<p>I'm a freshman at Oxford College of Emory U. (a subdivision of Emory; we go to Emory's main campus after two years at Oxford) and I'm applying for transfer to the below schools:
Harvard, UChicago, Wesleyan
I really want to find a better program for economics, and possibly psychology as well. Emory has a great business school, but the econ at Emory (and especially Oxford) is not as good as I want it to be.</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0 after 1 semester, 17 credit hours. 23 credit hours second semester (4 credits = 1 class).
SAT I: Retook it and got a 2300: 800 verbal, 720 math, 780 writing
APs: Three 5s and two 4s
ECs: Oxford and Emory SGA, was chairman of environmental club, research assistant for psych professor, officer in debate society, rep on hall council, honor council, did some volunteer work for a Ronald McDonald House in high school and they gave me a scholarship.
High school GPA: 3.57, which is slightly low, but I had a 4.0 senior year and the second half of junior year, which hopefully shows improvement.</p>
<p>I know these are some pretty good stats, but the schools I'm applying to are really competitive. Do you guys think I should add some safety schools if I really want to get out of Emory, and if so, what would be good for economics? I want to stay on the east coast.</p>
<p>Interesting that Wesleyan seems to be a popular choice among transfers. I think you have a great shot at Chicago and Wesleyan. Harvard is worth trying. Have you applied already?</p>
<p>Maybe look into Northwestern? It may not be quite on par with UChicago and Harvard for economics, but I don't think the difference is huge, and I think that it's one of the few top schools for economics that have decent transfer rates.</p>
<p>I'd say the difference is indeed pretty much small, if not non-existent. In fact, Northwestern's College Fed Challenge team (made up of econ majors) beat UChicago's 3 times in row in the midwest regional (and won the national championship 3 years in a row).</p>
<p>that's wonderful, but the economists that have been popping out of "the chicago school" are just too big to ignore. Regardless of their teaching ability, i'd take chicago over NU for econ any day of the week.</p>
<p>You do sound like you have a shot at all three. 'tisthetruth: I suspect the reason Wesleyan is popular among transfers is that once kids get to college and talk to their friends on other campuses, they figure out how great the academics and lifestyle are at LACs like Wes.</p>
<p>I'm going to go out on a limb and say that your chances are slim at all three. The reason being that since you've only spent one year (really only a semester at the time of your app) in university, most of the weight will be on your high school record. Quite frankly, your HS GPA isn't anywhere near the GPA for kids at these schools. Remember that transferring in is more difficult than the freshman app process (schools use transfer students as their "buffers" for unfilled spots in classes). I will however say that if your essays are incredibly impressive and you focus on how you've improved your grades over the years etc., you could get in. The best advice I can offer you is to look into other schools as back-ups. Schools like Northwestern, Upenn (econ), maybe even Columbia. With schools as competitive as the ones you are listing here, it wouldn't be a good idea to focus on only them if you really want to transfer out of your current program.</p>
<p>Thank you, I'll try to keep my expectations low and add some more schools to the mix; I can swing by Northwestern while I'm visiting UChicago.</p>
<p>I asked a Harvard admissions officer how much weight is given to the high school transcript, and she said that college was most important, while improvement from high school was always good. However, she may have meant an improvement from 3.8 to 4.0, so you never know.</p>
<p>Schools evaluate your performance over a period of several years. If you only have one semester or year's worth of college grades to present to them, they will rely heavily on HS grades too.</p>
<p>^^yes of course there are some exceptions to every rule but it wouldn't be prudent to rely on individual cases like that when deciding on university.</p>