Was violently ill, well-past the withdraw date, and am now stuck with a B+ in a (non-major related) class. If my overall GPA is still good, is transfer to highly selective universities (e.g. Harvard) still possible? Or has a B+ basically taken me out of the running?
Your B+ does not keep you out of the running; it’s applying as a transfer that does that. Harvard accepts very very few transfer students (~12 from 1500 applications).
Does that mean no successful transfer applicant has ever had a B+…?
No, it doesn’t mean that, but it hurts what were already ridiculously low chance.
In a recent survey, more than half of Harvard’s admitted freshman class had an unweighted 4.0 GPA in high school, with the average unweighted GPA being a 3.9. Given how competitive transfer admissions are, I would think having a B+ on your college transcript just makes a transfer acceptance that more difficult.
FWIW: Several years ago, I posted my daughter’s complete high school transcript and grades. You might want to look it over to get a realistic idea of what it takes for a freshman applicant, and then consider what it takes for a transfer applicant: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1619966-ivy-standards-for-rigor-of-highschool-curriculum-p1.html.
Everything is relative. Hypothetically speaking, if your grade of B+ was in a course that is DIRECTLY related to your major – well that’s not so good for your chances. But, hypothetically speaking, if your B+ was in a required course that has no relevance to your intended major, then it’s no so bad.
That said – and I know I’ve said this to you in another thread – in a recent survey, the average high school GPA of admitted Harvard freshman was a 3.9 out of 4.0. The average successful transfer applicant probably has to have the same overall college GPA.
I’m looking to transfer and am concerned about a B+ I got in a course at my current college. My school is ranked in the top 20 in the US. This isn’t a chance thread, and I understand that transfer admissions look at a lot more than just grades. I just need to understand how “bad” a B+ is seen as.
This is what I’m asking: hypothetically speaking, if someone was the sort of student that could get in with an A in place of that B+, would having a B+ change that?