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!