From the category archives:

Essays

Customize Your Common Application “Why Transfer” Essay as Needed

February 17, 2012

We have been getting a lot of questions regarding what to write for the Common Application main “why do you want to transfer” essay. Our advice is to customize your essay if doing so would tell the story you want to tell the reader, keeping in mind the rest of your application. You might then ask, “What?  [...]

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The Common Application is Flawed

January 14, 2012

We’ve received many emails and comments from worried transfer applicants who are having trouble with the Common Application. We’ve dug through the Common App to expose some of the issues that you’ll come across as you complete the application. Discrepancies between the PDF and Online Applications We would expect that the Common App would be [...]

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College Transfer Q&A: Common Application General Transfer Essay vs School Supplement Essay?

December 2, 2011

Question: When I looked at the common application, I noticed that there is a generic “why transfer” essay and a supplement for each school that asks, “Why do you want to transfer here?” What should be included in one versus the other? Answer: Before we get into the differences between the two essays, we think [...]

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The College Transfer Essay: How to Begin and How to End

September 29, 2011

The introduction and conclusion are often the hardest parts of the transfer essay to write.  The introduction needs to “hook” the reader while the conclusion serves to end the essay “with a bang.”  We recommend saving the introduction and the conclusion to write after you have written the body paragraphs.  We think the best way [...]

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The College Transfer Application Essay: “Why Transfer” Example

March 1, 2011

In this post, we analyze an essay example excerpted from College Admission Essays for Dummies by Geraldine Woods to complement the example for the University of Pennsylvania that we’ve previously critiqued. The essay we’ll analyze here leaves a lot of room for improvement, though it has some positive aspects. We’ll tell you what you can [...]

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The College Transfer Application Essay: An Example for the University of Pennsylvania

May 26, 2010

(Update: We’ve added another “why” transfer essay example with a detailed critique here.) One of the most important elements in your transfer application is the essay on why you want to transfer to the college of your choice. Here, we’ll deconstruct a real-life transfer application essay by David, a student who is trying to transfer [...]

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The College Transfer Admissions Essay: Three Keys

August 29, 2009

The big question you have to answer through your essay is basically this: “Why do you want to transfer?” We cover the transfer admissions essay in great detail in the book (with real, successful examples that worked for Stanford, UPenn, Columbia, Cornell, and other schools), but I wanted to follow up on the college essay [...]

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Bonus College Admissions Essay Seminar for People on the 5 Steps List

August 15, 2009

[UPDATE: We're extending the deadline and sending the audio and slides out August 29, since we just sent out a big, 10-page-plus item to a lot of members on the list and we don't want to overload them (don't worry if you haven't received it yet and you're on the list, you'll get it after [...]

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