"Destination reached!" We had entered Pilani - home to one of the top engineering colleges in India.

Please 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. Your essay should be no more than 300 words.

"Destination reached!" voiced the GPS device in the car! It was a dark cloudy day of the month of July. Sitting in the back seat of the car, my eyes were focused on what was to come. After a six-hour drive from the city of Jaipur, we had entered a village, Pilani. It is home to one of the top engineering colleges in India, BITS Pilani. As we entered the lush green campus, we lost our way. It was a very large campus after all! With some help from strangers, we reached the admissions office. I was asked to fill up a few paper forms; smile for the camera to get a photograph clicked for my id card, and allotted a room in one of the hostels.

As the first day of August rolled out, I was college bound, whether I was ready or not. I was no longer walking past familiar faces in the hallway. To put it plainly, I was lonely. I was homesick. My first year has been a time of transition as it is for most college freshmen. All my decisions were taken away from the familiar support structures of both home and high school. As a result, I have developed a greater sense of my abilities, both academic and social.

I am pursuing a double major in Mathematics and Chemical Engineering. I spent a lot of time in my freshmen year learning computer science. I took up courses on 'Coursera' and 'edX', and enjoyed watching Professor David Malan teach 'CS 50' at Harvard University. Back in high school, I was one of those computer geeks who coded a website for my class back in 8th grade, and created a program which I called the 'Differentiator' in 12th grade. It could differentiate any mathematical function given to it.

I spent the summer break reading about computer networks and cryptography. I tweaked routers and switches, set up a LAN on my own and configured firewalls. I learnt about the 'Heartbleed bug' that exploits vulnerability in openSSL and played around with 'Kali Linux', a distribution of Linux designed for penetration testing. The Internet is getting omnipresent, and the importance of cyber security is growing. The realization of what I want to do in my life has been very satisfying. There was one barrier though. I wanted to major in computer science. With some introspection, I believe a change is necessary.

I have been a big fan of the ACES program at UMD. Although I believe I want to learn the 'breadth' of computer science first, and then the 'depth'. I know that by transferring, I will be able to explore my passion among others who share a similar interest. I will have the opportunity to take variety of classes within my major, while also getting internships and conducting research within the field. I have made my decision to attend a new school wholeheartedly. I'm not scared; I'm ready and enthusiastic. I've grown since that dark, July day; I'm ready to start a new chapter.

As the first day of August rolled out, I was college bound, whether I was ready or not. I was no longer walking past familiar faces in the hallway. To put it plainly, I was lonely. I was homesick. My first year has been a time of transition as it is for most college freshmen. All my decisions were taken away from the familiar support structures of both home and high school. As a result, I have developed a greater sense of my abilities, both academic and social. I have to say this paragraph might not work in your favor. It makes me wonder if this might happen again once you transfer. You might want to re-write it in a way that makes me feel more like you know how to better handle the situation?

I am pursuing a double major in Mathematics and Chemical Engineering. I spent a lot of time in my freshmen year learning computer science. I took up courses on 'Coursera' and 'edX', and enjoyed watching Professor David Malan teach 'CS 50' at Harvard University. Back in high school, I was one of those computer geeks who coded a website for my class back in 8th grade, and created a program which I called the 'Differentiator' in 12th grade. It could differentiate any mathematical function given to it. This is great! I would actually like to hear more. It would show that you have initiative and that you also truly do have a passion for you career since you stated at a young age. As I mentioned before, you might want to delete the previous paragraph and elaborate more on this one

I spent the summer break reading about computer networks and cryptography. I tweaked routers and switches, set up a LAN on my own and configured firewalls. I learnt about the 'Heartbleed bug' that exploits vulnerability in openSSL and played around with 'Kali Linux', a distribution of Linux designed for penetration testing. The Internet is gettingbecoming omnipresent, and the importance of cyber security is growing. TheThis had lead me to the realization of what I want to do in my lifeand it has been very satisfying. There was one barrier though. I wanted to major in computer science. With some introspection, I believe a change is necessary.I don't really understand what you mean. It seems very vague. What kind of change must be made? What is the barrier?

I have been a big fan of the ACES program at UMD. Although I believe I want to learn the 'breadth' of computer science first, and then the 'depth'. I know that by transferring, I will be able to explore my passion among others who share a similar interest. I will have the opportunity to take variety of classes within my major, while also getting internships and conducting research within the field. I have made my decision to attend a new school wholeheartedly. I'm not scared; I'm ready and enthusiastic. I've grown since that dark, July day; I'm ready to start a new chapter. I don't feel like this is a strong enough ending. I think you should re-write it in a way that will showcase why transferring will help you get to where you want. Maybe talk about potential research projects and professors you plant to work with. Let the admissions directors know how their school in particular will help you (you mentioned classes, I'm pretty sure other schools offer the same classes if not then be specific about that) and how you plan to contribute as well. Hope this helps!