<p>Terrible luck with this "college admissions" thing. Rejected at Penn, Cornell, Tufts, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins. Only accepts are at Fordham and Franklin & Marshall. I would likely plan on transferring.</p>
<p>My family and I are sort-of in a panic mode, although my two schools are nothing to sneeze at, they're certainly not what I wanted out of the college admissions process. One thing we've done is browse over the schools that are still accepting applications with late deadlines or rolling admissions.</p>
<p>One of them caught our eye - Columbia's School of General Studies.</p>
<p>I researched this thoroughly, and understand that it's usually for an atypical applicant to an undergraduate institution, but, is it even possible for a graduating high school senior to attend? I am attracted by its integration with Columbia, with the same courses and degrees and whatnot, but I'm not sure if I could even go. </p>
<p>If it is possible, would transferring into the "typical" colleges of other Ivy League universities be particularly more difficult than if I go to Fordham or Franklin and Marshall, or is it viewed by transfer admissions committees as equal to Columbia College?</p>
<p>Any information about the School of General Studies for a graduating high school senior would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>You need to have taken a year off from formal education to apply to GS.</p>
<p>Anyhow, you could transfer from Fordham or F&M to a traditional Ivy undergrad college, but a given GPA at the schools you're choosing from wouldn't carry the same weight as the same GPA from Columbia College. For instance, an inter-Ivy transfer (or Stanford, UChicago, N'Western, JHU, Amherst, etc. -->Ivy transfer) requires about a 3.7 to be viable, along with good EC's and compelling non-academic reasons to transfer. With the same EC's and soft factors but coming from Fordham or F&M, you'd need something more like a 3.9.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's for people who've had interruptions in their education. Also, housing isn't guaranteed since you are not going to be placed in the normal housing lottery, and apartments around New York (Morningside Heights included) aren't going to be cheap. You can't go from GS to CC (though you can go the other way around) because they are separate units. You'd be looking into taking a gap year or something to be eligible for GS.</p>
<p>With this situation, I think you're better off spending a freshman year at Fordham or F&M (and yes, you'll need a great GPA). However, when you apply for an Ivy transfer, also consider applying to a good state school like Michigan, where they will let you transfer immediately into the spring semester (a floormate of mine transferred there this semester in his freshman year). Also keep in mind that when you transfer, you've got quite a few credits to make up.</p>