<p>I'm currently a senior probably going to Clarkson University. My dream is to transfer to either Cornell, JHU, Columbia, or MIT (for molecular bio). </p>
<p>I am afraid that my h.s. record will blow my chances because its DISMAL. I am going to apply for junior status but my h.s. gpa is a 2.4 (with the toughest classes). THAT'S DISMAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not to mention my SATs (a lowly 1700). </p>
<p>Even if my college gpa is a 4.0 and I have good recs and stuff am I basically done?</p>
<p>HELP ME!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>btw, I got rejected my Cornell (obvious) for my freshmen year, will that count against me if I transfer?</p>
<p>After you've been in college for a certain amount of time, they weigh your high school grades less and less. Some colleges don't even require them in order to transfer.</p>
<p>It really depends on the school... you should go into their website and read what their criteria is for Transfer students.. generally the more competitive the school the more stuff they'll ask you to send...</p>
<p>But I'm sure that if you excel in college you still have good chances.. I did horrible in HS, but now I have a 3.92.. I just applied to a some school just waiting to hear back.. let's hope its positive...</p>
<p>My ECs are average so.. I would suggest you focus on that</p>
<p>Even if schools ask you to send in high school transcripts it doesn't always mean they take them very seriously. When you are in college you have to make sure to get a 3.6+ to be even considered by the schools you listed.. You should apply as a junior transfer and do 2 years at your school and they prolly will take your high school record and sat with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>I got my information from speaking directly to the admissions counselors from various top20 and top50 schools. I never really planned on ivy's or top 10 but my guess is they will probably be similar.</p>
<p>I know that if you apply for Jr year they won't look at you HS transcripts as much. But a lot of the schools advise against applying for Jr status because Jr spot is limited. How does this factor into whether you decide to apply as a Jr or a Soph?</p>
<p>And while we're on the topic. Do top schools weigh your HS transcript heavily even if you apply for your Jr year? I mean top as in Yale and Wharton. I'm guess a top school like Duke or UMich might not, but how do the TOP TOP TOP schools take the HS transcript? And does that mean that if you have/had a bad HS transcript you are screwed in the admissions process to these schools?</p>
<p>Cornell, JHU, Columbia, or MIT
Be advised that highly competative schools like the above, in general, accept transfer students with academic records[ HS and college] comparable to their current students. Also the acceptance rate for transfer students at the Ivy's, and comparable schools, is even lower than it is for freshman . If you truly want to transfer, you are going to have to cast a much wider net.</p>
<p>"And does that mean that if you have/had a bad HS transcript you are screwed in the admissions process to these schools?"
unfortunately, the answer is usually yes, because of the highly competative nature of admissions - both for freshman, and especially, for transfer students to those schools. "Top" colleges require transfer applicants to send the HS transcript- why would they require that if it was immaterial to them?</p>
<p>I"m interested in hearing some more on this. It seems like we have to dissenting viewpoints (burgler90 and menloparkmom), assuming I understood you guys correctly. Anyone else care to weigh in?</p>
<p>Glueeater, burgler90 was talking about the Junior transcript thing. With a bad high school record, transfering to a top school as a sophmore is usually a no go. I'm at a CC right now with a college GPA as a 4.0 and a HS GPA of 1.98. I'm going to apply to Emerson, NYU cas, Lehigh, possibly a few ivies and tip toppy schools (just for the hell of it), and of course plenty of saftey schools. Almost everybody I've spoken to about it said even my saftey schools are safe as a sophmore transfer, but as a junior transfer your HS record won't play any part if I keep up the 4.0. </p>
<p>To the OP. I wish you the best of the luck, but truly, truly want you to keep in mind: you'll need safties, or at least matches. No matter what you do in college, those schools will still be very, very high reaches. Ivies and JHU/MIT have rejected numerous people with 4.0s. You DON'T have to go to an Ivy, there are plenty of fine institutions that you'll have an actual shot at. College is really what you make of it, not so much what it makes of you. </p>
<p>Here are the stats on the schools you listed: </p>
<p>JHU: Total number of transfer students who applied: 722
Total number of transfer students who were admitted: 63 </p>
<p>MIT: Total number of transfer students who applied: 289
Total number of transfer students who were admitted: 17 </p>
<p>Cornell: Total number of transfer students who applied: 2,616
Total number of transfer students who were admitted: 768 (Hey, why are these so high?) Hmmm.</p>
<p>Columbia: Total number of transfer students who applied: 1,401
Total number of transfer students who were admitted: 112</p>
<p>I'm not questioning whether its harder or not to transfer in as opposed to applying for freshman admission. My main question is "even if I apply for Jr year, will I be at a significant disadvantage over a transfer with a better HS GPA/SATs?". Like, assume I get a 4.0. I know the ivys reject 4.0s every day but if you have a 4.0 you still got a shot. But with a mediocre high school GPA would that eliminate the small chance you had to begin with?</p>
<p>"But with a mediocre high school GPA would that eliminate the small chance you had to begin with?" In all probability, the answer is yes. Look at the acceptance rates for Ivy transfers. At some colleges there is less than a 5% chance of acceptance. That means applicants have a 95% chance of rejection to begin with. And as I mentioned before, if HS grades were not a factor in transfer decisions, the colleges would not ask for them. In order to overcome you "mediocre" HS grades, you would have to provide a very, very compelling story of why your grades were so bad in HS[ poverty, lived on your own, etc.] and what you have done since then [and just waking up one day and realising that grades count would not be enough to vault your application over the students who have worked hard and accomplished much in BOTH HS and college]So apply to colleges that don't ask for your HS transcript.</p>
<p>These are my "dream" colleges, I am applying to other colleges as well. I read in the success stories thread that there have been people who have turned around in their college years and have been accepted to ivies with bad h.s. records . All I can do is hope for the best. But if anyone who was in a similar state as I am now and got into to a top 20 school, I would really welcome your advice.</p>