<p>Transfer</a> Student Bias | The Cornell Daily Sun
I came across this article when trying to find info on transferring, and I thought it was interesting. It was written by a student who said that there's definitely a bias against transfer students on campus. Why is that? Is it because a lot of them are GT students who didn't get freshman admission? Is it because many come from community colleges? Because I always had the impression it was more difficult to get in as a transfer than freshman. Transfer acceptance rates are lower in several colleges, and transfers have to get the high GPA in college, as opposed to HS. Is it because a lot of transfer students didn't do well in HS? </p>
<p>Anyway, I just thought that was intersesting, that there's a "transfer bias". And please don't say that there isn't, because then why else would there have been an article written about it? Unless the author was making it up, that is.</p>
<p>I never felt any sort of bias as a transfer student...besides, no one knows you're a transfer unless you tell them. For me, the only thing that sucked about transferring to Cornell is that I didn't get to be there for all four years of my undergraduate education.</p>
<p>A few years ago, a kid at my school was a total slacker and went to the University of Vermont. He then got straight A's and transferred to Stanford. So, he still got to go to an amazing school, without having to sacrifice his high school years like so many Freshman admits did. I can understand why there might be some sort of hostility in this kind of scenario.</p>
<p>I can understand that as well. But high school academics are easier than college academics. Getting a high GPA in college is arguably harder than in high school. Plus when you apply as a transfer, they look at high school and college...at least for soph transfers. </p>
<p>I worked hard in HS and currently go to NYU, but want to transfer to Cornell. A lot of NYU students are slacking off, partying every night, because as long as they pass, they graduate with a degree. I'm working hard so I can get at least a 3.9 GPA to transfer. It's not like I smoked crack in HS for 4 straight yrs and now have to work hard for the first time. I think the example you gave it more of an exeption than the standard.</p>
<p>"But high school academics are easier than college academics. Getting a high GPA in college is arguably harder than in high school." Oh, totally, and yeah, that case is an exception, definitely. But think about it, I bet almost everyone on CC could have had a lot more fun in High School if we weren't all so driven, and we put in the work because of our Holy Grail school, and to think that some people can just throw in effort at the last minute is a bit grating.</p>
<p>Sure, if you consider the "last minute" 2 years of college. Plus if you completely bombed HS, they usually don't take you. </p>
<p>I do get what you're saying though. It does bother me a little how some Community Colleges have GT agreements, but I understand it's for a reason. I worked hard in HS, now I'm working hard at NYU, and my chances of admission are slim...technically, I could have gotten D's in HS, gone to Community college, and automatically transferred to Cornell.</p>
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A few years ago, a kid at my school was a total slacker and went to the University of Vermont. He then got straight A's and transferred to Stanford. So, he still got to go to an amazing school, without having to sacrifice his high school years like so many Freshman admits did.
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<p>This is true. Transfers are those that couldn't get in as a senior in HS. Thus, the transfer applicant pool is comprised of HS senior rejects.</p>
<p>From my own experience, I was very similair to the student above. I slacked off in high school, even getting a few C's and a D. But I went to an OK state school, got straight A's, and transferred to Cornell. The students who were accepted from my HS to Cornell were all stereoptypical overachievers and thus worked for much longer and much harder than I did.</p>
<p>Not all transfers "couldn't get in as a senior in HS." I am reasonably certain that had I applied to Cornell in high school I would have gotten accepted. I did not apply and instead went to another school that I liked better at the time, UVa. Now I am interested in transferring because I do not like where I am at.</p>
<p>yeah I also don't like the insinuation that we're dumbos who smoked weed through HS and then worked for 15 minutes in college. I worked hard, went to NYU because last year I was all CITY CITY CITY YEAHHH and now I've...matured a little :) I couldn't have gotten into NYU without trying a little, although NYU/UVA are like safeties for Cornellians...and now I'll have to work really hard to get a 4.0 at NYU for 1-2 years.</p>
<p>^that's so funny, because I still feel like CITY CITY CITY even though I am not going to school there. I love Cornell a ton and it's working out excellently for me, but I still start thinking of how cool NYC is. BUT then I remember that Cornell is awesome.</p>
<p>it's interesting to me at least...</p>
<p>anyway, about transfers, there are some groups of Cornell people that I find annoying, but transfers are not among them. obviously they had the sense to follow MY good taste and come here.</p>
<p>hahah what other groups annoy you, faustarp?</p>
<p>yeah if I go to Cornell i'm gonna miss the city but it'll be worth it....even if people look down on me for coming from an "easy school" and not having a 4.0 in HS and going to a contract college...whatever</p>
<p>lol stargazerlilies, if you meet someone who looks down upon you for being a transfer and all those other things, it is not your problem, it is theirs.</p>
<p>Some people are just pompous, and others just don't realize who to focus their anger and frustration on.</p>
<p>I have the utmost respect for people in contract colleges and for transfers.</p>
<p>are you suggesting there is some reason we should be looking down on students from contract colleges? (gives an angry glare from the ag quad)
jkjk</p>
<p>anyway, who annoys me? I am not that crazy about the Greek people. (but that's still not justified, because there are certainly very many nice people as well...)</p>
<p>of course not, I'm applying to HumEc :)
cornell students don't look down on the contract colleges b/c they know what they are, but when I've told people who know nothing about Cornell I want to go to HumEc and explain it, they're like "Ohhhh...so it's like a SUNY college" and they think it's not really cornell, it's another SUNY like Binghamton or Geneseo</p>
<p>yeah I'm applying to both of those as well as Cornell...well I'm still unsure about Geneseo, but definitely Binghamton, since I want out of NYU and I can't bank on getting into HumEc, esp with it being harder for In-staters this year</p>
<p>Another reason some Cornell students might show some resentment towards transfers is the fact that they feel the transfers not only are most likely those who didn't or couldn't make it the first round or via the regular route, but also they had it easy by attending less competitive schools like community colleges and universities that have a less academically competitive pool of students.
My son took an elective advanced math. class (supposedly for fun) that he dropped during his freshman year at Cornell in a local state u. this summer, while he was interning full time. He said that the difference in course materials, the level of difficulty, the work load and the curve as a direct reflection of the intellectual level of the students in the class were night and day as compared to the one he took at Cornell, even though they have the same course description and considered equivalent courses by the Cornell registrar. He essentially sleep-walked through the class and aced it while working. He could only dream the same ever happening at Cornell.
So I can see a lot of regular Cornell students would feel that they have worked hard and might even have suffered a lower GPA as a result of their honest work, while some of the transfers coming from a "lesser" school can come in half way and enjoy a higher GPA at the end since they don't have to be encumbered by the possible lower GPA incurred during the earlier years. That would be quite unfair. This would be especially apparent and crucial if one were a pre-med or pre-law.</p>
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but also they had it easy by attending less competitive schools like community colleges and universities that have a less academically competitive pool of students.
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ok, but colleges are harder than HS - getting a 4.0 gpa in college to transfer is harder than getting a 3.8 in HS. Don't forget a lot of people come from crappy HS's, where it's easy to ace classes. </p>
<p>I'm not sure what you mean when you say transfers aren't encumbered by low GPA's early yrs - you realize these kids need to get like 3.8 + in college for reg transfer? Plus if those students couldn't handle Cornell, they would probably do poorly and get low GPA's, making it harder to get into Med/Law school. </p>
<p>It's not like Transfers can slack off throughout HS, and work hard for 1 yr, and get in. If you're a Soph transfer, they look primarily at HS, b/c they only have 1.5 semesters of college to go by. I have to send in my HS transcript, and that gets weighted heavily, as well as my NYU grades. I hardly slacked off in HS, I took 8 AP courses and managed a 3.9 UW senior yr w/5 AP's, in a HS ranked in the Top 15 Public HS's in U.S. I'm nearing a 4.0 at NYU right now. Believe me, I wish transfers had it so easy, but it's harder, because I'm getting evaluated on HS and college. My HS GPA, SAT's, EC's, etc, count, as well as my college GPA/EC's, etc.</p>
<p>There are "crappy" hs and "crappy" colleges, but the usual case is Cornell will be the harder school when compared to most colleges out there.
In the example of my son's course in the local state u., he would have most likely gotten a B at Cornell while having to work a lot harder instead of the easy A he got. In that case, he would have to include this B in his cumulative GPA calculation, while someone who transfers in from that college, for instance, would either comes in with that A and get to include that in his Cornell GPA calculation if allowed by the registrar or at least start anew from the year he/she joins Cornell. I am sure my son would have jumped for the prospect of not including that B in the calculation if afforded the same advantage.
Of course there are exceptions out there. You may be one. With your stat. and possibly a good essay, you most likely could have gotten in through the regular route. Another exception is transferring in the reverse direction as in the case of my niece, who transferred from Princeton to Brown. She eventually got into Columbia medical school and she attributed the easy grading system at Brown to her success. She modestly shared that she might not have had the same level of success had she stayed at Princeton where the grading and competition is a lot harder.</p>
<p>Do you understand the concept of an average and that anecdotal evidence doesn't contradict said average?</p>
<p>You are clearly an exception. Transfers generally were rejected in the original admissions process, attend a mediocre state school, get above a 3.8, and then transfer. Transfers then proceed to perform significantly worse than their regular admit peers during their time at Cornell. Just because you and a handful of others worked hard in HS and went to a peer instituion of Cornell doesn't mean that the majority did. At my transfer orientation for my major, one kid went to CMU. The rest went to party schools (U Miami) or schools I had never even ehard of (University of Tampa?!?!). </p>
<p>Here's some great evidence for the caliber of students who get in as transfers. In 06 or 07, the transfer center made a Slope Day T-shirt with the slogan: "What's the big deal? We partied like this every day at our old schools."</p>
<p>And your contention that it's harder for transfers is bunk. Cornell doesn't really weight the HS transcript though they make you send it. They weight mostly the college transcript. You can't slack off completely, but regular admits work much harder. They have to get over a 1400 (basically), get above 3.9 UW, join a million clubs (taking up a tono f their time after school), and have multiple leadership positions. I on the other hand never joined one club in HS, wasn't even ranked in the top 20% of my HS class. I went to an OK state school, got a 4.0, joined some stupid Freshmen leadership stuff that met once a week and did research for about 3 hrs a week during winter break. This is the route most follow. </p>
<p>That's why the admin assistant for my major told me about half of transfers in my engineering major drop out or switch majors. The rest just gets C's and B's. Of course I was an exception and so can you.</p>
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I have the utmost respect for people in contract colleges and for transfers.
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<p>This statement makes no sense. i hgave the utmost respecxt for transfers and contract people that do well or are interesting. I don't just respect transfers without any appraisal of their personal acumen.</p>