<p>@coolapple1:</p>
<p>Let me see if I understand your argument: It’s easier to transfer because you’re not burdened by your high school grades and test scores; you can simply work hard in college and leverage those grades instead. </p>
<p>Even if your premises were sound (which they are not - see below), the idea that working hard in college and distinguishing yourself constitutes an easy backdoor into a different school is absurd. </p>
<p>Premise 1: Transfers do not abdicate responsibility for their high school transcripts and test scores. Sophomore transfers rely heavily on both, as their prospective schools typically accept only those who would have been admitted as freshmen. Though they matter less for junior transfers, high school transcripts and test scores are weighted in their admissions process also. </p>
<p>Premise 2: Admissions rates are almost always, if not always, lower for transfers than freshmen. I have never seen a case where the opposite is true.</p>
<p>Premise 3: With few exceptions (e.g., Exeter vs. Oral Roberts University; Stuyvesant v. Moody Bible College), college is academically more demanding than high school. The material is more difficult and the classes are much larger. Larger classes mean substantially more competition for grades and can make it all but impossible to distinguish yourself as a first or second year. (To say nothing of mandatory curves in many first year courses.) To boot, this is all in an environment where you have to police yourself about studying and attending classes, much unlike high school where the disciplined is more acutely enforced. </p>
<p>Premise 4: If you have a particularly soft major at an easy school, prospective schools will know about it and judge you accordingly. You get no benefit in transfer admissions from taking easy classes in easy majors at easy schools.</p>
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<p>Bottom line: Transfers to top schools are competing against better students in harder classes for fewer spots. In addition, you’re dealing with a much more self-selecting applicant pool that also has the added experience of having gone through a round of freshman admissions already. These premises are not in controversy. How anyone can conclude that transfer admission is somehow a backdoor in or easier than freshman admissions is beyond me.</p>
<p>@OP: Anyone who would look down on transfers (1) lacks any legitimate justification and (2) is a [CC-approved word] for trying to make someone feel bad about themselves. I say: let them eat cake. No one who matters cares if you transferred or not - it makes not one iota of difference in graduate admissions or employment. I never really dealt with this when I transferred, but if I did, I probably would have ended up hanging out with different people.</p>
<p>And of course, congrats on your successful transfer! As someone who has been through the gauntlet of transfer admissions, I know how hard it is (in every sense) and wish you luck. Now get off CC and rest on your laurels for the rest of the summer.</p>