The Personal Approach to the Personal Statement
The latest news, tips, & tricks for surviving college admissions.
We focused on a clear career goal to show why this transfer request is serious rather than just a hope for better connections. We stayed away from superficial details like rankings or reputation. Instead, you want to show the transfer college that you've done specific research and can name-drop departments, professors, or internships that your current college can't provide.
Read More1) Don’t Sound Negative
Even though you’re leaving your current school for negative reasons, you have to be strategic in how you explain them so you don’t sound like you’re complaining. It’s a difficult balance to strike, for sure, but you have to be very concrete in what change you’re looking for so it doesn’t sound like you’re bad-mouthing your current situation (or worse, not appreciating it for superficial reasons like rankings).
You don’t want to sound like you're making excuses and not taking the initiative to make your current college work for you. You want it to seem like you've exhausted every resource and really belong somewhere else. Listing specific examples of what is missing will help with this, in addition to listing what you hope to have at your next school.
Read MoreAngel had a unique situation. She was applying as an internal transfer to NYU Stern from NYU CAS (College of Arts and Sciences), which is notoriously difficult to accomplish. We knew she needed a standout transfer essay to explain why this major switch was necessary.
Read More“I wanted to share my gratitude for the guidance and support you gave me those months ago. Your feedback was immeasurably valuable, and I truly appreciated your accommodation of my various constraints. Most of all, I was moved by your words of encouragement during an application process riddled with worry. Thank you again!”
-Nick, accepted to Pomona, Columbia, USC, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara
Read More“Yelena was easy to work with, fast at responding, and provided helpful and honest feedback. She gave me not only grammar and sentence structure suggestions, but also objective feedback on content and a strategy to tell my story in the best way possible. Because of her, I was able to avoid numerous faux pas and mistakes that could have ruined my application. She helped me refine my tone and convey my best self while being authentic. It was super worth it, I highly recommend getting an outside perspective and Yelena is a great person to do that.”
-Adam, accepted to Cornell and Northwestern as a Transfer
“The time I spent under Yelena's guidance has not only given me an acceptance to every school to which I applied, but also has prepared me so that I can succeed at any of the schools. Yelena's genuine support and care for my improvement has led me to complete each week's assignment while working full time in the military and going to school at night. It was an eye-opening experience to see such an efficient way to write an essay that shows who I really am. Now, I can't wait to use the writing skills at Columbia and future medical schools.”
-H.P., accepted to Columbia University & NYU
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