Chance me for transferring to UIUC from PSU

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hello, I am a Penn State Student, and planning to apply to UIUC and some other colleges as a freshmen (sophomore transfer).

  • US Citizen (OOS for UIUC)
  • Born in Pennsylvania
  • Currently in Penn State Univ.

Intended Major : Statistics and Computer Science @ UIUC

Course requirements for the major is met, and completed almost all recommended courses except for Linear Alg, Discrete Math for UIUC

  • 3.80 Weighted HS GPA (does not calculate UW GPA)

  • 4.00 College GPA (1st sem of Freshmen)

  • Major College Courses (all As)
    – Data Structures
    – Matrices
    – Introductory Statistics course
    – Course to be completed in spring semester
    – Calc 3 (calculus and Vector Analysis

  • 1270 SAT (for just one trial), but planning to apply as TO

  • AP courses during Highschool
    – Computer Science A - 4
    – Computer Science Principles - 4
    – Calculus BC - 5, subscore - 5
    – Environmental Science - 4
    – Biology - 3
    – Statistics - 3

  • A awards about Data Science/Analytics competition by Korean government agencies

  • Average ECs during highschool

  • Accepted for Learning assistant for Data Science courses @ PSU as a freshmen(spring sem)

  • Member of DS club @ PSU

Essays: 7-8/10 I am not so good at english but I spend long time one essays for UIUC
LOR from Data Structure Instructor: 9-10/10 not required for UIUC, but for other Univs.

Schools
Planning to apply to:
UIUC
UMD
Umich
UNC-Chapel Hill
UT-Austin
Northwestern University
USC

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It is very difficult, if not impossible, to transfer into CS at UIUC even for students already enrolled there in another major.

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What’s your reason for wanting to transfer? You seem to be interested in other public flagships that are relatively similar to where you already are, in terms of environment, academic offerings, and reputation. What’s the rationale for transferring and paying the OOS price for these schools?

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Oh I am not currently a resident of pennsylvania, even though I born in pennsylvania, I did not lived there for my highschool period, and I am currently paying the same tuition as oos students. I thought paying oos tuition in penn state does ot give me any merit for me. So, I just wanted to go to better school that is famous for cs, and ds area.

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You have been at your university for less than four months. You already want to change?

Penn State is a good school. The other schools are going to want to know why you want to transfer. Saying that you want a better school, while going to Penn State, isn’t a good reason for transfer.

You do realize that you’re going to pay out-of-state tuition, at all of those schools, except for the privates USC/Northwestern? They’re at $82K/$87k now per year. As a transfer, I don’t believe you’re going to get merit aid anywhere.

I don’t think you realize that getting a degree, in CS, isn’t worth paying those insane tuition costs because you think that a “better” school will make you “look” better. You can attend any university in this country, and receive a degree in CS, and you’ll be employable anywhere, without a “name brand” school.

It sounds like the majority of your education was in Korea, correct? Just because you were born in the US, does not mean that you get discounted tuition in any state. You have to be a resident of that state, at those public schools, to get in-state tuition rates.

Residency, in those states means, for the most part, that you have lived in that state for several years; you and/or your parents have paid taxes, currently, in that state for several years. It doesn’t mean you just go there to reside there while going to school.

Edited to add: My daughter and my son are both CS graduates. One of the crucial things, in working in this career, is that you need to have effective communication. If your English is “not so good”, then you need to really practice speaking it, A LOT, now, if you hope to be eventually employed by a US company.

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As a reminder I am not saying that penn state is a bad school, but I have told you that I am paying OOS tuition for Penn state and I thought if the tuition for the other schools are similar to that I am saying that I have no advantage(merit) to stay in penn state, since there is more school that are famous for Data Science.

Also, what I want to emphasize is that I “didn’t” even stated that “I am going to get a discounted tuition because I born in US!”. I already know that as a non-resident of any of the state, I have to pay oos tuition for all the colleges.

At last, I want to say that the reason why I posted with article is because I just genuinely wanted to get some feedback of my chances, not my reasons for transfer. I really cannot understand why you are commenting irrelevant arguments that is not related to my question. If you think that it is impossible/ there is no chance to transfer to those schools, just say that you can’t be accepted to those schools with your stats.

I am really ridiculous that how can student who graduated UW-Milwaukee that has 98% of acceptance rate can be employed in any company.

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My goal was not to insult you. My goal was to educate you.
Your chances are low. Most CS programs are impacted.

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Now that you have your feedback(chances are low, adjust your expectations accordingly), here is some more unsolicited advice:

Do not insult a particular school for having a high acceptance rate. Students choose their college based on a number of different factors. Graduates from every school in the country go on to have successful careers in every field.

Good luck with your transfer applications!

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The other posters were attempting to educate you on what seem to be misperceptions.

  1. Most successful transfers are achieved because a student has legitimate and well-articulated reasons for wanting to transfer. Examples of such: change of major to one not available at current school, change of financial situation, needing to be closer to family due to personal/family considerations. So when you were asked this question, the poster was trying to help you understand what is required for a successful application.

  2. CS is remarkably employable from almost any US uni/college. Period.

  3. One can’t judge a school’s quality or prestige by looking at overall acceptance rates. Some schools with >75% acceptance have low acceptance to impacted majors, which CS often is. You really need to dive into the department and research the graduate employment stats and curriculum to see if it is a good match for your goals.

Good luck with your application. Continue to work hard at Penn State. Build relationships with your professors. Work on your English skills.

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