possibly the most unorthodox transfer ever

Transfer Students
1

<p>hello everyone! I have no idea what the community of college confidential consists of but I'm hoping more well-informed than me, which shouldn't be hard ;)</p>

<p>here are my stats</p>

<p>College GPA: 3.84
GRE: 730 Verbal, 740 Math, 6 Writing</p>

<p>High School GPA: 4.6
SAT: 2100 flat</p>

<p>EC's/Honors in a Nutshell
- Debate Team Captain
- Ranked #1 History Major
- Received a full scholarship to Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School for Masters Degree
- Local Debate Judge/Coach
- National honors in Parliamentary Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Impromptu Speaking
(ranging from semi-finalist to 2nd place)
- Member of Phi Alpha Theta
- Model United Nations
- Works in Motel Ministry for Church, lots of community service
- Lots of summer research/study abroad in China/Hong Kong</p>

<p>here are my schools:</p>

<p>georgetown, columbia, stanford, u chicago, u penn, cornell, duke, etc (5/7 Ivys..-_-)</p>

<p>usc, u washington, and gw are my safeties (usc gave me a full ride last time so i consider it safety almost)</p>

<p>BUUUUUUUT....</p>

<p>here's my problem:</p>

<p>without being too specific, i used to go to a military academy. while on a program, someone had reported me smoking marijuana. while it may not be that bad in some circles, its death in military ones. haha anyway they went about it in a typically military manner (no regard for due process or probable cause), but they allowed me the opportunity to resign. </p>

<p>thus i officially resigned from the place. despite the fact that they had no evidence they were going to try and convict me anyway so i figured my services would be better used at another university.</p>

<p>however, i am concerned about a couple of things</p>

<ol>
<li>i was a senior entering his last semester. (i have 100+ credit hours in a semester system)</li>
<li>the effect of this "disciplinary" issue at my school</li>
<li>the dean at first refused to fill out my transfer forms and has now agreed under the stipulations she can be as "frank" as she wants. (meaning she'll probably say how horrible of a person I am because I purportedly am a pothead)</li>
</ol>

<p>I plan to write my personal statement, obviously, on this entire debacle and if necessary I am more than willing to spend 2 years in residency there. ugh. but i've got no choice! =(</p>

<p>what are your thoughts on me being able to attain my goals, and what should i do to maximize those chances?</p>

2

<p>Crazy story… I would be worried about the number of credits you have. I would call the admission office at the schools you are applying to and explain an edited version of your story and see if you would be even able to apply.</p>

3

<p>Yeesh. I’m strongly opposed to the use of illegal drugs, but even I think the penalty here was excessive. At the very least, you’ll have to give up your graduate scholarship and lose a whole lot of credits. That’s if you don’t have too many credits to apply, as Athletics12 points out.
My only possibly useful suggestion is that when you write your essay, be careful to be respectful of your military academy and not blame them for the outcome. It’s no secret that military academies have severe penalties for drug use, and you gambled and lost. If you are careful to take responsibility for what you did, I think civilian colleges will be sympathetic to your interesting story.</p>

4

<p>here’s another thing. </p>

<p>yes i have 100+ credits, but not all of it would transfer anyway. i have credits for classes like aeronautical engineering and engineering mechanics. o_O (thank you general ed). </p>

<p>so should it really matter how many credit hours i have? i mean if i’m willing to spend 2 years in residence there, why does the amount of credit hours scare colleges? :[</p>

<p>save for the credit issue, what do you think my chances are?</p>

<p>and yes. for such smart stats, it was quite stupid. just to pre-empt anyone informing me that my decision was not the smartest ;)</p>

5

<p>i think this even goes beyond the wealth of knowledge that CCers have. i agree with the first few posters. you’re just going to have to sit down and call each college directly and get an answer straight from the source.</p>

6

<p>Yale won’t take you with that many credits. ([Who</a> is Eligible to Transfer? | Transfer Students | Office of Undergraduate Admissions](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/admit/other/transfer/who.html]Who”>http://www.yale.edu/admit/other/transfer/who.html))</p>

7

<p>Honestly? I think your chances are slim to none. These schools almost never even look at senior transfers, even if you are willing to spend the 2 years. You would need some amazing academic reason for them to even consider it, and your reasons for needing a new college are clearly not academic.</p>

<p>Second, you’ve been all but told that you will be getting negative recs and you have the disciplinary issue on your record.</p>

<p>These schools have their choice of stellar applicants and accept very few.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I think you’ll need to find a school pretty far down the food chain to work with you to finish undergrad. Do very well there, go out and work and do very well for a few years and then you may be able to look at schools on this level for grad school.</p>

8

<p>There is no shortage of pot-loving, military-hating people at most of the best colleges in the country, so I wouldn’t expect much of a problem re your past. If somebody saw a Bush/Cheney bumper sticker on your car, THAT would be a problem.</p>

9

<p>hmom5: i’m glad that you’re super honest. i miscommunicated, my professors love me so my recs won’t necessarily be a problem. and the discipline issue is technically a resignation! =D However all that means is that I need to be even more super than all these other stellar applicants. but what is the reason they won’t accept someone with 3 years of undergrad? like as long as I spend 2 years in residency there, why is 1 more year the threshold of “no we don’t want you?”</p>

<p>and yeah i’m calling every school I’m applying to -_-x. this is gonna suck. haha.</p>

<p>lol at schmaltz. that is exactly what i’m hoping for.</p>

<p>one more question: i’ve taken 100+ credit hours, but not all of them would transfer successfully. can i make the case that they can just take 64 of them and leave it be? haha as a poli sci/history double major, i’m not gonna care that much if gtown doesnt let me transfer my aero engineering class.</p>

10

<p>I’ll resume my total honesty. Do you think the adcom are dumb? Who voluntarily resigns 1 semester away from graduating? Whether or not the get the whole story is irrelevant, your application has trouble in red stamped on it.</p>

<p>Realistically, you need to be looking at a totally different level school, IMHO, for this and the reasons mentioned above.</p>

11

<p>In the real world, people smoke pot. Some people get caught and that sucks. I honestly doubt admissions would REALLY care, especially when you have so many other factors out shining your mistake. Be completely transparent about who you are and the situation in your app essay, and like someone else said, apply to a liberal school where the admissions committee themselves probably STILL smoke pot. you might also need to apply to a school where you’re very overqualified and have to verify that they will accept senior transfers. I think that’s a more pressing issue than the pot thing. Best of luck.</p>

12

<p>You don’t get to pick which courses transfer for credit, the college/university in question does. So don’t worry about that one. You need to concentrate your energy on figuring out what you want to do with your life now that your original plan is no longer possible. Why don’t you just take a year or so to think things through, adjust to civilian life, and contemplate your future? When are more certain about what you want to do, you will be able to come up with a more accurate college list.</p>

<p>If you just want to finish as quickly as possible, [url=<a href=“http://www.umuc.edu%5DUMUC%5B/url”>http://www.umuc.edu]UMUC[/url</a>] accepts up to 90 transfer credits. Classes are offered at multiple locations, and on-line. You could be done and in grad school in about a year.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

13

<p>Well, since 98% of the colleges in the world are Bush hating atheists who do much more than pot, I’d say it doesn’t matter that much :D</p>

<p>Note: this is in no way an official statement :P</p>

<p>Btw, why is your college gpa so low? Same as mine, but I did horribly in HS</p>

14

<p>my college gpa is low? I’m in the top 2% of my class! :[ </p>

<p>haha its on a 4.0 scale and you still think its too low? jesus you must be crazy smart x_X</p>

<p>and i’m applying to willamette, university of pacific, university of denver as safeties. here’s to hoping :(</p>

15

<p>No, I’m just messing with you lol that’s a great GPA :)</p>

<p>Just seems low compared to 4.5 haha</p>