How can I successfuly transfer to the schools of my choice?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hey guys,
I'm currently a senior in high school, and after calculating my GPA I've realized I won't be getting into any of the schools I really wanted to attend. It would take pages to describe why my grades are low, and believe me, I've ranted for hours on other forums. </p>

<p>Basically, I've worked my a** off the last two years in pretty much all AP/IB classes just to receive mediocre grades. Like 5-6 hours of pure schoolwork a night. I'm really going to try not to get into it (as I said before, I'll start ranting FOREVER). Here's a short synopsis: I took the wrong classes at the wrong high school. Essentially, my HS has a super competitive IB-Diploma program that they manipulate to boost test scores and receive more funding. About half of the IB classes are uber hard - average in class test scores are usually failing. Naturally, this makes us students work to excessive lengths just to attain a B. These are also the classes they we score the highest on during IB exams (we do VERY VERY well compared to the national IB exam average). The other half of the IB classes are fluff classes designed to compensate for the ridiculously difficult non-fluff IB classes, and a student can generally attain an easy A without much work. This way, GPA's for IB students are more balanced, since half of the classes are easy A's.</p>

<p>OK well here's my problem: I didn't do IB Diploma (forgot to get sheet signed by counselor in time). To try and compensate, I did IB Certificate instead and tried to take the same classes the Diploma kids took. In many cases, I've taken more IB/AP classes than Diploma candidates. Problem is, IB Certificate is a bit restrictive. As it turns out, the fluff IB classes were Diploma-only, which means I couldn't take them (cuz, you know, what idiot would take tons of IB classes if he wasn't doing IB Diploma?). So I got stuck with all of the ridiculously hard IB classes without any fluff classes to balance out my grades. To put things in perspective, my grades in the IB classes that Diploma candidates are taking are higher than the IB student average. Yet my overall GPA is wayyyy lower than the IB student average because instead of fluff IB classes, I took either AP classes or even more of the uber-difficult IB classes.</p>

<h2>OK so I didn't mean for that to be so long. tl;dr - took a ton of classes that deflate grades.</h2>

<p>Here's a quick view of my stats:
GPA - 84 UW/88 W (school adds 6 points to IB/AP/Honors classes)
SAT's - 2160 (long story, will explain later)
AP's/IB's - 11 total by graduation
Honors - not sure, somewhere around 7-8</p>

<h2>EC's - not going to list all, let's just say average</h2>

<p>Because of this grade-dilemma, there's no way I can get into any of the schools I want attend. I'll probably end up going to Tulane or UIUC. So I plan on transferring after freshman year. In particular, I hope to attend either WUSL, Boston College, or Vanderbilt. What do I need to do freshman year to make sure I get into one of the schools previously mentioned as a transfer? Like, what stats/info/etc would I need my application to have in order to get in? I'm soooo worried my HS grades are going to ruin my chances as a transfer. Let's say, hypothetically speaking, that I were to get a 3.8-4.0 freshman year, and retake the SAT to get a 2300 (I said I'd explain this later - basically, I effed up my first SAT time-wise. Didn't finish because I'm an idiot. Long story, not going to get into. anyways, I know for a fact I can get an 800 M and 800 W. With a little studying, hopefully I can boost my CR to a 700+. I'm pretty confident with a little preparation, I can realistically score close to a 2300.) Would this make me a pretty good candidate for WUSL, BC, and Vandy even with my bs 84UW HS average? I also will have gotten 4's and 5's (hopefully) on 11 AP tests, which I'm sure would give me a ton of credit hours and maybe boost my chances to transfer. What do you guys think?</p>

<p>I've now realized I probably could have just summed up this excessively long post by asking, "84UW Highschool Average - What do I need to do in order to successfully transfer to BC, WUSTL, or Vandy after freshman year?"</p>

2

<p>Okay, let’s break this down…</p>

<p>First, Don’t make excuses for your grades when applying to colleges or scholarships. Unless you had a medical condition, family emergency, etc. colleges aren’t going to look favorably on excuses. You’ll be wasting an essay that you could be using to tell admissions officers how great you are in other areas.</p>

<p>Secondly, as a graduate of the IB Diploma program, I can tell you that your experiences senior year regarding work load are good indicators of what life will be like in many courses of study at the collegiate level, especially if you wish to attain the grades you are shooting for your freshman year. Sorry to disappoint, though I do sympathize with you.</p>

<p>Thirdly, you are making a lot of assumptions. College is not a cake walk, and many students coming out of high school overestimate what they are able to achieve, and suffer emotionally as a result. You are also assuming that there will be slots for you to transfer into. Transfer admissions can be even more competitive than freshman admissions, and remember that your high school GPA will still follow you.</p>

<p>Ultimately, your experience at Tulane or UIUC is going to be what you make of it. No matter what, you have to go into it with a positive attitude, because you will be spending at least a year there. Many of my friends who were positive that they were going to transfer after their freshman year of college ended up getting a degree from the college they originally “hated” and had an absolute blast in spite of it not being their first choice originally. Do you really want to go through the admissions process all over again?</p>

3

<p>I concur with RmblnReck. If you have already been accepted to Tulane, go there and just assume that is where you will end up, and pretend (if that is the right word) that it was even a high choice for you. Frankly, it really isn’t that different than Vandy, and my D turned down WUSTL for Tulane. With your AP’s you will have a lot of credit hours, you won’t have to fool with intro classes as much so you can go right into mostly 200 and 300 level courses, and you can really get involved. I don’t know what your interests are, either academically or otherwise, but if you go in with an open mind you might be surprised.</p>

<p>I also agree that you have to let go of the rants. True as what you say may be, to put it harshly no one cares. By your own admission you got yourself into that situation anyway. Maybe it is fate, who knows. Doesn’t matter now. If you got into Tulane you got into a very good school (did you know that if your listed schools based on SAT scores Tulane would rank 29th? Not as high as Vandy or WUSTL for sure, but better than you would have thought I bet) and you can get a great education there, and have a blast in New Orleans besides. NOLA itself is a learning experience, but you do have to go in with the right attitude.</p>

<p>I wish you the very best of luck. I would be very happy to answer any questions you might have about Tulane, either here or in a PM.</p>

4

<p>RmblinReck - Haha, no way I’m going to mention any of that in my apps - the ranting is more for me than anybody else, and I completely agree with fallenchemist that “no one cares”. However, I can assure you my HS’s IB program is a lot different than the standard. I have several post-IB college friends who say that college has been a lot easier for them than my school’s IB. Even my friend whose a freshman at Brown says he’s had to less work to maintain a steady 3.5 than he had to when he was a junior/senior at my school. Don’t you think 6 hrs of academic work a night it a little excessive just to maintain close to a 3.0 UW in highschool? I’m pretty sure that won’t be the case at Tulane… Also, I get the whole “slots” for transferring thing. But Vandy’s transfer rate is close to 50% because of freshman overcrowding in the commons.</p>

<p>OK secondly, although I appreciate the comments, I’ve yet to receive an answer to my question. I understand you guys are against transferring, but that’s just want I want to do. I also understand Tulane is a good school, but I’m pretty set on BC. So overlooking personal opinions, what do I need to do freshman year in order to transfer to BC?</p>

5

<p>Oh, I am not against you transferring, I would classify it more as “Go in thinking you won’t transfer and will be there 4 years, because otherwise your mindset is non-productive”. Having said that, the things you need to do are pretty much as obvious as they would seem. Get all A’s or damn close to it, get involved in a couple of groups (they don’t want you to look one-dimensional and it gets back to that whole “get involved as if you are going to be there 4 years” thing anyway), and after a semester, if you are still set on transferring, get to know the transfer admissions counselor at BC as well as you can and let them know why you want BC instead of, say, Tulane. After that it really is just a matter of openings and a bit of luck. There is absolutely nothing you can do about high school at this point (other than finishing as strongly as you can), so it is all how you do after a year of college at a place that is respected. Other than finding a cure for cancer or winning the lottery and donating millions to BC, I can’t think of what else a person could possibly do to improve their chances.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the info. Actually, I’d think wanting to transfer after one year would make me even more productive - gotta get straight A’s or else I don’t have a chance. How much do SAT’s matter, cuz I really was looking forwards to improving them?</p>

7

<p>They matter, for sure. But they matter less once you show you can do college level work, and especially if you do it in 200 and 300 level courses.</p>

<p>By a productive mindset, I wasn’t referring exclusively or even mostly to academic achievement. What I meant was the enjoyment of the entire college experience. It is only 4 years (in theory) and to lose one because you are thinking “oh, I won’t be here next year anyway so why bother to get too involved” would be a waste, i.e. non-productive. Besides, as we have said, you might not get into these other schools so you might as well act like you will be there for 4 years.</p>

8

<p>I completely agree - in fact, that’s one of my biggest fears right now. I’d hate to have worked all year thinking I’d transfer just to get denied admission somewhere else. Fortunately, I’m pretty sure I’d be happy at Tulane if I did end up getting rejected to BC. Assuming I did end up with a 2250-2300 SAT and 3.7+ GPA freshman year with another 11 AP/IB exams successfully completed (and thus more credit hours), which of the schools previously mentioned do you think I could get into, if any, as a transfer (even with a HS cumulative numeric of 84UW)?</p>

<p>Also, not sure if this matters, but if you weight my grades with a +.5 per AP/IB/Honors, my GPA is more around a 3.6ish</p>

9

<p>Oh, you could theoretically get into all of them, if you get a 3.7-4.0 freshman year. Especially if most of those are 200-300 level courses, which I think they would be in your case. At that point it probably comes down to 3 factors:</p>

<p>1) Space available</p>

<p>2) Quality and quantity of other applicants</p>

<p>3) Your ability to convey good reasons you should be at their school.</p>

<p>I really think that getting that kind of track record at a school like Tulane will pretty much negate the 84 from high school. Maybe not 100%, but mostly. After all, they are concerned about how you will perform in college, academically and otherwise. Once they see that at a quality school, they would have to be idiots to dwell on what happened in high school.</p>

<p>What do you think your area of concentration will be? What kind of courses do you anticipate taking?</p>

10

<p>I was hoping premed, but we all know how competitive that is, so maybe biology or economics as just-in-cases.</p>

11

<p>OK, I think you might have a misconception we might as well clear up now. There is no such major as premed. Doesn’t exist. Anywhere. Premed simply means you take certain basic courses. Here is the list from the Harvard manual:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>You can pretty much ignore the psychology/sociology bullet point, that is rare. Extra biology and/or biochem doesn’t hurt, for sure. But you certainly don’t have to.</p>

<p>The point is you can major in anything you want. Econ, music, anthropology, anything. Including a science of course, if you want.</p>

<p>The only issue is that you cannot use your AP credit to place out of freshman chem. Med schools insist you take chem in college no matter how you did on your AP. I think for the other areas you have to take a course, but it can be at a higher level. So you don’t have to suffer through freshman English if you place out of it, but you do have to take some English course. Most schools would require this anyway, whether you were premed or not.</p>

<p>Does that all make sense?</p>

12

<p>Yeah, I guess what I meant was that if I’m not up to the whole premed curriculum (major undecided), I’ll just go for biology or econ as a major. My friend actually majored in paleontology and ended up going to med school - thought it was pretty funny. Didn’t know about that AP’s not counting though, kind of a bummer.</p>

<p>Quick, unrelated question. I was an idiot and spontaneously applied to BU about an hour ago. Did the entire app today, including the Common App essay. Problem is, my stupid computer would upload the essay and I ended up not submitting the Common App until 9 minutes after the deadline. Do you think this will severely hinder my chances at them even looking at it?</p>

13

<p>Nah, they will probably still take it. Computers hiccup all the time. I wouldn’t sweat it. If they are that picky, screw 'em. LOL.</p>

<p>As far as the AP’s, just to be clear the only one I know for sure is chemistry. They just don’t let you place out of freshman chem. I think with the others you can place out of the basic courses, but you still have to take something most likely. Again, most colleges make you anyway to fulfill their own graduation requirements. But a pre-med adviser will know for sure. If you do end up at Tulane, they will assign you one right away, once you tell them you are thinking pre-med. I am sure that is true at any school.</p>

14

<p>Sorry for the late response - dropped my computer and fried the harddrive a couple days ago. </p>

<p>Good thing I didn’t take AP/IB Chemistry then. Yeah, hopefully I don’t have to take Freshmen English, as I’ve heard thats a big weeder class.</p>