How to Write a Transfer Essay

A transfer essay is a special type of academic paper, which is filed together with other documentation when someone changes colleges or transfers from one college to another. It is certainly not the most important document, though a very influential one. When your main records and achievements are bad, then even a good transfer essay won’t be able to change the odds in your favor. However, if your grades and achievements are really outstanding, a good transfer essay is able to make miracles.

Likewise, if you fail to compose a compelling transfer essay – even a fantastic score record won’t win you a place in the college of your dream. This is why all students who are planning on changing a place of study should know where to find some relevant transfer essay examples, and how to write a good transfer essay.

The 5 Steps That Everyone Should Take in Writing a Good Transfer Essay

We are not going to torture you with elementary things like the ordinary composition of an essay, or why you should place your thesis statement right after the hook. We assume our readers are students with some educational background, skills, and experience, and these things they have learned well enough, and saw in multiple transfer essay examples.

Instead, we are going to talk about the attributes of a good transfer essay and what points you must include if you want your transfer application to be successful.

1. Explain why you want to leave your current educational institution

Students are all different. They all have various reasons for making changes in life, including the change of college. You must appeal to the transfer committee officer’s emotions by explaining really important reasons for changing your current school. Upon reading your essay, they should feel empathy for your move and have little or no reason to act differently if they were at your place. Some of the finest transfer essay examples appeal to the crazy pace of modern life and our fast reassessment of priorities – new types of jobs appear almost every month, businesses demand new kinds of competencies and skills, etc. You need to show how well you are standing on your toes and keeping yourself aware of the latest learning trends.

It is strongly advised not to criticize your current school, nor mention any of the faculty members in a negative light. These things will work against you and indirectly highlight your discontent, conflicts, weaknesses, etc.

2. Provide your values and beliefs

To supplement your previous point (why you want to leave the current college), talk a little bit about yourself – who you are as a person, what type of personality, character, beliefs, and values you possess. Needless to say, for a good transfer essay, you must stay positive and show yourself in a favorable light. This is not the time for ultimate honesty, although some mention of your improvement points need to be present (only in the context of improvement – you are fully aware that you are not perfect and are actively working towards making yourself better, stronger, etc.).

The collection of the finest transfer essay examples in our database shows that successful applicants would always do a good share of homework by studying the targeted institution’s values and public documents, prior to applying to that institution. This is not hard to do in the digital age by browsing institutions’ websites and reading their officials’ public statements and personal pages.

3. State your goals and priorities

What is it that you are going to achieve in life in the long run? What do you want to achieve in the near future? Do you have a plan or a roadmap for your educational and career path? These things are important in a good transfer essay. Whoever will read your paper should clearly see that you are an ambitious person, who has a goal in education and life and who knows how to get there.

Find some transfer essay examples on the topic of education goals and life-long ambitions. Frankly speaking, most transfer essays mention this information in either form. Take notes on how the authors frame their goals and aspirations and how well they connect them with the targeted academic institution.

4. Show how the prospective school can help you to achieve your goals

This is the most important part of any transfer essay. You must match your profile with the one of your desired school. What do they have that can help you achieve your goals and realize your ambitions? Could it be something in their academic culture, educational programs, faculty members, connections with a wider scholarly community, or just the reputation of this college or university?

Never fall into the temptation to mention a personal reason here, such as a favorable location (close proximity to your home), a girlfriend studying in this place, or simply a vague referral to the prestigious name of the institution.

5. Wrap things up

Knowing how to end a transfer essay is no less important. Your last words and phrases have the potential to resonate in the mind of the reader, provided that they are good ones. It is not recommended to act overly optimistic or even boldly in your conclusion, such as ‘With all that said, I hope you will consider my application a worthy one’, or ‘I will be a valuable member of your campus community’. Instead, in a good transfer essay, one should show modesty and respect to whoever will be reading the paper. Appropriate conclusion phrases might read ‘I would highly appreciate your consideration of my application’, or ‘I honestly hope that your college would continue to prosper and develop to attract new and promising candidates’.

A vast majority of the transfer essay examples available in our database demonstrate that short and modest conclusions have a much higher potential to translate into favorable admission officers’ decisions than lengthy and overly optimistic ones.

Transfer Essay Frequently Asked Questions