I can’t believe it’s 2/20 and I don’t even have a draft of the common app that I’m happy with, but is anyone else having trouble making theirs…well, interesting? Unique? It’s not like the first year essay where you have a ton of room to be creative and show your personality. I’ve done my best to make my reasons for wanting to transfer sound compelling, but it’s still not something that I think will really stand out to an admissions committee. Any advice?
I’m also kind of confused at what to write for the common app… is the why transfer just a general essay on why you want to transfer, seeing as every college will see the same essay?
This may not be very good advice, however, I think you should just make sure your reasons are somewhat personalized. Though they may not be really interesting reasons for transfer, as long as they can see that your reasons are genuine, then I’d say it would stand out more.
As @bomerr told me:
"The freshman applications do a good job of allow a student to shine. The common app main is about some life event i.e. opportunity to come off likable. Plus the supplements ask all shorts of questions like hobbies or extracurricular, note to roommate, favorite books or films, etc. So it’s fairly easy to come off well-rounded.
With transfers the supplemental is “why are you transferring to our school?” That’s not an easy essay to make interesting. Plus that question overlaps greatly with the common app main." I agree, it is difficult.
The main common app I wrote generally as all the schools you apply to are going to see it. Background on my interest, what’s changed at my current school for me to want to transfer, and what I am, in general, looking for at a new school.
The supplements are where you tailor your answers to why THAT school.
Yeah it seems that the commonapp essay doesn’t matter much. Particularly if you see a ‘Why our college’ prompt in the supplement.
@rebmob, thank you for your response. I did not mean creative in the sense of writing something completely outlandish, more as in something that would make my essay stand out from other essays. We all valid reasons for wanting to transfer, and many of us have the same valid reasons. I feel like there has to be something that really grabs the reader so it doesn’t just blend in with the rest of the pile.
But maybe it’s enough to just be well articulated? Do you really think that they’ll be focusing almost entirely on the supplements?
@rebmob
I think you’ve misunderstood the question.
I think that anyone who genuinely believes that their current situation isn’t giving them what they need to fulfill their academic needs has a valid reason for wanting to transfer. Do we all have valid reasons for wanting to transfer to Yale? No, but that’s not my problem because I’m not talking about the supplement essays. The main essay does not allow you to be specific to a school, nor does it give you room to show what truly makes you unique as an applicant, so what exactly are we supposed to be showing there?