Hi I am a international first year at Grinnell and I want to transfer to Wes, Midd, Colby and Colgate’s East Asian Studies/ Japanese Studies program. I studied at a prep school in Connecticut for 3 years. Applied to Wes for ED1 but not accepted.
So here is a list of my stats and courses:
Semester 1 Courses:
1st year seminar
Japanese 101 ( 2nd year speaking and reading profiency but can’t write; JLPT N4 passed
German 101
Japanese society and pop culture
Semester 2 Courses:
Japanese 102
German 102
East Asian Religions
Intro to Anthropology
Predicted 1st Semester GPA: 3.7-3.8
Freshman Year EC:
Chairman of the East Asian Studies Club (I started this Club)
Member of the student government first year council and promoted Republican-supporting students’ freedom from peer pressure
Volunteer of an Orgnazation that promots liberty in North Korea
Founder of a video channel with 200k followers on a Chinese website
Recommendation letters written by advisor (who is also my 1st year seminar professor) and Japanese culture class professor
High School Information:
Best composite ACT: 31 (English 27 Math 34 Reading 28 Science 33)
Best superscored ACT:32 (English 30 Math 34 Reading 31 Science 33)
TOEFL: 104
Final HS GPA: 4.07 (w/ IB and AP courses weighted by .50)
Courses for Senior year: AP lit, AP stats, AP american gov’t, IB math SL II and Spanish II
Your profile is nice and all but you should really focus on the reason for transferring. You’re coming from a highly ranked LAC in the middle of nowhere and transferring to…
…
Some more highly ranked LACs in the middle of nowhere.
Financial aid will also play a huge factor. Are you full pay or will you need substantial financial aid?
@AGoodFloridian
Thank you for your reply! The major reason why I want to transfer is very simple: we only have an East Asian studies concentration but not a major. In contrast, these schools all have decent EAS or Jap Studies programs. Also, as someone who lived and studied in the east coast for 3 years I really miss there…
I am not applying for financial aid (and int’l students are not gonna get FA anyway lol)
@AGoodFloridian
Also, in middlebury’s personal statement I will make an emphasis on my love of languages. In order to increase the possibility of acceptance, I am taking 2 language classes this year.
@SunZhaoyu , understood. The fact that you took those language classes and have gotten above average grades in them is already testament to your interest in languages. The recommendation letter from one of your language professors helps a lot too! Remember that in your transfer supplement(depending on which you chose), you need to write your specific plans as a transfer student at their institution. Leave aside the enamored essay and focus on objectivity.
Transfer applicants are looked under a different scope than normal applicants as you can imagine. Recommendations, reasons for transferring and general “fit” matter more when colleges use their “holistic” approach.
I would say Middlebury is a high match for you, and you should certainly apply. Make yourself stand out from the pack. Middlebury doesn’t have their own supplement essay and rely solely upon the Transfer Supplement. They don’t offer interviews for transfer as well. Perhaps get in touch with your admissions officer? According to their Common Data Set, “Level of Applicant Interest” is “Considered”. Don’t flood him/her with emails, but perhaps send them a handwritten letter of some sort? Make it something genuine, from the heart, CONCISE (don’t send them a life story, srsly), make it something “you”. Stand out. That’s the name of the game when it comes to transferring.
Thanks again for your helpful words! As I have checked, Middlebury has a transfer acceptance of 10% last year. In contrast, Wesleyan has a 33%… And given that I applied Wes as my early decision I school, should I expect a high possibility of being accepted?
LACs are small to begin with, and the top LACs generally have very high retention rates. So they typically only have space for a handful of transfers. Since the numbers involved are small, the transfer acceptance rate can vary a lot from year to year. And if a given class happens to be over-enrolled, then there may not be any room for transfers at all.
Here are the transfer acceptance rates at Midd for the past 5 years, from the Common Data Sets:
2015-16: 12% (39 accepted of 318 applicants).
2014-15: 8% (25 of 300).
2013-14: 0.3% (1 of 349). That’s not a typo.
2012-13: 6% (25 of 424).
2011-12: 8% (32 of 381).
So the transfer acceptance rate at Midd is commonly less than 10%, and in a tight year can be less than 1%.
The point is that transferring to a top LAC is an iffy proposition, and can be affected by factors beyond your control. So you should look for as many options as possible,
Your 4 schools are all LACs in New England or upstate New York. If you are willing to consider LACs a little further south, Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges in Pennsylvania sponsor a joint East Asian Languages & Cultures program (the two schools are located within walking distance of each other).
If you are female, then you could submit transfer applications to both schools, which would obviously improve your chances of admission. If you are male, you can only apply to Haverford, since Bryn Mawr is a women’s college. Bryn Mawr and Haverford are generally comparable in selectivity to the other LACs on your list.
Since EALC is a joint program, you would probably have classes at both schools, no matter which one you were formally enrolled at. You would also have the option of taking classes at the University of Pennsylvania, a nearby Ivy League university with a Dept. of East Asian Languages & Civilizations. Penn and the LACs are in an academic consortium which allows cross-enrollment.
@Corbett
Well the reason why I apply to all the northeastern schools is that I had my high school in Conn and I really miss there…
But a little further south won’t harm. Given that I am male I will try my luck on Haverford.