How does transferring affect your graduate school outlook?

<p>As you can tell by my name, I am a prospective transfer for Vanderbilt. Ever since I started college about 2 years ago I wanted to go to law school, especially a top one like Yale Law or Stanford Law. So how would being at a CUNY for 2 years then transferring into Vandy affect those dreams? Would I be a weaker applicant than someone who spent 4 years at a top school even if I maintain a really high GPA for my 2 years there (say 3.8 or so) and get higher LSAT scores? </p>

<p>And what of the transcripts? Would those top schools look at my overall transcript and be disappointed that I went to a CUNY for two years even if I did spend my most important years at a really good school and did well?</p>

<p>I don’t know for sure, but Im willing to guess that its no big deal. I really hope that grad schools aren’t that persnickety.</p>

<p>I’m also curious about this.</p>

<p>Graduate schools will use your cumulative GPA to make decisions. So every grade you’ve ever earned in any college class (even ones you took in high school) will be included in your GPA. </p>

<p>That said, I can’t imagine that being a transfer could hurt your application. If anything, I think it would help your application because it shows you are ambitious.</p>

<p>^Ooh, I hope so. </p>

<p>I went to community college to save money/get into a better college. I would hate it if that ruined my chances to go to a good grad.</p>

<p>Short answer: it doesn’t. I spent several years at a community college before transferring to the University of Alaska Fairbanks for a year and then finishing at the University of Idaho. I got accepted to a ton of graduate schools, including three funded offers, and will be starting at Indiana University in the fall.</p>

<p>Also, graduate schools generally look more closely at the last two years of your undergraduate career. A late improvement trend can offset a lower overall GPA.</p>

<p>^ congratulations! I currently am a student at IU. You’re going to love the campus. It’s so beautiful in the summer and fall.</p>

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<p>That’s completely false for medical and law school admissions.</p>

<p>Medical and law school are a different ball of wax. “Graduate school” generally refers to academic/research-based programs.</p>

<p>Also, it’s not true that “every single class” is used to calculate your GPA for graduate schools. My cumulative GPA at the University of Idaho doesn’t include the cancelled grade points for any number of classes I failed then later remediated by repetition. That CGPA is what graduate schools saw when I sent them my transcripts.</p>

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<p>Right, because the OP’s mentioning the LSAT and law schools wasn’t a dead giveaway that he was talking about law school.</p>

<p>The title of this thread is “graduate school.” Several other posts in this thread ([including</a> yours](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12595830-post4.html]including”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12595830-post4.html)) talked about “graduate schools.” Ergo, I discussed graduate schools.</p>