Help figuring out where to transfer

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi! I'm a Wellesley College sophomore thinking about transferring for financial aid reasons. The fin aid department here has been pretty terrible to me and I'm just about at the end of my rope, financially and emotionally.</p>

<p>The problem is that I'm not exactly a stellar student, but I really, really don't want to "trade down" (cringing as I type that--I sound so arrogant :( ). Here are the relevant stats--let me know if I'm missing something.</p>

<p>Current GPA: 3.53. However, I had a horrible first semester here and had to withdraw from a class, so that looks pretty bad.
Extracurriculars: I work (federal workstudy) at a childcare center; participate in a mentoring program for kids from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds; I'm a Mental Health Educator, which is pretty self-explanatory; last year I participated in another mentoring/tutoring program which focused on literacy development in kindergarteners, but that program has been discontinued as the program coordinator's job was cut due to budget restraints.
Major: philosophy, which I adore. I think I could get pretty good recs from my professors.
Career plans: either law school or clinical social work, probably working with kids.</p>

<p>My high school GPA was 3.79 and I got a 2150 on the SAT. I'm confident that if I retook it I could do much better than that but I'm not sure that it's worth it.</p>

<p>My secret dream is to transfer to Stanford, but I'm not going to waste my time entertaining any hope that that is possible. My mother suggested trying Harvard and MIT which I think is outrageous for the same reasons. I'm considering Dartmouth, but I feel like that would be "trading down" except that I can't exactly pinpoint why I feel that way. Brown is another possibility but I'm afraid I wouldn't get in and I just don't have the time to apply to a million different schools.</p>

<p>Does anyone have any suggestions?</p>

<p>THANK YOU!!:)</p>

2

<p>Dartmouth trading down from Wellesley? Not many would agree. Dartmouth is much harder to get into and would offer a stronger peer group. Brown and Dartmouth would be equally hard, neither takes many transfers as few leave these schools. If you don’t want to apply to many schools you need to look at schools where you’d have a stronger chance than at the 3 you mention which take very few transfers and can pick from very high stats candidates with extensive research and leadership.</p>

<p>I’d suggest LACs on the same level as Wellesley such as Bowdoin, Colby, Midd.</p>

3

<p>You need to do the research about the financial aid situation at each of the places you are considering. What exactly are the chances that these places will be less expensive for you? </p>

<p>If you aren’t interested in “trading down”, from Wellesley you do have very limited choices (some would argue that your only options would be Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, and maybe U of Chicago). However, if you want to continue with your major in Philosophy, “trading down” on the college/university itself could be worth it if you actually “trade up” for that particular department.</p>

<p>Back in the last century, one of my classmates at my 7-sister college transferred home to her cheap, in-state public U to save money. She was back after a year, and graduated with our class after all. I don’t know if she did that just to save money for one year, or if her original intent had been to never return. Something like that might work for you if you really do like Wellesley, but just feel broke right now.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>