Chances @ Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, Yale, Columbia?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Thinking about applying to Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown, Yale, & Columbia as a sophomore transfer.</p>

<p>Current School: Bowdoin College
GPA: 3.75
Potential Major: Economics
Course Work Includes: Calculus I & II, International Politics, Statistics, Intro to Environmental Science, & Moral Basis of Politics
Activities: Varsity Women’s Lacrosse, Intramural Basketball</p>

<p>Caucasian Female
Public High School:
GPA: 3.7
Class Rank: 10 of 165
Honors & AP level coursework (scored 4 on AP US History test)</p>

<p>SATs: 690 Reading/610 Math/640 Writing (1300/1940)
Subj Tests: 610 Math/620 US History</p>

<p>EC's & Awards:
 4 year student council member - Treasurer of Student Council
 National Honor Society
 National Spanish Honor Society
 National Technical Honor Society<br>
 Presidential Scholar<br>
 Peer Advocates
** Over a hundred hours of community service </p>

<p>Lacrosse (captain): Academic All-American, 1st Team All-State, Academic All-State, 1st Team All-Conference (2 yrs), Shoreline Scholar-Athlete (2 yrs), All-Area, #1 scorer in a small state, led team to state quarterfinals</p>

<p>Basketball (captain): Runner-Up in State Championship 2008, Conference Champions in 2005, quarterfinals of states in 2004 & 2005</p>

<p>Soccer: Conference Champions in 2004</p>

<p>10 Varsity Letters </p>

<p>AAU Basketball 4 years: AAU Champions in 2003 and placed 2nd in States in 2005<br>
Club Lacrosse 2 years - played in multiple national tournaments</p>

<p>**Although I currently play lacrosse in college, I will not be asking coaches for support. I am not sure I want to continue playing & if I do I will try to walk-on to the DI teams.</p>

<p>Thanks for the help & comments in advance!! =)</p>

2

<p>Your ECs are very good, but your scores are not good enough for any of the schools you listed. Your GPA is alright too, but you are coming from a very good school so that definitely helps a bit. I think your best shot is at Penn ( I’m assuming you’re applying to CAS). Yale accepts the fewest transfers of the list you provided, so that is definitely a reach because nothing, at least to me, jumps out and shows how you would be completely different from the numerous applicants Yale gets. Columbia would be a reach as well because though the accept more transfers than Yale, most of their transfers are either intra-university transfers, or 3/2 plan transfers.
Just out of curiosity, why aren’t you using athletics? I think that can make many of these schools easier to get into if you use the coaches’ help.</p>

3

<p>I think you might have a shot if you play lax. Otherwise don’t expect to get into any top college as a soph you could have not gotten into as a freshmen. They are cherry picking to fill in any attrition, scores are still very important.</p>

4

<p>^^agree with hmom5, are you being recruited??</p>

5

<p>No, I have not been recruited nor am I looking into being recruited. I am content with where I am but am looking for a bigger school with more to offer and a better location. I do not want to inform my coach that I am looking into transferring. I thought with my good GPA from a top LAC it was worth taking a risk (hence I proved I can handle work from a prestigious school). I think when it comes down to it it’s a huge numbers game and I could get lucky.</p>

6

<p>No, I don’t see you standing out at all. You’ve got some nice athletic ECs but your scores are most definitely going to count you out. If you really want a realistic shot at an Ivy with your scores, try Cornell. Otherwise you are still going to a very good college!!</p>

7

<p>For transferring, your college gpa is good, but not great. Also, as a soph transfer, you will be assessed more on your HS record and test scores since you’ve only spent a semester in college. On top of that, the admission rates for transfers are substantially lower than for freshmen for all of the schools you’ve listed (eg. 20+ for Y this year). So, if you weren’t a competitive applicant as a freshman, it will be very difficult to transfer “up” to these more selective schools.</p>

<p>Outside of sports, one thing that does stand out from your HS record is Presidential Scholar.</p>

8

<p>Have you considered the many non-Ivy League schools which are “bigger” and “have more to offer”?</p>

9

<p>LAX probably helped you get into Bowdoin, no? Isn’t the 1940 below median there? Unless you don’t want to play, why not contact the coaches? I don’t think the ivy Lax teams are any more competitive than Bowdoin’s and a good term in college can help the coaches make a case for supporting you.</p>

10

<p>Bowdoin is D3, so I’m betting that the Ivys are more competitive. Penn, for example, has one of the best womens lax teams in the country.</p>

11

<p>At DS’s and DD’s school,s the girl’s lax players who looked at Bowdoin, Bates and Colby also looked at ivies. They are DI, but come on…</p>

12

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<p>There are a lot of schools that fit these criteria and where you would have a much better chance for transfer admission than just the top ivies. [sorry for the poor sentence structure :)] If you give us some idea of what kind of environment and region you’re looking for we might be able to help think of some schools.</p>

13

<p>By Ivy league standards, you have a low SAT, low SAT II’s, a low gpa, a couple EC’s with no leadership positions…so yeah you have a shot but not a great one. You could either apply now and take your chances, wait a semester and they’ll put more emphasis on college, or find a couple safeties/matches.</p>

<p>you should know Yale turns down 4.0’s with 2200+ sometimes…I mean even for the most qualified applicants, it’s a crapshoot. Much better shot with the others. Add a safety or two, and good luck! :)</p>

<p>also, I think cornell sounds like a bad idea cause it’s in the middle of nowhere (same as bowdoin) - you’re looking for a subruban/urban school, right?</p>

14

<p>stargazerlilies, dartmouth which is on her list is far more isolated than cornell. I think it is pretty obvious they are just searching for prestige.</p>