Who else is applying to Penn as a transfer for the fall of 2016?
Anybody think that they could chance me?
I am a freshman at a small school who is looking to transfer into Penn’s school of engineering and study mechanical engineering because my school doesn’t offer it.
Current Instituation: Top 50 LAC
College GPA: 3.74
College EC’s:
Cross Country and Track and Field
Photography Club
Acapella Group
Writer for the school’s newspaper (photography)
Freerider’s Union Ski Club
Volunteer at a local farm
Outdoor Recreation Committee
Climber’s Association Club
Intramural Basketball, Ice Hockey, Soccer, Frisbee
Conducted Independent Research on engineering efficiency
Radio Show host
Open Mic regular participant
Architectural Designer for New School Music Studio (took a class)
Local Food Rescue
Videographer for School Sports and Admission videos
High School GPA: 3.6
SAT (2400): 1970
SAT (1600): 1270
ACT: 29
AP Calculus BC: 5
AP Physics C: Mechanics: 4
AP Physics C: E/M: 4
AP Music Theory: 4
High School EC’s:
Cross Country Captain (4 year member), Winter Track Captain (2 year member), Spring Track captain (3 year member)
JV Basketball (2 years)
Freshman Baseball (1 year)
Basketball Camp Coach
Little League Umpire
Independent Photographer/Videographer/Designer (job)
Busboy at Local restaurant
Jazz, Pop, and Rock Club (piano, guitar)
Global Zero Club
Global Citizenship Program
Harvard and Boston College Harvard Model UN Club
Green Committee
United Church of Christ Senior High Youth Group
UCC Youth Group Service Project Volunteer
2014 – YSOP Washington D.C.
2013 – YSOP Philadelphia
2012 – Project 195, New Orleans
2011 – Youth Service Opportunities Project / New York, NY
I have some decent extracurriculars to make up for my lower end GPA and scores so I am hoping that will help, and I am pretty much writing about how Penn offers a MechE Major with an Aerospace minor which is where I can study engineering efficiency in air travel, which is what I am interested in.
You are sending all your scores right?
I am a rising junior who is looking to transfer into Penn’s school of arts and science to study study sociology.
Current Instituation: California Community College
College GPA: 4.0/4.0 50credits
College EC’s:
National table tennis trial
AGS honor society
Mandarin-immersion program volunteer
TA/SI at STEM program for Calculus
Math tutor at EOPS office
Cucurbit Flute player at local Chinese orchestra
High School GPA: 4.0
ACT: 31(29E 35M 31R 33S) superscore 32
No AP classes
No need for financial aid
Feel free to chance me. I think it is a crapshot
I also applied to transfer to UPenn for Fall 2016.
Major: Biochemistry (Arts & Sciences)
Current College:
Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, MO
GPA: 3.86
I was in the Chancellor’s list 3 times in a row
Extras: I am in the Honors Program & in Phi Theta Kappa
EC: I work 2 jobs, 1 full time as a bilingual rep at a Bank and 1 part time as a bilingual tax associate at H&R Block.I have worked 45+ hours a week for the past 3 years (until I got the part-time job for 20+ hours a week to add)
Volunteer: Local Hospital at ER and Humane Society
High School:
Willard High
GPA: 3.75
I graduated with an honors diploma
EC: NHS, FBLA (Secretary), DECA, Science Club, Foreign Language Club
Volunteer: Convoy of Hope, March of Dimes, Bikers for Babies
I won a couple of rewards and made it to state twice with FBLA back in high school and I won a couple of diplomas in French from MSSU at a competition with our foreign language club
School didn’t offer AP or IB
Hooks/Extras: First Generation college student and a Mexican immigrant. I am bilingual (English & Spanish, intermediate in French) and I do have unique background/story.
I hope everything goes well for everyone 
Also, how did everyone send their midterm reports, final forms and college reports? I was told we can scan them (which I did) but I was wondering if I would have to get them send by the people who filled them out? I don’t think they are official forms though. Thanks so much!
@newopportunities All through mail
Im applying for the Economics Program in the College - didn’t get into Wharton freshman Year
Current Instituation: University of Michigan
College GPA: 4.0
College EC’s:
180 Degrees Consulting (4% Acceptance Rate)
MPowered - Leadership Position
Snowboard Club
Stand Up Comedy Club
Company 1 did $12,000 in Revenue
Venture Capital Internship
Founded Startup, Company 2, that has $50,000k in pending revenue (waiting on two business’ payments)
Nationally Ranked Competitive Snowboarder - Sponsored by Quiksilver, Grenade, Bern
High School GPA: 3.85 UW, 4.3 W
SAT (2400): N/A
SAT (1600): N/A
ACT: 35
Took IB
HL Math, Physics, History
SL English, Spanish, Economics
High School EC’s:
Eagle Scout
State Leadership Position for Boy Scouts
DECA President
FBLA Vice President
Bunch of other stuff that no longer matters
I’m also Legacy
A miscommunication with my recommender resulted in her writing that I was only applying to Penn, which isn’t true. Should I be concerned that this will make my desire to transfer seem less legitimate? Should I contact the admission office to make this clarification, or would that just make it worse? I also posted this on the forum but I’m curious what fellow applicants think I should do.
Does anyone know what parts of your application they pay the most attention to? I’m applying to enter my junior year; will they take my high school GPA and/or faculty family member into account?
@2015transfer2018 in my opinion I feel they will look at everything, otherwise they wouldn’t ask for something they don’t need. But I think they will put more importance to your college stats vs your high school stats.
@lmichaels I think that is fine. I read somewhere you should probably not list all the schools you are applying to; if you focus on Penn it will look like you are very serious and determined about transferring
@blackwidow22 I’m sure they’ll take everything into consideration–I’m more wondering what they’ll prioritize and how their priorities differ from first-year admissions.
@2015transfer2018 I think the difference is that as a first-year student the only grades and academic records of success or failure (as well as workload) are from high school. And as a transfer student, you have at least 1 year or so of academic standings so their focus would be on college grades/gpa and workload. The high school grades are probably looked at and considered but not at a similar level to the college academics.
ECs are probably the next thing that they’ll prioritize because as a mature adult (and no longer a teenager), you already had the freedom to explore your interests and find what matters to you. So the ECs should ideally reflect who you are and they should have depth and a purpose (and not just random things together like back in high school). Ideally, I think they expect the ECs to reflect you as a person because as an adult who probably doesn’t have as much time as a high school student, surely you would choose what matters to you and not just to look good. So even if you don’t have a lot of ECs, the emphasis you put in them (and the work and meaning) is what they look for.
Next, they probably look at the essays to understand the person in you and your personality and values. The essays provide a “face” to the application because they reflect the human side of you and what you will bring as a person to the community and class. I think they look for those letters of recommendation together witth the essays because your college professors could provide more insight of you as a person now that you are an adult (and more in depth aspects of you) in comparison to the LOR from high school teachers who only knew a teenager. That is why it is very important to choose a teacher who knows you well so they can back up your traits and values as a person in accordance to your essays
And finally, I think they look at test scores and high school grades together. Although I personally think that as a transfer student, test scores and high school grades shouldn’t be emphasized much because you have already been at college-level classes for a while, so they are more like old news. And why would they put a lot of emphasis on grades from years ago in comparison to recent grades?
I think they see them just to look at what level you were before and what you are at now. That way they can see if you have expanded yourself academically.
blackwidow22 I’m glad you see it that way! the committed interest is very evident, so hopefully that matters
I also hope that they understand the general situation with teacher recs in college. Unlike in high school, where you have a full range of teachers to choose from, applicants hoping to enter during sophomore year after 1 year of college have 5 or 6 professors to choose from. I don’t know about you guys, but my two best options were a passionate but frazzled professor and a professor that, no matter how much she knows me as a student and no matter how much I go to office hours, is somewhat cold; I can’t picture her writing a really enthusiastic rec for anyone… My other three professors were just too busy to care – once again, no matter how much I went to office hours and showed initiative. Has anyone experienced similar situations? I imagine that there a quite a few that have dealt with this issue? Also I would have asked my TAs, but considering that they skipped multiple recitations, I wasn’t expecting much effort to be put into a recommendation XD
Hey guys, I’m a sophomore at Penn who just transferred this year. If you have any questions please ask away! 
Can’t wait to meet you guys
What were your stats @YonceKnowles ?
Applying as a junior to CAS (majoring in physics).
Current College: Top 50 LAC
College GPA: 3.89 (4.00 Midterm report)
*College courseload included 2 intermediate/4 advanced physics courses and two upper-level (200/300) philosophy courses, among others.
College ECs:
-Physics research
-Radio DJ
-Worked at another college’s summer programs office for 3 summers, and was manager for the last summer.
-A few other less-important things
High school GPA: I honestly forget, but I think somewhere around 3.5-3.6 UW
(High school was in Philadelphia area and highly-ranked)
SAT: 2020
5 AP courses
Did rowing all 4 years, 3 year varsity, captain senior year.
Some other EC’s that don’t matter as much.
Recommendations: Great; I know both professors very well (I do research/took a class with one, and have taken 3 classes with the other. A’s/good participation in all classes.)
My essay and supplement were both strong; I talked about how Penn’s physics/math programs are more geared towards conceptual understanding as opposed to applications of concepts, and how the physics curriculum will prepare me for graduate study and research in ways that my current school is not (which is why I’m transferring).
I also concede that one of my parents is a relatively high-profile professor at Penn; I’ve heard this apparently acts kind of like legacy, but have no clue if it’s paid attention to for transfer admissions.
So yeah, tell me what you think, if that’s your thing.
@transferind97 In terms of numbers alone, 3.8 high school GPA/4.0 college first semester/4.0 Midterm report/31 ACT superscore
Another thought: does anyone know the ratio of rising sophomores to rising juniors in the transfer applicant pool/accepted pool? I’d guess (though admittedly without much basis) there’d be a lot more freshman applying than sophomores, but I haven’t seen any real numbers on this.