Can’t you work a bit next semester and summer to lower the need to borrow rather than take on debt?
Summer I will be looking for internships but I have $800 of work study a semester :s
Do what you want, but don’t spend your time at Syracuse wishing you were someplace else. The grass isn’t always greener, take what you have and make the most of it.
First of all, you’re assuming that you’ll get a highly-paid law firm job and be able to pay that debt back. It’s not a sure thing. Law firm jobs are not that thick on the ground. I know a couple of recent law school grads who were unable to find jobs as full-time associates and are doing contract work, reviewing documents for discovery and the like. They are not enjoying the glamorous lawyer lives they thought they would have. One of them is making extra money as a dog-walker.
Second, if you want that Ivy League experience, I would definitely advise you to aim for it in law school rather than undergrad, for the simple reason that you probably can’t afford to pay top dollar for all 7 years and you’re far better off going to a lesser-known school for undergrad and then paying what you need to pay to go to the highest-ranked law school possible, rather than the other way around.
Finally, you may start practicing law and decide that you hate it. The world is full of former lawyers (my husband and I are two of them). Nothing worse than taking on huge debt that you then have to pay off by working long hours at something that you have realized you hate doing.
Does Cornell take many sophomore transfers?
While Cornell does take sophomore transfers it will be hard for app because in order for op to be admitted someone would have to leave.
Op must also consider all of the people who are in line in front of him; the guaranteed transfers Cornell gives to people to do their freshman year some where else (the only Ivy that does that) and come to Cornell sophomore year, there are Transfers coming from CC with an associates degrees, the articulation agreements with the land grant colleges (from SUNY),
Admissions’s as a generic transfer is going to be hard.
Since Op is looking to transfer for sophomore year most of the weight is still going to be placed on high school grades and scores.
One semester of grades, especially a semester abroad where no one fails, is really not going to boost his chances unless he has done something truly amazing since they turned him down off of the waitlist.
At least in post #77 you are honest in your evaluation as opposed to saying you have evaluated the risk.
@sybbie719 If you think I should wait a year let me know. My reasoning as as follows. I got waitlisted with a 3.2 gpa. I would then think that if I got waitlisted with such a low gpa then that was probably the factor that kept me from an acceptance or atleast admittance off the waitlist. Therefore, all A’s and making the dean’s list my first semester of college with outstanding letters of rec from staff should mitigate the few gripes cornell had about my application. I would rather go to Yale with my friend but I won’t get into Yale. I am happy at cuse and I’m not pining after Cornell, I would just like to give myself the opportunity. What do you think the appropriate course of action is?
Your chances of getting up with a 3.2 gpa are slim To none for Cornell because there will be others in the transfer pool to knock you out the box.
I hate to say this, but if Cornell really thought you were a viable candidate, they would have offered you a guaranteed transfer after your waitlist instead of a soft rejection. I think it is time to move on.
If the only way you can have piece of I did by reapplying, then all you have to lose are the fees.
You got waitlisted at Cornell. Cornell is the only Ivy who offers sophomore transfer admissions to certain applicants. Applicants where they see a lot of promise in these students.
You did NOT get that designation. In other words, Cornell didn’t see you as a transfer based on your initial application… vut they did see that in other applicants.
I agree with others…get your bachelors, and aim for a top 20 or higher law school. you will need excellent grades and an outstanding LSAT score.
Concentrate on the grades and LSAT. A degree from Cornell would have been nice…IF you had gotten accepted…but you didn’t.
Quite a lot of magical thinking going on.
OP- I wish you well.
You don’t demonstrate a lot of analytical and logical thinking, which are two of the main skills that both top law schools and top tier banks look for in employees (law schools via LSAT scores, banks via case interviews and the like).
Wants and wishes and feelings and hunches are great in many careers. But not these two.
I hope you end up at Cornell if that’s what you want. I also hope it pays out for you in dozens of ways. But for your own education- get to work signing up for courses which will teach you logic and analysis (philosophy, statistics, etc.)
Only somebody who has never taken out a mortgage would say something as flippant as this.
I think you should stay at Syracuse, but I also think you’re rocking some Class 5 cognitive dissonance, so you’re going to do what you want to do because you “want to”.
Make a note to yourself to open when you’re in your forties that simply says “oops, my bad”.
Its that kind of thinking that causes me agitas with the plan to forgive billions in college loans.
I have worked in BigLaw recruiting for more than 25 years and I would like to give you a small bit of important information for your consideration.
Most law firms practice an “up or out” model of retention and promotion. I think everyone understands how difficult it is to obtain an associate position, but many don’t realize how difficult it is to keep one. You have to look at it as a high stakes game of Chopped. Every firm has a specific partnership track, but most are in the range of 8 years. What that means is that every fall, a class of new associates is hired by a firm, and the members of that class move along the partnership track in lockstep. Each year, the entire class is reviewed , and the firm is looking at each associate individually and in relation to the other members of the class, the classes above and below, and the entire partnership. The annual review process winnows the class by several members who are deemed “not on track.” Now, remember, that every member of the class graduated with great success from the top colleges and law schools in the country, because BigLaw doesn’t recruit elsewhere, and since the crash of 2008, most have done amazing things, as well. Thing she like earning hard science PhDs and owning important patents, or graduating from Juilliard and performing on the world’s greatest stages. So, those are the people members of their class will be competing with every year, and by the time they are “up for partnership,” perhaps one out of ten will be elevated. Perhaps. The rest will have been politely asked to leave, and the more senior, the harder it is to find a job and the less likely that the salary will be comparable. During those 8 years, members of the class are asked to leave every review season, because “up or out” means that if you are not on track, you MUST leave, and for most associates, particularly at the junior level, the debt hasn’t been paid off yet, and the big money is done. Also, moving laterally to another firm is a tough thing that can’t be counted on.
I’m sure you will make a good decision, just look at the big picture, the competition, and the real story about getting hired or retained at your dream job. Good luck!
^I think there’s a difference between those who willfully disregarded good advice, and those who were led astray by bad advice if not bad practices (from for-profit schools, clueless GC’s or GC’s forbidden to discuss finances, parents who push for prestige, etc.)
In any case, the fact OP wasn’t offered guaranteed sophomore transfer means applying now is a bad idea. S/he may have a shot at AEM or ILR with three semesters of excellent grades, recognized leadership, etc, but with just one semester it’s unlikely. Even the letters of recommendation for a freshman can’t be glowing simply because the student hasn’t taken a class advanced enough that they can produce original thought on it, and it’s overall complicated to write something that’ll hep distinguish him/her from thousands of bright college overachievers. The 3.2 HS GPA will also weigh considerably. In short, I think OP won’t have a chance to try and borrow that much for Cornell.
OP, there is a lot of good advice here from people who know what they are talking about. Please consider it carefully.
One additional piece of advice from me: dual degree grad programs from Columbia, Yale, or Harvard aren’t a “backup plan” for anyone.
@blossom I think your post was entirely unnecessary and completely inaccurate. The entire foundation of my academic success has been my strong analytical skills. I am taking a political philosophy class this semester that has allowed me to demonstrate these skills and I am incredibly successful in the class. It is quite easy to sit as an adult and condemn an 18 year old freshman in college who just wants to achieve his goals and struggling to reconcile reality and possibility. If you have nothing that actually contributes to my plight then just refrain from posting, thank you.
@MYOS1634 I actually successfully petitioned to take a masters level political science class at the University of Florence while studying abroad and I managed to get an A- minus in a class that juniors from Northwestern were struggling at. I think this semester really demonstrated my propensity to succeed in a college environment and it is that same propensity that I wish to demonstrate to Cornell in my transfer application.
@zoosermom Thank you very much for that information, I found it very insightful and quite interesting.
Generally to the people reading this thread. I am happy where I am, Syracuse is a great university, I have friends, and I am successful thus far. The only reason NYU was even a question and why Cornell is even a question now is because I know what I think. What I think is that an academically rigorous environment like NYU, Cornell, or even Yale will provide me with a environment that is conducive to my goals. Between like minded peers, the prestige, and the world renown professors, I am positive I will be happier in that environment.
Also, it was a 3.2 unweighted, 4.25 weighted, with a very particular family situation that will hold weight in holistic admissions, high test scores, and the highest AP scores in my school. There is a reason I got into NYU in the first place.
Positive? That’s not possible.