Hello I’m about to graduate high school on June 6th and community college on June 12th with my AA degree. I’m writing this forum because I really want to attend a great well known school that has my major which is social work. I’m attending eastern Washington university next year to earn a minor. It’s a one year program and I want to transfer somewhere else in fall of 2016.
I’m not the most smartest student but I’m not terrible either. I’m graduating high school with a 3.4 GPA and community college with a 3.35 GPA. I didn’t try as hard as I know I can and so at eastern I am shooting for a 4.0 GPA . So how will that make me look academically to a school like Columbia University? What else will make me stand out ?
You aren’t making a good decision to accrue excess credits for application to selective universities.
Candidates with more than four semesters of college coursework elsewhere are not encouraged to apply.
https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/transfer
I was encouraged to apply by an actual Columbia University instructor I know personally. She told me it’s worth a shot and my circumstances are different since 2 years of my college career was through the Running Start Program in high school.
If you are dual enrolled, you can apply as a freshman and then see what credits they will give you. But if you apply as a transfer then you are in a different situation. Why don’t you go to the person you mention and ask them if you should spend a year getting a minor. Did they advise that too?
Here is some excerpts from the Columbia transfer page. Columbia takes very few transfers but they do take some. They have a ‘common core’ and I don’t know how that works with transfers since all students take those general ed classes. You need to look into it as much as you can and use that contact you have for more info.
“Credit will not be awarded for courses taken while in high school, even if they were taken at a college or university. However, we will award credit for qualifying scores on Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams (typically, scores of 4 or 5 on AP exams; 6 or 7 on Higher Level International Baccalaureate exams).”
“Due to the timing of the transfer process, we are generally unable to consider grades earned in the second semester of the year of application; thus, high school grades, rigor of program and standardized test scores are all important in the evaluation of transfer credentials, especially for students applying for sophomore standing. If you have applied to Columbia previously, the documents you provided at that time will not roll over; you must resubmit any information requested by this transfer application.”
“Due to the high retention rate in both Columbia College and Columbia Engineering, there are usually very few spots in the sophomore and junior classes. As a result, we typically admit fewer than 10 percent of those who apply for transfer admission each year. Though the number varies from year to year, in recent years, we have admitted roughly 150 transfers from over 2,500 applicants.”
https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/ask/faq/topic/393