Attended 1.5 years at a top state school (top 30 overall) and transferred to Brown. My GPA at the state school was 3.56
I really wanted to go to Columbia since I was a kid and am applying again (third time applying) as a transfer. My Brown mid-term report was a 4.00 and my ECs are good (research position, leadership position in fraternity etc).
My essays for Columbia are really good and out of the 2 recommendations I know one is AMAZING (I didn’t ask about the other but I assume he wouldn’t write it unless it was good).
My essays talked about how neither school I’ve attended have had the classes I was looking for and how Columbia is one of the only schools with that major + I know every Ivy has a distinct personality and the essays talk about how my interests came to be and the way they came to be are actually super in line of Columbia’s “personality”. My essays also mention how even though I’ve been rejected twice I know that they’re the only place I can study what I want to.
What i’m worried about is the GPA at my old school, I have a reason that its low that I mentioned in my “additional info section” but I never straight up said “this is why my GPA is low.” I basically talked about how my father was ill at the end of high school.
Is there a chance that I could get in even with this GPA? The only reason I got into Brown was because I was accepted before but didn’t go due to my father’s illness so its not like the admissions people saw anything special in me as a transfer.
So you have been denied at Columbia twice already, correct? The chances are not great, as you might imagine. Transfer admission rates are already low and for whatever reasons, you have not risen to the level of admission as a Freshman or as a Transfer. Apply by all means but realize that the likelihood is quite low and perhaps Brown is the place you will end up staying.
While I can’t speak for the admissions office, I seriously doubt you have any chance if you’re attending Brown and have already been rejected by Columbia twice. From the tone of your post, you may be rationalizing an obsession with Columbia by convincing yourself there’s some course of study there which is unavailable at Brown.
I sympathize completely with your determination to attend Columbia, but Brown, while not in NYC, is also a great Ivy League university similar to Columbia in almost every other way. Why not attend Columbia for grad school? My advice is be happy, for now, for what you have, which would delight 99% of the HS students using this site.
I’d stay at Brown. Columbia has seen your application twice and said no twice. Why bother trying a third time especially when it does not seem you have any distinguishing changes since the last go-around? At some point you need to be satisfied with where you are (and Brown is an amazing school).
Also keep in mind that Columbia has a huge core curriculum so it could be difficult to fulfill the core as well as the requirements for your major and graduate on time.
FWIW my S’s friend applied to a different Ivy school 3 times – and he got a letter asking him not to apply again.