I am currently a freshman at a Miami University in Ohio. I’m considering transferring to several schools, including Columbia University. I would like a more well rounded and challenging education than the one I’m currently receiving here. I screwed around a lot my freshman and sophomore years of high school, which hurt my GPA (I was able to bring it up significantly hmy junior and senior years though). I’m currently a freshman at the business school here at Miami (ranked #23 for undergrad business programs), and I’m in the honors and business honors programs here.
My stats:
High School GPA: 3.45 (unweighted)/4.2(weighted)
SAT: 2200 (1480 Math/Reading)
College GPA: 4.0 (Including 2 honors classes and taking one more next semester)
Background/ Extracurricular:
I come from a very wealthy area near a major city. High school was very competitive/challenging.
High School-
Several leadership positions in high school (Student Council VP, Founder/President of investment club)
Mock Trial
3 sport varsity athlete (soccer state champion)
College (first semester)-
Delta Sigma Pi International Business Fraternity (Selected as 1 of 25 of over 150 applicants)
Investment Banking Club (Selected as 1 of 8 of over 250 applicants)
Several case competitions (including one investment banking case comp and 2nd place in a PwC case comp)
Do I have a decent chance at getting in? Any suggestions? Applying to Wharton most likely.
You have a shot. If I were you, I would apply for the College first. Then you could apply to change to Wharton or else apply for a dual degree. Wharton itself might be a stretch, but the Collee seems reasonable.
OP, I’m almost the same as you. I am at a Big Ten school.
Came from a high school in a very wealthy city (public high school) near a major city, extremely competitive.
My GPA sucked a tad more (3.2) and my SAT was 2180 on the first try; I admit I screwed around, but I had some general circumstances outside school that didn’t make me focus on my education, and I can talk extensively about it and how I learned the importance of education over the course of the 4 years (GPA trend is definitely present).
EC’s were great too, several leadership positions (class president, president of 3 clubs [Model UN, Political Discussion Forum, Charity Computer Building Club] with 25-70 members, student adviser on a state agency [Department of Ed])
My college GPA is on track for a 4.0 this semester, and I project the same for next semester. My EC’s here are also pretty good, I’ve won an award at my first collegiate Model UN conference and have joined some campus-wide clubs too.
Like Spencek, I’d suggest applying to the College. Make sure your recs are good too.
But something I think we have to deal with coming from pretty decent schools, we have to really convey WHY Penn and why not our current school.
Id say you have a shot, albeit a rather small one in my opinion. i do not think that your 4.0 at miami university will make a huge impact. if it was a 4.0 from say northwestern, wash u st lewis, UVA, tufts, a top liberal arts college, then it would matter a lot and would have a major positive impact on your chances. (the aforementioned schools are some of the most represented schools in Penn s transfer applicant pool). miami u is not really up there tho. you did not have to compete with super high caliber students for that grade, or at least not the caliber you will find at a school like Penn or Columbia. i believe your high school record is gonna be more important here. you say you went to a very competitive school at a very wealthy area so it is safe to assume that some kids from your school got into elite schools. maybe some got into Penn? these are the kids they are gonna compare you with. and the 3.45 GPA is quite lackluster (Penn average GPA for the incoming class is 3.94) and the 2200 just average.
lastly if you end up applying, i don’t entirely agree with what @spencek is saying. if you are deadset on studying business and you are not at all open to the idea of doing a traditional economics degree in CAS, you should apply to wharton from the beginning for a few reasons: 1. the difference it will make to your chances is not that significant at all nowadays 2. if you get into Penn in CAS, transfer to wharton is not at all guaranteed and it is a rather competitive process. but then again u said you are applying to columbia, which only has a traditional econ degree, so u seem like u haven’t ruled that out…just make sure you understand the difference of a business degree and an econ degree.
what @Penn95 is largely true; we’ve got average to mediocre high school stats backing a short college experience (since we’re applying as incoming sophomores). our chance is really small, but there is still a chance. i reiterate what i said; your essays will matter.
i don’t know about you, but i think in high school my ECs speak for me more and helped me realize the importance of education/academics, which is why my short track record at my college is still on track for 4.0s.
you’ve got passion for business (from what i read), and i think if you do your essays right, you could get in. and strong, strong recs too.
A note: you will not be able to internally transfer as a transfer student. So I’d be cautious about the advice @Spencek gave. If you apply, and get into, the college, you will not be able to internally transfer to Wharton.
If applying to Wharton, it is INSANELY competitive. Out of all of the transfers I know, I can only think of 3 that transferred into Wharton. There are certainly more, but out of the transfer class entering in 2015, there aren’t many at all. Your stats seem good, but nothing really stands out to me, I guess. Basically everyone at Wharton is interested in IB, so find a way to set yourself apart. Maybe apply for a less-represented major? Wharton is a crapshoot already, but Wharton for transfer is super hard.
what are some of the best helps available for transfer students ?
Im a freshman at one of the big 5 but I wanna transfer to wharton. I need some legit help. Is there any fb group for transfers ?