In an essay of 300 words or less, explain your motivation to transfer from your current/previous institution to Illinois and how your academic interests and/or professional goals will be fulfilled in your intended program of study.
All of the most successful professors I have met at my current university have advised me similarly; they have told me to aspire for the best and to challenge myself. That, to be a great scientist and for paving my way to a successful career as a doctoral student I should have as many options to explore as possible. As I am only a sophomore student, I have not experimented with all the branches for Physics and, although I am really grateful for having the opportunity to study at the University of Texas at El Paso, I know and I have been told by my professors, that it would be better for me to study in a bigger department with more options. Up to this moment, I have been attracted the most by high energy and particle physics, as well as cosmology. I know that at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, having the opportunity to study under professors of the High Energy Physics Group would allow me to grow my view of all the available branches of Physics and, potentially, begin my path towards studying high energy physics. In addition to this, my current university does not offer as much options regarding the optative courses I am interested in such as Subatomic Physics and Astrophysics, topics which I am eager to study. When I was on middle school I could only dream of the LHC, I would never imagine that I would study a scientist that has worked with it. Just as them, I want to achieve great things, big discoveries; and I would be honored to be able to do so at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
This is my first time posting, could you help me, please?
Thank you so much!
Prong, you need to focus your essay equally on your academic goals and professional aspirations. Therefore, you will need to revise the essay in order to properly shed light on both. Rather than telling the reviewer the reasons why other professors advised you to move to another school with a bigger science department, try to focus on the reasons why you are motivated to choose that option. You already specified those reasons in the latter part of your essay. In fact, that is the response that I know you have to place at the very beginning of the essay because it instantly addresses the "Why" of your transfer:
Up to this moment, I have been attracted the most by high energy and particle physics, as well as cosmology. I know that at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, having the opportunity to study under professors of the High Energy Physics Group would allow me to grow my view of all the available branches of Physics and, potentially, begin my path towards studying high energy physics...
That whole paragraph already addresses the motivation to transfer from your current/previous institution to Illinois and how your academic interests and/or professional goals will be fulfilled in your intended program of study. Do you already see how that single paragraph addresses this need in the prompt? If you just work on enhancing that paragraph, you will be able to address the essay prompt with even less than 300 words. In fact, you can say that this essay prompt can be answered in a single paragraph. That paragraph which I quoted above. If you can work more on that response, you will be able to come up with the best response for the prompt. Develop the professional goals aspect in a separate paragraph and you should be all set :-)
