<p>I currently attending a top five liberal arts school, but want to transfer. However, I didn't do so well first semester, and ended up with a 3.55 gpa. However, my school also has grade deflation. Do you think the fact that I already attend a school with a good name, will make it better? I'm looking to take five classes second semester, and possibly research. </p>
<p>high school gpa--3.93 (excluding senior year second semester)
SAT score--2300
SAT 2 scores-- 800 (mathematics level 2), 780 (US History)</p>
<p>Will probably be applying to University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, and Columbia.</p>
<p>A 3.55 isn’t going to help you but given your high school stats and the prestige of your school it shouldn’t kill you. Just work on what you can control (letters, grades this semester, essays, etc). Good luck</p>
<p>^In the context of wanting to transfer to a highly selective college, a 3.5 is not helpful. And for the OP, it is a downward trend from the HS grades they had when they were accepted to a top LAC.</p>
<p>owl, your current college is a context in which your gpa and rigor of coursework will be evaluated. The problem with your plans for next semester is that they won’t factor that much into the transfer decision for fall. Schools will at most get your mid-term report and see that you have started doing research, there won’t be time for a substantive LOR or published paper. No problem with applying to those schools, but if you really want to transfer next fall, consider adding some less selective colleges as well.</p>
<p>A 3.7 and above is highly recommended for Ivy League schools, unless you are already at an Ivy League school. As noted many times before, the top liberal arts colleges have yet to reach the same ranking as the top national universities.</p>
<p>In a grade-deflated school, I would say a 3.55 is pretty good. In my own college, only 12% of all undergraduates received a semester GPA of 3.7 and above, with no grade being less than a 3.7. Even so, the disparity from high school to college is rather wide in your situation.</p>
<p>The only school I can see you having a chance at is Pennsylvania, and the other two are going to reject you. That’s my honest prediction.</p>
<p>The most transfer friendly of the 3 colleges is Penn with a 15% transfer admissions rate, 1% higher than it’s fr admission rate. The other two have transfer rates that are lower than their fr admissions rate. All of these schools give excellent FA. USN & WR ranks them in the top 5 universities. They are highly respected and provide abundant academic and EC opportunities. They are all in large metropolitan areas which appeals to many potential candidates.</p>
<p>Yes, it should be no surprise to anyone that a successful transfer applicant to this level of school likely needs something very close to a 4.0. That’s what it takes for fr admissions, so with the same or lower transfer rates, would one expect them to accept applicants with substantially lower gpas? GPA is just one factor in admissions, but for UG, it is arguably the most important one.</p>
<p>I’m going to be honest with you kid a 3.55 gpa is equivalent to around a 3.5-3.0 at a national university so your not where close to an IVY, when transferring your going to be put in a completely different applicant pool because a lot of students coming from LAC will have a very very high gpa just because of the amount of resources that are available for them at their LAC, you have to understand getting an A in a class of 12 students at a LAC is much different than getting an A at a national university in class of 600 students to one proof</p>
<p>^I don’t think that’s true at all. A top LAC is definitely a very competitive school and probably more so than a mid-tier national university. Being in a small class as opposed to a large lecture definitely changes the academic experience, but it doesn’t make it easier. I don’t know that much about transferring from a small LAC, but I don’t think the fact that you don’t go to a large national university will hurt you. Furthermore, you might be able to draw clearer distinctions between your small school and the ivies you’re applying to and that could improve your application.</p>
<p>Good luck dude, don’t worry too much about the discouraging words of people here. Just put together your best app and hope for the best.</p>
<p>Anyway, at the OP, you probably won’t get into any of the schools you listed. The average GPA at top LACs is about a 3.5 which puts you at average or slightly above. You’re not competitive. </p>
<p>I’d still apply because your HS stats are good and you’re applying as a freshman.</p>
What would you consider to be a competitive GPA from a top LAC then? Are you suggesting that schools which list 3.7 as the average GPA for accepted transfers would expect LAC students to have higher GPAs than CC students?</p>
<p>I’m not quite sure what CC* students have to do with anything, but I would hope that they would be above average at their current school if they want to transfer to a school more selective than their own.</p>
<ul>
<li>I’m assuming you mean CC as community college and not college confidential.</li>
</ul>
Agreed. I don’t know, though, how these schools would know the current averages of every college from which their applicants come. I didn’t see anything in the Dean’s Report, which is where I would imagine they would report it. You can’t really generalize and say that every liberal arts college has, on average, higher GPAs than state universities. Each college is different, and every department within each college is different.</p>
<p>If you are applying before you have completed at least 30 credits your HS gpa will count. You listed you gpa excluding second semester senior year? You can’t pick and choose, you have to count the FINAL gpa! Some schools do not want HS credentials after you have 30 college credits. I think some of the more elite schools may want HS info regardless.</p>
<p>I am curious, how does one determine if their school has grade deflation, and how would other schools know it?</p>
Exactly. Plus, some schools that have grade deflation might have some “easier” majors without grade deflation, and vice versa. It seems like an unfair criterion on which to judge applicants.</p>
<p>Yes but people are going back and forth on this subject. If you talked to the majority of GC they would say that it is easier to transfer rather then going in as a freshman. Its something most of us herd. Now as i said in my previous post when it comes time to transfer, people say that its very very hard. So this is causing a lot of disappointment among people who did very well in college for the first two years but are now told that they can’t get into an ivy or a school of greater or equal prestige.</p>
<p>Columbia09, this is not difficult. Go look up the transfer rates of selective schools, most of the time it is HARDER to get in as a transfer. It only becomes easier once you’re out of the top 20. For example, Vanderbilt, Rice and USC have higher transfer acceptance rates than freshman rates. All the ivies have lower transfer rates. </p>
<p>I dunno why you keep on asking. You can find this out literally in 2 minutes on Google.</p>