<p>Well hello–</p>
<p>I’m new here, but looking around the forum, there seem to be some phenomenally knowledgable people dispensing advice, and I’d like to solicit some. </p>
<p>I’m a freshman at the University of Vermont who knew she wanted to transfer before she even begun. I didn’t have my act together freshman through junior year in high school, and combined with poor college planning was left with a cornucopia of college options I didn’t desire, and of all the poor options picked Vermont because it was in the Northeast and close to the cities I love (Boston, NYC and DC.)</p>
<p>I dislike Vermont as much as I thought I would. People here are neither interested by the world nor do they desire to do any more than ski, snowboard and talk about how drunk they are. I went to a small, tough, private prep school and am grossly overprepared for this University. I am the only one speaking in all five of my classes even though I am taking junior level history and english classes. I write my Russian government papers an hour before they are due and I have yet to get anything less than an A. People here throw about racial and homophobic slurs like it’s nothing and are passive non learners who regurgitate information as best they can for tests because they know that’s what they have to do to get a free pass to party for four years. People here are either socialist, anarchist or liberal because it’s trendy. Atheism is trendy so serious talk of religion is taboo. </p>
<p>Although I didn’t perform well in much high school, not getting into NYU (my first choice, early decision, Gallatin school) galvanized me to completely change my approach. The independent, non-college centric approach to college that NYU offers would have been perfect for me, but I realized that I was the only one who had held myself back from essentially the first real life change I could concretely make being made in the definitive right direction. When I sent in my college applications, my GPA was a 3.4. First semester senior year I got a 3.6 and second semester senior year I got a 4.1.</p>
<p>This past summer, I worked as a legal aid at the ACLU, and was the youngest person ever to work there. I worked with a bunch of Wash U seniors and law students doing legal review and screening complaint calls for thier initial legal validity. I was a research assistant for a history professor at Wash U. I hostessed three nights a week and taught theatre at a day camp to make money. My favorite thing I did this summer was start a group called Students Know Kids Come First that collected about a thousand signatures to send to Missouri senators asking them to support John Kerry’s Kids First Act and strove to create awareness about the Medicaid crisis facing the country and especially the state of Missouri.</p>
<p>I am currently taking five classes, French One (I’m fluent in Spanish already) Intro to International Relations, English 86 (upper level class) US Foriegn Relations to 1914 (upper level class) and Russian Government. Halfway through the first semester, I have yet to get a grade less than an A. There is an extreme lack of constructive political or social awareness or action on this campus, so I am in the process of founding a chapter of AMNESTY for UVM. I am on the literary magazine review board and can certainly get pieces published in the magazine once I submit them. </p>
<p>I have also gotten the one internship spot for Senator Leahy next semester. I am the only college student younger than junior year they have ever selected. Politics are really my passion and I want to write an additional essay about the work I did campaigning for Kerry and how incredibly meaningful it was to me. Listening to him speak at the DNC last summer, I cried for the first time I can remember and a world that was bigger than me made sense to me for the first time. I campaigned my heart out for four months and am still not over the election. I’ve learned so much about what he’s done in the past, the VVAW testimony before the Fullbright Committee, Senate subcomittee hearings that brought down the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, persistant legislation helping small buisness owners in red states even though they didn’t vote for him, etc. I knocked on a thousand doors for what I believed to be the last vestiges in American politics of dignity, hope and character, and even though everyone and thier cousin campaigned for Kerry, I want to write my essay about my time campaigning and how I’ve dealt with the aftermath and how and why I still believe in Kerry for 2008. </p>
<p>In terms of my “why transfer” essays, I have a million reasons. There are so many things I love about all the schools that I’m applying to for sure and I am a good writer and can certainly turn out a compelling litany of reasons for transfer.</p>
<p>In terms of SAT, my best composite score is Writing (SAT 2, but counts anyway I think) 780, Critical Reading 740 and Math 620.</p>
<p>I have always been able to solicit good recommendations in the past and I don’t think this should be any different. </p>
<p>The list of schools that I am applying for sure</p>
<li> Georgetown (tentative first choice) When I first stepped onto thier campus two weeks ago, I almost cried. I got the overwhelming feeling that this school would turn me into the kind of person I would be proud to be in four years. Students seemed happy, interested, intense, serious and driven. I could work for Kerry. The government program has amazing professors and opportunities. Activism on every level is wildly popular. I went to a party that night and not a single person told me they were “soooo drunk” but I did talk to a German guy about economics (another thing that bothers me about UVM is it’s extreme derth of diversity) and meet guy who worked for John Edwards. Religion is a popular subject, there is a church on campus. I love Georgetown itself, it’s classy shops and resteraunts and it’s Federalist archeticture.<br></li>
<li> NYU–Gallatin. I love the possibiltiy and endlessness that is New York City. The world seems so big to me every time I step out onto the streets there, and that is immensly comforting to me. I have many specific interests that Gallatin would allow to really pursue without taking courses I have no interest in or passion for (ahem, math.) I’m fascinated by the ever expanding illumination of military history and policy in Vietnam and the real impact of VVAW and other anti-war groups on the POW camps. I also love public relations, surrealist art and creative writing. Gallatin is specifically for people like me who have a hodgepodge of interests and thrive in an intellectually and physically independent enviornment. I like the fact that NYU has no campus and is no way college centric.</li>
</ol>
<p>Others schools I am considering–
Barnard
Wash U (I’m from STL and my mother works there so I could go for free)
Yale
Harvard (both reaches I know, but something about how old, serious and consequential they are attracts me very much, and I love Boston with a passion unbridled)
Tufts</p>
<p>I realize that this has been incredibly long, but what I would like is any specific advice or assessments you have to offer. I had a college counselor in high school, but here I am largely going it alone. Anything you think I can do to increase my chances, anything you think I should do for each school would be incredibly helpful and very much appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance, you transfer-admissions gurus, you.</p>