<p>Greetings. I am a senior in high school. I am going to George Mason University next year, where I will major in Biology. GMU is like an ok school in Virginia. (Just to give a general idea, almost all Virginia students want to go to UVA (BTW, UVA is the best public school with UC Berkley), William and Mary is really hard to get in academically, but there is not much craze about W and M. After that, Virginia Tech is like the good, not as good as UVA. And then, GMU is mostly the safety option for many students. GMU has a high acceptance rate. So, thats the general impression of VIrginia schools) I will be going to GMU next year. I got rejected from UVA and Virginia Tech this year. After going to GMU for 1 year, I plan to transfer to UVA for 2nd year. And then I want to tranfer to an out of state school with a really good Biology program, I would even consider Ivy schools. I am willing to work hard. Please post your thoughts and suggestions as to how should I plan the next year. Feel free to comment if my idea is good or bad. Thanks.</p>
<p>You should stay at GMU for two years rather than transfer all over the place, then transfer to an out of state school, be it an Ivy or what have you.</p>
<p>something in this post just rubbed me the wrong way. </p>
<p>There's no need to dumb down GMU. Also if you transfer twice it really lowers your chances.</p>
<p>It seems like you just want to transfer for prestige and not academics.</p>
<p>Your plan to transfer twice is really bad.</p>
<p>Please, please mention a brief explantaion to your reply. Ex, if you think I should not transfer to UVA, please explain why you think thats a bad step. By the way, my stats are: high school GPA - about 3.4 , highest SAT - 1140 (I took 3 times), SAT IIs - 490 (Literature), 530 (Writing) and 630 (Math Level 1), not great extra curricular, common ones like Literary Magazine CLub member, community service at a local hospital, Astronomy CLub, et al. Not a leader or officer of any of these clubs. No sports. I know its not great at all, but I am determined to work hard and I am planning to take the SAT for the one last time. </p>
<p>Just to reply to the first reply post, I want to transfer to UVA because UVA is the best public school, with UC Berkley, and I know that there I will get more opportunity to display my abilities and participate in more activites. Thanks.</p>
<p>humhaikamal, you didn't believe me when I said this before but colleges don't like to see students transfer twice. You should stay at GMU for two years because 1) You likely won't be able to get into UVa after having only 1 semester of college grades 2) You WILL have hard classes in college and having 3 semesters of grades at GMU will balance out the bad grades with other good grades. (You are aware that when you transfer to another school you get credit for your courses but you loose your GPA.) </p>
<p>Most admissions counselors would tell you that your grades matter way more than the school you come from. Besides, Dean Popovich who is the A&S transfer dean at UVa told me that the average transfer to UVa drops 1 full point in their gpa.</p>
<p>wahoo2007, Are you saying one shouldn't transfer after only 1 semester of college? I applied to UVA with only having 1 semester under my belt.</p>
<p>Katt,
No I wasn't saying that, in fact I transfered to UVa after having only one semester of grades. I was saying that humhaikamal should just stay at GMU and try to transfer to the Ivy's that he wants to after two years. In his case his high school record is not exceedingly strong and I personally think that he might need more than one semester of grades in order counteract the hs record for a UVa transfer.</p>
<p>Yes, but as I recall, your stats were much stronger than mine. I only had a 3.5 HS GPA and 1200 SAT. I had a 3.65 last semester at UMD and I doubt nice recs and great EC's are going to help, and the essay isn't great either.</p>
<p>I think you have a chance Katt.. no reason for you not to try.</p>
<p>But one question... 9 recs??? That's a lot. Do they all present something unique and different?</p>
<p>Anything above four recommendations will not help; in fact, I think it may even be detrimental.</p>
<p>Toph & nspeds, I think she said "nice" recs not "nine" recs.</p>
<p>umm... I can't read?</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I have 2 recs and the EC's are nothing unique, just leadership positions in student govt. throughout HS and this year in college.</p>
<p>Katt just skimming through this thread, you actually don't seem like that weak of a student. You've got a decent GPA, student govt. is actually a farily good EC to have.</p>
<p>Thanks allena! I've heard that UVa looks at leadership positions pretty highly, but my grades, although ok, aren't stellar. There's so much competition and that's what worries me.</p>