Chance me for transfer and suggestions for schools (Rice, Emory, Cornell, etc.)

Transfer Students
1

I am currently a freshman biology major at a small state school who wants to transfer to a different school. I would appreciate it if you could estimate my chances to various schools.

I plan on applying to the following schools (majors in parenthesis, and order is listed in most preferred school to least preferred school.):

Rice University (Biochemistry and Cell Biology)
Emory University (Biology, or Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology)
Vanderbilt University (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Johns Hopkins University (Biology)
Columbia University (Biochemistry, or Biology)
Cornell University (Biological Sciences)

Please let me know if there are other schools I should consider around the same level. I will probably only add 2 more schools to my list at most.

I have the following stats.

College Courses taken:

• Leadership Theory (Received an A [4.0]) (This was an option for a required course that all first semester students must take at my school, whether you are a first year or a transfer student)

• Calc I (Received an A [4.0]) (Required for major. I did not have AP credit for calculus due to poor performance on exam, and even then I would have taken Calc I for the GPA)

• General Chemistry I (Received an A [4.0]) (Required for major)

• Foundations of Biological Inquiry (Received a B+ [3.33]) (My lowest grade unfortunately, primarily due to partner work in labs. Required for major)

College GPA for first semester: 3.833

College Courses for next semester:

• Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (to fulfill liberal learning requirement)

• Statistical Inference (Option for math requirement)

• General Chemistry II (Required for major)

• Biology of the Eukaryotic Cell (Required for major) (Hopefully I will get an A this time around for bio)

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Extracirriculars in college:

• Member of the Tri-Beta Biology Honors Society (Currently a general member, but I have had enough involvement to get inducted as an associate member in the spring, lots of volunteer work for charities and blood drives)

• Member of the American Medical Student Association Chapter at my school (Help with fund raisers)

• Collegiate esports player (I represent my school in Varsity leagues for Overwatch, Quake Champions, and Dota 2. I am of the top 1% of playerbase in both Overwatch and Quake Champions. I raise chapter benefits and am an official athlete for Tespa. My school has recently recognized collegiate esports players as athletes, and I am considered a club athlete according to the school)

• Member of school’s chapter for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Raise awareness for government funding for biochemical and biomedical research, as well as participate in various volunteer work.

• Currently shadowing 2 labs. One lab is focused on molecular genetics, and discovering various responses that microorganisms have with relation to certain environmental stresses and observing whether or not these responses are genetic in nature. The other lab is focused on the study of isoprenoids, primarily in insects in plants, studying the development of inhibitors, structures, and functions of various proteins within these products.

Other things I do:

• Private Clarinet teacher (I teach clarinet to beginning players of elementary to middle school age to earn money and to better myself as a musician)

• Streaming (I stream myself playing games both for enjoyment, but also for monetary gain)

• Investing (I invest in stocks to help my parents financially)

Things I hope I can include in time:

• Shadowing under a doctor (Currently contacting various doctors for shadowing)

• Volunteer work or Internship at a medical center, hospital, etc. (Currently trying to get an internship, or some kind of work at a local dialysis center)

• Summer research experiences (I have applied to a total of 7 REU’s, and am still applying for about 3 more. These are extremely difficult for freshman to get accepted into, but I’m trying since research isn’t abundant in my school, and mostly closed off for upperclassmen).

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Honors:

• 1st place winner of the Protein Data Bank’s (PDB) Video Challenge. NIH Director Francis Collins published a blog about the video as well.

• National Merit Scholarship Letter of Commendation

• National Biology Olympiad Semi-finalist

• Dean’s List

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High School Stats:

High School GPA: 3.45 UW / 4.12 W (I did not do well in high school…)

ACT Score: 34

If you are wondering why I want to transfer, here are my main reasons.

  1. I'm currently an in-state student attending a public school. I am also a commuter who only is about a 20 minute drive from my school. My parents plan on moving out of state, meaning I lose my in-state tuition and my ability to commute to school. This drastically increases my price of attendance from 16k to over 42k (over 2.5x as much, since I never received financial aid). I don't think it's worth paying that much to attend a public school that isn't known very well outside of the state.
  2. Research opportunities are extremely lacking at my current school. Many research opportunities are closed off for older students which I greatly dislike. Why offer shadowing positions during my sophomore year, when many of my peers at other schools would already have gotten positions for actual independent research or research with a prof around the same time.
  3. Opportunities at my current school aren't as developed or as available as other schools (i.e. lessons for non-music majors, lack of outside help for coaching esports teams, no dedicated uni hospital, etc.)
  4. I regret not working hard during my high school years and want to redeem myself. I got rejected from all of my reaches and targets last year, and I want to attend a school that I would actually enjoy being a part of (I probably would not write this in my transfer essays, but this is a reason for me wanting to transfer). ​

Let me know my chances, if you have any questions feel free to let me know. Thanks in advance.

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2

Hey man, I don’t know too much about the colleges you have applied to, but I think if you keep a good gpa you have a great shot. You never know with them but the rules for UC’s is have above 3.5 and for harder colleges have a 3.8. For an impacted major like Biology I would recommend at least a 3.9. You have amazing extracurriculars though so I doubt they would mind a lower gpa, just don’t get another B, especially in a required for major course!

3

Can you afford these schools which cost between $60,000 and $70,000 a year or more? Are you applying for financial aid, because many of the schools on your list meet need only, and some others do not give out much merit aid, especially to transfers. You should consider adding a school that is less selective and takes a lot of transfers to your list as a “safety.”

If you play the clarinet, you might be interested in Rice’s band the MOB. If you are interested, this might be something to put in to the Why Rice question. If you transfer in joining the Mob would be a great way to assimilate in to the school. https://mob.rice.edu

4

@Houston1021 I do plan on applying for financial aid. My family doesn’t make a tremendous amount of money, only my father works. I know that Rice plans on implementing a new financial plan starting next year, and my family is in the income bracket where I would be offered free tuition.

Additionally, you made a great point about the marching band over at Rice. I was thinking about writing about that in my essay, especially because I was in the marching band in high school. Do you think I should also list important high school activities? I think I received an email from Columbia saying that I should list any and all activities from both high school and college.

5

@JakeC23 Thanks. I’m trying my hardest early on this semester to maintain A’s in the beginning so I don’t have to worry as much later on. Most of the schools I am applying to have cutoff GPA’s being at 3.0 or 3.2, (Columbia has no cutoff but recommends a 3.5 minimum). One of my rec letters is from my bio prof, and she knows that I worked hard in the class, as I did well on a majority of the assignments, and was the highest scoring student on the final exam, although my grade doesn’t really show it. Are there any other schools that you personally know about that you would recommend?

6

@peteplant no problem! The only schools I really know about are in California. I would recommend applying to UCSD because they have great research programs. Stanford does as well, however, they don’t really accept transfers. UC berkeley and LA are also great options.

7

What state? Some states allow you to retain residency for tuition purposes if you remain continuously enrolled or some such.

Also, some states allow you to retain residency for tuition purposes or get a similar discount from non-resident tuition if you graduated high school in the state after a sufficient amount of attendance in the state. See http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2125616-state-resident-tuition-through-high-school-graduation-within-state.html for some examples (there may be others not known when the list was made).

As an apparent pre-med, you may also want to check whether you will qualify for state residency for medical schools. Not having state residency anywhere will make medical school more difficult to get into and more expensive, since you will not have in-state public medical schools to apply to.

8

Some factors to consider:

=> Transferring this year your HS GPA will be considered more heavily than it would be next year. That alone dings your chances to these super-competitive schools.Don’t be fooled by cut-offs: that you make it pass the cut off doesn’t mean you are in (Rice’s transfer admission rate is ~14%) Some of them are more-transfer friendly than others, but the reasons are sometimes less obvious (for example, Cornell has both agreements with Community Colleges and a guaranteed transfer program, so their headline numbers are not reliable indications of the likelihood of your success).

=> You appear to be pre-med. Transferring may still be a good idea, but I suggest you re-visit your list. Many students think that a shinier name will count in med school admissions, but really what will matter is GPA & MCAT. Schools like JHU & Cornell are tough schools for getting a high GPA. Based on nothing more than your post I am not sure if the nature of your ambition will mesh naturally with that of the pre-med students that I know at Emory. Reconsider your list, and look for some places where you can be a star - that will help more than a shiny name.

=> You might not lose your in-state status: in many states, if you finished high school in-state you can keep your residency. Find out what the rules are for your state- you might not want to be in your small state school, but there may be other affordable options that are stronger. Money matters: the less debt you have going in to med school the better.

=> If you really want to do medicine, look toward what you can do to help your chances of admission, rather a backward looking focus on “redeeming” yourself or soothing the sting of last year’s rejections.

9

Don’t make the same mistake you did in high school with regard to your list. It’s very reach heavy. If you’re looking for a school with better research opportunities and music programs, try to find a few that might offer that which are less competitive than the reaches on your current list. Maybe University of Rochester, Case Western, Pitt?

10

I would add WUSTL to your transfer list, they have top programs in what you’re interested in.

11

@collegemom3717 I understand that cut offs are not the end all be all for admission. I didn’t do well in high school, which is why I’m trying to do my best in college with what I can get.

While I am a premed student, I don’t want to apply to MD programs. I’m trying my hardest to get accepted into an MD/PhD program, as I want to get involved in research while also having the ability to practice medicine. A lot of these programs are fully funded by the NIH. Those are the kind of programs I want to gain admittance into.

Additionally, I listed several other reasons for transferring other than me wanting to “redeem myself”. Research is one of the main reasons, where I am, research is closed off for a vast majority of underclassman, making it even more difficult for someone like me to get involved in research and similar experiences. I know that prestige doesn’t matter for medical school admissions, but why not go elsewhere if it will provide me with better opportunities.

Finally, I asked my school regarding their policy for out of state tuition, but I was told that such an exemption for non residents only would be applied to undocumented students, and would not apply to me…

12

What state and college are you currently in?

Sometimes, the “graduate high school in the state” provisions are best known in the context of undocumented or DACA students, but also apply to US citizens and permanent residents.

13

@peteplant Acceptance rates for transfers at those schools vary widely—from one another and from their overall acceptance rates.

Columbia 7%
Rice 10%
Hopkins 10%
Cornell 18%
Emory 26%
Vandy 30%

If you’re serious about research, you may want to eliminate one of the “long-shots” and add a school like Rochester (transfer acceptance rate 29%). I know that there are a LOT of undergraduate research opportunities there, and the location of the medical center directly adjacent to the main campus makes it convenient as well.

My daughter is a senior there now and has worked on three different research projects in her fields of infectious disease and epidemiology over the past four years. Most of her friends, all undergrads, have had the opportunity to get involved in research. A lot of schools tout undergrad research, but Rochester really does seem committed to it.

14

With respect to research, you could add a college or two from this U.S. News list: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs. For the most accessible opportunities, you might consider some undergraduate-focused schools.