<p>I was just curious, as I'm trying to figure out what to do for next year. I have a 2.92 GPA at the University of Michigan as a sophomore and I want to transfer. Apparently it's going to be a reach for me to get into Penn State, which I thought was almost a sure thing months ago, so I'm exploring other options. My question is, do the schools I apply to ever say, hey he goes to one of the top schools in the country, so a 2.92 at Michigan may be stronger than say a 3.5 at a community college or a much lesser ranked school? I'm not trying to sound cocky or anything when saying that, hell I'm admitting I can't cut it here, but do schools like PSU, UDel, Temple, and Pitt even give a damn about that? Cause if not, well I guess I'm screwed. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>does it matter the strength of the school that you go to? a bit...but not nearly as much one would think, certainly not as much as i would have thought a year ago. </p>
<p>will a 2.9 from umich be stronger than a 3.5 from a cc? heck no.</p>
<p>i have to second the above post...if it were along the lines of a 3.2 from umich vs. a 3.5 at a cc...i say ok...the umich+lower gpa combination is probably still better...but there is too much of a disparity between the gpa's</p>
<p>and honestly, although i've heard it stated so many times before, i don't buy into the whole "top schools are much harder than cc's thing"...i transferred into a top 30 school (top 15 for my major) from a school nobody's heard of...and in fact did even better (in more advanced classes) with equal or less work put in than before</p>
<p>But then you are saying that it has some effect. Because some people tell me, "if you had a 3.0" it would be so much different, that number means a lot more than 2.92. And honestly I think thats rediculous if thats true because for example a friend of my transferred from a satillite school with a 3.17 and got 2 D's in two of his classes to main campus PSU and i mean I've gotten B or better in every class and a C+ and C- in Calc I and Statistics. I mean to me you stack those two students up and if I'm really that much of an underdog that's pretty sad. Then the other side of the story is that in the situation of a school like Michigan PSU would use a GPA "multiplier" which would bring my GPA closer to students with say like a 3.2 or so. I'm just curious is something like that exists.</p>
<p>why are you arguing with us? you asked us your opinion and we gave it to you.</p>
<p>you should never rely on anecdotal evidence, but your friend had a better gpa than you did and the satellite school may well have had an articulation agreement with the main campus.</p>
<p>and why the heck would penn state use a "multiplier" to calculate your gpa?</p>
<p>i can't account here for all the variables of your friend, such as what exact school he went to, when those D's occurred and in what classes (were they his very first semester and there is an upward trend since, or were they not major-related); admissions is a very holistic process. All I can tell you is exactly what I've said; there is a "cushion" that a good school gives you, but I think your low sub-3 gpa is pushing that allowance for error.</p>
<p>With that being said, I know nothing of Penn State's transfer admissions, statistics, etc., so I cannot specifically comment on your chances, or whether you should apply, etc.</p>
<p>I'd think Temple would take you. Go Owls!</p>
<p>Although a 3.0 at Michigan is about equivalent to a 3.5 from a CC in terms of how competitive UMich is and how present grade deflation is there, dufflebagjesus makes a good point, it really depends on if the school you are transferring to is aware of Michigan's competitive grade deflation. While a school in the state of Michigan might recognize the difference, Penn St. and schools across the nation, if unaware, would generally think that a 3.5 from a CC is better even if in reality it is not.</p>
<p>To the OP, your 2.9 will not be seen as better than a 3.5 from a CC for two reasons.</p>
<p>1) CC get priority transfer consideration since the admissions understand CC students need somewhere to go to get a bachelors degree. You don't.</p>
<p>2) Going by GPA is the only reliable method of determining who to accept, the higher your GPA is from any school, the higher your chances. If the criteria is school's prestige then that's way too subjective. What's considered an elite school by one admissions reviewer, may not mean anything to another. But a 4.0gpa will stand out more objectively regardless of where that 4.0 was attained.</p>
<p>Another warrant I have for this second point is graduate school admissions. Look at the matriculation of all med/law schools and see where their entering class came from. You'll see 1 or 2 from each Ivy league, state schools, etc... In other words, they only want to take the top few from each school. Going to an Ivy league will hurt your chances if you're not getting a good GPA, it's not like they take all of Harvard's class ranging from 2.0-4.0gpa into the best graduate programs.</p>