<p>I am a freshman at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, after opting not to go to Clark Univeristy or the University of Iowa. I went to a very competitive magnet school, and was led to believe by my guidance counselor that I had a good chance of getting into any of the other schools I applied to (Tufts, Barnard, Bowdoin, Smith, and George Washington). After applying ED to Tufts, I was deferred and ultimately rejected, and I was waitlisted at Bowdoin.
I am confident that SMU is not the place for me. I pretty much knew this coming in, but was determined to give it a chance (especially since it was basically a free-ride). I know now that I want to transfer, but after being rejected from almost everywhere I applied last year, I'm uncertain as to if transferring is even a possibility for me.
Does anyone have a successful transfer story, or suggestions for schools I might like that might accept me? And has anyone transferred into a school they were previously waitlisted at? I really like Bowdoin, even after their final letter of, "We have no room for you."</p>
<p>Your post could have been written by, except I am at a different college. Even some of the same schools we applied to!</p>
<p>I am wondering the same thing......also, for those success stories out there, what do you think made the difference in your transfer application? Better essays? Retook the SAT's? </p>
<p>I applied to mostly smaller LAC's the first time around, and would like to focus on top-tier mid sized schools this time around, but I have almost lost all of my confidence. I mean, why would it be any different this time around? </p>
<p>Hopefully there are some encouraging stories out there!</p>
<p>wow, same situation here. my guidance counselor told me to apply to 2 reach schools, 3 maybe schools and 3 safeties. i did just that and only got into one safety school which i never thought i'd end up going to. i applied for swarthmore, gwu, vassar, skidmore, bryn mawr, wellesley, SUNY stony brook, SUNY binghamton. i was rejected ED to swarthmore which was pretty much expected and applied EDII to bryn mawr which was supposed to be my safety/maybe school. i was waitlisted and ultimately rejected. skidmore waitlisted me but rejected me in the end. the only school i got into was stony brook and it sucks so much here. i'm going to have a killer time trying to transfer because the administration here is so incompetent and doesn't give a crap about any of their students and the professors are too lazy to write recs for their students. after being rejected by all my schools i just don't know if trying to transfer will kill my self confidence again.</p>
<p>Yeah guys, chin up. I applied out of a magnet school w/ mediocre grades, and was rejected or waitlisted almost everywhere. I worked hard in college, took a tough course load and made a 3.6 GPA, and got really involved in ECs that I really wanted to do which enabled some cool application essays. Second time around, I got accepted to some of the best schools in the country. With compelling essays and a shiny college record, it is def possisble:) Now for some of my own advice from experience: make sure you know what you DO want in a school and that you aren't just running from your "less prestigious" first school, b/c you might surprise yourself w/ several acceptances, and you want to make sure you don't just wind up somewhere else that's wrong for you for different reasons.</p>
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Yeah guys, chin up. I applied out of a magnet school w/ mediocre grades, and was rejected or waitlisted almost everywhere. I worked hard in college, took a tough course load and made a 3.6 GPA, and got really involved in ECs that I really wanted to do which enabled some cool application essays. Second time around, I got accepted to some of the best schools in the country. With compelling essays and a shiny college record, it is def possisble Now for some of my own advice from experience: make sure you know what you DO want in a school and that you aren't just running from your "less prestigious" first school, b/c you might surprise yourself w/ several acceptances, and you want to make sure you don't just wind up somewhere else that's wrong for you for different reasons.
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<p>You also transferred from Smith so I think your situation is a little different.</p>
<p>Anyway, to the rest of you, you really need to be confident b/c if you aren't it will show in your app. The past is the past and you can't change. Let it make you better. Get a high GPA. Get involved in some ECs.</p>
<p>Yeah... it may be. On the other hand, Smith has major grad inflation (like average grade is B+, so I don't know how that affects things...)</p>
<p>(Average grade at Swarthmore is B+, and slightly higher at Princeton and Harvard.)</p>
<p>Interesting... especially w/ all that talk of grade deflation at Swat. Yeah, anyway I was just making the point that possibly a 3.6 from Smith doesn't mean less than a 3.6 from a less "prestigious" school with less grade inflation -I just don't know. Good luck peaps...</p>
<p>Of course people have transferred successfully-don't give up if you really feel that you need something different. Take a full schedule and get excellent grades, and many of the schools you mentioned will take another look. In the meantime, you could contact various admissions offices of the schools where you're interetsted in attending. You may need to look at a junior year transfer, as schools often want a year of college to make their transfer admissions decisions, but that just gives you more time to make a good choice for yourself.
Think about what you may want to study - if you have a solid plan, it will help if you choose a school that is strong in the program you desire. In the meantime, take a range of courses that you could transfer easily to your transfer school.
Also - did you have a good high school counselor? If so, it wouldn't hurt to talk to them again. They may be able to give you some ideas about what would look attractive to the schools you're interested in. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Interesting... especially w/ all that talk of grade deflation at Swat.</p>
<p>Yeah - turns out to be false. Swatties like to talk about how difficult it is to get good grades there, but it doesn't turn out to be true, relative to similar institutions. In fact, it is actually slightly easier to carrier a high grade point average, because first-term grades (which are usually lower) don't count at all. Anyhow, the last table I saw had Swarthmore at 3.30, , Williams at 3.34, and both Harvard and Princeton in the 3.4s. And at Harvard, roughly 80% graduate with honors (at Smith, Latin Honors is less than 20%; don't know what it is at Swarthmore.)</p>
<p>Now, Berkeley, that's a different matter.</p>
<p>siri, I know people that want to go to SMU. There are students at SMU that come from families that are well connected. Why don't you give it a chance?</p>
<p>Mini:</p>
<p>The percentage of "Latin Honors" at Swarthmore is zero. There are no GPA-based honors. The only Honors grads at Swarthmore are students who opt for the Honors track, which includes honors preparations in four topics (three in the major department, one in a related department, usually including a 2-semester honors thesis or research project.</p>
<p>Whether they receive "honors" and what level, is solely determined by a panel of outside examiners following a review of the thesis and a series of written and oral examinations at the end of senior year.</p>
<p>The concensus on campus is that the honors track at Swarthmore is very demanding from a workload standpoint.</p>
<p>The outside examiners designate highest honors, high honors, honors, no honors. These designations appear on the diploma and are translated to a students' GPA as follows (with the 10 year avergage percentage of honors candidates receiving each designation):</p>
<p>Highest Honors -- 4.1+ (9% of honors candidates)
High Honors -- 3.6 - 4.0 (50% of honors candidates)
Honors -- 3.1 - 3.5 (39% of honors candidates)
No Honors -- 3.0 or below (2% of honors candidates)</p>
<p>About 33% of Swarthmore grads currently receive one of the honors designations.</p>
<p>My daughter just completed the transfer process --She transferred after her first year from an LAC to a mid-sized U that had waitlisted her in the first round. She was also accepted by another school that waitlisted her during senior year. So yes, it is possible to gain acceptance to a college that waitlisted you in high school.</p>
<p>A few thoughts on the transfer process. As a general premise, when a student wants to transfer as a sophomore, his or her high school record is the most important element of the application, since at the time the transfer application is submitted, the student only has one semester's worth of college grades. (That said, I don't think there's a prayer of transferring up without a very solid first college semester.) The high school record becomes far less important when sophomores try to transfer for junior year; there's a much more fully developed college record for transfer schools to look at.</p>
<p>I also believe that essays are critical in the transfer process. Once you narrow your choices, you need to explain to colleges via your essays and cover letter exactly why they ought to take you. You can do this by digging deep into your schools websites to learn as much as you can about particular departments and about the campuses, beginning an e-mail dialogue with a professor in your area of interest, then articulating very specifically why you would like to attend each college and why you be an asset to each campus.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, especially wjb and A.S.A.P, your advice will be really helpful.</p>
<p>dstark: I know that SMU is a great place to make connections. But what's more important to me is that I actually learn in my classes. At SMU, Greek life and whether you wear your polo shirts with the collars up or down is far more important than academics. The few opportunities SMU provides cannot compensate for the school's community, atmosphere, and lack of intellectualism.</p>
<p>Siri: A couple more thoughts on the transfer process.</p>
<p>Have you checked the USNews website (Premium Edition)? You can click on the link to any school and find a subsection on transfer statistics. You can find out how "transfer friendly" a school is, i.e., how many applied and how many were accepted. If a school accepts just a handful of transfers, you may decide it's not worth the effort to apply.</p>
<p>Other things to think about: Do you want to live on campus? Most schools do not guarantee on campus housing for transfers, and some have very little housing available for transfers. You can get information on housing by contacting the school. You mentioned your interest in Bowdoin. We know someone who was admitted there as a transfer, but told he'd have to live off campus in an apartment. Although he loved Bowdoin, he decided to transfer to a different school. </p>
<p>Another factor that may affect your decision is if, and how, your credits will transfer. Schools have varying policies.</p>