<p>Current Status: Freshman, Wesleyan University (top liberal arts college)
College GPA: 3.37 (but very rigorous courseload involving a 200 level course, and higher level intro chem and bio courses)
HS GPA: 95 I think... i was ranked somewhere in the top five in a class of 350-400 students
SAT Scores: 750 Verbal and 720 Math
ACT score: 32 or 33 i dont remember
AP scores: four 5s and 2 fours
ECs in college: Student Govt, community service, and a lot of other clubs. I also did a lot of ECs in high school
Other: For the past few years in high school and this year in college I have been doing science research with various professors and competed in a couple of competitions where I have won a few awards.</p>
<p>I was waitlisted at Brown, Columbia, and Georgetown. I was thinking of applying to those schools as well as Cornell, UPenn, and maybe Harvard and Yale. I know my GPA is kind of low this first semester but it was rough semester and I had a couple of personal problems going on. </p>
<p>I don't want to apply to all of these schools so I was wondering what you guys think my chances are... I would really appreciate your input :-) Also, I am open to recommendations for where else I could try transferring. I want to leave Wes, but I only want to transfer up...</p>
<p>With a 3.37 you are going to have a hard time "transferring up"--especially after only one semester at the school. (You'll need to get onto the Dean's list or into Honors classes to have a good chance at that).</p>
<p>I have to agree with Casey and Calcruzer. You were waitlisted before at B, C & G, you now have a minimally (at best) qualifying GPA from college, yet you are planning on applying to the same level or higher schools. Getting in as a transfer is harder than as a freshman at all of these schools.</p>
<p>entomom understood the 3.33 reference in my previous post. you should really have at least a 3.5, preferably a 3.7 or higher, to transfer to those caliber schools.</p>
<p>Doesn't it depend on the school you're transferring from? I don't know much about Wesleyan but some highly ranked schools are known for grade deflation and I'd assume there'd be at least some context assigned to the gpa. I was also under the impression that the high school record carried most weight for a freshman transfer. A friend of my D's at a different elite LAC is applying to transfer to Georgetown and Columbia with a similar profile and she seems to believe that she has a chance.</p>
<p>Yes, the current school does matter, and Wes is a good school (I don't know anything about grade deflation there), but the OP is trying to transfer up, and all of the target schools are either extremely difficult or the most difficult in the nation to get into. While HS grades will carry more weight as a freshman transfer than a sophomore transfer, I have never seen or heard anything that says that the HS record is the most important factor in transferring. The fact that recommendations are from college instructors, not HS teachers, would tend to refute that assertion. </p>
<p>I guess my point is, since the OP didn't make it into these schools last fall and got only marginal transfer grades in college, why would he/she expect to have a good chance of getting into the same or higher colleges, all of which have much lower acceptance rates for transfers than for freshmen?</p>
<p>Not trying to shoot down any dreams, just keeping it real.</p>
<p>That makes sense and I would agree that given how competitive admissions is to top schools (including Wesleyan, btw) that the OP shouldn't count on getting into any of his choices. I also think your advice is sound given that his main interest is in trading up. If he'd been interested in transferring because Wesleyan didn't offer what he'd hoped, I'd probably have disagreed and advised him to give it his best shot while also choosing a broader range of schools. But if trading up is the primary goal, I'd agree with all of you who urge the kid to stay put, work hard, and try later with a stronger college record. </p>
<p>I was impressed by his h.s. record and the fact that he was w/l at the schools he's now pursuing. What that means to me is that he was considered a strong candidate at that point but lacked the hook to secure one of the rare unhooked slots. As I said, I don't know anything about Wesleyan's grading but there are other similar sorts of LACs that do grade deflate (Swarthmore comes to mind) and I can't help but think that a 3.35 from such a school would be viewed in context and evaluated more favorably (especially given the high school record) than a higher gpa from a more generous, less competitive school.</p>
<p>HS record counts somewhat, especially if you show an upward trend that continues through college...but a dropoff once in college is going to discredit the strength of any HS record.</p>
<p>I don't think the Wes gpa is a detriment under normal circumstances. But ivy league is not "normal." It is not going to be easier for you to transfer into an ivy than it was for you to get in the first time around. If you had a 4.0 at Wes after a full year, then MAYBE ... but as it is, I would classify your choices as very reach-y. Do you actually want to transfer for a "reason," or are you just looking to trade up? I suspect colleges can see through the students who just want to be able to say they got into an ivy. I don't mean to be harsh, but if all you want to do is transfer up ... well, I honestly don't see anything in your stats that would stand out for these schools.</p>