UMD Fall 2017 Transfer Students (Priority)

Hey guys I am currently a Mechanical Engineering major at UMBC, and I completely screwed up my GPA because of it lol.
My GPA will be a 2.7 by the time I apply to CP for the priority transfer deadline. I never wanted to engineering, but I chose to do it because honestly, my parents wanted me to do it. I want to transfer to UMD because I want to start fresh and study what I want to not what my parents want me to.
Below is my essay. Please chance me!


“Why are you an Engineering major?” is the question that has quite a disappointing answer: “Oh, because my parents wanted me to do it.” My parents, who were STEM majors, now work in that career field. They love their jobs, so they assumed that I would too. Unfortunately, the STEM genes completely skipped me. I was never good at math, science, engineering and computers. I would constantly force myself to like it, to make my parents happy. No matter how hard I tried, there was never a spark. Fortunately, there was one thing that I secretly always had a passion about: Music. When I was five, my mom signed me up for my first violin lesson and I still play to this day. In high school, I was in orchestra, all of the choral groups, and in the UMBC Orchestra when I entered college. I had always wanted to study music, but was afraid of what my parents might say. Yet, I only have one chance to live my life and I realized that I should spend that time chasing after what I truly love; not trying to live up to other people’s expectations. Something about music just makes me feel like there is no bad in the world, only good. It picks me up after a long day and I would never get sick of studying notes off of music just like how a computer science student would never get tired of coding 300 lines until 3 A.M every night. The University of Maryland has much more variety of musical ensembles as well as a more notable music school than that of UMBC. Transferring to the University of Maryland will not only help me take a step towards studying what I am truly passionate about, but will also introduce me to many more experiences and opportunities that would shape me into a stronger and diverse musician.