Frankly these question are being written while under some heavy medication so my apologies if they sound completely idiotic. You don’t have to be a Spring transfer to answer my questions, if you KNOW someone who was a transfer, just ask them the questions!
Can ANYONE here tell me how Spring transfer works for the waitlisted? PLEASE. Lots of conflicting reports everywhere, I just want to feel safe because I chose not to deposit anywhere besides my local community college until I get my October deposit. I got waitlisted with a 2.66/2160 (only took that dumbass test once) as well as 750 Math II and 730 Literature I took for the hell of it. My mid-year senior grades were possibly the lowest honor roll ever (A, B, B, B+, B, B) and the final transcript is going to be quite a bit uglier with some Cs in AP classes in the mix (thank you MassCore weighting system) BUUUUUUT my GPA will still go up by about .1 in the end (probably up to a 2.75 which is BETTER than what I applied with).
Something I find problematic with this system is that they say I can’t drop my grades too much, but there have been more than a few kids with 2.5-2.6 GPAs (we’re talking grades that go through the whole damn alphabet) and shit SATs who also got waitlisted. Can I drop to their level?
I guess I’m gonna be taking one interesting, and probably depressing pathway if it turns out UMass spring isn’t as “guaranteed” as they said on the FAQ, but I REALLY REALLY want to go here now. A beautiful campus, endless parties, great social communities, strong academics especially with the five college consortium (and I hear great things about Adam Sitze), and, call me superficial, plenty of attractive women. For years I’ve dreamed of getting the hell out of Boston for college but it seems money is the key because, hell, even if I did get into Cuse no way in hell I’m paying $240000 for a piece of paper.
How does transfer credits work? I called the office and they said "just take gen ed courses" in a rather detached manner. Almost all of the courses that I paid out of the ass for over the summer (and later fall) are Web courses, which are supposed to be accredited. Is transferring those credits easy upon spring entrance? What about my AP credits? Is that an easy process? I'm expecting at least 15 AP credits, maybe 27 and I do NOT want those to go to waste.
Again, least important factor, and probably the dumbest question, but how is social life as a junior freshman transfer? Is rushing a frat still easy? Is there any sense of "the new kid" stigma some get in high school?
@jcort1 Central has a reputation of being very liberal and hippy and thus tends to attract a fair number of stoners. I would say that yes, the stoner rep is true, but it’s not nearly as bad as the internet makes it out to be. People smoke and drink in every part of campus (it’s college after all), but Southwest is the only res area that tends to be a bit too crazy. I know plenty of people in Central who don’t smoke or smoke minimally. However, I would recommend Orchard Hill because a lot of CNS students live up there and the walk isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Northeast dorms are also close to many buildings on campus, but the dorms themselves are a bit rundown and the bathroom/lounge layout isn’t as nice as the OHill setup.
@rayword45 I’ll try to answer your questions to the best of my abilities since I couldn’t quite understand what you’re asking.
1)This all depends on what your admissions decision letter says. As far as I understand, fall waitlist/ spring transfer means that you are guaranteed to be admitted for the spring semester as long as you don’t screw up monumentally during your semester at a CC. UMass cares a lot more about GPAs than SATs, so if I were you, I’d do my best to maintain good grades at community college.
2)Transfer credits depend a lot on the department you’re taking the courses in. I can’t speak for other majors, but if you are taking computer science classes, there is a list on the CICS website that lists the colleges and courses the department gives credit for. It’ll be some work, but with enough digging you should find the info you need for other majors too. Transferring AP credits is easy as long as you meet the grade requirements listed on the NSO page. It’s a matter of contacting College Board when you want to transfer them.
3)Don’t know what you mean by junior freshman transfer and some clarification on this term would be nice, because transferring as a freshman and transferring as a junior have 2 different answers. In short, I’ve found that people who come in second semester freshman year have no trouble finding friends and having a social life, because freshmen are still more willing to meet people at that stage. Juniors have a bit more trouble as many of them get placed in a transfer dorm and juniors that have been on campus since freshman year have their routines established. Rushing is easy if you’re a freshman, plenty of sophomores do it too. Overall, it’s easier to adjust if you come in as a freshman than a junior.
For the record, I meant coming into the school Spring 2017 as a second semester Freshman. Sorry for being so confusing lol I was a tad bit flustered. You perfectly answered my second and third questions so kudos to you.
But I think I need some clarification for question 1 a bit. The letter I received seemed to imply that it wasn’t CC courses that mattered to them in terms of transferring, but rather it was all in the final high school transcript (never mentioned anything about CC, that was just my choice so I can finish my Gen Ed). I just wanted to know what mattered for my final high school transcript because the grades themselves aren’t quite as pretty as the honor roll mid-year (one C+, most of the grades either stayed stagnant or dropped to a minus, one A to A+) BUT unlike the grades, the GPA is gonna be anywhere from 2.72-2.81 so that’s a significant improvement over 2.66 (and way better than my friends who also got waitlisted with 2.52-2.59). I just wish I knew wtf they meant by “as long as the grades and courses on their final high school transcript are consistent with the academic record with which they applied”
@rayword45 Have you contacted the admissions counselors at UMASS? I would guess that they can provide better information than you will get in the Ask a UMASS Student thread. On the surface, it looks like you are on track, but, for your own peace of mind, a phone call and a conversation with admissions would probably be the best thing for you to do and then you can go on and enjoy graduation and your summer. Best of luck.
Oh I did contact them. They were completely obtuse and useless, not to mention RUDE.
I relax a bit more when I think of the few people I know who did the Spring transfer, but that was a couple of years ago when a 2.5 at my school was a guaranteed admit.
“as long as the grades and courses on their final high school transcript are consistent with the academic record with which they applied” means that as long as you graduate with AT LEAST a 2.66 (which is the GPA you applied with), you’ll be able to transfer in for the spring semester. Since it seems like you are graduating with a GPA that is higher than the 2.66 you applied with, you should be all set.
My dtr’s NSO is on July 11, 12. She is worried that by the time she chooses classes and housing, her options will be limited. Is there any way she can choose classes earlier? I know she can go online for housing in June. Can she visit the dorms ahead of time? Thank you in advance.
So in terms of classes, there’s unfortunately not much she can do ahead of time. If you can attend an NSO, the university makes you wait. Exceptions are only made for people who have long distances to travel and can’t afford the 2-day trip (so a lot of west coast and international kids usually call into whitmore and explain their situation so they can get their hold removed remotely).
If she is in the same position as many freshman (who come in with anywhere from 0-20 credits), she’ll most likely be taking intro level classes in many departments. Most of these classes will have spots reserved in certain sections of the class. So it’s unlikely that she’ll get an optimal section and teacher, but she’ll most likely get into some section of the classes. My advice to her would be to look ahead of time for classes she wants to take and add those sections to her shopping cart. When her NSO comes, she can enroll for whatever is available and other filler classes. Then she should watch Spire like a hawk until add/drop finishes during the second week of September. People will be rearranging their schedules all the time, and that’s how I was able to get an optimal schedule for freshman year even though my NSO was later too.
She can see the dorms from outside, but unless she gets lucky and sneaks into a tour group or something, she won’t be able to see the inside of the dorms ahead of time. However, housing for incoming freshman is NOT first come first serve. She can visit them when she can and decide which res-area is best for her. If she wants to sign up for a RAP though, I believe those sign-ups open up in like 10 days. She should make up her mind about those soon, because a few of the RAPs are so popular that they fill-up within an hour.