I am beginning my transfer application to the University of Pennsylvania and hit a wall. The first prompt is almost exactly the same as the CommonApp personal statement. Any ideas about how to approach this?
UPenn Prompt 1:
Please explain your reasons for transferring from your current institution and what you hope to gain by transferring into another institution. (3250 Characters)
So is appears that the point of the question is to try to understand whether you want to transfer to Penn because you are unhappy where you are now, or because is there something that Penn offers that you can’t get at your current school, or both?
If you share the real answer, perhaps we can help you craft it a bit.
Sorry if my question was a bit confusing. The common app’s personal statement prompt is:
Please provide a statement that addresses your reasons for transferring and the objectives you hope to achieve. You can type directly into the box, or you can paste text from another source. (max 650)
And UPenn’s prompts are:
Please explain your reasons for transferring from your current institution and what you hope to gain by transferring into another institution. (3250 Characters)
How will you explore your intellectual and academic interests at the University of Pennsylvania? Please answer this question given the specific undergraduate school to which you are applying. (400-650 words)
As you can see, UPenn’s FIRST prompt is almost exactly the same as the common app’s prompt about why I want to transfer to a different university. I am confused about how I should write a whole other essay regarding my reasons for transferring WITHOUT repeating what I wrote in the personal statement.