Chance me! (Top LACS and Ivies)

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hey guys! I've been lurking around for a while and I couldn't resist making a chance thread. I'll be really quick, I promise! </p>

<p>School: An okay state school (as in top 100 in US News Ranking)
Major: Mathematics and Philosophy
Year: I'm currently a freshman</p>

<p>High School GPA: 3.87 (not top 25% rank because my school separated the smart, competitive IB kids like me from traditional students and because I screwed around a lot in freshman and sophmore year. I definitely showed an upward trend in junior and senior year; all A's in senior year.)
College GPA: 4.0/4.0 (4.0 on my midterm report as well)
ACT: 35 Composite
SAT: 2190
SAT II: Math II 730, Literature 750, Chem 750, Spanish 720</p>

<p>ECs: Research with professor regarding high-dimensional statistics, 300+ hours of various community service, a few significant academic achievements, and other miscellaneous things. I really don't want to list everything, but let's say my ECs are at least respectably decent but nothing awesome by CC standards.</p>

<p>Courses: I took 18 credit hours my first semester and am taking 21 this semester (the most allowed at my university). 3 of my current classes have undergrad and grad students (French Revolution, Modern Logic, and Probability). So let's say the rigor of my course load last semester was tough and pretty much literally as tough as it could be this semester. </p>

<p>FinAid: Yes, I'm a po' boy (which more or less screws me over for a few schools on my list)</p>

<p>LoR: 3 good/very good letters of recommendation from 3 professors (classics, logic, and statistics). The statistics professor also was my research adviser and repeatedly tells me how astonished he is I could handle the research we did.</p>

<p>Essays: All to the point and well-written. I didn't try to be funny or anything. So I mean they were good essays, but nothing very creative was involved. I discussed my reasons for transferring: academic goals that I can't accomplish at my current university (main reason), change of social scene, wanting to get out of my state, etc.</p>

<p>Now here's the list of schools that I'm applying to (in order of where I'd like to go):
-Williams
-Amherst
-Brown
-Dartmouth
-Swarthmore
-University of Chicago
-Carleton
-Bates
-Vassar
-Wesleyan</p>

<p>I know all these schools are hard to get into, in general, as a transfer. Thus I applied to ten schools! Thanks for reading and giving whatever input you have! And good luck to my fellow prospective transfers!</p>

2

<p>^And the limited FA for transfers part.</p>

3

<p>I think you have a great chance at those schools! You definitely top me in almost every category, and I applied to UChicago as a math major too. They’ll take you before they take me anyway hehe. Good luck! :)</p>

4

<p>@simonschama: Thanks! Well, if you want the specifics: I’m actually very interested in pursuing a PhD in philosophy (yeah yeah I know, I’ve heard like every joke in the book haha). I’m very interested in ethical theory, though I enjoy pretty much any branch of philosophy. My school, however, doesn’t offer classes that focus on narrow topics I’m interested in (like contemporary metaethics); the schools I’m applying to have at least a few such specific courses. In regards to math, I am interested in probability theory as well as logic (which is something one can study in philosophy grad school!) The math professors at my school tend to either not speak English well or not teach well. I’m so bummed that Brown is need-aware and has limited FA for transfers. But oh well; I get that money is tight during these times.</p>

<p>@yarrum: Thanks! Ah, don’t say that. I’m sure you have a chance too! Good luck to you too!</p>