Advice for future transfer?

Transfer Students
1

<p>I am currently a high school senior, and I have applied to 11 colleges in total. I have been rejected from five so far (Northwestern Medill ED, Uchicago, Tulane, Wellesley "unlikely" letter, Mount Holyoke). I have been accepted to DePaul's college of communication in Chicago with a 18,000 per yer merit scholarship. I still have to hear back from Barnard, Smith, Bryn Mawr, USC, and Umass Amherst. By the end of senior year my GPA will be around a 3.2 or 3.3 UW (I have had extenuating circumstances that have contributed to this GPA, which have been explained by guidance counselor). I have taken 18 honors, 1 AP, and 8 regular courses. I am a minority applicant (biracial african american and white). I am not sure where I am going next year. If I get into the other schools I have to hear back from, that would be nice but they are very expensive. I thought maybe I would go to DePaul for a year (although switch to arts and sciences not be enrolled in communication school, since the credits are not really transferable to where I want to go), and get a 4.0 (I am also applying to their honors program at DePaul, so if I was through the honors program, would this increase my chances of transfer admission to the schools below?), retake the ACT for a 36 (I only have a 26 now), join many EC's and get an internship at chicago tribune or equivalent. If I went to DePaul I would like to transfer when I am a freshman to be a sophmore. Here is where I was thinking:</p>

<p>Harvard
Columbia
UPenn
Uchicago and NU (would this be weird if I already was rejected?)
Tufts
Stanford</p>

<p>Do you have any advice on how I could get into these schools as a transfer? I have not performed at my academic best during high school, and I know that I can truly do the work, and I want to prove that during college, so that I can transfer to a school in whihc I belong.</p>

2

<p>Next year I am going to plan on winning the lottery. How should I go about best preparing myself for this?</p>

<p>The point is its one thing saying oh I will get a 4.0 and get a 36 on the ACT. It is a completely different thing to actually do it. Focus on your freshman classes and getting good grades. If you only had a 3.2 in high school get ready to work 20x harder in college.</p>

3

<p>Well I am serious about getting a 4.0 next year and 36 act. It is going to happen. I know how to work very hard and get results. I will do anything to make this happen.</p>

4

<p>I don’t think 1 semester of 4.0 at depaul is going to overpower 4 years of 3.2. You will have a much better chance if you wait and transfer as a junior.</p>

5

<p>For those schools you are also going to need some impressive extracurriculars. Get involved in clubs on campus and try and get into research if you can.</p>

<p>As far as your grades and scores… Good luck. 26ACT is ~78th percentile. A 36 is 99.9+ percentile. That is a huge jump even for standardized tests (which you can study and improve on).</p>

<p>4.0 is doable if you work your butt off. Check out ratemyprofessor to look for profs who are easy when signing up for courses.</p>