<p>I was wondering what are my chances as an external transfer. I've posted on a few other threads but was looking to attract some more opinions.</p>
<p>College:
HS GPA: 93.35/100 (Private Jesuit High School)
College GPA: 4.0 (so far)
Credits: 4 classes this trimester, 5 for next 2 trimesters
College: Northwestern University
Major: Economics, Math
Clubs: HS - Model UN Secretary General of 2 conferences, Mock Trial Team Captain, All School Vice President, Masterminds Captain, Member of Varsity Tennis
College: Community Service, Model UN, Working on creating new volunteer tutor organization
SAT Reasoning: 1520/2320
AP: World 5, US 5, Bio 5, AB 4, Lit 5, Macro 4, Micro 5, French 2, Physics 3, Stats 4
Job: Private Tutor, Work Study Job as Attendant in on campus business
Awards: National Merit Winner, National AP Scholar
Familial ties: None
Ethnicity: Indian
Dark side: Low High School GPA
Bright side: Completely focused now that I'm at college and realized that I needed to work harder.</p>
<p>Focus on the things that are still under your control: essays. You seem to be a qualified applicant, but the essay and recs can make/break you. Do you have any hooks? Music/Sports/Art?</p>
<p>I don't have much going for me in those fields. I played varsity sports in High School but I wasn't nearly good enough for Northwestern Athletics (Big Ten Athletics will do that to you). I don't do many of those things. My main interests are public speaking and politics. One interesting thing that I have done is work for a PAC. I am planning to do my summer internship in India which could also possibly be helpful. I know there isn't too much that makes me unique, but I have not been able to do well in music/art, while I flourished in the activities that I did.</p>
<p>Your ECs are bleh, so no to Stanford and Yale. Your majors make you look like a gunner, so Penn might be a go. They're going to be tough, that's for sure. Nothing about you really stands out.</p>
<p>You've called me a gunner twice, can you explain what you mean. I'm open to honest opinions and criticism, but I've never heard this terminology used before.</p>
<p>Being a gunner just means that you're highly interested in professional paths, most notably Investment banking, consulting, law school, or med school. You're less likely to get into the better schools as a gunner because they'll usually be looking for someone who can fulfill a niche at those places. It's not good enough just to have the stats - you have to have something to offer to the table.</p>
<p>Your stats totally warranted you for acceptance into a better school last year. You have to ask yourself why you didn't get in, and how you exactly improved yourself over the past year. A quick look at your profile tells me that your activities were incredibly boring in HS, and you haven't really changed much in college - you're also a pretty boring candidate as of now.</p>
<p>Perhaps you're right, but you wouldn't consider my current school good enough? Its consistently ranked right among the Ivy League Schools (though rankings are suspect, they mean something). You seem to imply a strong negative connotation to being a so-called "gunner". There's a place for people who don't have a plan for what they plan to do with their degrees - they're called LACs. (Not to knock on the LACs, I just don't understand this "gunner" theory, nor have I ever heard it in use before.</p>
<p>Haha I think I'm done with college confidential - someone told me to steer clear when I was initially applying to university, I should have heeded their advice</p>
<p>i agree i go to harvard now and did not believe the number of kids here that used collegeconfidential when they were in high school or transferring. btw, u never said why you want to transfer, its pretty important because you'll need to explain it to the admissions.</p>
<p>The OP just needs to understand that there are many kids with 4.0's, and that most of them would be more than willing to transfer to an Ivy just to say that they went there. Sahil, what we're trying to ask is why YOU?</p>