Advice on Wellesley Transfer

I was recently rejected to Wellesley College and I’ve honestly been sad ever since. I wasn’t shocked because I know that my stats weren’t high as other girls, it just still hurts because Wellesley has been my dream school for so long. My original idea was to take a gap year, but my parents weren’t having that (lol) so I plan to apply as a transfer student after my first year. Do you have at tips? I am very willing to work and I’ve recently started saving up so that I could fly out there for an on campus interview. I know this will be a very hard process and any advice you have will be a great help.

I transferred to Wellesley after one year at another school. I’ll try to answer your question.

My first piece of advice is probably not what you want to hear. However, I’d strongly recommend starting off at a school with the full intention of staying there all four years. Transferring is tough. You miss out on the first year bonding everyone else does, and you have to adjust to an entirely new environment yet again. Getting accepted as a transfer student is also very challenging. The acceptance rate for transfer students my year was under 15%, compared to a first-year acceptance rate of ~28%. The first-year acceptance rate this year was 19%, so it’s safe to assume the transfer student acceptance rate next year will be very, very low.

One option is to apply to a school similar to Wellesley that’s still taking applications. I checked out a few other women’s college, and Sweet Briar College is still open: http://sbc.edu/admissions/apply-now/ It has a good reputation and was included on a list of the top ten women’s colleges in the U.S. by Forbes. If you like Wellesley, you’ll probably have a good experience at Sweet Briar. You should also check out the book Colleges That Change Lives and see if any of the schools interest you and are still accepting applications. Those schools are also liberal arts colleges like Wellesley.

If you do choose to apply to transfer, here’s my advice:

*Get to know your professors so they can write you letters of recommendation. Go to office hours.
*Participate in extracurricular activities. Join clubs as soon as possible, see if there are any volunteer opportunities you like, etc.
*Make sure your essay is solid. Have friends look over it and make suggestions.
*If you have any bad habits in school, work on breaking them now. Procrastination will kill your GPA.
*Apply to more than one school. If you like Wellesley, you should also apply to transfer to schools like Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke.

I hope this was at least somewhat helpful for you. If you don’t mind my asking, what schools did you get into for next year?

It seems that Wellesley is really hard to get into as a transfer.
Is there any where else you are interested in transferring to that you can afford?
Can you afford SFSU for 4 years?
10 percent is really low. Do you have other schools that you can afford that you have a better chance of getting into as a transfer?

If Wellesley is your dream school your best bet is to attend a cc and transfer out. I attended sfsu for my first year (fall 2016) and I had transferring out in mind. Between the articulation agreement with sfsu and the private university I applied to, not that many classes were transferable. I took a semester off to attend cc and get credits that actually transfer over. If I could redo it, I would just attend cc and transfer out. However, it depends how Wellesley and transferring works and your major (for classes that transfer over). I also live in the Bay Area so there wasn’t a huge significance difference for me (well besides just being in the city and explore more!)

So my dream college is Wellesley .Unfortunately I didn’t get in, but I still want to go so bad. It’s extremely hard to get into. Their freshman applicant acceptance rate is like 20%) & their transfer is like 10%.

I want to apply to Wellesley as a transfer because it’s honestly my dream .
Basically this is my choice, go to lahc(community college), save money because I could get the first year free or go to SFSU my first year & pay 30000 the first year and then transfer.

Pros & cons
Con(SFSU)- I lose money the first year, what if I like it so much that I dont want to leave.

Con( LAHC) - I won’t get to leave. My parents and I barely get along so I feel that I really just need to leave, also if I stay I won’t gain independence, I’ll be hurt on decision day @ my school, what if it is all for no reason because Wellesleys transfer rate is so low, then if I don’t get in I will have missed out on the freshman year experience.

Pros(SFSU)- more opportunities out there to build my resume, gain independence, be in a city that I love, be away from LA because I’ve always hated his place

Hey, I’m sorry–I didn’t see your (OP’s) reply before I wrote my own response. Disregard my question about what schools you got into. I would still recommend applying to Sweet Briar and schools with a similar profile to Wellesley that accept applications on a rolling basis. If you must choose between community college and SFSU, I would recommend going to SFSU sinc that allows you to get out of a bad home situation. If you do end up applying to transfer next year, definitely apply to a bunch of schools, not just Wellesley.

Thank you all so much for you advice! I decided to attend community college for my first year.