Final Transfer Results as a Computer Science Applicant

Hello! I am posting my final transfer results as it may help future applicants.

I know when I was in the transfer process I was looking for these types of posts, so here you go and good luck to any applicants viewing this!

I applied to every school as a junior Computer Science major, coming from an east coast community college.

Information about me:

Highschool:
2 years of working after high school, decided to enroll into my local CC basically on a whim.
HS GPA: 2.96
SAT: 1380/2400 (~920/1600 I think that converts to? I took it only once it 2015)
no ACT, APs, anything else.

Community College:
I did not receive an associates degree, I just took classes that I think would be useful to my transfer major.

I applied mainly in December after my 3rd semester (+ 2 summer terms.) At the time of applying, I had 57 Credits completed and a 4.0 GPA (2 sems of English, Calc 2, Calc based Physics 1, Statistics, 2 social sciences, DS&A, and about 5 other CS classes.)

After spring semester, I had 71 credits and my final GPA was 3.94/4.0 (Got my first B is Calc based Physics 2.)
My final semester included Calc 3, Phys 2, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math.

White male, first gen college student, lower income (EFC ~10k.)
ECs: Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Semi-finalist, Phi Theta Kappa member although I didn’t do anything in PTK other than join, some charity involvement, and a few small personal CS projects. I had never coded before college. I wrote my first line of code like a week into my first semester.

Finally, here are my results for fall 2020:

Rejected: Northeastern, Rice, WUSTL, Vanderbilt, Yale, Northwestern, UC Berkely, UCLA, Cornell, CMU, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Duke, NYU.

Accepted: UMich LSA (average finaid, too low for me, however), University of Washington (declined admission before receiving finaid), University of Southern California (Viterbi School of Engineering, best finaid of my acceptances), Pitt (School of CS, bad fin aid), University of Virginia (School of Engineering, great finaid), I was also admitted to some in-state safety schools (Always apply to safeties!!!).

A bit of reflection:

The transfer application process is rough. Information is very vague, there is no real set path, and decisions can take forever and are sent out at seemingly random times (UMich responded in January, yet Northeastern responded in June). I’m glad it is over with, but I don’t regret applying to so many schools. I received a ton of rejections in a row before being accepted to the school I have chosen to matriculate to, and at the time it was very discouraging.

When I graduated high school I had absolutely no aspirations for college.
I obviously did not do extremely well in high school, but I feel as though that wasn’t super detrimental to my application as I was applying as a junior transfer. I did not retake the SAT in college as I felt it was pointless.

I think the strongest aspects of my application were my essays and my course rigor. I chose not to pursue my associates and picked classes that I believe were very rigorous and relevant to my major.

My biggest piece of advice is to apply to as many schools as you can and shoot your shot, especially if you are low income. Keep in mind that you may be able to get fee waivers if you ask. Send in the applications with the expectation of being rejected, because chances are you will be rejected. Look into which schools are need-blind and more importantly which will meet need. All it takes is one school that meets need to accept you and all of the applications will be worth it. You should, however, be able to see yourself attending any school you apply to.

In the end, it was worth it and I am happy with my results. I can’t wait to get to my new school and finish up my degree (Fight on!)

If any future applicants read this, good luck and I hope things go smoothly for you!

1 Like

You did well. Congrats!

@PurpleTitan appreciate it!

I also forgot to mention that I wanted to thank everyone who helped me in deciding whether or not it was even worth it to apply to these schools when I posted here over a year ago! (on a different account – lost the password to that one.)

@Dustyfeathers @DadTwoGirls @ucbalumnus @retiredfarmer @BuckeyeMWDSG @thumper1

Thanks for the help / inspiration!

Congratulations!! You’re an inspiration. Thank you for your advice!

Congratulations! I’m looking to transfer too, you did really well!

Your story sounds just like my husbands! He claims he barely graduated from HS (and his HS friends confirm that). His parents forced him to go to a small local college for a semester, and he immediately failed out. He worked for three years in various jobs (he hated them all) and then on a whim decided to try a few CC courses. He fortunately took a Psychology course and it lit him on fire. He transferred to one of the satellite colleges of his state system (residential) and graduated Summa Cum Laude. He then immediately got a PhD in Psych and is now a practicing clinical psychologist. He claims was saved him was he always loved to read. I am certain we own every book written on clinical psychology. One thin we did right as parents was reading with our children when they were young.

I think this tendency is hereditary as our oldest son was similar (although he was always just an ‘ok’ student), but once he figured out what he loved, he sought the best educational opportunities (M7 MBA) and is now on top of the world. He literally got the exact job he wanted at the exact organization he targeted at the beginning of his recent 4-year journey.

The benefit of this familial tendency is we were never hovering, intense parents in terms of our kids’ education. We let them find and follow their own path and while all three of them have taken wildly different paths, so far, they chose those paths and seem to be very happy, independent adults.

If you’ve found your passion, the sky is the limit! Work will never feel like work for you. Congratulations!!! So thrilled for you.