<p>My dream college is Carnegie Mellon University, which I shouldn't even apply for since there is no way in hell I'm going to get in. My SAT scores suck (Reading: 530, Math: 620) and the only AP classes I've taken is U.S. History and Statistics. Since I won't get into CMU my freshman year, would it be easier to get in if I transferred from another school where (hopefully) I would have a 4.0 gpa? I would like to go to Penn State Main my freshman year, then transfer for my sophomore year to CMU. Would they still look at my SAT scores and my AP class list?</p>
<p>no there optional for CMU, i think for both SAT's and highschool grades. im applying for CMU this upcoming fall. dont worry do well in college, thats what there looking for. it even says they concenrate more on grades in college than your highschool gpa or SAT's</p>
<p>To answer more generally (for viewers of this thread), the ideal goal for most colleges is to have roughly the same percentage of transfers as regular admits. Interesting since I think it could be argued that transfers would, on average, have slightly higher stats. The Ivies and top technical schools (MI, Caltech, etc.) generally have abyssmal transfer stats. Cornell is generally the most transfer friendly, Caltech the least. </p>
<p>Transferring for sophomore year might mean that your stats could come into play but its your college gpa and rigor of classes that steals the show.</p>
<p>RockyRoad, with all due respect, I don't know how you have the idea that colleges "ideally" want the same % of transfer applicants as regular admits. The statistics that I have seen are all over the map, and even they don't necessarily reflect a college's "ideal."</p>
<p>To the OP, if CMU is SAT-optional for transfers, that will be a big help for you. There are other such schools, so focusing on them will enhance your chances. You do NOT need a 4.0 in college, but you should have a minimum of 3.5 to transfer to the most selective schools. As RockyRoad says, rigor of your first-term classes is important. Take the same type of courses that CMU (or whatever college you want to transfer to) would expect of a first-term Freshman for whatever major field you are targeting. Get to know at least one, preferably two, profs well enough that you will be able to get strong college recommendations. Learn as much as you can about why CMU is a better place for you to pursue your BA/BS, so that you can highlight that in your essays.</p>
<p>I have seen schools which are SAT-optional or don't require essays/college recs for sophomore transfer, but I have not seen any which don't look at your hs transcript.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Huh. I just found the page for cmu's transfer students. <a href="http://my.cmu.edu/site/admission/page.persp_tran%5B/url%5D">http://my.cmu.edu/site/admission/page.persp_tran</a></p>
<p>I got confused when I saw this page. It says that they need to see my SAT scores (and transcript) but if I didn't score higher than a 600 on the verbal then I need to take a TOEFL test. So it makes me think they care about the scores. But it also says that if I never took the SAT's not to take them, just to complete the TOEFL test. This makes me think they don't really care at all about SAT scores. So...Do they care or not?</p>
<p>i graduated from high school with a 2.7 and a 30 act. i spent two years at a small university got a 4.0 then decided to transfer. i only applied to tulane and emory but was accepted to both and given a good bit of schollie money from tulane. neither would have even considered me after high school.</p>
<p>That's exactly why I'm going to Penn State for a year before I go to Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<p>rocky your right, but i disagree with you about the percentage of transfers. good colleges are not very fond of transfer students,</p>
<p>I'm going to PSU Main too with it being a safety school. I'm planning to do the same thing you are but with Penn and Georgetown. The only problem is I don't know that one semester of college grades will be enough to improve my applications significantly (I was rejected at both schools for freshman admission) so I'm thinking I might have to wait and apply to transfer for junior standing. I'm also somewhat worried about being able to get 2 prof recs in my first semester (fairly sure Penn requires 2) with the classes I'm taking being large lecture type classes - CHEM 12, CHEM 14, BIOL 110, MATH 140B, THEA 100 (gened), PSU 016 (seminar). Basically intro science/math courses.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people at least consider trying to get into a school they couldn't have/didn't get into the first time around by transferring. I don't know that it's any easier to get in, but your high school grades are less relevant, so if you didn't do as well as you had hoped in HS, you have another chance.</p>