Any Transfer Safeties for my stats?C'mon, take a look :)

Transfer Students
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<p>I am currently a freshman at a good CUNY senior college in NY , although I was given 2 merit scholarships that covered nearly 2x the cost of tuition (most prestigious scholarships given out in school). I've posted on threads for brown, yale, and johns hopkins. Obviously these schools would be reaches/high reaches, so I am looking for good safeties (i reallly wanna get out here--i feel as though the life is sucked out of me everyday at my current school). I would like to go to a small/medium sized university or LAC that isn't quite in, but near a major city. I guess i also want a changed of envirionment; I feel like the grind of NYC has worn me out.</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>College GPA: semester's halfway done, and it's looking like it will be a 4.0 =)
Credits: 25.5 completed as of now (AP credits and a college class I took in HS), and 43.5 by the start of spring semester
ECs(still working on them): sorority member, VP of a philosophy club, founded 2 service clubs, an editor of college newspaper and 2 literary magazines, student governement member, research assistant with my psych professor, looking to do intramural sports</p>

<p>And now the HS stuff:
HS: Very competitive/prestigious nyc public
GPA: 95.9 UW (school didn't do the 4.0 scale)
SAT: 2230 (not so good)
ACT: 35
SAT II: Bio 700/ World 790/ US 750/ Chemistry 800/ MathIIC 650 (that burned)
Note--I have retaken Bio and IIC, am expecting 800 on IIC at least and a pretty big improvement for bio as well
APs: Took 12, eight 5s, two 4s, two 3s (my school offered everyone practically every AP out there...there are many people that took even more than me)
Awards: National AP Scholar, National Merit Scholar, Scholastic writing contest honorable mention, distinguished key clubber award
ECs: sports team, key club executive officer, newspaper editor, magazine editor, 600 hrs volunteer work, student gov't member, some more stuff that's not worth writing home about. Nothing on a national scale or anything =(
Ponts of interest(?): Fluent in 3 non-english languages, learning 2 new ones in college. (i like learning languages)
Why I <em>probably</em> got WLed/rejected from my top schools: 1) Was considered international at the time and asian 2)Very poor, asked for financial aid, even though I knew my status 3)Depression issues, mostly centered around immigration and family problems 4)Did all my apps literally the day before the deadline--and I even sent some in weeks after the deadline (was not right in the head around this time) 5) I guess I was too much of a plain, sliced bread applicant.</p>

<p>With that in mind, are there any good private safeties that might want me? I don't mean SUNYs, since I'm hoping for something smaller (and better).</p>

2

<p>What do you want to major in? Have you looked at Case, Emory, and Vanderbilt? Wesleyan and Trinity? LACs are really tricky because they accept so few applicants. If you are female, look into the Massachusetts all female colleges (Mount Holyoke, Smith, and Wellesley).</p>

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<p>“sorority member” means that you can look at the women’s colleges. Visit [Colleges</a> & Universities by Name | The Women’s College Coalition](<a href=“Find a College Search | Women's College Coalition”>Find a College Search | Women's College Coalition) for the whole list. Your stats are in range for even the best ones and you might like Bryn Mawr’s location in the suburbs of Philadelphia.</p>

<p>As for “safer” places, there are any number of nice, smaller liberal arts schools in NY State. A lot would depend on how far you are willing to drive to get there, and how close to a city you really want/need to be. Do you still need boat-loads of financial aid? Then you need to be looking at places with good aid for transfer students.</p>

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<p>happymomof1, i will not be applying for fin. aid for any school i apply to (my citizenship status makes me ineligible). i would actually like to get out of ny and maybe go to new england for wellesley and maybe smith (i don’t know too much about smith). i would stay in the city/state if i could xfer to cornell/columbia, but getting in will be tough. i don’t mind going to a big university either, but preferably if they have a strong sense of community. i’m looking into doing an interdisciplinary, custom engineering/bio/econ/language major as a pre-med/pre-business.</p>

<p>I’m a little worried because although i think my stats are ok for tier 1/2 colleges, i am considered an international student, and am afraid of how much that’s going to hurt my chances anywhere. Also, while my HS was a brand name one, my college isnt a brand name top 10 school, so i’m worried about how adcoms factor in prestige of insittution when considering my app.</p>

5

<p>bump10char</p>

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<p>I would be very surprised if you had a great application and got rejected from Mount Holyoke and Smith with those stats. Mount Holyoke in particular is very good at looking at the “whole person.” I suggest applying by the priority deadline to Smith, because you could have a decision as early as late march.</p>

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<p>thankss college_ruled, i will be looking into smith’s priority deadline. what about some non LAC, more traditional schools? i mentioned earlier that i’d like a midsized to small school, but i’m ok with a large school as well, as long as there are several undergrad schools. i was think i had a pretty good chance at NYU (gallatin for reasons of my major), emory? are there any other national unis i should consider?</p>

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<p>bump10char</p>

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<p>Do you realize that people tend to characterize NYU as isolating? (And it’s in NYC which is “getting to you?”) Transfer admissions is a fickle process so I can’t tell you that NYU is a safety with a 30% acceptance rate for transfers. But, if you like NYU, I would say go for it.</p>

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<p>nyc is getting to me, but not to the extent that that i’d pass on nyu/columbia, i guess i didn’t clarify that the aggregate of my school plus the city has worn me out. however, i am much more unhappy with my school environment than with the city itself. a new place is nice yes, but obviously not at the expense of even nyu for me, if i have no better options. </p>

<p>you mentioned nyu’s acceptance rate is 30%. are there any similar caliber schools that are more transfer-friendly? i’m not holding my breath for getting into the top schools/LACs, so I am trying to look for a good national uni with a good xfer rate that is more overlooked than schools like nyu,emory,etc.</p>

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<p>The top schools tend to have a high retention rate, so many qualified candidates are competing for very few spots. I would start with the ranking list of your choice. Then, I would go to the college board website, because it lists the number of transfers who applied and the number of transfers who were accepted for each school. </p>

<p>You thought freshmen admissions was insane and illogical? Transfer admissions is definitely worse. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

12

<p>thanks, i wouldn’t expect transfer admissions to be any other way. It’s gonna be very tough, but hopefully some schools will see my worth. I have filled out the common app and supplements that are available from the colleges that I’d like to transfer to (except the for the essays), as well as contacting each school about info sessions and fee waivers. Basically, the transfer process is something I think about and work on a little everyday. I have also visited all of my top choices in the past when I applied as a senior. Should i do the same for safeties? I feel like that’s going to be an awful lot of money that I could use for ordering transcripts and SAT scores, and paying for postage… </p>

<p>bump</p>

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<p>I thought visiting made writing applications easier, but other wise wasn’t mandatory. The only question is, if you must choose among your safeties, will you be still happy with them after you visit?</p>

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<p>bump10char</p>

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<p>If you don’t need financial aid, your international status will not be a negative factor for admissions.</p>

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<p>glad to hear that happymom</p>