Questions about transfering next year

Transfer Students
1

<p>Okay so i hate to make a thread of "what are my chances?" but here is my story:</p>

<p>So I will be an incoming freshman at DePaul University in the honors program and will be concentrating in political science, and peace justice, and conflict studies. I have a national position for a non profit group dedicated to advocacy and international relations and genocide prevention (STAND---the student led division of the genocide intervention network) International political advocacy is a large part of my life. I was the president/creator of my hs STAND chapter for two years, and part of the national student leadership team as a core chapter leader. Also I have played the violin for ten years and in hs, i was a member of three different orchestras. A few op-eds that I have submitted to newspapers have been published. I would like to transfer to columbia university, upenn, northwestern, dartmouth (perhaps), yale, tufts, brandeis, stanford, uchicago. The problem is that my grades suffered in hs. Now I want to make it very clear upfront that I am not a "lazy" person who doesnt care. I went through A LOT of very serious stuff throughout my life, and you know what, being in my household had made me extremely stressed out. My gpa was around 3.2 or something UW. I took 18 honors and 1AP. I got a 26 on ACT (32 reading, 23 math and science, and 27 writing) . I understand
*that I will probably have to retake it. Before you say, "3.2? R u kidding me?!! No chance in hell!!" , I AM going to get a 4.0 in college, especially since I will be 1000 miles away from all the the issues that I had to deal with. I will be involved in honors student government at DePaul, and I will be starting a chapter of STAND at the university, in which I will becone president of. I am also going to be an onsite mentor at a chicago boys and girls club once a week. I am also a minority applicant. (half black). What do you think of all of this and my chances at these colleges? I am not trying to give you bs about me, by trying to "talk" and not "do". *I really have to stess that my hs record is NO indication of anything. (i perform much better away from everything) also, with my leadership capabilities, am I a competitive applicant? (also i should mention my national position puts me in charge of 16 different states and their STAND chapters, and next month I will be attending STAND camp in Baltimore for a week, with a lobby day in DC to meet with congressional reps)</p>

2

<p>Sorry for the formatting issues, i am not on a desktop or laptop. Also add emory to the above list</p>

3

<p>BumpPppppp</p>

4

<p>You are counting your eggs before it hatch. You are assuming you will leave DePaul with a 4.0 in their Honors program. That is easier said than done. DePaul is on a quarter system so you will get a lot of work crashed in to 10 weeks. The school is not a piece of cake. </p>

<p>Please stop using your race/ethnicity as a admission requirement. You make minorities look bad. Too many people already believe we only get in to good schools because of our color. leave that out of it.</p>

5

<p>I was not playing the race card at all. I am just aware of how people are about race on this site and how they think it helps a lot, when ultimately it does not. And I am not just counting my eggs before they hatch. I posted this, b/c I wanted to know my chances, and I would appreciate it, to know opinions.</p>

6

<p>happyman1, dang buddy…you have a chip on your shoulder or something?</p>

7

<p>Seriously, you are counting your eggs before they hatch. A couple things:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I expected to have a lot less stress when I got to college, too (1000 miles away from all the issues that I also had to deal with at home.) Unfortunately, life problems (especially family related) are difficult to just leave. My family knew exactly how to keep me involved in their problems when I moved away, and it was especially stressful to be far away where I had no control when people were in trouble or even possibly in danger.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t assume that the program you’re entering will be trivial because it isn’t at a big name school, and don’t assume that those big name schools are more worth attending. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a better education in your honors program than most of my classmates get at Yale. I was amazed at how complacent and spoiled most of the students seemed when I got here. So many people seek out “gut” classes and self-gratifying extracurricular activities (even the volunteering programs seem to be aimed more at letting college students have fun and feel they’ve made a difference than at empowering people in the community). Most people spend a lot of time in big lectures where they just need to answer basic questions quickly and aren’t held accountable for learning and applying material thoroughly. A lot of students even seem to treat advanced seminars like “gut” classes. It’s not uncommon, in my experience, for students to blow off all the assignments for a class one week, then completely blow off an extracurricular the next so they can catch up. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>I’m sure you have heard and ignored all of these arguments before. Obviously I’m not exactly unbiased or brimming with school pride, but I’m offering my advice as a student who went for what seemed like a sweet deal and was highly disappointed. I would personally expect you are better off in the honors program, where you will probably have small classes full of talented and dedicated peers who are in the habit of having to apply themselves and answer difficult questions thoroughly.</p>

8

<p>Although the above posters are correct in the statement that you are counting your eggs before they hatch, I look at that as a positive - you’re giving yourself a goal and you want to know if your hard work will be worth it in the end, so I commend you for not being satisfied with your current environment and aiming for higher aspirations.</p>

<p>Applying as a transfer, however, is different from a freshman application. Colleges put a substantially large weight on college credits taken and gpa in college. That being said, if you DONT have a 4.0, you may lose to a community college student with a 4.0, despite going to a rigorous college.</p>

<p>despite this, I feel you will have a very solid shot at at least a top 20 school if you meet a few criteria:

  1. 4.0 with a full courseload - the whole “honors classes = lower GPA” does not fly. Ivy league schools are the best of the best, and they want the best of the best transfers. If you cant get the grades, dont take the classes.
  2. retake the ACT/SAT and shoot for something within their 50%, because a 27 screams either “i suck at test taking” or “i can’t think critically.” you can also qualify for financial aid with high scores, and it only helps further your overall story of growth.
  3. write bomb essays about your journey. I feel like if you write an essay explaining your personal history and take the admissions committee through your life, you can illustrate your abilities while explaining your sub-par HS GPA. If you’re going to transfer before you’re a junior, you’ll need to explain why HS sucked, and the sudden change in college because colleges put a lot of preference to junior level transfers.</p>

<p>my advice when you make your application is to be candid and write with passion - this is a chance for you to unleash all of your frustration from hs and use it to your advantage. Dont write with anger or vengeance though, but talk about it as a unique hardship that has helped shape who you are.</p>

<p>my comment is one word: confidence. It must course through your body every moment of every day. People, peers and family will tell you things you cannot do, but you must have the confidence to follow your own path. Don’t become arrogant, but believe that you have what it takes to get into the Ivies of the world.</p>

<p>I myself wish to transfer my first semester of college, and what i’ve learned from this site is that although the community is brilliant and insightful, sometimes they’re brutally honest (see above posts). Be careful - it can impact your confidence. Read their posts, read others, but understand that every comment is a person’s opinion - even this. Believe that if you set high goals for yourself that your hard work will be compensated - and don’t take no for an answer. set the highest standard for yourself, and then 1-up it. If at the end of the day you achieve your 4.0, and still get rejected, rest easy knowing that you did everything you possibly could, and you left nothing on the table.</p>

<p>I wish you the best of luck in the future, and i hope that you are able to find my post helpful.</p>