No offense to all the guys who are giving great advice. There are so many concerned and insightful posters who are trying to help in what has been a very challenging year. ; )
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Youâve got a lot of great advice from everyone. I can imagine the pressure youâre feeling from fellow desis.
If youâre truly interested in the transfer approach. Here are a few things you need to know:
- Most students form intense bonds with friends freshman year hence making it difficult to leave. Living at home the first year might make this less of an issue.
- There are several T20 schools with decent transfer rates: Cornell (ILR and Ag), Vanderbilt and USC. Of the Ivies Columbia and UPenn take the most transfers.
- Transfer students get less financial aid. If your parents can afford full pay, then youâll have a better chance.
- Given your slow start in high school, youâll really need to kick butt first year of college. Transfer apps are due in March, and they will pay attention to semester 1 grades as well as mid-term grades from semester 2. Shoot for a 4.0.
- You need to have a rock solid reason for transfer. Upgrading for prestige sake is not a good reason. Usually academic reasons are the best.
Whatever you end up deciding, good luck.
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I think the only way I would consider transferring is if I go to Rutgers, I donât think that if I go to GWU that I would want to transfer out for reason 1 you mentioned. Thanks for the transfer advice, yeah Cornell is at the top of my list if I want to transfer because of their 17% ac. But wherever I go, Iâm not gonna go in with the mindset that Iâm gonna transfer out.
I agree with most of your points but the transfer rates at Columbia and Penn are actually very low, only âhighâ relative to say HYPS which are almost zero. At Penn in 2020, it was below 8%and Columbia is ~6%, but that figure is somewhat misleading because the applicant pool is even more stellar than the vast pool of 1st year applicants (a large proportion apply from T20 schools or a particular community college feeder program), so the odds are extremely low for any candidate esp one who has been rejected the first time.
On (5) canât emphasize what you have said enough. Transfer applicant applying to a Top 20 has to demonstrate a clear and compelling reason for the transfer that rings true to the AdCom and thatâs not that easy unless thereâs a very specific program or major that is only available at transfer school or something very specific to your family situation. It really has to be clear, compelling and genuine.
I also think the transfer environment over the next two years at T20 schools is going to be very murky. Thereâs so much uncertainty around yield, students taking gap year, etc. that even top schools have little idea how many students will matriculate, how many dorm rooms they can provide, etc. They may need the extra rooms for the excess yield from the freshman class + the returning Covid gap year students.
Iâd still go back to my prior reply. Donât even think of transferring now. Pick a school, get excited, and perform there. The decisions will make themselves in that case (more than likely youâll stay put!).
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Note that your choices at Cornell would be CALS majors (essentially).
https://cals.cornell.edu/education/degrees-programs
Remember that you cannot apply to universities where youâv already applied, so youâd need to compose an entirely different list.
Applying as a freshman (ie., with only one semesterâs worth of accomplishments and grades) is almost certainly doomed to failure for Top 40 universities.
Not living on campus with other freshmen would deprive you of the bonds and friendships created then (connections). I already posted links to the 3 LLCs that match your major, I hope you reach out and look into them.
http://ruoncampus.rutgers.edu/firstyear-2/
Scheduling visits also matters. Do you do it alone or with your dad?
With my dad, someoneâs gotta drive me to DC lol
I meant, checking the process for tours (in-person? meeting with students? professors? is it possible to eat in a cafeteria? etcâŠ) keeping in mind covid has upended everything.
That is a super misleading #, as it includes students from NY community colleges with articulation agreements as well as students offered the transfer option in their initial application.
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Also, not all colleges and not all majors.
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true
I canât offer advice but I will offer sympathy. I got rejected from all but 3 schools too. Didnât get into most of my safeties (!!!) but i did get into Brown (???). Canât afford to go though. This year was WACK.
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That means that they were not actually safeties for you.
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I know my stats, and they turned out good enough for an Ivy. I was - at least on paper - supposed to get in. The point I was making, is that the process is unpredictable and often thankless, and we need to accept that.
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Which every student should read, stats are not everything!
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Any chance you can pass that acceptance over here then 
jk, gl though wherever you end up tho!
Also, if you canât afford Brown have you tried asking for more need-based aid? The Ivyâs all claim that they are as affordable as an in-state public, that they want to make sure no student needs to take a loan to attend and that costs are not a barrier to attendance.
Man I wish I could give you my spot!!
I applied to schools in both the US and U.K., with Cambridge (U.K.) being my top choice. I was only referring to US schools in my previous comment.
Since I got accepted to Cambridge in January, l I didnât even bother applying for financial aid at Brown. According to their financial aid calculator I wouldâve had to pay like $40,000 extra per year to go there over Cambridge, anyway.
So thereâs no hard feelings for me - applying to schools in both countries gave me double the options, and Iâm super thankful I did that.
Oh wow congrats on Cambridge!
No wonder your safeties rejected you, they knew for sure you were headed for somewhere special and went into yield protection mode.
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You never had a shot at any of the Ivy League Schools or their equivalent. Not this year not any recent previous year. As an Asian male your low GPA would have made you come in below the cutoff for their filtering process. And as an applicant from New Jersey your resume and activities do not stand out. They expect the world from wealthy northeastern states, such as 4.0 GPA all four years, amazing awards and accomplishments.
Iâm not sure what happened at Northeastern, BC would have been a reach too due to your low GPA and they are particular in other ways, but you got into Rutgers, Penn State and GW, all fine schools where the idea of transferring should not come across your mind. All 4 years of high school matter, especially for the Asian male cohort.
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How would they know he was accepted to Cambridge?
Their stats, it is common practice for public schools to reject the top applicants because they know there is a low chance that applicant actually attends
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