedicated you are to your education, even when things aren’t perfect.

• Prove you can put in the work

Next, you’ll want to outline the work you’ve put in to intellectually stimulate yourself, despite wanting a change. This may include an extra college course or two that you took, any outside research you’ve conducted, or any professional experience you’ve gained outside of school.

• Explain how you influenced your surroundings

So your situation wasn’t ideal. Did you do anything to change your surroundings to better fit your needs? In this portion of your essay, you’ll want to detail any clubs, organizations, or projects you’ve joined or started to progress your education and growth—particularly if your school didn’t have one before. This show’s you’re a dedicated go-getter who knows how to make positive changes in your community.

Tip #5 – Don’t Be Afraid to Flatter Them

While your transfer essay shouldn’t be 10straight pages of you gushing about the university, adding some flattering points never hurts. Your prospective school obviously won’t be choosing applicants based on who is the most complimentary, but incorporating a little praise will show how excited and committed you are. 

Consider touching on the following topics:

• Any programs and clubs that interest you
• How the school is going to help you achieve your dreams
• Any notable alumni or staff you look up to
• Resources the school provides that you’re excited about

Adding a few specific facts about your prospective school will also prove that you’ve done your research and you’re certain that this is the school for you. Use your essay to say that this is a  top school, and you’ve taken the time to figure out why. As a transfer student, you’ll want to put an emphasis on commitment, and ensure your new school that this is the final change you want to make.

Pursue Your Passion at North Central College

When you’re ready to transfer, you’ll want to look for a school like North Central College. North Central College is committed to helping transfer students succeed academically, socially and professionally . With helpful resources, scholarships, and local community college partners—it’s never been easier to make the switch. Find the right program to reach your career goals, and learn more with North Central College’s “Should I Transfer College” Quiz today!

Jacob Imm is a communications specialist in the North Central College Office of Marketing and Communications. He has 11 years of collegiate communications experience and has worked with hundreds of college students. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University.

Sawyer, E. (2021, August 3). How to write a successful college transfer essay . College Essay Guy | Get Inspired. 

https://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/college-transfer-essay-examples . 

Andrew Belasco. A licensed counselor and published researcher. (2020, December 28). How to write a winning college transfer essay. College Transitions.

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/how-to-write-a-college-transfer-essay/ .

More North Central News & Stories

Transfer Essays That Worked

The essays are a place to show us who you are and who you’ll be in our community.

As a transfer applicant, your essay is a chance to tell the admissions committee more about your background or goals and how you would pursue them at Hopkins. Below you’ll find selected examples of transfer applicant essays that “worked,” as nominated by our admissions committee.

These selections represent just a few essays we found impressive and helpful during the past admissions cycle. We hope these examples inspire you as you prepare to compose your own essay. The most important thing to remember is to be original as you share your own story, thoughts, and ideas with us.

Read essays that worked from first-year applicants .

Essays that worked.

Bedtime Stories

Summer Mai Li connects the personal stories of her loved ones to global civil and human rights issues that she intends to study during her time at Hopkins.

Becoming a Better Mathematician

Jorge’s essay provides the admissions committee with a detailed narrative about his lifelong interest in mathematics: how he discovered it, cultivated it, and pursued it to the highest level available.

Pursuing My Passion in Research

Through her transfer essay, Klaire showcases her deep interest in advancing scientific research through her experiences at her community college and her future at Hopkins.

Application Workshops

Our interactive workshops—on topics like the college search process and essay preparation—will help you build your strongest application when you’re ready to apply.

REGISTER FOR AN APPLICATION WORKSHOP

Application tips in your inbox

Join our mailing list to receive insights from our admissions committee, event invites, and other resources for your college journey.

Quick Links:

• Majors, Minors & Programs
• Application Deadlines & Requirements
• College Planning Guide

Sample College Transfer Essay

A Sample Essay by a Student Transferring From Amherst to Penn

Jacob Wackerhausen / Getty Images

• Essay Samples & Tips
• College Admissions Process
• College Profiles
• College Rankings
• Choosing A College
• Application Tips
• Testing Graphs
• College Financial Aid
• Advanced Placement
• Homework Help
• Private School
• College Life
• Graduate School
• Business School
• Distance Learning
• Ph.D., English, University of Pennsylvania
• M.A., English, University of Pennsylvania
• B.S., Materials Science & Engineering and Literature, MIT

The following sample essay was written by a student named David. He wrote the transfer essay below for the Common Transfer Application in response to the prompt, "Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve" (250 to 650 words). David is attempting to transfer from Amherst College to the University of Pennsylvania . As far as admissions standards go, this is a lateral move—both schools are extremely selective. His letter will need to be extremely strong for his transfer application to be successful.

Key Takeaways: A Winning Transfer Essay

• Have a clear academic reason for your transfer. Personal reasons are fine, but academics need to come first.
• Stay positive. Don't speak badly of your current school. Emphasize what you like about your target school, not what you dislike about your current school.
• Be meticulous. Grammar, punctuation, and style matter. Show that you put time and care into your writing.

David's Transfer Application Essay

During the summer after my first year of college, I spent six weeks volunteering at an archaeological excavation in Hazor, site of the largest tel (mound) in Israel. My time in Hazor was not easy—wake-up came at 4:00 a.m., and by noontime temperatures were often in the 90s. The dig was sweaty, dusty, back-breaking work. I wore out two pairs of gloves and the knees in several pairs of khakis. Nevertheless, I loved every minute of my time in Israel. I met interesting people from around the world, worked with amazing students and faculty from Hebrew University, and became fascinated with the current efforts to create a portrait of life in the Canaanite period.

Upon my return to Amherst College for my sophomore year, I soon came to realize that the school does not offer the exact major I now hope to pursue. I'm majoring in anthropology, but the program at Amherst is almost entirely contemporary and sociological in its focus. More and more my interests are becoming archaeological and historical. When I visited Penn this fall, I was impressed by the breadth of offerings in anthropology and archaeology, and I absolutely loved your Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Your broad approach to the field with emphases on understanding both the past and present has great appeal to me. By attending Penn, I hope to broaden and deepen my knowledge in anthropology, participate in more summer field work, volunteer at the museum, and eventually, go on to graduate school in archaeology.

My reasons for transferring are almost entirely academic. I have made many good friends at Amherst, and I have studied with some wonderful professors. However, I do have one non-academic reason for being interested in Penn. I originally applied to Amherst because it was comfortable—I come from a small town in Wisconsin, and Amherst felt like home. I'm now looking forward to pushing myself to experience places that aren't quite so familiar. The kibbutz at Kfar HaNassi was one such environment, and the urban environment of Philadelphia would be another.

As my transcript shows, I have done well at Amherst and I am convinced I can meet the academic challenges of Penn. I know I would grow at Penn, and your program in anthropology perfectly matches my academic interests and professional goals.

Before we even get to the critique of David's essay, it's important to put his transfer into context. David is attempting to transfer into an  Ivy League  school. Penn is not the most selective of the country's top universities, but the transfer acceptance rate is still around 6% (at Harvard and Stanford, that number is closer to 1%). David needs to approach this effort at transfer realistically — even with excellent grades and a stellar essay, his chances of success are far from guaranteed.

That said, he has many things going for him — he is coming from an equally demanding college where he has earned good grades, and he seems like the type of student who will certainly succeed at Penn. He will need strong  letters of recommendation  to round out his application.

Analysis of David's Transfer Essay

Now on to the essay... Let's break down the discussion of David's transfer essay into several categories.

The Reasons for Transfer

The strongest feature of David's essay is the focus. David is pleasingly specific in presenting his reasons for transferring. He knows exactly what he wants to study, and he has a clear understanding of what both Penn and Amherst have to offer him. David's description of his experience in Israel defines the focus of his essay, and he then connects that experience to his reasons for wanting to transfer. There are lots of bad reasons to transfer, but David's clear interest in studying anthropology and archaeology makes his motives seem both well thought-out and reasonable.

Many transfer applicants are trying to move to a new college because they are running away from some kind of bad experience, sometimes something academic, sometimes something more personal. David, however, clearly likes Amherst and is running towards something—an opportunity at Penn that better matches his newly discovered professional goals. This is a big positive factor for his application.

The Common Transfer Application instructions state that the essay needs to be at least 250 words. The maximum length is 650 words. David's essay comes in at around 380 words. It is tight and concise. He doesn't waste time talking about his disappointments with Amherst, nor does he put much effort into explaining the things that other parts of his application will cover such as grades and extracurricular involvement. He does have a lot more space left to elaborate, but in this case the letter gets the job done well with few words.

David gets the tone perfect, something that is difficult to do in a transfer essay. Let's face it—if you are transferring it is because there is something about your current school that you don't like. It's easy to be negative and critical of your classes, your professors, your college environment, and so on. It's also easy to come across as a whiner or an ungenerous and angry person who doesn't have the inner resources to make the most of one's circumstances. David avoids these pitfalls. His representation of Amherst is extremely positive. He praises the school while noting that the curricular offerings do not match his professional goals.

The Personality

Partly because of the tone discussed above, David comes across as a pleasant person, someone who the admissions folks are likely to want to have as part of their campus community. Moreover, David presents himself as someone who likes to push himself to grow. He is honest in his reasons for going to Amherst—the school seemed like a good "fit" given his small-town upbringing. It is, therefore, impressive to see him so actively working to expand his experiences beyond his provincial roots. David has clearly grown at Amherst, and he is looking forward to growing more at Penn.

The Writing

When applying to a place like Penn, the technical aspects of the writing need to be flawless. David's prose is clear, engaging and free of errors. If you struggle on this front, be sure to check out these  tips for improving your essay's style . And if grammar isn't your greatest strength, be sure to work through your essay with someone who does have strong grammar skills.

A Final Word on David's Transfer Essay

David's college transfer essay does exactly what an essay needs to do, and he includes the features of a strong transfer essay . He clearly articulates his reasons for transferring, and he does so in a positive and specific way. David presents himself as a serious student with clear academic and professional goals. We have little doubt that he has the skills and intellectual curiosity to succeed at Penn, and he has made a strong argument about why this particular transfer makes a lot of sense.

Odds are still against David's success given the competitive nature of Ivy League transfers, but he has strengthened his application with his essay.

• Sample Weak Supplemental Essay for Duke University
• Sample Short Answer Essay on Running
• Sample College Admission Essay—The Allegany County Youth Board
• Sample Application Essay - Porkopolis
• Sample Supplemental Essay for College Admissions: Why This College?
• Should an Application Essay Be Single-Spaced or Double-Spaced?
• Tips for Writing a Winning College Transfer Essay
• Sample College Admissions Essay - Student Teacher
• "My Dads" - Sample Common Application Essay for Option #1
• College Application Essay - The Job I Should Have Quit
• Addressing Diversity in a College Application Essay
• "Grandpa's Rubik's Cube"—Sample Common Application Essay, Option #4
• Short Answer Response on Working at Burger King
• Sample Common Application Essay for Option #5
• "Gym Class Hero" - a Common Application Essay Sample for Option #3
• How to Write an Outstanding College Application Essay

Get the Reddit app

This subreddit is dedicated to helping users with the transfer process.

Examples of Successful (and unsuccessful) Transfer Essays

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue

UIUC Transfer Guide: How to Apply, Step by Step

Welcome! We’re so excited you’re thinking of making the jump to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The UIUC transfer process looks a little different than the steps you may have taken to apply to colleges in high school, so we’re here to lay it out plain and simple. Let’s get started.

Your “prep work” is basically just doing some research. Make sure you can check off these five steps before beginning your application. Our Transfer Guide is a good place to start; it’ll give you a quick snapshot of some of these details for your major.

• Know our dates and deadlines. Application deadlines depend on whether you’re applying for the spring or fall semester.
• Compare your GPA. Figure out what your GPA is and compare it with our transfer GPA guidelines to get a sense of where you stand among other transfer applicants.
• Pick a major. We have over 175 majors at UIUC, but not all of them are open to transfers. Check our open and closed programs list to see if the major you’re interested in is accepting transfer applicants at your level for the term you’re hoping to enroll.
• Figure out what courses you need to take in order to transfer. Our UIUC Transfer Handbook describes the recommended course sequences for each of our majors. It may look intimidating at first, but that’s just because it has a ton of information in it! Reference the page that talks about the major you’re interested in; you must complete the courses listed in red italics before transferring.
• Figure out which of your courses will transfer. When you come to UIUC, some of your course credits may come along with you. The site Transferology can help you figure out what credits will make the trip. Start by watching their video , which will guide you through the process from start to finish.

45-Credit-Hour Rule

A quick heads up: No matter how many credits you have when you transfer, you still need to take at least 45 credit hours at UIUC. Note that 21 of these hours will need to be at the 300 or 400 level.

The Application Process

Once you’ve done your prep work, you’re ready to apply ! This includes filling out our application as well as submitting some additional materials. Let’s break things down.

Your Application

You’ll submit your application through myIllini, our student portal. Most things will be fairly easy to fill out, but it can take some time (so make sure you don’t wait until the night before the deadline to start!).

You’ll begin by adding some personal information, like your name and address, where you go to school, and so on. We won’t get into all that here, but let’s touch on some of the more substantial parts.

• Major. In our application, we’ll ask you to select both a first- and second-choice major (in case you aren’t admitted to your first choice). It’s a good idea to refer to our Transfer Handbook to make sure you’ve completed the requirements for the majors you choose.
• Essay. Personal essays are always challenging, but the good news is you can check out our essay questions for transfer applicants before you start your application. Our biggest tip? Make sure to answer what we’re asking!
• Activities, Honors, & Distinctions. We’ll ask you to provide a certain number of activities, honors, and distinctions. Take some time to think about the things you’ve been involved in and the things you’ve accomplished. Be certain to highlight the things you’ve done recently at your current institution.
• Application Fee. Unless you have a fee waiver, you’ll be asked to pay a fee when you submit your application. If you think you may qualify for a fee waiver, ask a school official (for example, a representative in your financial aid office) at your current college to fill out our fee waiver form and send it directly to our admissions office.

Application Pro Tip

If you have any questions as you’re working,  review our FAQ . You can also call or email  our admissions counselors —they’re more than happy to help!

Your Supporting Materials

First, congratulations on making it this far—this means you’re almost done! But before you breathe that big sigh of relief, we need just a few more things from you.

• Transcripts. You’ll be asked to submit official university transcripts from the colleges you’ve gone to, along with an official high school transcript to confirm graduation. (We’ll also accept the GED and other high school equivalency exams in place of a high school transcript.) This information should be sent straight to our admissions office. Note that we’ll only consider your high school performance if you have completed fewer than 36 graded, transferable credit hours since graduating from high school.
• Test Scores. If you have fewer than 36 graded, transferable semester hours of college coursework when you apply, you can choose to submit official ACT or SAT scores if you feel they will add value to your application. Scores must be sent directly from the testing agency and dated within five years of your enrollment at UIUC.
• English Proficiency. You must prove you’re proficient in the English language to be admitted. If you spent all four years of high school in the United States (excluding Puerto Rico), good news: You automatically qualify! If this doesn’t describe you, see our admissions website for how to satisfy this requirement.
• Special Requirements. If you’re applying into a talent-based major like art, dance, music, or theatre, you’ll likely need to complete an audition or submit a portfolio. If you’re an international student, you also have a few more steps to take. Learn more on our website .

Checking Your Application Status

After you’ve submitted your application and supporting materials, make sure to check myIllini to verify we aren’t missing anything. Seriously, there’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve applied only to discover later on that your application was never actually complete!

If you apply for the fall semester, you’ll receive a decision by mid-April. If you apply for the spring semester, you’ll receive a decision by mid-December.

Applying for Financial Aid

Although financial aid is a crucial part of the college application process, you actually have to apply for it separately. How? By submitting the Free Application for Student Financial Aid, or FAFSA. To learn more about that process as well as other ways to cut your cost of attendance, read our Guide to Paying for College .

We want your transition to UIUC to be as smooth as possible. Feel free to reach out to our office if you have any questions at all. We hope to see you on campus!

UIUC Admissions

We're here for you as you prepare for college. Whether you're looking for guidance on the college search process or have questions about Illinois, we hope our blogs will help!

Will the application have an option for a letter of recommendation?

Hi Sydney! No, we don’t use or accept letters of recommendation. If you have additional questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly .

Does applying as early as possible boost your chances of getting admitted?

Hi Alex! For transfer students applying for fall admission, those who apply by our priority deadline do have the best chance at admission to their program of choice. But otherwise, no, there’s no difference based on how early you apply, as long as our deadlines are met. You can learn more about our deadlines here: https://www.admissions.illinois.edu/apply/transfer/dates . Thanks!

What are the essay questions for a transfer application?

Hi! You’ll answer one to two essays as part of your transfer application, depending on whether you’re applying to a major or to our undeclared program, and if you’ve selected a second choice. You can find these questions and more info here: https://www.admissions.illinois.edu/apply/transfer/essay .

Hey, if I apply during spring semester will my gpa for spring semester be in my application?

Thanks for reaching out, Kaelin! Spring 2024 courses in progress will not be graded before we review your application and can provide an admission decision. Courses in progress can be used to meet transfer admission requirements, but we will not evaluate the GPA/grades from Spring 2024 courses before providing you a decision for Fall 2024 transfer admission. If you have additional questions, don’t hesitate to contact us directly !

You may also like

Applying to College at UIUC: A Complete Guide

Apply Like a Pro to UIUC: Examples of Major-Specific College Application Questions

UIUC College Essay Example Prompts

Want more info.

• Academics 63
• Admissions 25
• Campus Life 121
• College Prep 36
• Financial Aid 7
• Illini Success 15
• Resources 38
• Student Stories 3

Recent Posts

Illinois Safety Resources

A UIUC Transfer Experience: Grace

Student Success at UIUC

Are You Ready For It? Let’s Talk About the Meaning of the UIUC Reputation

Support Resources at UIUC

Request more info.

Do you like what you're reading? Are you interested in getting more information about Illinois?

Contact Information

Office of Undergraduate Admissions 901 West Illinois Street, Urbana, IL 61801

Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. CST, Monday – Friday (closed on all campus holidays)

Telephone: 217-333-0302 Email: [email protected] Fax: 217-244-4614

Opinions expressed in the blog do not necessarily reflect those of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and we cannot guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided. We assume no liability for any reliance by any person on the blog.

Copyright © 2024 University of Illinois Board of Trustees

• Campus Life
• College Prep
• Financial Aid
• Illini Success
• admissions.illinois.edu

Three Perspectives on Transfer

It’s time to reassess the transfer student pathway, Stephen J. Handel and Eileen L. Strempel write.

By  Stephen J. Handel and Eileen L. Strempel

You have / 5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in.

Anastasiia_New/iStock/Getty Images Plus

In a March 2024 Inside Higher Ed essay , we highlighted—lamented really—the outcomes of a study conducted by the Community College Research Center (CCRC), the Aspen Institute, and the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC), which concluded that only 16 percent of community college students transferred to a four-year institution and earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. This statistic was lower for minoritized groups. Worse still, the 16 percent figure was largely unchanged from an earlier study conducted on a cohort of students who began college in 2007. We concluded that the transfer pathway between two- and four-year institutions did not serve as a productive pipeline to the bachelor’s degree, especially for underrepresented students, and that our collective efforts to improve the pathway had largely failed.

Our disappointment was less about the 16 percent figure and more about the lost promise of the transfer function. Few avenues in American life allow individuals to ascend into elite, flagship, liberal arts or other four-year colleges and universities regardless of previous academic preparation, income level, or racial, ethnic or religious background. In today’s highly stratified postsecondary educational system, if we fail to improve the productivity of this educational onramp, we will abandon one of postsecondary education’s longest-running and progressive ideals.

Our essay spurred some disagreement from higher education colleagues—and understandably so. Over the past two decades, transfer has captured the interest of the philanthropic community , led to the formation of advocacy and research organizations , and spurred significant state and local policymaking . Calling out transfer’s failures was bound to generate a reaction. Arguments fell into three camps.

Declare Victory and Go Home

This group argues that the low transfer rate is a reasonable outcome given the institutions that actively participate in transfer, such as community colleges, and the students those institutions are most likely to serve. Their logic is persuasive: Community colleges are open-access institutions; anyone can enroll regardless of their previous educational success. As a result, these institutions welcome and serve many students who lack college-going skills. This situation is compounded by the fact that community colleges are often the least well-funded sector of U.S. higher education. As such, they have comparatively modest academic and advising supports to help students meet their transfer goals.

Even more problematic, this group also noted that the current transfer system is inherently complex, reducing the number of students who manage to navigate its considerable rapids. In a highly diffuse postsecondary system, where virtually every college or university operates autonomously, transfers get caught in the maw between sending and receiving institutions. There is no guarantee that a student will be admitted to his or her dream transfer destination. Even if they are, students are often unable to port all their community college credit to the four-year institution.

Our colleagues also stressed that the bachelor’s degree has lost a bit of its luster, especially among younger students drawn by the lure of earning family-sustaining wages directly out of high school rather than the prospect of paying off student loans. Price-sensitive students are frequently drawn to community colleges, and once enrolled, they may decide not to continue onto a four-year institution. Community colleges are in the enviable position of offering a variety of educational credentials that may look more appealing than transferring. In addition to associate degrees, these institutions offer, as a crucial part of their mission, short- and medium-term credentials and licensures that often lead to specific jobs in the local economy.

It might be easy for some to classify the 16 percent figure as the best we will ever achieve. College costs, unmet basic needs, student loan debt and concerns about post-graduation employment play into the worries that both students and their families have about whether going to college is a risk worth taking. Given the fraught and complex transfer pathway, our colleagues believe that we may as well celebrate the 16 percent figure as condemn it.

Wait and See — The Best Is Yet to Come

The ”wait and see” crowd believe that transformative and hard-won higher education reforms are only now beginning to impact students. More time is needed to see how they will influence the transfer rate. They specifically highlight two initiatives.

The first is the widespread reform of developmental (remedial) education , especially at community colleges. These reforms eliminate stand-alone remedial courses, in favor of credit-bearing courses supplemented with tutoring and advising services to help students pass. Earlier institutional practices, which often placed students in remedial courses based on a single high school grade or placement test score, diverted as many as 70 percent of community college students into developmental education courses for which students receive no credit while burning through their limited student aid . Worse, they could not enroll in college courses until they earned their way out of their remedial course placements. Students in this situation—higher education’s version of purgatory—might be stranded there for a year or more if they do not simply leave the institution in despair.

This group’s second hoped-for transformation is the implementation of “ guided pathways .” This approach channels students’ academic interests—which for many are initially inchoate or diffuse—into a limited number of “meta-majors” from which they can further refine their interests in later academic terms. With fewer, yet broader, disciplinary choices, students have a better chance, the theory goes, of enrolling in courses that build toward a specific major. Guided pathways are constructed to be especially helpful to first-generation students or others who lack sufficient college knowledge when they enter higher education. Previously, many such students struggled to make wise course selections, lengthening their time to degree and drawing down their available financial aid.

The reform of developmental education and implementation of guided pathways are both positive movements in higher education and are relatively recent. These reforms, widely supported by both policymakers and academics, nonetheless will take time to blanket the country. Early adopters have taken as many as five years to implement guided pathways on their campuses. Waiting for these initiatives to hit a scaling “tipping point” does little for transfer students in the interim.

The third set of responses come from colleagues who believe that the 16 percent rate confirms the false premise of transfer from its inception. For this group, transfer is a promise that can never be fulfilled. With about 40 percent of all undergraduates enrolled in community colleges and an estimated eight of ten first-time community college students hoping to earn a bachelor’s degree , the enormity of the potential transfer cohort exceeds the admissions capacity of four-year institutions.

Editors’ Picks

• FAFSA Night Live!
• AAUP Ends Two-Decade Opposition to Academic Boycotts
• 4 Ways to Reduce Higher Ed’s Leadership Deficit

This harsh winnowing process is nothing new; it has been at the heart of the transfer pathway since its beginning more than a century ago. Transfer’s legacy is more about thwarting access than supporting it. The 16 percent figure is the latest empirical verification of sociologist Burton Clark’s often-quoted conclusion from 1960 that the community college transfer pathway serves to “cool out” the overheated aspirations of many community college students. If there is a success to be found, it is that the cooling out function is working better than ever.

Colleagues in this camp argue the traditional transfer pathway between two- and four-year institutions needs more than a refresh. They call for the abandonment of the current transfer pathway in favor of other models that have a better bachelor’s degree completion rate than 16 percent.

Where Does All This Leave Us?

You need not agree with all or any of the arguments from our colleagues and still believe that we can do better than 16 percent. With little evidence of an increasing transfer rate over the past decade—despite significant policymaking, investments and programmatic initiatives in the interim—reasonable people must surely pause to reassess our contemporary transfer pathway.

The key question for us is this: Can we mend transfer, or do we need to start with something new? As we have reviewed the CCRC/Aspen/NSCRC data, as well as reflected on the thoughtful commentaries of our colleagues (and of those who work daily in the transfer trenches), we offer the following:

• We know and should support those institutions where transfer is working —that is, where significantly higher transfer rates are being documented regularly. Sometimes those outcomes are aided by proximity: Northern Virginia Community College, for example, is just ten minutes from George Mason University. Our nation should further incentivize additional substantive partnerships among neighboring institutions.
• We should support different forms of credentialing and degree-granting. Today, 24 states allow community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees . Many four-year institutions hate this idea on its face, but they should not uniformly oppose it given the degree of access it offers to students.
• We need to shift higher education’s incentive structure. Enrollment is a key element, but persistence, completion and student economic mobility must play a role in institutional funding models. Fiscal sustainability must be directly tied to the student outcomes that we’re seeking.
• We must solve the credit muddle and make a national commitment to academic credit mobility. This is not a plea for all colleges to accept each other’s courses for degree credit; this isn’t a realistic expectation from an academic or curricular standpoint. What we need is to mandate greater transparency for community college students by clearly showing how credit will transfer from one institution to another prior to their enrollment in four-year institutions. Students will vote with their feet and enroll at those institutions that accept more of their previous academic work toward their degree.

Rather than lament the fact that the transfer pathway has never lived up to its hoped-for potential, we support its rejuvenation in a more strategic fashion. We should strengthen the transfer pathway where it serves students well—by “well,” we mean a partnership between institutions that encompasses the tenets of a transfer-affirming culture and focuses on the needs of 21st century students — through strong advising, sane credit mobility policies, transfer-focused orientations and summer bridge programs, among other things. As noted above, this ideal situation is most likely to happen between two- and four-year institutions that are close to one another. However, where transfer may not serve students, such as in so-called “ education deserts ,” where, say, a community college is the only postsecondary resource available, why not let that institution offer four-year degrees? The reverse would apply to four-year institutions serving as a similarly singular education resource by allowing them to offer sub-baccalaureate degrees and other credentials.

The idea here is not to abandon transfer, wait for innovative solutions to bear fruit or believe that a 16 percent completion rate represents success. The problems that weaken transfer—lack of credit mobility, low completion rates, unmet student basic needs—afflict higher education generally. If we solve those challenges, we’ll solve transfer. In the meantime, rather than focus on special pleading for transfer students, we should advance broader strategies that better serve all students as they pursue their baccalaureate degree dream.

Stephen J. Handel is the strategy director for postsecondary education transformation at ECMC Foundation, a former senior strategist with the College Board and former associate vice president of undergraduate admissions for the University of California system.

Eileen L. Strempel is the inaugural dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music and a professor of education at the University of California at Los Angeles.  

AAUP Faces Criticism for Reversal on Academic Boycotts

The American Association of University Professors announced Monday it had dropped its categorical opposition to the t

Share This Article

More from views.

A New Postsecondary-to-Political Pipeline

A pathway for students interested in elected office could feature a broad curriculum including sociology and ethnic,

Anti-Science Harassment Is on the Rise

Universities must do more now to support researchers, Samuel Mendez writes.

Approaching the Academic Year With Apprehension

After divisive protests roiled campuses last spring, Gary Gilbert asks if—and how—this fall can be better.

• Become a Member
• Sign up for Newsletters
• Learning & Assessment
• Diversity & Equity
• Career Development
• Labor & Unionization
• Shared Governance
• Academic Freedom
• Books & Publishing
• Financial Aid
• Residential Life
• Free Speech
• Physical & Mental Health
• Race & Ethnicity
• Sex & Gender
• Socioeconomics
• Traditional-Age
• Adult & Post-Traditional
• Teaching & Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Digital Publishing
• Data Analytics
• Administrative Tech
• Alternative Credentials
• Financial Health
• Cost-Cutting
• Revenue Strategies
• Academic Programs
• Physical Campuses
• Mergers & Collaboration
• Fundraising
• Research Universities
• Regional Public Universities
• Community Colleges
• Private Nonprofit Colleges
• Minority-Serving Institutions
• Religious Colleges
• Women's Colleges
• Specialized Colleges
• For-Profit Colleges
• Executive Leadership
• Trustees & Regents
• State Oversight
• Accreditation
• Politics & Elections
• Supreme Court
• Student Aid Policy
• Science & Research Policy
• State Policy
• Colleges & Localities
• Employee Satisfaction
• Remote & Flexible Work
• Staff Issues
• Study Abroad
• International Students in U.S.
• U.S. Colleges in the World
• Intellectual Affairs
• Seeking a Faculty Job
• Advancing in the Faculty
• Seeking an Administrative Job
• Advancing as an Administrator
• Beyond Transfer
• Call to Action
• Confessions of a Community College Dean
• Higher Ed Gamma
• Higher Ed Policy
• Just Explain It to Me!
• Just Visiting
• Law, Policy—and IT?
• Leadership & StratEDgy
• Leadership in Higher Education
• Learning Innovation
• Online: Trending Now
• Resident Scholar
• University of Venus
• Student Voice
• Academic Life
• Health & Wellness
• The College Experience
• Life After College
• Academic Minute
• Weekly Wisdom
• Reports & Data
• Quick Takes
• Advertising & Marketing
• Consulting Services
• Data & Insights
• Hiring & Jobs
• Event Partnerships

4 /5 Articles remaining this month.

Sign up for a free account or log in.

• Sign Up, It’s FREE

Skip to Content

Other ways to search:

• Events Calendar

Interested in learning more about CU Boulder?

Request Undergraduate Information   First-Year Application

Why CU Boulder

Admission Process

Connect With Us

First-Year - Plan

We enroll an incoming class of highly qualified, intellectually curious and actively involved students who have demonstrated high levels of maturity and personal integrity as well as a commitment to serving their communities.

To achieve this, we practice a holistic admission review process, which takes into account a variety of primary academic factors and secondary factors as they relate to your ability to be successful in our competitive academic environment. While admission is competitive, you will be considered on an individual basis relative to a prediction of your academic success in the college to which you apply.

Academic Rigor

The primary factor in admission decisions is your academic achievement. CU Boulder focuses on your classroom performance in core academic courses, the rigor of your course selection and your GPA. SAT and ACT will not be required when applying to CU Boulder. CU Boulder has, and will continue to, review via a holistic assessment of each application with all of the information that is available.

International Students

International students with four or less semesters of U.S. schooling should refer to their country's specific requirements.

Review Requirements by Country

The grades you have earned while in high school or secondary school play the most important role in determining your competitiveness for admission to the University of Colorado Boulder.

Since there are many different grading scales and weighting methods, we use the total weighted GPA provided by your graduating high school, using a standard 4.00 scale. GPAs that are not on a 4.00 scale are converted accordingly.

If your high school does not provide a weighted GPA but provides a total unweighted GPA, we will use your total unweighted GPA on a standard 4.00 scale. If your high school does not provide a GPA or the GPA provided does not include all completed high school courses, we will recalculate the GPA according to the grading scale in use at your high school at the time the course was completed. When recalculating a GPA, we will not add weight for honors, AP and/or IB curricula because there is not a standard format for the designation or grading scale for these courses. However, we do consider the number of honors, AP and/or IB courses a student takes when determining the rigor of their overall curriculum.

Class Selection

Academic rigor in your course selection is also a primary factor that we consider. To be competitive, challenge yourself by pursuing the most rigorous courses available that are appropriate to your level of ability.

The number of courses taken beyond the minimum recommendation of 17—as well as those designated as advanced, honors, gifted, concurrent enrollment, dual-enrollment, AP or IB —will be considered in the admission process.

First-year students applying to undergraduate programs are strongly encouraged to meet the following Higher Education Admission Recommendations (HEAR) . Students may be admitted to CU Boulder even though they have not completed all of the HEAR courses. There are no consequences if HEAR is not met. However, not completing HEAR might result in taking additional courses to meet the CU Boulder graduation requirements of individual majors. International students with four or less semesters of U.S. schooling should refer to their country's specific requirements .

Please note: a challenging schedule will not outweigh a non-competitive GPA, as your grades ultimately remain the single most important factor in your admission decision. Additionally, any grades of D or F on your transcript—especially in your junior or senior year—would be cause for concern and should be addressed in your application.

Standardized Tests

ACT or SAT scores are not required for first-year students, but you may provide self-reported scores if you would like us to take your scores into consideration when reviewing your application. You will indicate on the Common App whether you plan to submit standardized test scores. If you choose to submit scores, please ensure that we have received them by the relevant application deadline so that your application will not be considered late.

First-Year Applicant FAQs

English Proficiency Requirements for International Students

In addition to our general admission requirements, all international applicants are also required to meet a minimum standard of English proficiency. International students who do not meet this requirement may still be eligible for conditional admission.

Review English Proficiency Requirements

Beyond Academics

While academics and test scores play a large role in your admission decision, we want students who are actively involved in their schools and communities. We place importance on secondary factors beyond academic achievement to assess the overall qualities of an applicant. 

What makes you stand out? Be thoughtful and use your required essays and your letter of recommendation to highlight your school and community activities, leadership positions and awards, participation in athletics or music, work experience, summer activities and special circumstances. Please note: we do not accept or use portfolio or audio/video submissions in our admission process.

Personal Essays

Your personal essays give you the opportunity to tell us more about yourself. They provide insight into your challenges and triumphs in a way that transcripts and test scores simply cannot.

When reading your essays, we are looking for sincerity and authenticity. It’s easy to tell when a student’s essay is something they care deeply about, compared to a student who writes what they think we want to hear. A funny or interesting story doesn’t hurt, either!

There is one essay and one short answer required for first year applicants. As you write your essay and short answer, consider reflecting on challenges that you've overcome, your family or cultural heritage, your academic or co-curricular achievements or specific moments that have defined your character. There are no 'correct' answers to these questions; your responses should reflect the unique aspects and experiences of your life.

What we are looking for:

• Be yourself. Open up to us and write about something that is meaningful to you.
• Be specific. Give examples and tell stories to make your points.
• Be honest. We are interested in your journey—even if it hasn’t always been perfect.
• Be clear. Effective writing and communication skills are expected.

Letter of Recommendation

Just like your essays give you the chance to tell us more about you, a letter of recommendation gives someone else the opportunity to speak to your academic strengths and co-curricular involvement.

This is the one chance in your application where we get to learn about you from someone other than you, so choose someone who knows you well. Many students ask a teacher or school counselor to write their letter of recommendation.

Suggested topics:

• Student’s academic ability and college readiness
• Student’s overall performance in class and attitude
• Why the student would be a good fit for CU Boulder

Admitted Student Averages

Credentials based on the middle 50% of 2024 admitted first-year students. High School GPAs are weighted and may represent self-reported GPAs. SAT/ACT scores reflect the middle 50% score range for students who requested test scores be considered in their application review. For the 2024 first-year application, SAT/ACT scores are not required and we take a holistic approach when reviewing your application.  

Weighted High School GPA: 3.74 - 4.23

SAT Total: 1290 - 1460 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 29 - 34

College of Arts & Sciences

Weighted High School GPA: 3.70 - 4.20

SAT Total: 1270 - 1440 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 29 - 33

College of Engineering & Applied Science

Weighted High School GPA: 3.97 - 4.42

SAT Total: 1360 - 1500 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 31 - 34

College of Media, Communication & Information

Weighted High School GPA: 3.54 - 4.06

SAT Total: 1220 - 1380 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 28 - 32

College of Music

Weighted High School GPA: 3.71 - 4.20

SAT Total: 1290 - 1470 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 30 - 33

Leeds School of Business

Weighted High School GPA: 4.0 - 4.36

SAT Total: 1360 - 1450 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 30 - 34

Program in Environmental Design

Weighted High School GPA: 3.62 - 4.17

SAT Total: 1270 - 1410 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 29 - 32

School of Education

Weighted High School GPA: 3.40 - 3.99

SAT Total: 1160 - 1330 Math and Evidence-Based Reading & Writing

ACT Composite: 26 - 31

Credit for Course work or Exams

Students applying to CU Boulder have the opportunity to earn college credit before enrollment. CU Boulder accepts credit from AP/IB exams, A-Level exams, college course work taken concurrently while in high school and limited CLEP credit. Earning college credit while in high school is a great way to help offset some of your estimated cost of attendance. Students are highly encouraged to explore credit for course work options while in high school. For more information on how credit is transferred to CU Boulder and what credit can be accepted please see the links below.

Official Advanced Placement (AP) scores must be sent to the admissions office directly from the College Board. CU Boulder's CEEB/ETS code is 004841.

Review the Advanced Placement Chart

For A-level examinations from an international examining board to be considered for transfer credit, the student must submit an official copy of the examination result, either by submitting the original certificate upon arrival on campus (University of Colorado Boulder will make and keep a copy as official, returning the original to the student), or through verification of results between the Office of Admissions and the examinations board. Methods of approved verification are below.

• AQA : Student must request verification by emailing [email protected] (add 'Verification' in the subject box) and have it sent to [email protected] . 
• CIE:   The University of Colorado Boulder can use CIE Direct after requesting the following information from the student: Cambridge Center and candidate numbers, student’s date of birth and the relevant examination series (month and year, e.g. June 2014). 
• OCR : Student must request that OCR send a fax confirming student’s results to the University of Colorado Boulder. Fax number: +1-303-735-2501, ATTN: International Admissions.
• Pearson/Edexcel : Student must apply for a copy of the certificate  to be sent directly to the University of Colorado Boulder.
• WJEC/CBAC : Student must submit original Certificate or Certifying Statement of Results only (confirmation of grades via email/telephone/fax not available). 

If you took college-level courses while enrolled in high school, you may be able to transfer the credit to CU Boulder. Only courses taken at a college or university of recognized standing with grades of C- or better are accepted for transfer. All college-level work will be evaluated in accordance with CU Boulder transfer credit guidelines. You must have an official college transcript sent directly to the Office of Admissions in order for transfer credit to be evaluated.

Review the Transfer Credit Policy

The International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma programs provide pre-university study. IB examinations, whether leading to a full IB diploma or to an IB certificate, often qualify students for advanced standing at CU Boulder. In general, credit is granted for approved IB examinations at the higher level with a score of 4 or better. Students admitted to the University of Colorado Boulder who have graduated from high school with an International Baccalaureate Diploma shall be granted 24 semester hours of college credit. This credit will be applied toward degree requirements only if approved by the college or school. Depending on the student’s degree program, some of the 24 credits may not be applicable towards degree requirements. No CU Boulder tuition will be charged for these credits and the 24 credits will only be granted if the student receives a score of 4 or better on an examination administered as part of the IB Diploma program. If the student scores less than 4 on each IB subject test, the credit hours granted will be reduced accordingly. Official scores must be sent to the Admissions Office directly from the IB organization.

Review the International Baccalaureate Chart

Ready to apply?

Learn how to apply

Undergraduate Admission Information For:

First-Year Applicants

First-year applicants are in high school, or have graduated from high school but have not taken any college courses after graduating or earning a GED.

Transfer Applicants

Transfer applicants have attended another college or university since earning their high school diploma or GED. Transfer applicants are looking to complete a bachelor’s degree at CU Boulder.

International Applicants

Undergraduate international applicants are students who need a visa to be in the U.S. Apply as a domestic student if you have a U.S. passport or green card.

Readmit Applicants

Veteran Applicants

Undocumented Applicants

CU Boulder counselors are here to help you through the application and answer any questions that may arise during the admission process.

Find Your Counselor

• Join Our Communication List
• Contact Admissions

The University of Colorado does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age, pregnancy, disability, creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, political affiliation, or political philosophy. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. You may  view the list of ADA and Title IX coordinators  and  review the Regent policy .

As a student or prospective student at CU Boulder, you have a right to certain information pertaining to financial aid programs, the Clery Act, crime and safety, graduation rates, athletics and other general information such as the costs associated with attending CU Boulder. To view this information visit  colorado.edu/your-right-know .

Apply for Admission

Visit Campus

Support CU Boulder

• Safety & Health Services
• COVID-19 Information
• Campus Communications
• Emergency Alert System
• New Student & Family Programs

Getting Around

• Campus Events
• Parking & Transportation
• Visit Information

Information for

• Faculty & Staff
• Journalists

Initiatives

• Business & Industry Collaborations
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
• Free Speech
• Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• Public & Outreach Programs
• Sustainability
• Understanding Your Cost of Attendance

Free Al Office Suite with PDF Editor

Edit Word, Excel, and PPT for FREE.

Read, edit, and convert PDFs with the powerful PDF toolkit.

Microsoft-like interface, easy to use.

Windows • MacOS • Linux • iOS • Android

• Articles of Word

How to Write A thesis statement - Steps with Examples

A seasoned writer myself, I have watched so many students struggle to formulate a thesis statement. One sentence really the backbone of your paper has surprisingly been very tricky to perfect. No fears, though! I am here to guide you through the making process, sharing my experience and addressing you to a game-changing tool that will make magic transform your vague notions into thesis statements.

What is a thesis statement & What to include? 

Imagine the thesis statement to be the North Star of your paper. It is the one- or two-sentence declaration boldly announcing your main point or argument. It isn't a summary, but rather a mission statement of sorts for your paper to guide your reader through the twists and turns of your research or analysis.

Key Ingredients for a Killer Thesis Statement

An excellent thesis statement truly ought to have these elements:

The main idea or argument: This is what will propel the paper forward. It is, in effect, its heart. What are you attempting to prove, explain, or explore? Do not bury the lead—state it up front.

Specificity: Vagueness is the enemy of a good thesis. Get specific! Instead of saying, "Social media is bad," pinpoint exactly how it's detrimental.

Scope: Set the setting of your discussion. Are you dealing with a particular time period, demographic, or another aspect of your topic? Let your reader in on it.

Significance: So what? Why does your argument matter? Explain to your reader why they should care about your topic and your take on it, too.

Structure: Be concise and to the point. Try not to get no more than one or two sentences with real punch.

When all of these elements come together, you get a thesis statement that is not only informative but stimulating and attractive, beckoning your reader towards the rest in a paper.

Types of Thesis Statements

In academic writing, thesis statements fall under classes depending on the type of essay or paper being written. Knowing them can help in creating an emphatic and fruitful thesis statement.

Argumentative Essay

An argumentative thesis statement does indeed stand strong on a debated issue. This implies that it incorporates the author's position and the reasons, along with evidence supporting that position. This means convincing the reader that this is the right argument, together with supporting rationale and credible resources.

The impact of social media on adolescent mental health is devastating due to the rising cases of cyberbullying and body images that are unachievable. "

Expository Essay

On the other hand, the thesis statement for an expository essay aims to explain or describe the topic in a neutral way and is not argumentative. It provides the reader with a clear view of what the essay is going to talk about or analyze since it contains purely factual information, providing insight into the subject matter.

How to Write a Thesis Statement in 3 Steps [With Examples]

Setting a solid thesis statement doesn't have to be terrifying. Just break it down into three manageable steps:

Step 1: Identify the Topic and the Main Idea

Think of this as laying the groundwork for your thesis—what is the central subject you're going to be exploring, and what is your main point about it?

Example: If your chosen topic is "The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Job Employment," then you would say your thesis is that AI will create new and destroy existing jobs.

Step 2: Craft Your Preliminary Thesis Statement

In this step, you'll write your initial draft of the thesis statement. Your reaction to the primary idea should be simple and logically evident.

Example: Original thesis: "Artificial intelligence is likely to create a huge impact in the job market, generating as well as putting people out of jobs at the same time."

Step 3: Revisioning and Refining Your Thesis Statement

Now you're ready to refine your thesis. Add detail, flesh out your language, and make it clear that it encompasses what you discuss in your paper.

WPS AI to the Rescue!

WPS AI will give you the best partner in this regard and can help you ensure your writing is error-free, with its grammar check, perfecting word choice through its paraphrasing tool, and even ideating for you regarding argumentation, with an AI-powered writing assistant. WPS AI interface with Grammar check, Paraphrasing and Writing assistant features highlighted.

Using these steps and WPS AI, you can come up with a thesis statement that is clear and concise, yet thought-provoking and engaging enough to set the stage for a well-organized and impactful paper.

Bonus Tips: How to Perfect your Thesis Statements with WPS AI

Get the Basics in Place, Then Take Your Thesis Statement From Good to Great You are about to submit your thesis statement. Okay, this is where WPS AI really can become the ultimate cheat not that I told you to use it like one. Think of it as your personal writing coach, who'll help you fine-tune your masterwork:

Grammar and Syntax Guru: Even the most seasoned writer may miss typing this or that. A grammar check in WPS is there for your rescue. It will pick up any weird errors and give a professional finish to your thesis.

Length Master: Too long? Too short? WPS AI can help you find that Goldilocks zone. Need a bit more meat? AI writing assistant is happy to assist with suggestions of more details. Want to tighten things up? The paraphrasing tool can help condense your statement while retaining its meaning.

Clarity Champion: Sometimes, even when we know what to say, the words don't quite come out right. Use WPS AI rewriting suggestions to rephrase clunky or unclear language, so that your thesis is clear and your main point comes across clearly.

Think of WPS AI as your copilot to this journey that is the thesis statement. It is here to help you chart your way through the quagmire of linguistic subtleties, rub your prose until it gleams like a beacon of shining wisdom, and come up with a thesis statement sure to draw in the reader and set the tone for a great paper. So go ahead, take the plunge, and watch your thesis statements climb through the roof!

FAQs about writing a Thesis Statement

Q1. can a thesis statement be two sentences long.

Although a thesis statement may be two sentences long in certain rare circumstances, it is best for clarity and emphasis to be expressed in one. This way, the reader can quickly ascertain the main argument from the final sentence of your first paragraph.

Q2. How do I create a thesis statement?

Ask yourself these questions to help generate a thesis statement:

Step 1: Select your topic: Think of a specific area or issue you want to write about.

Step 2: Formulate your question: Pose a question as related to the topic selected. Asking something that interests you will help in formulating the thesis statement.

Step 3: Formulate your rough answer: Provide a tentative answer to your question. This serves you as the working thesis.

Step 4: Elaborate and clarify: Add specific detail, reason, or qualification to give your thesis statement more specificity. Make sure that it is clear, specific, and directly states how the scope of your paper will follow.

Q3: What is a good thesis statement?

A good thesis statement should be :

Specific: States what clearly will be about or what argument will take place in your paper.

Debatable: It introduces a position that could be argued or disputed.

Insightful: It provides insight into what the scope and purpose of your paper are.

Supported: Evidence and logical reasoning in the paper support this.

A good thesis statement makes sure that there is precision and clarity to guide your readers through the central ideas of your paper.

An effective thesis statement in academic writing serves as one's map, indicating what the main argument is and why it matters. This guide puts a premium on the clarity and specificity with which thesis statements should be written. For that, WPS AI enables you to efficiently create drafts down to the refinement stage, making sure your thesis statement strongly communicates what your paper is about. A good thesis helps you create valid claims, if not vivid arguments for your audience.

• 1. Best 4 Steps on How to Edit a Bank Statement PDF on Windows with WPS Office
• 2. Write a Teaching Philosophy Statement: Examples and Guide
• 3. How to Write a Hook- Steps With Examples
• 4. How to Write an IF Statement in Excel: Easy Steps
• 5. How to Write a Proposal [ Steps & Examples]
• 6. How to Use the IF Statement in Google Sheets (With Examples)

15 years of office industry experience, tech lover and copywriter. Follow me for product reviews, comparisons, and recommendations for new apps and software.