Long story short, I had 3.9 at Syracuse my first semester and transferred to Cornell. I now have a 3.98 as a sophomore at Cornell and want to transfer to Penn. How do you think this is gonna go down/roast me.
Why do you want to transfer again?
The legitimate reason: I got waitlisted at Cornell as a senior so my transfer choice was a bit biased and impetuous. I now know that Ithaca is not a town that is compatible with me and it’s acting a serious detriment to my college experience. I will experience the most growth and derive the most from my college experience in an urban setting.
The laughable reason: I fell in love with a girl at Penn.
I would be inclined to try very hard to make sure that Penn was right for you before transferring. You don’t want to need to transfer a third time.
It seems that you won’t be able to transfer until the beginning of Junior year at the earliest. As such you are only talking about two more years in either Ithaca or Philadelphia. Personally I have visited both and sort of like both Ithaca and Philadelphia.
I’ve known several cases of a person transferring universities or changing jobs to follow a girlfriend or boyfriend. In the majority of cases the relationship broke up relatively quickly but the person was nonetheless still quite happy where they ended up. You never know…
@DadTwoGirls Thank you very much for the feedback, I appreciate it. I will do my best to make sure that Penn will be the right choice for me independent of the girl. I will say though, I really do love Philadelphia and all of my experiences with Penn have been amazing so far. The campus is beautiful and I love the area. I can’t speak to the academics but I am sure the rigor is similar across the Ivy League schools.
@jewishkidaz it is not too uncommon for Cornell kids to transfer to Penn but you need to articulate very well on your app what Penn can offer you that Cornell cannot.
@Penn95 When transferring to Cornell, I spoke of the general attitude of the student body towards academic success and how the community aligns with my own. How do you make that distinction when transferring laterally across top tier schools. Penn and Cornell are both the largest Ivies with an incredible amount of academic and extra curricular opportunity. Is speaking to the geographical differences and how this shapes school culture enough in your opinion?
When I was transferring I thought the best way to go about it was what can the other school give me that my current school can’t. Do you like their curriculum better? Professional opportunity? Social life of campus (ex clubs, greek life)? Saying you’d rather be in a city doesn’t really help penn or look attractive to them. Transfer admissions are competitive and I don’t see them taking a junior transfer from another ivy just because he loves Philly.
I’ll look into Penn specific things, thanks for the advice.