Hopeful Transfer - How are my chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

Hi everyone,

I’m currently a sophomore at Vanderbilt and I am applying to transfer into Penn as a junior. I was planning to do so last year, but gave Vandy one more year before I made my final decision. I struggled first semester freshman year, but have maintained somewhat of a decent GPA here so I’m hoping the upward trend works in my favor. Anyway, here are my stats:

Major: Biomedical Engineering
Completed Credits: 70
College GPA: 3.623 (3.45 first semester, ~3.7 since)
SAT: 2380 single sitting / 2400 combined
SAT2: 770 Math 2C, 780 Biology E

High School GPA: 3.74
First generation college student

Don’t want to list too many ECs, but I have been heavily involved in research (3 years since high school senior) and emphasized that in my Penn supplement.

-Amgen Scholars Research Fellowship at Columbia – Summer 2015
-1 National publication in the Journal of Biomedical Optics

I think my professors provided pretty good reference letters and my personal essay was about the issue with fitting in here as an Asian American student from a financially disadvantaged family in the northeast. I’m not feeling too confident especially with my GPA, but I wanted to give it a shot.

What do you think are my chances of transferring successfully?

2

I couldn’t intelligently comment on your chances but I am curious - why are you dissatisfied at Vandy? The reason I ask is my S is going to Penn in the fall, but Vanderbilt was very much in the running as one of his choices.

3

First off, congratulations to your son!

It’s not so much that I am dissatisfied here, as I would not have any issues with finishing my undergraduate years here if I am rejected. (The financial aid is amazing as well) I just never really found a community that I can wholly identify with and the atmosphere at Vandy is much more different from the northeast than I expected it to be. Academically it is more than what I could ask for, but I believe college life extends beyond the classroom and I would like to find a better social/cultural fit.

4

Makes sense - Vanderbilt is a wonderful school and you have done well to be there and doing so well academically. All I can say is - best of luck in your transfer endevour, but absent that working out - learn to embrace country music!! And the great baseball team too, 2014 National champs.