Hi all,
I’m currently a freshman at the University of Puget Sound. It’s a good school, but I want to be closer to my family on the east coast and I’m a bit frustrated by the student body as whole. It just does not seem like a good fit for me. I’m looking at transferring to a few other schools, not just Barnard, so I want to know: do I have a shot?
Here are the stats:
Current first semester GPA: 4.0
High school GPA: 2.66 (I was quite the slacker in high school, although there certainly is an overall upwards trend.)
It is perhaps worth knowing that I went to a pretty well known elite high school in DC where a certain political figure’s children attends, so it does have name recognition as being a very hard school to go to, which is how I ended up getting into UPS.
SAT (although I’m open to taking the ACT for my application): 1875 (I can’t find the exact scores on each section, but I scored more or less in the 90th percentile for reading and verbal, and pretty low for math).
I’m assuming that Barnard is primarily going to care about my college grades and having a good essay, but with that aside, do I have a shot at getting in, or should I quit while I’m ahead?
Thanks!
Before you consider Barnard College, consider their housing policies. If you do not have friends or relatives or a place to stay in NYC during summer or winter breaks, be aware that Barnard College does not provide and they do not help students to find housing during certain times of the year. Read the Columbia Daily Spectator (student newspaper) to follow what has been happening with the housing issue at Barnard - and the huge petition that forced Barnard to change their winter break housing policy - for now. I am a parent of a Barnard sophomore, and we have lost confidence in Barnard College’s ability to serve the needs of their students.
Basically, Barnard does not provide winter break housing to students. They kick their students out into the cold. If you don’t have family or friends nearby, too bad. Barnard’s suggestion has been ‘find someone’s couch to sleep on’. Seriously - that’s what they publicly said.
Columbia University - Barnard’s partner - does provide winter break housing to students -and, they charge less for housing than Barnard.
I’m not sure Barnard is worth the cost they charge - in excess of $62,000 a year. For four years, that’s over a quarter of a million dollars. For that price, they ought to be providing students housing for all academic breaks.
I live a train ride away from NYC, and my cousin is going to attend NYU, so I’m not particularly concerned about winter break housing. Price is not much of an issue for me, as I’m assuming that my family will qualify for financial aid. But thank you for the heads up, I will keep that in mind.
One thing I’d add is that transfer applications are considered “need aware” per their website. That means the relatively few transfer spots available can be decided in part by who can pay full tuition without need-based aid. It seems you would need aid to attend.
I thought most of the colleges close their dorms for winter/spring/summer breaks. My daughter’s college does. I thought it was the normal thing.