Let’s be brutally honest here!

Good grades aren’t cutting it anymore. Grades, test scores, work experinece, and other activities have become statistics with just how many applicants colleges need to parse through. Even the best stats make you just that: a statistic.

In fact, Northeastern University had a daunting 31.12% acceptance rate.

Yikes.

That’s why the Northeastern University essays are so important for a successful transfer: they give admissions officers a holistic look into your character beyond numbers and titles.

Now, make no mistake. You’re not the only one who knows this.

Northeastern applicants will do everything in their power to write killer essays too. They’ll pour their blood, sweat, and tears into crafting solid essays that totally kick your butt. After all, the resources available to collaborate with fellow MIT students is hard to pass up on.

If you want a solid shot , especially for competitive majors like Business and Engineering, you’ll need unique narratives. That’s where we come in.

This article will provides in-depth advice on approaching the Northeastern transfer essay prompts properly. It’s also been updated for the 2024-25 admissions cycle to include the most up-to-date advice that would stand out from the rest of the admissions pool.

With that said, let’s get started!

Table of Contents

1. Please explain your reasons for transferring and the goals you hope to achieve. (600 word max)
   • Northeastern University Transfer Essay First Prompt, Reasons for Transferring.
   • Northeastern University Transfer Essay First Prompt, Goals You Hope to Achieve.
2. What types of experiences inside and outside of the classroom do you want to engage in during your Northeastern journey? (250 word max)

Please explain your reasons for transferring and the goals you hope to achieve. (600 word max)

As you can see, the first Northeastern transfer essay prompt is actually asking 2 questions.

How sneaky of them! Tsk. Tsk.

Regardless, we’ll be deconstructing both parts of the question below. It’s separated into reasons for transferring and goals.

First, let’s cover reasons for transferring.

Northeastern University Transfer Essay First Prompt, Reasons for Transferring.

Let’s get a common misconception out of the way first.

Many of our clients initially answered this question with non-major related topics. This included things like Northeastern’s traditions, culture, and location.

Now, are you allowed to talk about those? Sure! But, it shouldn’t be your main focus. The main reason people NEED to transfer to a different school is to supplement their education.

Remember: Northeastern wants to know why you want to transfer because they’re also measuring who “most deserves” it. If you want to transfer to Northeastern for reasons outside of your career, it is unlikely that you will have a more compelling reason to transfer than someone who does.

Tip: some students can talk about culture, location, weather, and other extraneous details in their Northeastern transfer essay. However, they otten must connect it to an IMPORTANT reason. For example, some students’ learning abilities are heavily impacted by their enivornment (such as those who receive seasonal depression or “winter blues”) or those who require stimulating, fast-paced ecosystems that supplement their ADHD mind. Another one is students who live in politically charged locations like Southern states that are discriminatory to their LGBTQ+ background, which may heavily impact their learning quality. These are actually very valid and important reasons for students to transfer, as they provide proper learning environments for the student to truly feel safe when learning.

Next, make sure your reasons for transferring support your major. That is, your reason should talk about how the resources available at Northwestern would actually help your education in your chosen major.

If, for example, you’re in engineering, you may want to talk about why your original institution lacked the proper resources. It can be anything from sparse professor collaboration opportunities to a lack of programs for startups in your field. Just be sure not to bash your previous institution too harshly! You can be critical of your current institution; but, do it with grace!

Okay, now let’s talk about the “goals you hope to achieve” at Northeastern.

Northeastern University Transfer Essay First Prompt, Goals You Hope to Achieve.

Alright, now let’s talk about goals.

Ideally, your future goals should be aligned with your major of choice. For instance, a student major in business at Northeastern will likely use the resoures available to further their future startup. Or, they may want to build connections to break into the finance industry. They may also want to develop the proper skills necessary to be “mathematically sufficient” in becoming a quantitative analyst.

But, this is Northeastern we’re talking about. Everyone is going to talk about their goals being connected to their major. Poetry majors want to be poets. And, people studying aerodynamics likely want to work for Boeing. If we want to stand out, we’ll need to have profound and creative answers. So, no captain obvious here!

One way to be creative in your answer is to connect personal ideology and philosophy into your goals. Show how your personal morals are related to the goals you have; then, demonstrate how attending Northeastern University would help you achieve your goal, and therefore moral philosophy.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you want to attend Northeastern because you want to be a better business manager and potentially a future consultant for other startup companies. Your future career as a business consultant will be putting the fates of future cutting-edge companies on the line. Your success determines their success, and perhaps even the evolutionary rate of technology as a result. So, attending a great school with fantastic resources like Northwestern helps you contribute to the startup world, and better support upcoming business people with big dreams. This makes the essay not just about what Northwestern can do for you, but also how you can support others.

See where we’re getting at here?

If Northeastern accepts you and gives you the resources needed to be the best business consultant, your acceptance will be tied to the future fate of other potential business founders. Thus, you know you need to get into Northeastern because the moral fate of small businesses in the future is on the line.

So, a short thesis that answers this question may look something like this:

“The reason I must transfer to Northeastern is that it is the most fitting school for me to become a future business consultant for early-stage startups. To attend Northeastern means having the opportunity to help other aspiring business owners who just need enough help to launch off the ground; thus, I’d like to use my experience here to learn everything I need to create a consulting firm that can help local small startups.”

What types of experiences inside and outside of the classroom do you want to engage in during your Northeastern journey? (250 word max)

This question intrinsically asks what you want to do outside of “school stuff” like assignments and tests.

Sounds simple, right?

Well, we’re going to go against the grain here.

Most people approach the second Northeastern transfer essay prompt incorrectly because they are focusing too much on impressing readers. They stuff the 250 word count with as many extracurriculars as they possibly can. They’ll propose they want to make 3 clubs, start a non-profit, protest against oppression, and more all in 2 years. This is vain and only serves as an attempt to impress admissions officers.

Think of it like this: most people say they want to attend clubs and do activities at Norteastern. They write it in their essays. Yet, what are most people doing in their free time?

Nothing!

And, admissions officers know it! They’re not born yesterday. It’s obvious that only a minority of students will actually follow through with what they say they’ll do in this prompt.

So, your goal is to be that minority. It’s not to list all the “cool stuff” you want to do at Northeastern. Rather, you should be gaining their trust. Persuade admissions officers that you’re someone who will supplement their education inside and outside the classroom with realistic plans.

Think about it. If you were an admissions officer, and you heard a student claim they’ll start 3 clubs and create a nonprofit at Northeastern, would you belive them?

Probably not!

A realistic plan would be something actionable and shows you’re a genuine person with interests beyond academics. The keyword here is realistic. Here’s an example.

Let’s say you’re a computer science nerd. But, you’re also a big video game and anime nerd. That’s cool! Northeastern has a wide community of games and animation communities in and out of campus. Here’s what they have on their site. You can talk about wanting to connect your experience as a computer science major to the games and animation community. There’s a lot that your expertise has to offer these groups. And, you may enjoy creating projects like language learning models that can make enjoying these hobbies much more fun.

Be sure to use actionable examples. For example: coding a program that would make mods in fps games more enjoyable and even change up how fps games are approached. Or, collaborating with people outside of computer science to develop a story-based RPG game that would take a twist on the horror genre such as “The Coffin of Andy and Leyley” or “Fear and Hunger.”

These are realistic and not obtuse “resume fillers.” Realistic plans help admissions officers know you better because they’re transparent. It also helps them see the human side, which is crucial for deciding who would make an interesting candidate for their incoming class. They want someone who is going to breathe life into the campus with their cool hobbies, not someone aiming for prestige.

If you have any other questions on how to write the Northeastern transfer essays, don’t be afraid to ask! Simply schedule a free consultation through our contact form, and we will get back to you at approximately 24 hours with a free advising session!