<p>I am a white male who currently attends a community college in New Jersey. I am currently 23 and want to transfer in for the Spring 2014 semester, which I will be 24 by then. I transferred out of Monmouth since 1) I could not afford it anymore, and 2) my grades were poor. I took a break for a few years to work since I was undeclared. I graduated high school in 2008 with a 3.0 GPA and a 1550 on my SAT's. I know all these stats are too low for the UVa, but I am doing well in my classes at Bergen Community College for Accounting so far, and I was wondering a few things:</p>
<p>Should I retake the SAT?
Should I take the ACT?
What would I have to get my GPA up to at BCC for 3 semesters to have a realistic shot at getting accepted (I had 5 classes transferred from MU to BCC)?
How important will my GPA at Monmouth and in high school be to the people who evaluate the applications?</p>
<p>Be honest and explain your opinion if you think I can/can't get in. Thank you to the people who took the time to read this and let me know what they think :]</p>
<p>I’m not exceptionally knowledgable with transfer apps, but I do know there is a blog for transfer students, similar to Dean J’s for first year applicants. If you haven’t read it, it may help you answer some of your questions regarding retaking SAT/ACT, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, retake the SAT and the ACT. With a few years of education, you should do better. Everyone should take both tests - many people do much better on one test vs. the other. The ACT is particularly good if you are better at science than math, while the SAT is better for people who are best in math.</p>
<p>UVa has a program to smooth the process from Virginia community colleges. I have no idea how they feel about community college students from other states.</p>
<p>I feel that University of Delaware is an excellent back-up for people who like UVa. They are about the same size, with similar grounds and similar academic offerings, in a similar town, but it is not as difficult in admissions. Many people also use James Madison University in Harrisonburg as a backup to UVa. It is only about an hour away, and is slightly larger.</p>
<p>Hey, thought I would offer my experience since I just transferred this Fall and I am 30 years old. I also followed the transfer blog blueiguana linked and found it to be very helpful. I know that the longer you are out of high school, the less they look at that data. For me it was 10 years, but your time away has not bee that long. I also know that great improvement in your grades is worth a lot.
I did NOT retake the SAT, although I had a 2120 in high school (You will want to boost up your scores by retaking). I did not meet any specific course requirements, although I had a 4.0 at my CC. Now, you are out of state AND at a community college. In my opinion you will need very high scores to have a shot. Your course selection will be important. Are you taking a variety of challenging classes? I took 3 maths, a history, 3 social sciences, 2 humanities, 2 writing courses and a “non western” religion class. That non western class meets a UVA req and is useful to get done at the CC. You can see I had “breadth” in course selection.
You will also have to write a little bit about what you did while you were not taking classes. If you think your scores/GPA are on the low side you will want to try to write excellent essays and get a good recommendation. I think transfers only need one letter and I had a teacher offer to write me one (without me asking) and assume it was excellent.
I know I wrote a lot, but I hope it helps! Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck.</p>
<p>That’s great information! I’ll be 28 if I get accepted for transfer next fall. I do not have your high scores and GPA, but hopefully the student government I’ve been doing here at my CC (OOS as well, California) along with the political internship (career end-goal is a JD working on a politicians staff) and a few excellent letters, from my schools president, another dean, anyone from my college district’s board of directors, and from any of my professors (I’ve yet to have issues with any of them) plus some other variables that I think will act in my favor. However I am trying to transfer in as a second year, I would rather spend more time at UVa, so I don’t have quite the load you have in terms of classes. The classes I’ve taken have been legitimate classes though, no “easy-a” filler electives. </p>
<p>By chance, are you a parent? I’m trying to get some point’s of view from parents around my age and how they feel about, specifically, child-care and recreation for kids in the area.</p>
<p>I remember your post from earlier. I didn’t respond because I don’t have the CA perspective (although I was born there ) and am NOT a parent. I also transferred in as a second year-second semester. Now, my grades were good and I also worked a full-time job, but I had ZERO extra curricular activities. Not sure if the balance helps make up for “lower” scores, but I could certainly see how it would. I brought 41 credits with me, so they gave me 5 sems at UVA.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ll be taking 31 after the classes from spring. I shouldn’t have any issues with grades next semester in British lit or Macroeconomics. I’m taking an astronomy class as well with a lab. I’ve heard it is pretty difficult, so I’ll have to really work to balance everything next semester which I will be very busy, and will be forced to miss a couple classes on lobbying trips to both D.C. and Sacramento, and a student government conference. My wife has been amazing in helping keep the kids out of my hair as much as possible, but it’s difficult with 2 kids not in preschool or daycare yet, lol. My son is almost there, and that will help lessen the difficulties a little bit as well, which should show a nice upward trend through more difficult courses. </p>
<p>My only concern in my testing was my math score. I’m not the most math-friendly student there is, but I’m not horrible either. As a hopeful political philosophy major, with a government or foreign affairs minor, I would hope the admissions office would take in consideration my 88 percentile critical reading and 93% writing SAT scores over my 55% math. I’m thinking I should write a small explanation to my mediocre math skills. </p>
<p>Fingers crossed, excited to see if Virginia is in my future.</p>
) and am NOT a parent. I also transferred in as a second year-second semester. Now, my grades were good and I also worked a full-time job, but I had ZERO extra curricular activities. Not sure if the balance helps make up for “lower” scores, but I could certainly see how it would. I brought 41 credits with me, so they gave me 5 sems at UVA.</p>