Admission as a transfer student in the field of electrical engineering - start?

hi , please i need some help on how to go about with my essay, my first language is french so i find a little bit of difficulties on how to go about it . my to pic is :

describe your past academic experiences and your reasons for wishing to enroll to Maryland at this point in your academic career. Students who have been out of school for several years, or who have a personal circumstance that affected performance, may wish to address that situation in their essay.

all suggestions are welcome

revival
I would avoid answering "personal circumstance that affected performance, may wish to address that situation in their essay", and staiy focused on being positive throughout your essay. Usually if you are a transfer student, your application gets trashed if you don't meet their min. gpa for the transferring credits that you have. The only way to go around this is by applying during the Spring semester, when all the high school students are not applying. It's always best to apply when your competition does not exist. As for the essay, I don't even think they read it... (I was a prior friend to the admissions personnel), and what he told me was that they just look at your GPA and any extracurricular activities you've done in your resume. I would think you would want to focus more on your resume, to the point if they were to glance at it, they would want you.

thanks alot