Please chance my son for future transfer to UMichigan

Some facts all hypothetical
My son is now a rising senior, will be applying to college this year.

STATS:
Male, Asian

(Future)Current school: University of Rochester
Major: Mathematics
Apply to COE major in Computer Science
College GPA: 3.6

HS: Public school in China (highly competitive)
HS GPA: 4.6/5.0 (mostly AP courses, AP courses weighted as 1.0)
AP: Microeconomics(5) Macroeconomics(4)

Physics C:M(5) Cal BC(5) Statistics(5) Computer Science A(4)
New SAT(CR: 710 Maths:800
SAT Subject Test: Maths Level2(800) Physics(790)

Since he hasn’t started college guessing at his college GPA makes this to early to predict. I would suggest he apply to UMichigan to start rather than transfer.

Thanks for your help. We looked at the application data in his school. It was surprising to find out that this year 56 students applied for UMichigan but none of them was accepted, including a bunch of smart student with SAT 1500+ and awesome activities. Most were deferred in EA and then denied/waitlisted in RD. And the tend was almost the same in previous three year, nearly 0 admit rate (Not being arrogant and no offense, I hypothesized that the reason for 0 admit rate was due to overqualification or mostly Chinese?)Yeah I agree it would be too early to predict his college GPA. We decided to apply for Rochester in ED in the upcoming college application.

No one should be applying to a school with a transfer strategy in mind - love the one you’re with!

I think this strategy is a poor one. What interests your son about Michigan? What if he doesn’t get accepted as a transfer? I agree with the above poster. Find a school that is affordable and that he would be happy to attend for all 4 years.

@KaiLiao Interesting. What are the application data like for other U.S. top schools? I understand the thought behind your strategy now. Your son will still be an international Chinese student when he transfers from the University of Rochester, though. How do you know they still won’t hold it against him when he transfers?

@Chembiodad if I had taken your advice years ago I’d be going nowhere right now

@ceilingroofgoat, that’s a sad response as it means that if the transfer had not worked out you would be nowhere today - really?

University of Rochester is a great school; transferring to Michigan, or any other school, won’t change ones life when you are already attending a school of that level. And yes, being a International Student applicant doesn’t change when applying as a transfer the 2nd, 3rd or 4th year.

Live in the now and crush it!

@Chembiodad Yup I am almost completely certain I would have a dead-end career and be stuck in my hometown

The University of Rochester is a good school. I was referring to your advice: You said “no one should be applying to a school with a transfer strategy in mind.” This is not true.

To each his or her own as the chances of achieving acceptance as a transfer are hardly different than being accepted initially, 34% vs 28%.

University of Rochester is ranked #32 by USNWR and University of Michigan is ranked #28, so either both are good or both are great.

@Chembiodad state residency is not usually factored into the admissions decision for transfer students

Chembiodad, there are very few people in academe or in industry who would agree that Michigan is ranked #28. Most would rank it anywhere between #6 and #17. The rankings that have Michigan ranked out of the top 15 are usually very flawed.

For example, the US News compares operating budgets of small, non-research private universities like Brandeis, Case, Rochester and Tufts to those of huge public research powerhouses like Cal, Michigan and Wisconsin as though they were apple to apple. It completely ignores state funding, financial aid realities, economies of scale etc… Alumni donation rates are also meaningless when comparing small private universities with large publics. Small private universities have depended on alumni donation for their survival for centuries. Public universities did not until the 1980s, and even now, they are far less aggressive than private universities when it comes to soliciting donations. Also, the data that private universities report to the US News are not entirely consistent. Just look at how they report their faculty resources, including their student to faculty ratios. Most private universities conveniently omit graduate students from their ratio, while most public universities include graduate students in their calculations. If the US News ranking were fairly and accurately tabulated, Michigan would be ranked much higher than #28.

Rochester is ranked fairly at #32 (give or take a few spots). It is indeed a very good university.

I agree that transferring from Rochester to Michigan does not make a lot of sense, especially if KaiLiao’s son is happily settled at UofR.