My son is freshman at liberal art school, wants to transfer to R1 school for sophomore year. His GPA is only 3.4 after 1st semester freshman year, but he is taking hard classes, including engineering math, physics…his major is BME. I am concerning about his low GPA. Anyone tried to transfer recently, any stories? Thank you.
BME is a tough major, and average GPAs often reflect that.
There will definitely be schools he can transfer to…what does he want in a school? What does he not like about the LAC? Does he still want to be a BME major? Are there budget or other constraints?
4 Likes
As a freshman transfer, his high school record will still be used as part of the admissions determination at the transfer schools.
Where exactly does he want to make transfer applications? Repeats of where he applied and wasn’t accepted last year will likely yield the same results.
And agree with @Mwfan1921 what exactly does he not like about where he is…and what is he hoping to find in a transfer school.
1 Like
Is there a public university in your home state that would work?
1 Like
I think most state flagships are R1 and many will accept instate transfers with a 3.4. I would look at that first.
4 Likes
Thank you All for reply
So his liberal arts school doesn’t offer research opportunities. He knew when he took an offer to LAC that he will be there for a year, just to safe money on general credits( in state public school).
My son wants to stay with BME, he is passion with medical research.
His number 1 school is Vanderbilt, and he did get reject from it last year(ED). He is very stubborn abd of course applied to it again as transfer ( i always taught him that the only time you will not a success if you didn’t try). However, i do believe he isn’t making into Vanderbilt again.
His other choices are: UVA, Tulane, BU…never applied to those schools.
UR and WPI accepted him last year, but didn’t give us enough money, so he chose cheaper college to take general credits.
Thank you
What is state flagship?
1 Like
Please clarify this. Is he at an instate public? Or a LAC? This sentence is confusing.
Which state do you live in?
1 Like
If the LAC he is at has a BME major, I struggle to understand how there could not be research opportunities there. He can look outside the BME department too.
The 4 potential transfer schools you named will be reaches. If he is certain he wants to transfer, he has to cast a wider net. What state do you live in? (state flagship would be the land grant uni, and also likely an R1 uni).
What is his annual budget for each of the remaining 3 years of college?
3 Likes
Sorry for the confusion.
He is in state, NJ, public University, he is happy there…but wants to do research. At this point, freshman year, they aren’t offering research, it is liberal art school ( but do have accredited BME program, they have final project as research).
I was guessing that schools he applied would be reach schools…i was hoping for better GPA after 1st semester. His high school GPA was 4.3
Frosh are usually not advanced enough in course work to do that much in the way of research that requires a more advanced level of base knowledge. But it looks like research is included in the curriculum at his school once he reaches more advanced levels.
As a practical matter, transferring as a sophomore will be limited by both high school record and college record. Transferring as a junior will mainly depend on college record.
2 Likes
If you are in NJ, your state flagship is Rutgers.
1 Like
Yes, we looked into Rutgers, big school though. He wanted something smaller
Thank you
At this point, its to late, he applied to schools above. I wanted more to hear successful transfer stories for freshman. He googled the % acceptance for transfer students, i was just curious how accurate are those numbers ( internet, google)
Schools report actual transfer numbers on the CDS, Section D. Here’s Vandy’s (but it’s for 2021-22). They accepted 430 of 2,450 transfer applicants (which is a higher acceptance rate than incoming first years).
1 Like
This is what I am wondering about also.
@momshope Your son might want to talk to his academic advisor at his current school.
There is at least some research going on at and/or near a rather wide range of colleges and universities. Both daughters got either appropriate research opportunities or work experience at organizations that were not strictly speaking related in any way to the university that they attended, but that were nearby in the area and naturally knew about the university as a source of potential low cost, smart, enthusiastic, but young employees. One was with a private employer, the other was with a government sponsored research organization.
One issue at an R1 university is that they have graduate students (my understanding is that having a range of PhD offerings is part of the definition of “R1”). This means that undergraduate students need to compete with graduate students for the research opportunities. Your son as a transfer would also need to compete for research opportunities with students who have been at the same university all along and have had an extra year to get to know the professors.
I would have thought that UVA and BU would be reaches at this point, or at least far from assured for a transfer particularly if you need any financial aid. I do not know Tulane. We do have a neighbor who transferred into BU, but I do not know what his college GPA was.
I would be tempted to look for an internship for the summer anywhere near either his current school or your home. Even if the first internship is not exactly ideal, it can still make him a more attractive candidate for other future internship opportunities.
2 Likes
Case Western Reserve University is great for BME, has a lot of undergraduate research opportunities and provides good financial aid to transfers.
2 Likes
Perfect, i am assuming all universities have similar records?
Case Western is his 2nd choice ,but again he googled their transfer acceptance and decided NOT to apply
Wondering if he still should, our concern is his current GPA.
As for summer opportunities, he is applying to alot of REU programs
1 Like