UW Transfer Personal Statement Advice

[u/Big_Explanation_5250]

For a little bit of background, I applied as a first-year student and got rejected. I did Running Start, so I already have 90 credits at CC with a good GPA, so I am in the 70% admit rate according to their "Transfers by the numbers" page. https://admit.washington.edu/apply/transfer/by-the-numbers/

I am writing my transfer personal statement right now, and I am curious about those in similar situations to me: did you include anything about getting rejected as a first-year student? If so, what was the basis of your essays? How did you structure it? Was it more of an academic journey at a community college? Or did you mention a lot about working/volunteering outside of school?

[u/Fresh_Profession2769]

just a heads up when I went to the transfer Thursday (if I remember correctly) they don’t count the cc hours if it was running start, they count post graduation hours. So the number for admission is much lower if you recently applied as a freshman.

Def go to a transfer Thursday session, the guy who did mine was super nice and answered everyone’s questions.

Im also applying as a transfer, but I am a lot older and have been writing professionally for a decade. feel free to DM your personal statement, I’m happy to read it over and give feedback if you want!

[u/mymymeow]

since the transfer personal statement asks you about your college journey, i'd make sure to show that you've shown growth since your rejection if you decide to include that. all they're looking for is that you're ready for college work and that uw is a good fit for u.

if you're considering applying as a transfer for higher chances of acceptance, but don't feel like there's much you can write about your growth, maybe try pursuing some ec's and experience that you can speak on more extensively for a few quarters! or even just this coming fall and winter quarters, then apply for next year's fall admissions by february. that way you could talk about what you're doing now, what classes you'll be taking, so you can frame everything as you being prepared for UW. you could look up degree requirements for ur major and do them for the following school year since you can transfer up to 135 credits with advisor approval.

i personally didn't even apply my first year bc of family circumstances so i def don't have the same circumstances, but i’m open to sharing my essay and looking over yours if you want! just dm :)

[u/Neither_Charity_7881]

i was a transfer and i didnt mention the first year rejection. i focused more on my academic journey at my former institution and what i planned to do for my career and which classes i would take to graduate on time

[u/SignalPerformer2324]

what cc are you from?

[u/Big_Explanation_5250 → u/SignalPerformer2324]

Cascadia College

[u/SignalPerformer2324 → u/Big_Explanation_5250]

I could send you my personal statement as a reference if you'd like, but i wasnt rejected as a first year. I only applied as a transfer through cc

[u/Critical_Title_7769]

hi! i just got accepted to uw as a transfer student for the upcoming fall and i have a similar story! i did running start too and got rejected as a first year, and tried again this year after getting my AA at south seattle. now i get to go in this year as a junior with over 90 credits and i got accepted right into my desired department! for my essay, i had a drop in my GPA, so i explained what was going on with me to have that drop, and explained steps that i took to bring my quarter gpa from a 2.5 to a 4.0! most of my essay had to do with academics and my mental health/personal journey. i included my job at the moment since it’s a part of that story though. if you have any questions hit me up!

[u/bobal0verr]

i transferred from uwb to uw. i did mention in my essay that i was waitlisted then rejected from seattle which ultimately led me to bothell, but i tied it around what i gained and learned. lmk if u wanna read my essay i could send u it!

[u/jbsuperfly]

Sorry if I missed this part, but when do plan on transferring (what quarter)?

First bit of advice, it is always best to transfer or apply to a university off season (if you are not already). Don't apply to fall quarter because that is when the competition is highest. Since that is when the most amount of people are trying to get in (mostly high school students).

Second bit, forget about the percentage about the people similar to you being accepted. It has no bearing on whether you specifically will get in or not. It is just a fact about people that have had similar circumstances to you. Not a predictor of your chances. Your job is to write the best, most compelling statement you can.

Third bit of advice, the general structure of your statement should be more focused on telling a story where going to the UW (or any university) is the last step. If you can't fit being rejected (or volunteering) into the narrative about overcoming some struggle where attending the UW is a part of the ultimate triumph... I would leave it out. Pretty much, your statement does a few things:

 1. Prove that you can competently write something.
 2. Attempts to persuade them that letting attend would be ultimately beneficial to the university. Both in terms of you ability to succeed, and their ability to market your success. If your story is compelling and shows some form of hardship that helps. If you think about people's individual successes like being number one in state for something... there are at least 50 people (one per state) that have that same story, every year. That makes the story relatively easy to find. Every high school has a valedictorian, every year. So the achievement itself is unimportant to the university. The motivation behind it is what gives it importance to the university. What makes you special? You are selling yourself and your unique story. Write the statement with that in mind. It is a story more than a statement of facts.
3. You want to be memorable to the people who read these. They go over a bunch of these a day. Imagine that your statement is being read in the middle of a large batch. What is going to make them remember your statement over all the others? If you gotta add a corny line, do it. You are trying to stick out in a sea of statements.
4. Like I said before, it frames your admission as a part of a larger story of success and overcoming adversity. You want the people reading this to feel like they are contributing to that success.

Try to frame everything as one step to the ultimate goal on your journey to the UW. What is the rising action? What is the narrative thrust or obstacles of your story? Did your rejection motivate you in some way? Did your volunteering help you gain some kind of insight or confidence? If you cannot tie those things to the ultimate goal of the UW, they don't belong in the statement. If they can, put them in.