Hi guys,
I’m looking to transfer to Boston University after finishing two years of community college. My story goes a little something like this: I attended Boston Latin for high school, but I didn’t do well due to severe depression and PTSD. It was hard for me to watch all of my friends go off to MIT, Harvard, etc while my only choice was CC. However, I am doing much better now. I’m on track to graduate from BHCC with a ~3.6-3.7 GPA in December and I’m happy. My goal is to complete undergraduate school at Boston University, do my master’s there or at BC, and get into MIT, Stanford, or Harvard for my PhD in psychology. I plan to use it to help survivors like myself and show them by example that a successful life is possible/spread awareness wherever I’ll be heard. In my spare time, I do volunteer work with special ed children. That’s about all I can afford to do right now because I have a pretty busy schedule. What do you think my chances of getting in are? I saw that BU offers a 20,000 scholarship for some students from my school that have a 3.5 or higher… but it’s only if you’re applying for September.
I know that I am guaranteed to get into any of the UMass schools and ALL of my credits transfer. If I don’t get into BU, should I just do a year at UMass and then try again? I want my undergraduate’s degree to be from a school held in high regard to better the chances of my end goal of a PhD from the three dreams schools I mentioned earlier. Where else should I apply besides BU that’s in the Boston area? Any other advice/tips? I wish I was on the ball from the start, but I was just not in the right state of mind until recently.
Thanks for reading my story!
So, you are getting your AA in December 2015? I think you have a decent shot at BU. So that you could take advantage of the scholarship opportunity, is it not possible for you to apply there and to the other schools for Fall 2016 admission, and just do something different in the interim (work full time, volunteer, etc)?
You could consider BC or Tufts, though they would both be much more of a reach. Brandeis? Holy Cross is another possibility, but maybe that is not as close to Boston as you would like. You really can apply anywhere you want since you do have a nice fallback in a UMass. Visit those schools you are interested in to see if they are good fits for you. Many have special open houses/tours/info sessions targeted just towards transfers. Check with the Admissions Offices. Obviously, you’ll need to run the net price calculators to see which schools are affordable options for you, though.
But no matter when you apply, if you do not get in to BU (or your top choice), IMO, the best plan would be to just go to the UMass (or wherever) and stay. If you are looking for an exit strategy from day 1, that will prevent you from every truly becoming immersed in your new community. However, you could look into it if you wanted to. First, however, you will need to determine whether or not they even would consider applications from senior transfers (some schools will not). Second, you’ll also need to look into the overall university graduation requirements and your specific major requirements to determine how much MUST be done in residence. Most selective schools aren’t too crazy about putting their name on your diploma unless you do the majority of the work there! So, even if they consider your application and they accept you, you might find yourself facing additional time in school (and money) to get your degree from them. That wouldn’t be worth it, IMO.