<p>I had a friend in high school who was a year above me. He was an ok student, in about the top 30% of his class, and he did ok on his ACT. He also was very good in track and debate, but he didn't really do much else. When college admissions times came, he applied to go to Georgetown, American, Brown, and another midlevel state school in the Midwest. He didn't end up going to the first three, so he went to the latter.</p>
<p>A year later, he decided that he didn't like his school anymore and wanted to transfer. So he applied to American and Georgetown again as well as some other schools. He got into American, even though he didn't get in the first time. However, recently, he got off the Georgetown waitlist too.</p>
<p>I'm really surprised by this decision. I applied to Georgetown this winter, and I got rejected. However, I promise I'm not making this post because I'm bitter. I'm just surprised he got in. While I'm not sure how his grades were, I don't think he did any extracirriculars besides Greek life.</p>
<p>I'm really happy for my friend. But I'm just wondering, is it true that some colleges are easier to get in as a transfer? I'm not planning on leaving for Georgetown or anywhere else anytime soon, but I'm kind of curious.</p>
<p>For transfer students, an important factor is performance in college courses. Perhaps he did very well in his college courses to get in as a transfer despite not doing well enough in high school to get in as a freshman.</p>
<p>That is not especially unusual. Many “late bloomer” students with mediocre high school records go to community college, do well there, then transfer to a state university that they had no chance of getting into as freshmen.</p>
<p>I’m also guessing that he could highlight the public service aspects of his Greek experience and has matured in the meantime to right a meaningful essay about his reasons for transferring. Obviously, his college grades were a lot better than top 30%.</p>
<p>Agree with ucbalumnus that some kids just take longer to mature and figure things out. </p>
<p>I don’t think that it is easier to transfer into most selective schools…it’s just different.</p>
<p>Some schools can be easier for transfer admissions (e.g., Vanderbilt, Emory, Cornell), but for most top schools, transfer admission is next to impossible. It’s one reason that the advice to attend a community college (when the family is in a good position to pay for college), is not sound for top students.</p>
<p>D’s BF was accepted to transfer to Georgetown from their 50-ish ranked LAC. He decided to stay put at the LAC, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. His grades were obviously excellent, which probably helped him get admitted as a transfer student to GT.</p>
My DD didn’t get into any top colleges as a freshman (with one exception, but they wanted her to pay a full price). She decided to enroll in the gap year program with college credit in hopes to improve her academic profile. Is this realistic?