Planning on Transferring, Chance me?

Transfer Students
1

I know this is a lot to read but I would sincerely appreciate it if you took the time to read my post in its entirety and chance me, thank you.

Transferring from a Top 100 School (States Flagship)
Year: Sophomore
Race: White
Socioeconomic: Lower-Middle Class
Double Major in Political Science and Philosophy, Minor in Russian Language
Would be applying as a Political Science Major
Will have 60 Credit Hours by the end of the Semester
College GPA: 3.55 (will be a 3.65 if I get a 4.0 this semester)
High School GPA: 3.0
HS GPA was poor due to some very serious family issues, including the passing of two loved ones, my families home being foreclosed, and a nasty divorce.

NOTE: I don’t know how much colleges would take my high school record into account since I would be applying to transfer in as a Junior but I decided to include my high school info as well.

College GPA breakdown:
First Semester: 3.08
Second Semester: 3.55
Third Semester: 4.0
Fourth Semester: 4.0 (Midterm)

APs: US History, European History, Lit and Comp, US Government
Don’t remember scores
ACT: Don’t remember (not fantastic)

Academic Awards (HS):
English Excellence Award
Social Studies Department Award
Award Handed out to only 10 students school wide a year (forgot name)

Other Awards:
Certificate of Appreciation - From Mayor
Certificate of Recognition - From Mayor
Presidential Community Service Award
National Qualifier for FBLA (3rd place in State)
Various Local Debate Awards

Extracurriculars (College):
Youth Assembly at the United Nations (Winter 2017 session)
Treasurer and Delegate for Model United Nations
Secretary for Investment Club
Apart of fraternity on campus (don’t know whether to include on application or not)
Finance Club
Economics Club
Involved with local Catholic Church
Research project Freshman summer over Russia’s geoeconomic future with professor

Extracurriculars (HS):
Varsity Debate
FBLA - National Competitor
Biotechnology
Student Congress
My City’s Teen Council - Selected to join council and chosen by local Mayor to be a Youth Delegate to the National League of Cities Conference. I met with my states Senators privately and helped negotiate the building of a new post office in my city (which was badly needed).
Youth Court
President of Political Discussions Club (Which I started)
Basketball Manager
Forensics
TSA
American Legion Boys State Alumni (Former Senator)
Attended National Youth Leadership Forum in National Security
Head Anchor for Weekly Video Announcements

Volunteering: Over 500 hours in High School, about 100 through Local Teen Council, currently volunteering online for candidate who is running for governor in a different state.

Employment:
Last Summer I interned for a Cryptocurrency Startup as a Sales and Marketing Intern
Global Health Fellowship with the United Nations Foundation (Raised awareness on campus for UN campaigns to eradicate Polio, Measles, and Malaria in South America, Africa, and Asia. Met with two local congressman to talk about policy changes to allocate more of the Federal Budget towards International Development)
Worked as a Sales Associate at a local Sports Retail Store (From Senior year to after Winter break Freshman year)
Worked Various Consignment Sales during first semester (HS Senior year)

Letters of Recommendation:
One Fantastic letter from Health Economics Professor
One Great letter from Political Theory Professor
One Great letter from Russian Professor

Upcoming Summer: I will be studying abroad at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Upon returning I will be conducting research on China and the String of Pearls Theory.

Life Goal: To go on to Graduate School and get my Master’s then PhD and join a Think Tank. I want to help come up with innovative policy ideas and solutions on issues caused by/and/or facing Russia and Eastern Europe as well as the implications that these developments have for the rest of the world.

Prospective Schools:

1: University of Virginia

2: University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

3: Brown University

4: University of Notre Dame

5: Cornell University

6: John Hopkins University

7: Georgetown

8: NYU

9: Northwestern

10: University of Chicago

11: Carnegie Mellon University

If you’ve read this far thank you, I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to read and give me advice.

2

BUMP - Would really appreciate some replies from any and all! I also forgot to mention that I have one W on my transcript in a class that is not necessary for my degree.

3

Your presented information is long and tedious because you included too much high school information.

As a transfer, the schools care about post high school. Delete the high school information.
What can you afford as a transfer?vvTransfers don’t get very good funding.

4

The large state schools may take you, but can you afford out of state tuition? NYU is also not likely to fund you.
The small elite schools are generally more selective for transfers than for freshmen.

But why do you need to transfer? It sounds like you are doing well and have found a lot of ways to be active and connected on campus where you are.

5

@“aunt bea” I was hesitant to post my HS information but I decided to post it regardless just to give more depth as to who I am as an individual. I qualify for a good amount of aid due to my socioeconomic status.

6

@AroundHere I want to transfer because it is extremely difficult for students from less competitive colleges to gain admission to top graduate programs. If I graduated from a more selective college it would allow me to gain an edge in the admission process. I would also have greater employment opportunities and have access to a world class alumni network.

7

Have you discussed your grad school goals with your professors? Where do they advise you to apply to grad school if you stay where you are now? Do they have any suggestions of targets for transfer applications?

Most places are only going to give you the standard federal aid that you qualify for with FAFSA. So you need to target places that offer your major and also guarantee to meet full need. Those will be really tough to get into, but may be possible if your GPA in your major is extremely strong, and if you can effectively express the ways in which their programs in your major are better than where you are now.

8

You would qualify for aid from the elite private schools on your list, you just are very unlikely to be admitted.
You would qualify for admission from out of state public universities, but most of the financial aid money will be prioritized for in-state students.

Where do you qualify for in-state tuition? Is your in-state flagship a better option than where you are?

As with the above post, I’m curious what your letter writers think of your grad school prospects and plans. Someone who is active in research and done study abroad would ordinarily not have an “extremely difficult” time getting into grad school.

9

You received confirmations from these schools that you would be eligible for what amounts as a transfer?
Pell will only give you $5920 per YEAR.

You are eligible for $7500 per year as a junior in loans.

How can you have been guaranteed any funding if you are not their student?

10

Just because you QUALIFY for aid doesn’t mean you’ll GET it. You can count on that only from the super-elite need-blind-guarantee-to-meet-aid schools such is the Ivies, Stanford etc.

11

@AroundHere I go to my states Flagship school. My state flagship barely cracks the Top 100 list (according to US News). To my knowledge I don’t qualify for in-state tuition for any other state but I’ll do some research and see if I do. I haven’t had much more than surface level conversations with the professors that have written my letters of recommendation about grad school. They all have given my rather generic advice about maintaining a high GPA, doing well on the GRE, and starting meaningful research at a young age. They have all been complimentary of my work and enjoy working with me but besides that I have not discussed grad school with them at an in depth level.

12

@“aunt bea” I haven’t been in contact with any of these schools financial aid offices yet. I qualified for more than double what it costs to attend my current University via parent loans, scholarships, grants, and personal loans (which I will be solely paying back).

13

@katliamom Good point. Thank you for the advice.

14

If you’re paying for undergrad with loans, you should work and pay those back before grad school. Especially if you have to pay back your parents PLUS loans – those are at a higher interest rate than regular student loans.

Loans are not financial aid. I would double-check your assumption that you qualify for lots of aid at expensive schools. Maybe you don’t. Transferring usually costs time and money. Be sure to discuss cost with all of your potential transfer colleges. Dont apply if it won’t be affordable.

The fact that your state U isn’t highly ranked doesn’t tell us much. You need to discuss, in detail, with your professors if your assumptions about your chances to go to graduate school are correct. Discuss in detail which departments they recommend you try to transfer to that would be realistic.

15

If you have not discussed grad school admission with your professors, you have no basis for determining that you must transfer in order to be admitted to grad school in your desired field of study. Go speak with them specifically about this goal.

16

This is false.

17

What you get at one school, may not apply to the next school. It doesn’t matter what you currently qualified for at your current university. When you transfer, it’s completely different.
Reiterating:

18

Following up on what @collegemom3717 is saying: Rankings don’t get into the nitty gritty of the quality of courses or the opportunities available in individual departments, and they average together what the academic superstars do after graduation versus a more typical student. Your graduate study options have very little to do with the ranking of your undergraduate institution.

19

I agree with a lot of the comments above.

Admittedly I was in graduate school a long time ago. However, when I was in graduate school there were other students there who had done their undergrad at a very wide range of other schools, including many state flagships, and including some state flagships which were not the most highly ranked ones (eg, not just Michigan and UCB). The grad school that I went to was ranked #1 in the world for what I was studying, so it is not as if the many students there who had done undergrad at Rutgers or UNC or another state flagship could have gotten into a higher ranked graduate school if they had done undergrad elsewhere. Also, I don’t think that the difference between a ranking of #80 versus #60 is going to matter, what is way more important is what you have done as an undergrad and what you do to impress the grad school admissions.

Also, with a GPA of 3.3 freshman year and 4.0 sophomore year I don’t know whether you are going to get into the schools that you have applied to. That being said, I don’t see any harm in applying to see what happens – they will not hold it against you at all that you applied regardless of whether you don’t get in as a transfer student or you get in and don’t go there.

I also agree with other comments that you have to carefully consider financing. Loans are not free money. Loans represent money that you are going to need to pay back in the future with interest, and if you go too far with loans then they will limit your options going forward.

To me, it seems likely that you best bet is probably to stay where you are, continue to pull in a 4.0 GPA or close to it, and talk to your professors about what else you can do to maximize your chances at strong graduate schools.