<p>Hi! I go to Bard College, and as much as I positively love it, I'm realizing more and more how much it doesn't necessarily have the major program(s) that I want, and the way our system is set up makes it incredibly difficult to either create majors or switch -- it feels like you have to know what you want to do going in.</p>
<p>I want to major in language translation or linguistics and literature, so that I can be a fiction translator and/or teach the literature of other cultures. If I stay at Bard, I'm going to stay a political science/philosophy major and take a ****ton of languages for the hell of it, which is fine by me, but I want to look into my options to transfer anyway, just in case somewhere does accept me. Does anybody have any recommendations?</p>
<p>My grades in high school were not the best, but not bad either, and because I am a good essay writer I got into a couple of impressive colleges (eg, Bard). As a sophomore II (despite the fact that I'm only going into my second year) I have a 3.4 right now with Bard grades -- a 3.8 if you factor in the classes I took through Syracuse and UAlbany during my junior and senior years of high school -- but I have some withdrawals and an incomplete because of major medicational issues this past year (I am bipolar, and when you're on an incorrect dosage, it REALLY screws you up). That being said, I DO have a 3.4 otherwise, and none of those withdrawals were within a major that I might ultimately pursue. Oh, and I have a metric ****ton of extracurriculars, volunteer experience, and leadership experience, and was a first alternate to be an RA for this year but was ultimately rejected for being too nice. Bah.</p>
<p>I'm not picky about big schools or small LACs, just not conservative or religious ones. I'm a radical leftist, so this would not bode well. :P</p>
<p>Is anything hard to follow or in need of clarification? I tend to be hard to follow sometimes in these threads.</p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
<p>Okay, here is my current list, based on suggestions from friends and my own taste, and I supremely doubt my ability to get into any of them:</p>
<p>Clairemont McKenna
Columbia
Eugene Lang/The New School*
Middlebury
Mount Holyoke (for **<em>s and giggles)</em>
NYU
NYU Gallatin
Penn State University Park
Pomona
Reed
Tufts
UC Berkeley
UMass Amherst
UNC Chapel Hill
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
University of Rochester
UT Austin
UT Knoxville
UVM</p>
<p>Again, I know that all of these are HUGE reaches, which is why I need to try and get recommendations more in my range! But since I’ve left these here…thoughts? Furthermore, as much as I love small LACs, I feel like a bigger university might be better…</p>
<ul>
<li>= accepted during my original application process</li>
</ul>
<p>What were your SAT scores?</p>
<p>550M, 660R, 730W</p>
<p>The math hurts me, but I’m also not going for a discipline that has anything to do with math? :/</p>
<p>Perhaps this is more explanatory:</p>
<p>Grades:
3.75 GPA from Syracuse University
4.0 GPA from SUNY Albany – both of these from high school
3.4 GPA from Bard College, but with W’s and an I
– Difficult classes, all 200-level or above
– I’m taking a grad seminar with my favourite prof next semester
3.2 GPA in high school
SAT scores posted above</p>
<p>Great essay-writer
Will have fantastic recs</p>
<p>Extracurriculars in college:
- Co-founder, Hair Dye Collective (teehee)
- Co-head, Student Labor Dialogue
– Put in a tremendous effort and organized a rally and campaign for a living wage for housekeeping (ongoing)
- Co-head, Queer-Straight Alliance
– Gender Blender participant
– Participated in numerous awareness events
- Member, College Trans-Action Initiative
– Working towards more gender-friendly policies, currently on bathrooms and housing for incoming freshmen
- Member, Fencing Club
– Epeeist, it’s a lot of work, and hey, I even have a medal from it
- Member, Student Labor Dialogue
- Member, Environmental Collective</p>
<p>The SLD campaign is my main thing, it took a LOT of energy, effort, and resources last semester, balancing that on top of classes and all of my other activities. We did make progress, and we’re still negotiating with some of the higher-ups in the administration.</p>
<p>Your SAT scores are decent for the majority of the schools, and I don’t see your low math score taking you completely out of the running. You’re facing an uphill battle with T20 + Berkeley, but if you put together some great essays and recommendations, I’d you will elicit some consideration. </p>
<p>Your stats look decent enough for URoch. So if the top ones fail, that’s a great school to fall back on if given admission.</p>
<p>Crossing my fingers for you.</p>
<p>Thank you very much! I appreciate it. My only really big concern is the W’s and I that I have, but the I, at least, may be contested as I’ve emailed my prof five times with no response…<em>shakes head</em></p>
<p>But, yes, thanks muchly.</p>
<p>Actually, to be honest, you seem like a match for either NYU College of Art and Sciences, or Gallatin. 3.4 is competitive for NYU, I transferred with a 3.4, myself. </p>
<p>If you want to have a more interdisciplinary degree, go with Gallatin. Gallatin has the added plus of loving both radical leftists and transfer students, lol. We offer a lot of languages and I believe one of the schools has classes in translation studies.</p>
<p>I’m sure you are already aware of our crappy transfer student financial aid, but it’s worth repeating.</p>
<p>You’re extracurriculars are somewhat amusing and interesting, which should help you. I have to ask, wth is the Hair Dye Collective???</p>
<p>Missamericanpie – really!? Awesome! Gallatin is actually the one I want to get into most, and I wish I’d found it sooner! I definitely have time for the spring 2011 deadline…but, since the site doesn’t seem to be all that helpful to transfers, do you know how one can apply to more than one school of NYU?</p>
<p>Natasharose – suh-weet. Hah, well, it’s a funny story. I’ve been dying my hair funny colors for several years now, so nobody (not even my family) really remembers/finds “natural” my natural hair color any longer (by the way, it’s black). On the first day at Bard, I met a fellow crazy hair dye enthusiast, and funnily enough, both of us had purple hair! We’ve been friends ever since, and as we met a lot of other people who were into the idea of having crazy colors, we decided to start a club for it last semester. We weren’t TOO serious about it, figuring that we wouldn’t get a lot of support from the people who make the decisions on funding, but Bard is so crazy that almost everyone was into it. We get school funding to dye our hair, but we also help others dye their hair natural colors, teach people how to take care of their hair properly, etc etc. : )</p>
<p>@skull</p>
<p>Ah, therein lies the problem. . .you can’t. You can ONLY apply to one NYU division at a time. So if you want Gallatin, go all out on your Gallatin application. And if you are rejected from Gallatin, you don’t get another shot to be placed in CAS. :-(</p>
<p>Really? Well, Gallatin is much more my style anyway, so no big deal. :)</p>
<p>I plan on applying for spring 2011 and having all of my apps finished by November first – will the semester choice harm my chances any?</p>
<p>Nope! The only downside I’ve experienced is that you get less of a transfer orientation in January. You don’t get the whole “Welcome Week” experience that you would in the fall. But you can’t beat spring in NYC. I transferred in spring 2008 to Steinhardt.</p>
<p>Random, but I also just noticed that you fence. If you are considering fencing at NYU, I highly encourage you to get in touch with someone at NYU about it. NYU is big on fencing, and it will only help you.</p>
<p>Oh, I do fence, but I am not, however, terribly good; in fact, “terrible” is a better adjective for it, as I have only ever won one bout (on the other hand, perhaps I should switch to foil). Either way, though, I’ll mention it on my application/activities/thing. Good to know!</p>
<p>Are there any opinions on the other schools I’m applying to, from anyone? I don’t want to put all of my eggs in one basket, but also want to narrow it down at least a little so I’m not applying to 17 schools like I did in high school. =X Alternately, are there better schools for foreign languages or IR that I should update and add?</p>
<p>Revised list:
Clairemont McKenna
Columbia
The New School
Middlebury
NYU Gallatin
Reed
Tufts
UChicago
UPenn
URochester
Penn State University Park (again, was accepted out of high school)
UC Berkeley
UMass Amherst
UNC Chapel Hill
UT Austin
UT Knoxville
UVM</p>
<p>Bumpin’ this up, thanks.</p>
<p>Hi again. I would reconsider the New School, depending on how badly you would like to end up in NYC. You already have two really good NYC universities, and if you are looking for more of a campus feel, NS has even LESS of a campus than NYU. I also feel like UC Berk might be a bit of a wash as an OOS transfer.</p>
<p>All right, that helps. I mostly put The New School on my list because it’s a quirky place I’m fairly certain would accept me out of fear that nobody else would, but I also have a habit of selling myself short, so…yeah, also, UC Berkeley is probably unrealistic. Thanks!</p>