Building a transfer resume

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hey guys, I'm currently a senior in high school. I'll be attending the University of Oregon (my best in-state option) for, hopefully, the next year. I want to get a head-start on building the ideal transfer resume, and am asking for your advice. I will apply as transfer to Stanford, Georgetown, Cornell (College of Arts and Sciences), and upon research, other top tier universities. </p>

<p>I was rejected during EA at Stanford and waitlisted in RD at Cornell CAS. I probably should have applied to more schools... (I only took two SAT II tests, thus couldn't apply to Georgetown.)</p>

<p>I will be attending the honor's college at the University of Oregon, and will be double majoring in Political Science and Physics. I'm not sure if this will matter to target schools, but I was one of 50 winners of the Presidential Scholarship at the UofO. </p>

<p>Besides the obvious "have a high GPA, 3.5+ necessary but preferably as close to 4.0 as possible", what do I need to do to increase my chances for acceptance? </p>

<p>High school stats:
-32 ACT and a lower correspondent SAT
-650 Math II and 680 Physics
-4.0 Unweighted GPA
-Valedictorian of a class of ... 12 at a private Christian school
-Four years of student government
-4 years of varsity track, qualified for state three times (assuming I qualify this year, which I should) in the pole vault. I suffered a cartilage injury in my hip, which demolished my ability to improve my Junior year, and this year is looking bleak so far.
-250 hours of community service</p>

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<p>What can I do while still in high school?</p>

<p>My ACT breakdown is 31E, 32M, 29R, 36S. Should I retake it to try to improve on English, Math, and Reading? If colleges do score-choice for transfer applicants, then would a few points higher in those be worth the invested time? </p>

<p>The SAT II scores were terrible. I took the physics one before I ever took a physics class, and explained that in an essay to Cornell and Stanford. My Math score was also terrible, and I really don't have an excuse for other than that I was ill-prepared. Should I retake the SAT II, knowing that my scores will improve greatly? I know that, after taking it once, my math score will improve to the decent 700's. I also expect that, now that I have taken a physics class, that will naturally go up.</p>

<p>What do I need to do regarding this summer? I like ~20 minutes away from the nearest town, so it's hard to get a substantial amount of community service in. Would it make enough of a difference for me to do that anyways?</p>

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<p>What do I need to do in College?</p>

<p>What do I need to do, besides the obvious "get good grades!"? </p>

<p>Right now, I'm doing 4 hours/week of interning at an attorney's office. I intend to do the same in college. (UofO is in the center of Eugene, Oregon, so this shouldn't be difficult to do.) Likewise, community service will also be much more attainable there. </p>

<p>I want to do something regarding helping a professor with research. UofO has a nice nanotechnology lab, which would be awesome to do something in. This also seems like a good way to get a professor's recommendation, but I'm primarily wanting to do this for myself, not for the overarching goal of transfer in mind. </p>

<p>I'll do some research regarding clubs, primarily in student government/leadership positions.</p>

<p>What else do I need to do? I highly appreciate any input that you guys could give me. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>I wish I would have taken more math class in college prior to applying to transfer.</p>

3

<p>Bring
Up
My
Post.</p>

4

<p>You have a good plan in terms of targeting research with a prof at UofO. For some of those schools, better scores will matter. Don’t know why you took the Physics SAT II without Physics, lol.</p>

<p>IMO, what you do this summer is not all that material. Do what you would have done irrespective of desire to transfer.</p>

<p>If you will be happy to stay at UofO for all four years, then stick with your plan of applying to only top tier U’s is fine. If you don’t want to stay at UofO, then you need to add more match-y schools with higher acceptance rates.</p>

5

<p>You do know that Stanford, et al. have vanishingly small transfer acceptance rates, right? I mean, it’s fine that you want to transfer and all, but I wouldn’t get your heart set on one of those schools, because it’s probably going to get broken.</p>

6

<p>Your high school record is stellar. However, as someone previously mentioned, Stanford is extremely difficult to transfer into. Regarding Georgetown and Cornell, I think you would get in if you can maintain a 3.7+ at Oregon.</p>

7

<p>The transfer idea is a great one.</p>

<p>Btw, 2o minutes is not a long time to travel for community service. When I was in high school, I drove to the other side of the island (an hour each way) to volunteer.</p>

8

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<p>A high score in a language doesn’t boast any skill, since a large portion of people taking those tests grew up with a fluent background in that language, with the exception of a few (like Latin) which I have never learned. I haven’t taken U.S. History either, until this year, and physics is far easier to logic through than history. I could have done English/another science, but I’d have preferred physics. At this point, I’m fairly confident that I’ll retake the test and will score higher.</p>

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<p>Of course, I think that my most realistic goal is Georgetown (I’d go there over Cornell), considering my intended major and law-school goal. </p>

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<p>I’d have made more of an effort to do community service if I was doing something more sincere. I volunteered at an animal shelter for a few years and then a homeless shelter for the next few years, and they both had me doing medial tasks (I.E. sweeping the parking lot, raking leaves, etc.). I could have done more than 250 hours of community service, and if my acceptance was contingent solely upon that, I surely would have. I’d just rather not do another few hundred hours of sweeping a parking lot. </p>

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<p>Thanks for the advice everyone, I greatly appreciate it.</p>