Here we will discuss a BU transfer essay that worked; this was an essay a client of ours had done with us. The client’s GPA was a little less than the average transfer applicant’s, but that’s why we compensated with a good essay.

You can also find more information about the school’s transfer program here.

BU Transfer Essay That Worked

Boston University welcomes hundreds of transfer students to campus each year. We want to learn more about you and your reasons for transferring, in particular, what you hope to accomplish at Boston University. (600-word maximum)

As an Asian-American woman who grew up in a traditional culture with severe expectations of me and my gender, I would not be myself without truly pursuing my passion. Despite social norms, I managed to jump the cliff and defy expectations by accepting my passion for innovative computer science and business. At Boston University, I would like to join the community as both a computer scientist and a future business person without being held back by societal stereotypes. Specifically, I would like to use every resource available at BU to fuel my plan to launch my own SaaS startup company. 

By transferring to BU, I hoped to maximize the resources provided for me to create a better solution for modern public high schools. The software will be an AI-powered learning tool that teaches itself the patterns in student learning progress. The program will keep track of student success as well as patterns of behavior such as eye movement, stress, and repeated mistakes to generate data of the types of learning structures that help students and the ones that don’t. Instead of having to run around in the dark, teachers will better know how to cater their classes towards their students based on the data provided by the self-learning software. 

Having a product idea and creating something useful was only part of the equation, however. On the other hand, I wanted to learn how to combine my knowledge in computer science and artificial intelligence with my passion for business and entrepreneurship. The process would ultimately help me create something that would help many students who feel jaded and hopeless about education. My ultimate goal through attending BU as such is to create and develop something that many schools can integrate easily to maximize student productivity and alleviate mental health issues from school. 

BU’s professors and faculty also play a major role in my reasons for transferring. To make the most out of my entrepreneurial journey, I plan to learn from professors with the most fitting background suitable for my SaaS startup. Professors such as Sarah Bargal and their research paper “Emotion Recognition in the Wild from Videos using Images” parallel the project that I want to undertake perfectly. To be able to recognize expressions with about 60% accuracy is an astounding leap from the average, and I would like to one day replicate similar results for my own SaaS company. Learning from their experience would help me make the most out of my learning beyond the traditional textbook and homework environment. In attending BU, I would hope to TA for professor Sarah Bargal’s Introduction to AI course and perhaps have the opportunity to connect with them more to discuss their research and learn how to develop my future SaaS company better. 

Organizations such as Innovate@BU would help me connect with other fellow entrepreneurs and help me harness my business mindset. Having grown up in my traditional Asian culture, it was hard to find acceptance for my passion for business and entrepreneurship. Innovate@BU not only provides the vital networking I need to meet similarly passionate businesswomen but also a home to pursue my dreams without scrutiny. I also plan to join the AIR initiative to collaborate with researchers working on creating decision-making software. Such work would be very useful for my AI-based educational software, as I plan for my software to gradually teach itself improving best practices in education to streamline the traditional learning setting. 

Additional Information (optional): Please use this space if you have additional information, materials, or writing samples you would like us to consider. 

One of the biggest reasons I want to transfer to BU is because I needed a place fitting for undertaking my ambitious SAAS company project. As an Asian American woman in a predominantly white and masculine field and school, I’ve found that there was little acceptance for my passions. I’ve always known networking is important for the lifeblood of my business plan, but I’ve come to realize that it’s also critical for my well-being. The culture I grew up in as well as the societal expectations of me as an Asian woman don’t leave much room for me to fully embrace an entrepreneurial spirit, and I believe BU would be a better place to manifest this passion freely without judgment. Transferring to BU would also allow me to change my major into computer science; I’ve wanted to make this switch, but my current school lacks the flexibility to reorient my major.  

Another major point I wanted to address is the course content in my current school. Some courses such as my Racial Justice course contained major errors in the grading system and overall organization of course work; this led me and the rest of the class to significantly drop our grades beyond our control such that no student could receive a grade higher than a C. What happened specifically is that the professor had disregarded a major point of the daily assignments and how they must be turned in. No mention of the critical details was said until the end of the quarter, to which the file submission systems could not accept anything. It is a very rare occurrence that students will not be able to do anything to receive the highest score only because of grading errors on the professor’s fault, and I do not want to place too much blame on my professor, but this disorganization in grading seemed to repeat itself subtly in my other classes as well. It was the Racial Justice course, however, that seemed to suffer from this issue the most. 

Okay, so let’s cover a few important key points here. The BU transfer essay that worked has a few details that you’ll want to consider for your own. We’ll dissect it and discuss how you should be using these points.

How to Write the Boston University Transfer Essay

Table of Contents

1. Show Interest in the College Through its Critical Role.
2. Don’t Skimp Out on the “…what you hope to accomplish at Boston University” Part.
3. Does BU Mean More to You Than Just a School?

Show Interest in the College Through its Critical Role.

You should have a good reason for attending BU if you want to show that you will take an acceptance there seriously.

Let’s say that you want to get accepted into BU, but you were also accepted into Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and Princeton.

Why would you reject the latter four and accept BU in a heartbeat?

Well, the truth is that most people would not. However, this is a good mental exercise that will force you to get creative. Is there anything about BU that is absolutely crucial to your success? What is the downfall to your career should you not accept an acceptance from BU?

Our client focused on the clubs available at the school as well as the specific research provided by the professors. Getting this deep into the details helps applicants demonstrate their interest through the amount of research they’ve done.

Don’t Skimp Out on the “…what you hope to accomplish at Boston University” Part.

It seems to be a very common mistake that many of our applicants make: they don’t go into detail about what they want to accomplish specifically at Boston University.

In this essay, our client got very deep in the waters with what exactly the professors at BU are good at and how that can help with her project in the future. She gets to this quite early on so that the admissions office knows exactly what to expect from her as a student. Early in the essay, she covers how she wants to create a SaaS company that sells software for students using the power of AI. Her essay later covers how she wants to use the resources such as the professors and the clubs available at the school to learn more about how she can execute this initiative on a good start.

The benefit of getting very specific here is that you’ll be able to prove that you mean business. The reason our client was able to write a good BU transfer essay that worked was because she was specific; this tells the admissions office that she has thought of this beforehand. She has the experience and the mental fortitude to succeed, and that’s exactly the student they’d want in their school.

As a note, you shouldn’t write about your secondary goals as your primary ones. Some people may have the goal of making more friends or hanging out in the Boston area, but that’s not mostly what you’re here for –at least, we’d hope so! You want to focus mainly on the academic goals that you want to accomplish at BU.

Does BU Mean More to You Than Just a School?

To Our client, BU was more than just a place to pursue her academic career. as stated in the introduction of her first essay, she grew up in a household where it was difficult to declare oneself as a strong and independent person capable of taking on the world of business and entrepreneurship. They were instead held back by the traditional Asian gender norms which dictate she must take on a more gender-based role for her career.

Note: The BU transfer essay that worked in this example is just one example of a sad background. It is not mandatory to have a sob story.

This severe background contrasted with BU being the solution that would provide her with the experience she needs to succeed in business and programming demonstrates a clear distinction between the two worlds: her home life is unprogressive, and BU is.

The subtle dichotomy presented her puts BU in a place that makes it more important to her than just a career stepping stone; it makes it also a place for her to achieve personal growth. This is a major part of the college experience and those who have a place in BU for both personal and career growth are going to be more favorable.

Overall, if you want to get accepted, you should try to learn from the BU transfer essay that worked here in our example.

Have any other burning questions about getting accepted into BU? Want to know more about how to write a BU transfer essay that works and gets you accepted? Contact us for more information! Our team of experts will give you a free consultation and get you the help you need to succeed!