I didn’t apply to UIUC because I didn’t like it when I visited, and its just as expensive as most out of state schools. Iowa State is half the price of what UIUC would have been. I’ve been looking to transfer to Minnesota, maybe try UMich again, and UW-Madison. I like the feel of a bigger city, where as I’m currently in the flat, desolate corn fields of Iowa.
My major is EE, which is why I applied to mostly state schools with high engineering backgrounds. I have 4.0 and I’m in the honors college.
What kind of environment are you looking for?
General transfer rules: it is more difficult to gain admission as a transfer than it is an an Freshman applicant. When schools have more good first year applicants than they need AND they also have a high return rate for the second year of studies, they do not have a motivation to admit Sophomores. You are an excellent student in what seems to be a well functioning honors program (i.e., you are doing research in the first year.). You also have an affordable program.
Suggestions:
- Go to the websites of universities you are interested in and look up the Common Data Set (CDS) for the latest available year. You may find it under the office of institutional research or a similar name. In this report you will see the number of transfers accepted by department. Generally speaking, EE will not be accepting any transfers if they are swamped already with returning Freshmen. NOTE: This is not related to your grades. It is related to Department Heads trying to manage the faculty workload. Remember they already have a big batch or returning Freshmen. If they accepted transfers in that department in the previous year and you can afford it, go for it.
2 With your selected list of candidate universities, poke around for the “retention rate” of the latest returning freshmen class. It will tell you the percentage of first year students who actually returned for the second year of studies. The lower this number is the more space they have to accept transfers, but it can still vary dramatically between departments.
- Otherwise, find a group activity on campus that you genuinely enjoy and can get involved with. Hopefully, It may take your mind off of the cornfields. Soccer? Tennis? Music group?
It appears that the highly regarded STEM programs have been swamped this last few years. It is going to be difficult to beat the program you already have.
Sure, send out a few applications as a transfer student if you want to. Iowa State is regarded as a good school and it is great that you are already working with a prof on research.
Just tried my long winded approach on UIUC’s CDS website @ http://illinois.edu/resources/search.html?search=&search_type=all&cx=006549799505564222509%3A-8lddip9q2g&cof=FORID%3A11&q=CDS&sa=Search+Website
This is an outstanding engineering school and is a city all by itself, about the same size as Iowa. It also has a very high retention rate even in the school of engineering (92.59% return rate for Freshmen). Good news for students there, but not for students trying to transfers into engineering programs.
You might find the Tribs editorial interesting. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-illinois-brain-drain-exodus-20180409-story.html
Sure, try for UMTC, UW-Madison, and UMich.
There’s no harm in sending out a few transfer applications, but have you checked the deadlines for schools you are interested in? We’re in mid-April now and I fear many of the deadlines for Fall 2018 may have passed.
It does sound like you are doing good things at Iowa - honors college, research, etc. Why not focus on continuing this way next fall? At that point, if you are still thinking of transferring, make a short list of a few colleges you are interested in. Research deadlines and requirements (how many letters of recommendation, essays, etc.) Most importantly, research what these new universities have to offer you that Iowa doesn’t. You could apply for Fall 2019 and finish your last two years at the new college.
Or you could stay at Iowa, do extremely well, and look ahead to Grad School if that’s on your radar.
Good luck.
Thanks for this breakdown; really helpful and much appreciated.
i wouldn’t focus on prestige as much for undergrad because you’ll get the chance to go to those schools for grad and be able to relax on admissions processes for a while which would be nice and build your resume for your grad
That’s what happens when you apply to mostly reach schools. The question, do you want to go to Iowa State? The next question. If you got in to your preferred schools, the tuition for private schools and OOS is nearly triple/quadruple the cost. Do you have a way to pay for it? If not, then this could be the best thing that ever happened to you. Worse than getting rejected from a dream school is getting in and becoming sucked into black hole of debt for the sake of prestige.
Just FYI: Purdue’s admission statistics are a bit misleading. The 55% statistic pertains to the overall admissions rate, but masks the fact that the various colleges within Purdue differ a lot in their level of admissions competitiveness. The admission rate to Purdue’s College of Engineering is significantly lower than 55%, especially for OOS. (I learned this at Purdue Engineering’s own presentation.) The OP applied to Engineering.
Honestly, don’t get disgusted by public colleges. They’re affordable, and just as good if not better than a private college. It’s all about finding the right one though.