Hey everyone! I’m curious as to how you all are formatting your personal statements. I’m having a little trouble getting started on mine. Initially I was going to start off with part A (academic elements) and then transition into part B (personal elements) but as I’ve began writing I feel that this format is a little too…Generic and unnatural? And just not interesting enough. I’d prefer to have everything flow together more seamlessly, although if I do it this way then topics from both part A and B will be intertwined. Does this even matter? Sorry if this seems like a ridiculous question. I will be attending a transfer Thursday soon to clear this up, but need to have at least a draft of my personal statement completed within the next few days.
https://admit.washington.edu/Admission/Transfer/Statement
Might as well throw in a few stats while we’re at it…I’m 21 year old, first generation female trying to transfer from one of the Seattle community college’s into MSE or ME. Current GPA is 3.51. I’ll be completing my A.S this spring and will have all prerequisites for my top choice major (MSE) accept for MSE 170, which I plan on taking at UW over the summer.
Also, transfer success stories would be awesome! Including stats, major, and other relevant info. Thanks guys! And best of luck to everyone.
Hiya! I was a Bellevue College student who was accepted for transfer for Fall 2015 and am now currently enrolled in the University. My application major was Math, but I eventually changed to ACMS Math Econ after being accepted into both majors and realizing that ACMS Math Econ was more relevant to my intended career path.
Looking back at my transfer application personal statement, I realized that although I was accepted in the end it probably wasn’t because of my essay. The prompt itself is given so broadly because transfers are coming from diverse backgrounds and it’s not just community college students transferring. It’s hard to include everything expected without making your writing seem fragmented, but maybe you could focus on the things that aren’t obvious from your background. Transferring from a two-year school is pretty self-explanatory, and I wish that I had spent less energy on that part in explaining that for part A of the prompt.
In terms of addressing Part B, I tied in culture with hardship/challenge by centering my essay on how I acquired my first job during my second year as a college-student. I related this with the challenge of being a “late bloomer,” as people are usually shown to find first jobs at somewhat earlier ages from American cultural expectations. However, while this seems great as an idea, in hindsight I feel that I botched it in practice and tried a bit too hard to frame my experience into something that it wasn’t. Hopefully though you can find an even better way to tie your essay together both in concept and in practice. Good luck!