I’m currently trying to transfer out of my current school (a CSU) due to both a lack of research in computational linguistics and the social life. I was looking if y’all had any suggestions for where I should try and transfer. I did try and transfer last year, but I would be paying full price.
Stats:
3.95 CGPA, Sophomore, Computer Science major, lowest grade was an A-
3.64 UW HS GPA, 3.98 W HS GPA
Colleges I applied to and got in last year as a transfer
Boston College, UMass Amherst Honors CS, Rutgers
UIUC => Rejected => Said it was mainly because of a D in a math course that I had received my freshman year of HS and to apply this year.
Extracurriculars
ACM Computer Science Club President (700 member org)
Linguistics Club
Tutoring in India and California since 2019
Cybersecurity Research Internship w/school
Summer and Spring 2023 Internship at FAANG (8 months)
Teach basketball skills to little kids since 2019
Director of Outreach for Hackathon Planning Org since 2019
Code tutoring job since 2020
300+ hours of community service
Released iOS app for High School, working on new applications currently
Mentoring Program
First-author for cybersecurity publication to be presented at CSU CS research conference
PC Building self-employed
Member of Startup Incubator program at my current school
Co-author for artificial-intelligence related publication to be presented at one of the top conferences
Awards
Dean’s Scholar, President’s Scholar
I was looking at applying to USC, BC, BU, UMich, Johns Hopkins, UIUC, and Rice.
Would love to see if y’all have any advice/suggestions to where I should apply or if I should trim down my list! Or if y’all have any other suggestions in general! Thank you!
To clarify you applied and were accepted as a transfer to the schools you listed but you didn’t attend and want to try for different schools this time around (why are you applying to BC again?) ?
Yep! I had little to no financial aid given to me at the time and would’ve had to pay to full price at BC. UMass Amherst did not accept a wide majority of my courses except for one–while BC and Rutgers believed to be able to accept a good amount of them. Due to a change in finances, applying for scholarships, and my internship I feel like I should give it a shot again. But I may remove it, I’m still not sure about it right now. The dream is UIUC as of right now.
If you didn’t get aid last time, why do you think you’d get it this time? And have you talked to the transfer advisor at U Mass (one of the top linguistics programs in the country) to see how many courses you’d need if you showed up as a junior?
If you need a lot of aid, you can’t afford a “dream”. You need to be practical. What’s your budget?
What scholarships are you applying for at Boston College? The school gives only need based aid.
You say there is a change in financial circumstances but you can still afford $60,000 a year to attend? What was that financial change? Your 2023-2024 financial aid will be based on 2021 income tax data, and assets as of the date of filing your financial aid forms? How are you sure you will receive aid from BC now?
Also, you are a CA resident. There are some UCs with Linguistics programs. What’s wrong with those?
I’m applying to external scholarships and have already received some money! Yep! We lost a lot of income in 2021, but we are going back to our normal income levels now and my parents said it was alright. At SJ, we’re paying $20k a year, but I’m truly not happy at this school socially and academically. Even though it did play a large part in me getting the internship. However, I do fully expect to be able to pay a year of my college with the help of my internship. Yes, I did look at UCs, but my parents would prefer if I stay as a Computer Science major and pursue my goals as one.
You mention problems with the social life in SJ, but nothing else. If you want a school that will feel different than SJ, provide more information on how you want a different college experience socially.
I did look at those options, but unfortunately they required me to complete physics sequences which my current school does not require. Instead, I’ve taken a geology sequence since I was having trouble getting into physics sections that fit my schedule.
I also would like a school that does have research opportunities on computational linguistics. As for the social life, I’d like a school that does not have much of a commuter vibe to it. My current school is a commuter school. I’d prefer a school that’s either residential or where a large portion stay on or near campus.
Perhaps one of these CA publics will have more sections of the physics classes and more ease getting into them.
You need to also ask about courses you have taken and what will transfer AND be applied to your degree requirements. This will like’s vary by college. You may find that places you transfer to have differing requirements and what you have taken already won’t completely be applied to your degree program.
Unfortunately, a lot of them require me to have taken physics to transfer to their school! So, transferring into a UC does seem very difficult right now.