Chance me: International transfer student with 3.7 GPA, no ACT/SAT [currently pharmacy, wants to change to biology]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • International student
  • Location of residency: Southeast Asia (Taiwan)
  • Current college: a medical university (5-year institution); majoring in pharmacy
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Male/Asian
  • Other special factors: Can be considered a non-traditional student based on my academic background (changed universities twice, took a gap year, etc.)

Intended Major(s)
Biology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.0 (my school doesn’t do weighted GPA)
  • College GPA: 3.7 unweighted (my school doesn’t do weighted GPA)
  • Class Rank: My school doesn’t do class rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: Never took them

Coursework
Finished General Biology, General Physics, General Chemistry (with lab), Biochemistry (with lab) and Calculus I. Also completed pharmacy school coursework such as analytical chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, pharmacognosy, etc. Mostly A’s, with occasional B’s.

Of note, I failed Organic Chemistry I (retaking it this semester), and withdrew from Organic Chemistry II and Human Anatomy because of severe health problems.

Awards

  1. First Prize, National English Vocabulary competition (awarded by the Ministry of Education)
  2. Literature Prize (awarded by my high school)

Extracurriculars

  1. Part-time job at a dental clinic (oral hygiene instructor)
  2. Volunteer and community service team leader at a local charity organization
  3. Venezuela representative at Model United Nations
  4. Medical volunteer at a local hospital (worked in ER, pharmacy, endoscopy department, etc.)
  5. Team cadre/volunteer at summer medical research camp (where I taught fellow camp members specific skills such as wound suturing and CPR)

Essays/LORs/Other
Essays: probably just meh, nothing special
LORs: also meh (one was from a medical school professor that taught medical ethics; another was from a professor that taught civics)

Cost Constraints / Budget
No cost constraints or budget issues. Did NOT apply for financial aid, will pay full tuition.

Schools

Safety:

  • University of Utah (RD)
  • University of Arizona (RD)
  • University of Colorado, Boulder (RD)

Match:

  • University of Massachusetts, Amherst (RD)
  • University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (RD)
  • University of Maryland, College Park (RD)

Reach:

  • New York University (I just applied before the deadline; no RD or ED)
  • Vanderbilt University (RD)
  • Columbia University (School of General Studies) (RD)

Please be brutally honest - I know most US colleges don’t accept international transfer students, and I applied very late this semester. I understand that my chances are pretty slim.

Also, I’m planning to apply for Spring 2024 transfer if Fall transfer doesn’t work out, so I’d appreciate it if you could recommend a few schools that would match my profile. Thank you!

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How many years of college have you completed?

I don’t think it’s true that “most US colleges don’t accept int’l transfer students.” With that said, you should have heard from a number of these schools if you applied for Fall 2023 transfer (assuming you met their app deadlines…did you?).

I can’t chance you, but wish you good luck.

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Did you meet the deadlines for transfer applicants?

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Why are you transferring? It’s sounds as though you are doing very well.

Additionally, after a bachelor’s degree, you will be applying to pharmacy schools. There are plenty out there but if you hope to match for a residency, that is not going to happen. There are too many pharmacy schools, and well prepared students. Additionally, the market is being saturated by pharmacy grads.

So my question again is, why are you transferring?

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I am assuming that you are applying to transfer as an undergrad into a Bio major, not into a school of Pharmacy.

Utah and Arizona will probably take you, if you applied in time. Probably even Colorado, too. Money talks, and you’re full fare out of state.

UMass, maybe U MN too. Doubt you’ll get into College Park.
I think that the reaches are not gonna happen, but MAYBE Columbia gen studies, again because you can pay for it - but doubtful.

If you didn’t make the deadlines for Fall 2023, I honestly think that you have a decent chance at transferring to some of the big flagship state U’s, with a 3.7 and the ability to pay full tuition. At that point, with more time to consider, you need to think about climate, city vs suburban vs rural, proximity to an int’l airport, social atmosphere on campus, etc.

BTW, pharmacy has gotten very crowded in the US, people are having trouble finding jobs, pharmacists find themselves very overworked as the only person with the license working in the pharmacy while supervising an army of pharmacy techs and assistants. People are really thinking twice now before they go into pharmacy. Then, even if you can get into pharmacy school in the US after having earned your bachelor’s degree, you will have to prove that you have the resources to pay for all 4 years of pharmacy school up front. And after that, you still may not be able to get residency here, and get a job.

Have you considered Canada? They have 5 year pharmacy programs (as opposed to 4 yrs undergrad plus 4 yrs pharmacy in the US), they’re more likely to give you residency, and they have a shortage of pharmacists there.

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With respect to Columbia’s SGS, your advantage there might be its relatively high acceptance rate (58%). However, I believe it offers admission on a rolling basis, so a later application may be somewhat detrimental to your chances.

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I probably won’t be studying pharmacy in the US (or Canada, for that matter). Pharmacy school is boring as hell, and I don’t want to work as a pharmacist for the rest of my life. I’m more interested in molecular biology and genetics stuff, so I thought I’d start with a bio degree and see where that would get me.

So far I’ve been accepted to Utah, Arizona, UMass and Minnesota. Haven’t heard back from the others yet. I submitted everything before the deadline, but I kinda rushed a lot of things (essays, LORs, etc.). I’ll be reapplying next semester and hopefully have more success.

By the way, I have a few questions:

  1. Why not College Park, though? I understand NYU and Vanderbilt are unlikely, but I thought College Park has a pretty high acceptance rate (63% if I remember correctly)?

  2. What do you mean by “big flagship state U’s”? For a moment I thought you were referring to schools like UCLA, UMich, UIUC, UW Madison and UT Austin, but those are really good schools and idk if they’ll accept me…

Thank you for your advice!

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What is the matter with the schools to which you have been accepted? Presumably you applied to them for a reason.

Your reach schools are reach schools and there is absolutely NO guarantee you will be accepted next semester…or ever. Plus, starting in the spring semester can put you out of sync for courses that are Year long courses most of start the fall term.

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The biggest, best state U in each state is called the flagship U in each state. Not all flagships are equal. UC Berkeley, UCLA, U Mich, UNC are some of the best. U Va, U Fl are rising. In fact, due to the cost of private colleges (85K/yr if no merit discount or financial aid given), many upper middle class families are choosing to send their kids to their excellent in-state flagship U for usually around 30-40K/yr.

College Park is more selective than the other state U’s that you mentioned, that have already taken you, so I thought you would have less chance there. You say in your title “Pharmacy”, that’s why people are answering you regarding Pharmacy.

If you’re interested in genetics, U of Utah is a good place to go. But you should know that Salt Lake City is a little different from the rest of the country - in some ways that is a good thing, in some ways not. The U of Utah is in a beautiful location at the eastern edge of SLC, very strong in genetics research. The state is 90% Mormon (a mid 19th century offshoot of Christianity, founded by a charismatic leader, then expanded by the next charismatic leader), but SLC is only 50% Mormon, is more liberal than the rest of the state. Overall, it is a very livable city, with fantastic proximity to beautiful mountains for skiing and hiking, and great further outdoor recreation within a few hours’ drive of the city. But to get to the nearest big US cities (in Colorado, California, Seattle), you have to fly. It’s kind of isolated.

UMass is a large land grant college, with a beautiful campus, good dorms, great food. It’s about 2.5 hrs from NYC, 2 hrs from Boston. It has good research sciences, don’t know specifically how strong they are in genetics.

One great thing about U Utah is that one can become an in-state resident there after only one year’s residence, but I doubt that would apply to those on a student visa.

If you want to go to college in the US, I’d recommend that you go ahead and commit to one of the schools that has accepted you, and start the process to get your student visa, and come. Thumper is right that you want to be on sync for coursework, by starting in the fall. And as I have already said, I think that your chances of acceptance at schools that are more selective than the schools that have already taken you - which BTW are really excellent schools to go to, for what you’re interested in - are really very, very low.

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This site shows a rate for transfer applicants of 52%:

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The most recent CDS shows a transfer acceptance rate for those entering fall 2022 of 58.8%. It’s best not to use third party and/or out of date sources.

https://www.irpa.umd.edu/InstitutionalData/CommonDataSet/CDS_2022-2023.xlsx?

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The point was to call the OP’s attention to the difference between the transfer admission rate and the rate for first-year admission. In this case, the accurate site I used has the advantage of comporting with the year for which the OP was already familiar.

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The linked site shows a transfer admission rate of 63% and a freshman admit rate of 52%.

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There are many, many biology graduates in the U.S. Once you finish your biology degree, you are expected to return to your home country because your visa will expire. If you plan on applying to graduate school, for biology/microbiology, your student visa will only allow you to stay while you finish the degree. Then what? The market is saturated with biology graduates.

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Why don’t you attend one of the schools that accepted you?

Minnesota is actually strong in genetics. My daughter was a biology major, worked for a few years, and is returning to school (not Minnesota, but she considered applying and attended an open house).

I would think about what you plan to do with your biology degree.

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