I was recently waitlisted at Georgetown University’s SFS (as a freshmen applicant), and I understand that I will not be taken off the waitlist (as there are VERY few spots from the SFS given to waitlist kids, if any). However, Georgetown is and forever will be my dream school, and I refuse to give up. I ended up narrowing my college decision down to UNC-CH, Duke, and GW, and I ended up choosing GW because it actually ended up being the most inexpensive due to significant merit scholarship money. So I will attend GW my freshmen year, but I am determined to apply and get into Georgetown as a transfer applicant. I understand that it will be difficult, but I will do whatever it takes to get in. Does anyone have any advice as to what I should do my freshmen year so I can be as attractive of an applicant as possible? I will be part of a competitive Women’s Leadership Program my freshmen year at GW, and I plan on joining several student organizations and volunteer groups that I am interested in (as well as trying my hardest to maintain a 4.0). Has anyone successfully transferred into the SFS before? If so, how? What must I do? Should I try to contact my admissions officer and ask what my next steps should be? Any and all advice is appreciated!
Georgetown will only have one semester of college work to evaluate you on. They will look at your high school record and see hat you were not admitted this year. You would be better off trying to transfer after your sophomore year.
Since you will only have one semester of academic record to work with, focus on that. Don’t spread yourself too thin with a ton of ECs (which matter a lot more for HS admissions than for transfers or grad school). And enjoy GW for being GW. You may find that you don’t have a need to transfer.
Err… I’m gonna have to push back on what TomSrOfBoston said. Most transfer students, including at Georgetown, apply and are accepted for transfer during their freshman year. It is true that schools only have one semester’s worth of college grades to go off of, but that is one semester more than they had previously, during the regular admissions process coming out of high school. It’s an imperfect process, as always, but it works well enough that schools have stuck with it. Also, having been waitlisted previously is absolutely not a strike against someone in the transfer process. Quite the opposite - it’s a demonstration of sustained interest in the school, and given the competitiveness of the process, receiving a spot on the waitlist is a strong indication that the school believes the applicant would succeed there.
Anyway, to the OP’s question: the most important criterion in transfer admissions is the grades you earn during your first semester. It’s understood that at many schools freshmen have limited flexibility in choosing their courses, so the exact choice of coursework is less important than the grades earned.
Being involved in various activities on and off campus is certainly a good thing as well. For those who are competitive on the basis of all those qualifications, the final determining factor can come down to the essay and the applicant’s ability to articulate why it is that Georgetown specifically is where they would like to pursue the remainder of their college education. Applying to transfer to the SFS from GW or American ads an added wrinkle, since those universities also have schools focused on international affairs and are also located in DC. The good part of it is that it forces you to come up with a more compelling reason than just “I want to be at a school focused on IR” or “I want to be in DC.”
You can start thinking about what that story is now and refine it between now and transfer application submission time. Being so close to the campus, you can attend some of the open-to-the-public events to possibly gather some insight for what you would want to say.