Give me Transfering Advice (and Save My Life!)

Transfer Students
1

<p>So here's my story:</p>

<p>I was a fairly good HS student... By the end of sophomore year I had around a 4.0, but I started slipping junior year and really screwed up as a senior. I took the most rigorous schedule I could, and my final GPA was around a 3.6-3.7, but my mid-year grade report was terrible. I had pretty good extra-curriculars, but I totally destroyed my chances of getting into schools I could have otherwise gotten into with my lousy senior year performance. I guess I thought my good SAT scores (Reading: 800, Math: 680, Writing: 720) would carry me or that it just didn't matter anymore... I also made the mistake of not taking my college search very seriously; I applied to too many Ivies and not enough safeties, mistakenly believing I was a sure thing to get in. Long story short, college decision time introduced me to a lot of rejection letters. I was rejected to all the Ivies and waitlisted at all my "match" schools (Lehigh, Carnegie-Mellon, Villanova...). I got into NJIT and Rutgers, and ultimately chose to enroll at Rutgers.</p>

<p>I got into the Honors Program at Rutgers, and was subsequently accepted off the waitlist to Lehigh, but only for the January semester. So now I'm here at Rutgers until the end of the semester, at which point I will transfer to Lehigh. Lehigh is a very nice school that I would be okay with staying at, but I still feel like I will have sold myself short if I don't get into an Ivy. So while I'm at Rutgers I've resigned to devote all of my time to getting myself back on track and getting accepted into one of the Ivies or MIT (my dream school - I applied ED, got deferred, then rejected). </p>

<p>I know I need to get a 4.0 at Rutgers, and I'm pretty confident I can do it. I'm also trying to get very involved in extra-curriculars here as well. (I'll try to be most active in PBL, the college version of FBLA which I was most active in in HS) The problem is that I am faced with two transfers in less than two years. I am aware that this is atypical of the average transfer student, and that it may reflect poorly on me. Unfortunately, I do not like Rutgers and I cannot stake my admission into Lehigh - a school I feel is a good fit for me - on the chance that I will be admitted into an Ivy I will like better.</p>

<p>I am willing to do absolutely anything necessary to get in. As I have said, I do not like Rutgers and I consider the time I am spending here to be best suited towards improving myself as a person. I don't need to party; at least not for now. I am willing to work hard if it means I can get myself into a school I feel I belong at. I've already begun contacting the admissions offices of various schools, hoping to establish a relationship with someone who works there. When the time comes, I intend to visit as many schools as I can to find the one that is best for me. I'm trying to start over and to do it all right this time.</p>

<p>So basically, I'm asking for any and all advice. Has anyone been in a similar double-transfer situation before? Know anyone who has? Does anyone have any experience with screwing up their senior year of HS only to turn around and get accepted into an Ivy? I know I can write a good, sincere essay and that I can do the work required to make myself a good-looking transfer applicant; I just don't want my otherwise outstanding application to be overshadowed by the mistakes I made in the past and my unusual transfer situation.</p>

<p>Thanks to anyone who read this, and to anyone who responds. Even though it's a bit long, it felt good to write this all out... lol.</p>

2

<p>Your scores are also an issue for ivies, I would retake the SAT, get a great GPA and get really involved in one EC. Transferring will weaken the last part, if you’re serious about an ivy, you might rethink the Lehigh transfer.</p>

3

<p>wow, my profile is almost identical to yours, except that i went to a competitive public in nyc. I was waitlisted by my matches(some top 15) and rejected from all of my reaches (top 6ish). i cannot find anything i like about my current institution, and will be transferring ASAP, hopefully to a school that I had gotten WLed/rejected from last year.</p>

4

<p>Do not retake your SATs. A 2200 is very, very solid and will help your application, not hurt it. Make sure your recommendations are stellar and that your essays are equally impressive. Honestly, if you want your high school record out of the picture, transfer as a junior and keep your college GPA up.</p>

<p>But for now, just breathe and relax! You’ve just begun college, so immerse yourself in it and go with the flow of things. Enjoy yourself, but work hard and keep your options open.</p>

5

<ul>
<li><p>Retaking your SATs isn’t worth it with a 2200 now that you’re already in college.</p></li>
<li><p>Getting a 4.0 at a University will help tone down your crappy senior year. If you think about it, the only reason colleges care about your grades at all is because they want some sort of assurance that you can actually work hard enough to accomplish great things. If you show you can do college level work very well and consistently it should help assuage any issues they have. Don’t get caught up in the numbers and try to think about the psychology. Then again, if you bombed at the end of high school what’s stopping you from bombing at the end of college? Indirectly address it in your essay (i.e. don’t actually say, “My senior year in high school isn’t indicative of me,” but instead convince them that you’re so enthusiastic about your college opportunities that there’s no way you’d even think of slacking off near the end).</p></li>
<li><p>Transferring twice would probably look sketchy. Think of it through their eyes…You chose your first school but obviously you didn’t make a good choice because you want to transfer. Then you moved to another school but you’re not happy with that either so you want to transfer again? What’s the stop you from deciding you don’t like it at the place you’re applying to? Again, just their impression. However…</p></li>
<li><p>I think your perception is a little skewed. I mostly got this impression when you said “I still feel like I will have sold myself short if I don’t get into an Ivy.” Going to an Ivy kicks doors open for you, but it’s not really analogous to “Man, I really should have bought the real Cream Cheese and not this reduced fat crap,” which seems to be how you’re viewing it. Realize that even if you were the perfect applicant you still probably wouldn’t get in (just in terms of odds) because there are plenty of other perfect applicants vying for that same spot, and they probably had 4.0s in high school. The truth about transfer admissions is that if you thought freshman admissions were a crap shot then “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”. There’s always Ivy grad school anyway.</p></li>
</ul>

6

<p>Gutter, your advice was very helpful, and I appreciate your response.</p>

<p>Right now I’m definitely working on developing relationships with my professors so I can get some good recommendation letters, and that’s definitely a priority. I’m also very confident I’ll be able to pull off a 4.0 here; I’m devoting a lot of time towards school and studying… much more than ever before, actually.</p>

<p>In terms of transferring twice, I am well aware of how that will probably be a red flag on my application. I’m afraid I really have no other choice, though. I like Lehigh so much more than Rutgers, and I can’t afford to decline their admissions offer on the chance I could get into a better school. If I declined the Spring admission offer from Lehigh, I risk being stuck at Rutgers for the next four years; something I’m already fairly sure I wouldn’t like. I’ll do my best to spin this in a positive fashion in my essays, but it’s definitely the part of my “brand” that I’m most concerned about.</p>

<p>I’ll also be the first to admit that my Ivy-league-mindset is a little bit warped, but after four years of feeling as if I was entitled to admission, I feel like I’ll always look back and wonder how things could have been different if I don’t wind up getting accepted somewhere. At this point its as much about personal vindication as it is about actually getting into the school. Basically what I’m trying to say is, whether it was my poor senior year performance that kept me out of the Ivies or not, if I don’t try again I’ll never know.</p>

<p>I’ve read that transfer admissions are a roll of the dice, but I’m hoping that with a little bit of hard work that I might get lucky this time.</p>

7

<p>Why don’t you defer the Lehigh offer for a year while you apply to other schools?</p>

8

<p>Do note that the acceptance rates for the elite schools are usually significantly lower for transfers.</p>

9

<p>I’m unsure if I have that option, especially at this point, but I have not yet considered that. I’m not sure if I’d especially want to, either, but if it would improve my chances I guess I’d be willing to take one for the team.</p>

<p>I am aware that Transfer Acceptance rates are much lower. I’m not going to be discouraged simply because the odds are against me, though.</p>