a little introduction here:
I am a student from a Chinese University(Northeastern University, top 30 in China) as a sophomore now majoring in Information and Computation Science(a branch of Mathematics). I want to transfer as a junior in 19 fall and choose a Mathematics major.
Here are some statistics and extracurricular activities in High School(Xiaoshi HS):
GPA in the last year: 85/100
3 years in school orchestra playing violin(3 hours a week)(playing violin for 7 years)
Lots of nation/province/citywide high school instrumental ensemble competition first prizes with the orchestra
Many experiences of MUN(the model united nation) and individual awards in MUN
The under secretary general in the school MUN club(organize the school level activities of MUN and share skills & experiences of MUN regularly to beginners)
some statistics and extracurricular activities in the university:
GPA of the freshman year: 4.43/5.0 =(94.3/100)
Rank in the freshman year: 1/160
TOEFL:109(R29 L27 S23 W30)
SAT1: 1430 (will retake in the December)
One time national scholarship & many times school scholarships
1 year in school Chinese orchestra playing cello until now(8 hours a week)
Lots lots lots of performance in the surrounding high schools, universities, cities with school Chinese orchestra
The member of the college basketball team(4 hours practise a week)
Currently learning advanced courses with the teacher such as CS231n in Stanford in the school machine learning lab c(ML is my career direction)(5-8 hours a week)
Join in China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling(the second prize of the nation)(top 5%)
Intending school list:
Chicago Cornell CMU UCB UCLA UMICH NYU USC UIUC UWM
Please chance me for these schools or other schools which you think is best for me. Thanks a lot!!
It is difficult for most who don’t have knowledge of the school system in China to evaluate you. Most of the schools you listed are highly competitive for transfers. For example, the average GPA to transfer to UCB/UCLA/USC is 3.7+/4.0. UCB and UCLA give preference to CA community college applicants. Just apply anyway and hope for the best. Good luck.
thank you for your comment. I know GPA is important. For me I’ve tried my best to keep it and if my GPA transforms into American version it will be 3.8~3.9/4.0. Maybe the rank also helps… I also know the CC preference for UCB and UCLA. anyway, thank you again for your comment.
Extremely difficult for UChicago. They look for a specific breed of students and judging by your massive list of schools and the extracurriculars you do its unlikely you’re their type. They especially prefer highly intellectual students with a thirst for deep immersion within a specific branch of knowledge; high stats (near-perfect GPA & test scores), taking graduate courses during their freshmen/sophomore years, extensive research with faculty etc. You’re taking advanced courses “similar to the one at Stanford” but I’m not sure how this alone will be received. In any case again, given your laundry list of schools, its hard to see that you’re committed to UChicago for their academic culture as opposed to generic prestige, and that alone would bar you from entry.
Next, UCB and UCLA will also be near-impossible given that THEY PRIORITIZE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS, FOLLOWED BY OUT-OF-STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGES, FOLLOWED BY CALIFORNIA 4-YEAR UNIVERSITIES etc. an international university will be at the very bottom of the list. They basically take in less than 10 international students for transfer a year. Don’t take this to heart as this is far out of your control. I’d instead be more hopeful of getting into the next tier of UCs e.g. UCSD, UCSB.
On a brighter note, I think you have a reasonable chance at most other schools. I have a hard time seeing you at CMU unless you’re very knowledgeable and dedicated about the school. The fact that you’re applying for Math rather than CS means you can bypass the hypercompetitive nature of your schools’ CS departments. Cornell & CMU are reaches but possible given your awards and advanced coursework; everything else is a match especially with a boosted SAT (granted test scores are less emphasized for transfer programs, but I’m inclined to think schools still just prefer 32~ ACT or 1450~ SAT). I’d be surprised if you don’t get into at least half of UMich/NYU/USC/UIUC/UWM unless you botch your essays by not being personable/mature about your academic justifications for transferring.
In actuality, solidifying that reasoning for transfer is the single best thing you can do to boost your chances.
Thank you for your extremely specific comment! That is very helpful to me! Based on your comment, some new questions pop out of mind:
- To increase the chance of being admitted to CMU or Cornell these kinda of schools, should I just focused on participating into some competitive competitions for more awards and being more "nerdy" like taking more advanced coursework, researching with faculty and improving SAT? Especially for CMU, you know if I can study math at CMU, there must be lots of good projects for machine learning and that is really cool.
- Would you mind recommending some schools that are in the same level with CMU & Cornell which are reachable for me? What about Upenn or Columbia? I think transferring to a top school would enhance my competitiveness when looking for a job.
Thanks again. And your reply will be appreciated.
You should look for doing things you’re interested in as opposed to what “may” boost your chances of admission. In the least condescending tone possible, such a mindset is typically more prevalent amongst college applicants from high school. Given that you’re about to complete the last semester that colleges will see your grades on, there’s not much else I can suggest “to improve your chances”. What I hope you’ll really consider however, is to make decisions based on what you are interested in and happy doing.
To address your second question, I honestly don’t know. Generally speaking, most successful applicants have thought long and hard about the schools they want to enter, as opposed to randomly throwing in other high-reach schools just because they have the stats for it. There certainly are exceptions, but in my opinion there isn’t too many “exempting” aspects on your profile (unless you neglect to mention you’re the heir to a massive fortune/company in China).Then, transferring to a top school won’t really matter for job competitiveness unless you want to head into Wall Street. There’s a reason why Google no longer requires bachelor degrees for entry-level jobs and are actively seeking community-college/non-degree students. Again, this mindset “doing ‘x’ which I’m not necessarily interested in just so I can get ‘y’” is a hindering one.
The reason why I said I can’t see you at CMU has nothing to do with your stats or accomplishments, but because you don’t seem particularly interested in the school beyond its reputation. You add further credence to my opinion by abruptly asking about your prospects on UPenn/Columbia, which are schools you did not even mention in your original post.
I know the tone I struck in all the above isn’t the friendliest, but what I’m trying to get at is that you should look for schools you want to attend for non-petty, genuine reasons. Put it this way: the highly-selective schools you have the best chance of getting into are the ones that you want to attend for reasons beyond their selectivity/reputation/enhanced job-search competitiveness. Just because the schools you list have the same range of admission rates does not mean your admission chances will be the same at all of them. The evidence: the Harvard lawsuit released data showed that the majority of each of their accepted class are comprised of the highest category of applicants, with 75% of people in that category being admitted. The remaining 400-500 or so people they accept come from a category where only ~2% of the people in it are accepted.Thus, their “overall” 5% admission rate is actually very misleading.
If you really want to get into a top school, you need to show them you genuinely want to attend. At this point, its difficult to muster that level of genuine of interest for so many different schools. Just stick to 1-2 top schools max e.g. CMU/Cornell/UMichigan and dig deep for your reasons to transfer. A few high quality applications are infinitely better than a large batch of mediocre, indistinguishable applications.
Thank you for your comments! Your words really teach me. I will reconsider my school list. Thank you!