College help

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>This is my third thread on CC. I need some advice on how to transfer in to a university. This advice is however for a nephew of mine, who refuses to make an account because he is stuck up with studies.</p>

<p>He is currently attending a 4 year university in Minnesota (which I might add is not so highly ranked).</p>

<p>Although he has had a very low High school performance, his performance in his university has been very good. His stats are as follows :-</p>

<p>University info:-</p>

<pre><code>* 4 year university
* ABET accredited
* Current course- Mechanical Engineering
</code></pre>

<p>High school:-</p>

<pre><code>* 3.0 GPA
* SAT - 620 M , 480 CR --> Taken in HS
</code></pre>

<p>Current performance:-</p>

<pre><code>* 3.9 GPA
* Currently a Sophomore (he plans to transfer as a Junior)
* Dean's list
* Offered instate tuition fee and many other scholarships (he is practically attending the university for free)
* Top 1%
* Core Curriculum
* Research work with professors
* Learned to play Football and Lacrosse (he is also on the respective teams)
* Has excellent LOR's
</code></pre>

<p>Current List:-</p>

<pre><code>* University of Minnesota - Twin cities (safety)
* University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
* University of Wisconsin
* University of California - LA
* University of California - Berkeley
* Cornell University
* Northwestern University
* Dartmouth college
</code></pre>

<p>What do you think will his chances be with his current statistics ?. Which all universities do you think he will be able to get into?. Also, what can he do to improve his chances ?.</p>

<pre><code>* He is not a recruitable athlete
* He doesn't require any financial aid
* E.C's - Student government and 50 hrs of community service. Internship of 2.5 months at Johnson & Johnson.
</code></pre>

<p>Which schools do not look at test scores while transferring ? (in general)</p>

<p>Also, Which schools from the above list do not care much about the SAT's ? </p>

<p>He is especially interested in Cornell university (he visited once and liked the place a lot)</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

2

<p>Good luck to him. Try here [Transfer</a> Students - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/]Transfer”>Transfer Students - College Confidential Forums)</p>

3

<p>Thank you. I posted this topic here as well since I am a parent and many parent’ stick to this sub-forum only and I needed their opinion as well.</p>

4

<p>Is he sure he wants to transfer? There is something to be said for having a 3.9GPA and being a “big fish”. Also, he may find that his courses at current school are not good enough prep for a more highly ranked school.</p>

5

<p>I don’t know a lot about it, but his stats sound pretty good to me. A lot better than my engineering grades.</p>

<p>One thing I do know - some places won’t accept you if you are too far along.
so when you say he is a sophomore, do you mean next year he will be a sophomore and he wants to transfer at the end of his sophomore year?
Because I don’t think some places will accept a transfer after that. </p>

<p>If they’re going to put their name on your ME degree, then they want you to take most of your ME classes from them.</p>

6

<p>I don’t know much about his major and the schools he is interested. Nevertheless, here is my 2c.
First of all, I think the HS records don’t have to be repeated in the transfer.
Secondly, take as many common subjects that can be counted as GE or electives in the current school. Otherwise, those major specific courses rarely will be accepted in the receiving schools. I had to give up my idea of transfering because of that. In many cases, you have to take 5 years to grduate.
Since your list of schools are more on the elite side, the higher ranking colleges do not accept many transfers and you should apply more schools. IMHO, It does not make any sense to transfer to UMTC right now as you are not gaining much just to switch campus.</p>

<p>Having said that, would it be more appropriate if he should finish his current school with high gpa and go for a tipytop school (Tier 1) for the Master. Once you have the Master from MIT for example, no one will care where your undergraduate is from.</p>

7

<p>If he’s taken all the classes required for transfer to Michigan, I imagine he has a pretty good chance there. People get in from a local community college with 3.5s, and Michigan loves full pay OOS students. Michigan is also very highly ranked for MechE.</p>

8

<p>At the university where I work, if a student is a transfer student, we don’t require high school transcripts or test scores - only the college transcript(s) of prior colleges attended. I assume each university has their own requirements.</p>

9

<p>for a nephew of mine, who refuses to make an account because he is stuck up with studies.</p>

<p>What does THAT mean???</p>

<p>Do colleges really care or even insist on SAT scores for transfer students with that many credits?</p>

10

<p>I can only speak to the UC schools on your list, but the UC transfer application requires a high school transcript, test scores, and 2 essays in addition to your college record.</p>

11

<p>I live in Minnesota, and am curious about which college he is attending. For example, if he is at somewhere like St. Cloud State, he will mostly likely get his tail kicked at almost every school on that list. His prep classes will not be sufficient for him to keep up transferring into engineering anywhere on that list except maybe U of MN.</p>

<p>You said he is not an athlete, and his test scores are just so-so. Is he an under represented minority? That would help with his admission. And might get him some scholarship money. But it won’t help with the coursework when he gets there (and a lot of times those scholarships require a good GPA to keep them). He certainly would not have gotten into any of those schools as a freshman with those SAT scores. The fundamental question I have is whether he is MUCH more capable than those scores show, or if he is just going to an easy college.</p>

<p>I think the OP means his nephew doesn’t have time to post out here because he is too busy studying.</p>

12

<p>^^ I think you cleared out every thing. </p>

<p>My nephew is in St Cloud. He is in the Honors program. He is also retaking the SAT in January. As far as the coursework is concerned, the curriculum is the same as the one offered at Purdue (where my son is heading). </p>

<p>The kid (nephew) is hardworking and has certainly improved as a person since HS. I mean no slacker can just top all engineering classes at a 5000 student campus. I just wanted to know whether Test scores (SAT and SAT II) are considered important factors while transferring to a university to start as a Junior ? or should he just send in the scores which he received in HS ?. </p>

<p>He does not require any money (aid) from the schools. Attending a lower tier university actually helped his parents save money to send him to 50K.year university. </p>

<p>His parent’s were also concerned about the tougher classes at the tier 1 universities. But when they spoke to him and his professor’s, they were sure that he will definitely be able to handle the next level of toughness.</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>] He is not a URM
[</em>] He does not need aid
[li] All his credits are transferable to the UC’s and the rest of the universities [/li][/ul] </p>

<p>What do you think will his chances be at the universities listed above with his current stats ?</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I did not understand this !</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>He is definitely capable. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Yes, this is what I meant.</p>

13

<p>Which all college’s do you people think he should aim for ?. </p>

<p>He definitely wants to transfer as he wants to work with different professors, be in a different campus and face more of a challenge [Engineering anywhere is difficult and he wants to be in an atmosphere where his peers are more academically focused. At his current school except for a top few, the rest want to just get wasted. So basically he wants to have a balance which the above list of universities provide]</p>

14

<p>Any idea why he scored so low on the SAT tests? I can understand an average CR is not that important and there can be reasons for it. But going from a 620 Math (around 75th percentile) to acing engineering coursework is quite a jump. Did he just not care about the SAT at the time?
Did he take any Math subject tests?</p>

15

<p>^He might not have taken pre-calc and not had enough exposure to trig to be able to answer those questions.</p>

16

<p>I think if those are his reasons for transferring (that he wants to be more challenged) then he should apply and see what happens. This is nothing ventured nothing gained situation. He is in school. He is performing well. What difference does it make regarding his chances unless he doesn’t take rejection well? I agree that there could be a multitude of reasons why his high school scores of what they were, but in general for transferring they want to see how well the student performed in the college…not so much in the high school. There are plenty of high stats kids that bombed at their colleges and are interested in transferring…those kids have a harder road than kids that are performing well in a college setting.</p>

17

<p>

Assuming that’s true -
Which questions? You don’t need trig or pre-calc for the Math portion of the SAT I test. I think you only need those subjects for the Math 2 SAT subject test. He could have taken the Level 1 subject exam.</p>

<p>Edit: I checked and there is a little trig on the level 1 exam (CB claims around 6-8%). But I think you learn a little introductory trig in Alg 2</p>

18

<p>ED,</p>

<p>I agree with Momof3. It looks like that you already have all the answers, then what is your question?</p>

<p>Go ahead… and best of luck…</p>

19

<p>“Which questions? You don’t need trig or pre-calc for the Math portion of the SAT I test.”</p>

<p>Hmm… Well I know there definitely was trig on the ACT.</p>

20

<p>It’s summer. His nephew is too busy studying to create a CC account? I doubt that. If the nephew isn’t doing what’s necessary to transfer (research, etc), then it sounds like the nephew isn’t interested in transferring and this is really want the family wants. </p>

<p>And if he’s too busy in the summer “studying” at a lower ranked school, then how could he handle a more challenging school?</p>