<p>When is exactly the best year to transfer. I feel that I went totally wrong with the college app process, and I will eventually transfer out of my school. The Question is though when is the best year to transfer out of your school, to optimize your chances of getting in.</p>
<p>End of freshman year, end of sophmore year?</p>
<p>I am a pre-med student majoring in neuroscience, hopefully I would like to transfer to Cornell, John Hopkins, Wellesley, Washington and Lee, Northwestern, Mount Holyoke, Colby, Colgate, Bowdoin, Washington University in St. Louis.</p>
<p>I would Love to go to Cornell the most.</p>
<p>So When would be the best year to transfer and what would I have to do to get into these great schools.</p>
<p>Colleges consider your high school g.p.a when you transfer. :eek: I didn't know that. Does it hold a lot of importance or just a little. Do you also have to retake the ACT or SAT. And when is the best time to transfer.</p>
<p>honestly, it depends on you. It depends on grades mainly. For example, if you want to transfer after your freshman year (as in you're entering fall of your sophomore year), it is harder because many schools will take into account your academic performance in high school. That may or may not be good depending on how you did in high school and how you did in college. If you transfer in after sophomore year, most colleges don't really care too much how you did in high school. Many will not ask for SATs. There are a few exceptions to this. Most people will say after your sophomore year. </p>
<p>Against many people's advice I transferred after my freshman year. I think that was best as far as getting into the school and forming meaningful relationships. Also, I hated the school I was attending. I was not really the best high school student, but I had a lot of extracurricular activities, and I did okay in college. So, I picked schools that did not have a lot of people looking transfer to the school, and I did apply to "lesser" schools (i.e. Loyola Maryland, Holy Cross, Trinity, Barnard, and Lehigh)</p>
<p>If you apply somewhere after your freshman year but get rejected than reapply again at the end the sophomore year would it decrease your chances seeing as how you got rejected before. </p>
<p>I am also worried that applying after your sophomore year would make it extremely hard to adapt because people have already been their for 2 years and have made friends and are in groups etc.</p>
<p>it is not hard to make friends if you simply talk to people, if you are the slightest bit outgoing making friends shouldn't be a problem for you.</p>
<p>If you reapply again, I don't believe it will hurt you honestly. I would think that if you applied to transfer, got accepted, and then rejected them only to reapply to transfer again, then it may. Honestly, as long as you play your cards right, you most likely will get accepted somewhere the first time... </p>
<p>If there's a school you really want to go to, i.e. Cornell, then don't go to JHU only to expect to transfer to Cornell. It's pointless going to THREE different schools in a four year block of time. Not only that, it could reflect badly on you. </p>
<p>You're putting too much thought into this. Do you have the credentials to transfer now or not? If yes, then do it. If no, wait.</p>
<p>As others have said, we would need to hear more about your hs and college records to help you guess (which is all it would be) which year would be better for your chances of acceptance. As to re-taking SATs, that is a personal decision, again dependent upon what scores you already hold and whether you took the old or new SAT. Assuming you took the new, it is highly unlikely that you would be REQUIRED to re-take; it would be up to you whether you think a re-take would help you. Even that answer will likely vary depending on schools. Since you are considering several schools, you will need to make a spreadsheet of who requires/doesn't require SATs, whether it varies for soph/jr transfer apps and who does/doesn't allow re-takes at this point. </p>
<p>As to which is better socially and for acclimation, there are pros and cons to each. It again depends on you and the school. Going as a sophomore gives you three years at the new place. Going as a junior at <em>some</em> schools gives you more of a critical mass of new transfers to bond with, if the school tends to have a lot of auto-admits from state cc's.</p>
<p>So, take a look at how many transfers each school admits, whether they get a lot of cc transfers for junior year. And then just make your own decision. There is no right answer. The most important answer re meeting and feeling part of the new school is what others have said above - get involved.</p>
<p>Oh I'm sorry, I didn't make myself clear from the beginning. I'm in high school right now, and I am starting my freshman year at Michigan State. I don't want to stay all 4 years there though. While a decent school it doesn't have all the things I want and it is way too big. </p>
<p>I ended up at Michigan State because of some health problems I had my junior year that made me miss a lot of school and dropped my 3.7 g.pa that I had my fresh & soph year, to a 3.1. (Yeah, thats a BIG drop)</p>
<p>High School Stats:
G.P.A - 3.1
ACT-27</p>
<p>Have 23 college credits through dual enrollment. All A's with some sprinkled B's and a W. Don't want these credits to transfer though.</p>
<p>In a special program for doctors that I started my junior year, where I do a lot of rotations in the hospitals with other doctors learning about their career and helping them with their work.(This is through where I took my college courses)</p>
<p>Went to state for multiple times through Business Professional of America & Health Occupations of America and placed in state in the top 10 but I didn't go to nationals. Part of other organizations also.</p>
<p>Low Income student. Other stuff I can't think of also.</p>
<p>Also I would LIKE to go to Cornell, but I am not a "slit my wrists" if I don't get in type. Any of the schools mentioned above I feel I would be equally happy with attending. </p>
<p>I'm asking all this so I can narrow down what schools I could get in and when is the best time to transfer, so I can optimize the classes I take BEFORE I get to Michigan State, so most or all of them can transfer to my new school.</p>
<p>i'm pre-med for neuroscience, too... and i chose to apply this year (after freshman year) for the following reasons...</p>
<ol>
<li><p>if you're most concerned with improving the quality of your med school prep or something like that, i'd go ahead and try to transfer after the first year so you don't miss out on important intro ed.</p></li>
<li><p>if you were to wait til sophomore year to apply, you probably wouldn't have another chance to transfer out. if you don't get into your dream school(s) after freshman year and wind up staying at your current school for another year, you'll still have the option to transfer later (provided that you have a strong college gpa) - counting spring and fall application cycles, you'll have 2 more chances before you're stuck.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>i don't know what your grades are like... but it's worth mentioning that it's (probably) a lot easier to get into top-tier schools as a focused junior-level transfer applicant with a strong college record (or as a focused sophomore-level transfer with a so-so high school record and very strong gpa from the first year of college) than it would be for a superkid high school applicant.</p>
<p>oh, i'm just seeing your post. work hard to establish a strong college gpa from the get-go. i'd aim for 3.7+, if at all possible. before you register for fall classes, look at the basic major and gen. ed. requirements for the schools you're interested in (if you haven't already done so) and plan to complete as many of the overlapping courses as you can.</p>
<p>from my experience, i'm guessing you can count on taking: calc and/or stats, one semester of english comp, two semesters of intro bio (maybe only the cell & molecular bio semester), two semesters of chem, two semesters of organic chem, and one or two semesters of intro neuroscience / neuroanatomy. you'll probably have to take intro psych or a physiological psych course. if you can opt out of any of that with dual and do alright in more advanced courses with a little review, do it.</p>
<p>haha you don't have to take any of my advice... but i loove meeting fellow neuroscience majors. good luck with apps! you can pm me if you'd like.</p>
<p>Excellent advice from socal for how to choose your freshman yr courses.</p>
<p>Extremely important: find a way to get to know 2 profs, because you will need 2 prof (college, not hs) recommendations for many transfer apps. In a large schools, this can be a challenge. So focus on it from the beginning. If you are able to take any kind of freshman seminar, that will help. I fyou are in honors, that may help. If you are in huge courses, ask questions if possible; go to office hours. As a last resort, get to know TA's well as a collaborated rec between TA/prof is acceptable at many schools.</p>
<p>SoCal.... we think a like. The main reason I wanted to transfer was to improve the quality of my med school prep. Thats why I wanted to transfer after my first year so that I could take most of my classes at my new (and hopefully better) school.</p>
<p>I feel that no matter what I got in high school if I can get a 3.7+ g.p.a in college, I would of proved that I can handle college level work at a pretty decent school. But thats just my thoughts, I don't know how adcoms might feel about my low high school g.p.a, when I'm applying and how that might hurt me.</p>
<p>And thanks jmmom, that is also another reason I want to transfer too. I want to go to a smaller school so that I can be on a more personal level with my prof's and hopefully get a spectacular rec when I go to medical school. But it didn't hit me right away that I would need to start making myself known right away to my profs.</p>
<p>How do profs generally handle you transferring out of their schools. What should you tell them. Do they act sort of offended that you don't want to go there anymore. Just questions I've just thought up.</p>
How do profs generally handle you transferring out of their schools. What should you tell them. Do they act sort of offended that you don't want to go there anymore. Just questions I've just thought up.
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<p>Really depends. If your professor has a lot of school spirit, I guess they'd be offended slightly. Mine were very helpful in my transfer process. My econ professor wrote a recommendation for me, he had sent his daughter to Michigan the year before (same grad year as me), and he said it was a great school and that I shouldn't be at a school like WMU. So, my professor had no school spirit.</p>
<p>My other teachers weren't as helpful, but didn't like fail me cause I wanted to transfer.</p>
<p>What is the best way to get to know your profs. You don't want to pass a line where it seems that you are only talking to them for a reason. (Even though that is the only reason ur talking to them) And you don't want to seem like a teachers pet.</p>
<p>haha why wouldn't you want to seem like a teacher's pet? the people that the professor know the best are the people he/she is going to approach first about internships/research/scholarships. being a teacher's pet is kind of what you should be aiming for.</p>
<p>it's simple. if you want them to notice that you're "showing interest": ask questions during class if your classes are small enough / after class if they're large; visit them during office hours, etc. if you want them to tell you about research opps (which would sound great in a letter), ask them about their research interests and tell them about yours. ask them to sit down with you to go over tests/papers because "you want to improve the quality of your work" - they'll appreciate that you actually think about stuff like that.</p>
<p>and don't assume that getting to know your professors will be like pulling teeth. they're normal people... they have jobs, they have families. they want to hear from you and keep in touch with their students. if you show interest in what they're teaching, they'll do whatever they can to help you succeed. if you don't seem genuine, they won't want to waste their time going out of their way to help you.</p>