I currently go to a top-15 liberal arts college from a rural area. As someone who grew up living in a major city’s downtown area, I had an extremely difficult time adjusting to the rural lifestyles at my current college. I also hate most things that are typical of the “college experience”–I need to get back to an urban area. Moreover, I believe in a liberal arts college I cannot easily get the courses that I always wanted to take–I envisioned taking a wide variety of courses regarding American elections and quantitative political analysis, but my school offers neither.
As a result, I suffered from the environment and only received a 3.4 average last semester. I changed my attitude this semester and got a 3.97 on the midterm report. I have very high standardized test scores (35 and 1550), decent extracurricular activities (elected to two positions in my current school’s student government, and other activities related to government/politics) and should have pretty good recommendation letters (I went to my professors to talk about American elections and quantitative political analysis, which should be pretty unique and my essays are oriented around this).
I applied to several private universities from the USNWR 10 to 30 range. I’m curious whether I’ll stand any chance at these institutions. My high school record is reasonably good with 12 APs and almost all honor courses. GPA isn’t that good but that’s mainly result of senioritis.
Without the names of the schools, all you can get is general advice.
Many top schools are more selective for transfers than they are for freshman, so check the college common data set and see. In addition, if you have merit aid, note that merit aid is also better for freshmen than transfers.
If you want to make sure you are able to leave your current school, your list needs an admissions and financial safety.
A lot of colleges have a soft cut off at 3.5 for transfers as in you can apply, but you have a low chance of acceptance without extenuating circumstances.
@AroundHere I have no problem financing whatever education I’d need. I’m just concerned with acceptances. Frankly I’d do anything to leave my current institution but I’m not sure if a school around USNWR 25-35 would likely grant me admission.
@jdirosa Unless you are independent on the FAFSA, you can only get a federal direct student loan for 6500 as a sophomore. After that, it would be a parent loan or a loan cosigned by someone with good credit.
Don’t ignore finances – there’s no point working to get into a school you can’t afford.
And yes your admissions chances are lower the higher you stay in the rankings. Not as many freshmen quit the top schools, leaving fewer open slots for transfers.
@AroundHere I’m currently a full pay and will be a full pay at my future institution but thanks for the information (as an international I’m ineligible for fafsa anyways). My friend was able to transfer to Johns Hopkins with a 3.79 two years ago from a comparable institution to mine so I’d hope there may be room for me
@a20171 Thanks, but I was mainly looking for advises on whether my strong midterm report can compensate the officially filed GPA and whether my non-GPA indicators would compensate GPA as well.
Are your midterm grades even displayed on your transcript?
The fact that you have a bad first term GPA would be much easier to overlook at the end of next year when more grades are reported. The bad first term college GPA plus ending high school with senioritis means you have two consecutive terms of low GPA?
Really, the only cure here is to love your backup options. No one on this board can promise you a successful transfer to a top school.
Where else were you admitted the first time around? Are any of those places still n your radar? Then start with them. Sometimes a full new application isn’t necessary, rather the old one is “reactivated”.
So which schools are you looking at that offer “a wide variety of courses regarding American elections and quantitative political analysis”? That’s a pretty narrow scope.