<p>I want to transfer and I need reaches, matches, and safeties with good physics programs.</p>
<p>My gpa in high school was 3.1, but I had all A s the last two years. I got a 31 on the ACT (should be equivalent to about 1380 on SAT verbal+math). I literally have no formal extracurricular activities. I made A s in AP government and AP english my junior year.</p>
<p>I have completed one year at my university, and my college gpa is 3.91. I do not have any physics preparation yet but I will take physics 1 and 2 and calculus 1 and 2 this year, which will be before I transfer. I will also take chem and astronomy. My current university has an acceptance rate in the mid-80s.</p>
<p>Do personal hardships and ethnicity count for anything? I have lived in poverty for much of my life and had a bad environment growing up and I am a Native American.</p>
<p>Yes, your background and being Native American will help. Your college GPA is great- will help a lot! What geographical area and school size are you looking for? Urban, suburban, rural? College, university, institute of technology? Can't say much without knowing more.</p>
<p>My thinking with regard to preferences such as those you mentioned is that it doesn't really matter, I just want the best school I can get into regardless of anything else. Maybe it doesn't really work that way though. If I had to say, I would prefer a large urban university that is somewhere on the east coast. But again, if I had a chance at a better school that is on the west coast or anywhere else, I would rather go there than some lesser place on the east coast.</p>
<p>Your approach is fine. Are you a California resident? It's often easier to get into and get aid from private schools than from public universities in states of which you are not a resident. Look at UNC-Chapel Hill, George Washington U, Catholic U, Boston University, Rensselaer, NYU, Worchester Polytechnic. You need to look at two things- which schools routinely give lots of money, and which schools like to take transfer students. Not sure whether they will look at your SAT scores or not, as a transfer. Look at Lehigh University- they seem to want more minorities and give aid. OH- Case Western, definitely. U of Rochester, definitely. They both give lots of aid and are great in the sciences.</p>