Really need help (transfer questions)

Transfer Students
1

Hello,

I got perfect test scores in HS, great ECs etc but got a bad GPA because I’m dumb and did not study, and thus ended up at an extremely large state school. I really hate it here and don’t fit in at all. I know I did this to myself, but I really would like to transfer.

However, I’ve carried my whole GPA trend with me to college… Got a 3.2 first semester, way too low to get accepted to any of the schools I’d like to transfer to. Part of this was because I was in engineering, which I’ve realized is definitely not for me, but also because of just getting used to things and all. Probably doesn’t help much, but I’ve been pretty involved, officer of a student org and concertmaster of the orchestra here. I’m taking around 16 hours a sem, and came in with 30 some hours from AP credits.

I’m going to be finishing out the first year engineering program at my school with a much lighter workload/ less engineering-type classes). I’m optimistically anticipating something around a cumulative 3.75 by the end of the year (school offers a grade forgiveness program, so I’m forgiving one of the classes I did poorly in).

I’ve realized that I want to pursue something more business based depending on the school I go to, either getting a business degree or going into Econ. This is a relatively recent development of mine, but I’ve done a lot of self-teaching and genuinely think I’m interested.

Now, my questions:

Do colleges see my second-semester grades at all? I’m assuming not, as the deadlines are much before second semester ends.

Do colleges frown upon applying for transfer multiple times? ie if I apply for Fall of 17, get rejected, get a better GPA and apply for Fall of 18, will they look back at my rejection from a year back?

If they don’t frown upon this, is it even worth applying to schools like UChi, Northwestern, UMich (instate), Cornell for Fall of 17? (Would help me tons if someone could tell me profiles of typical acceptees)

How would the following criteria be ranked when colleges look at my app? College GPA, HS GPA, HS ACT/SAT, College EC’s, HS EC’s, Recs, Essay

Will it hurt me that I’ve only taken mostly engineering courses if I’m applying for mostly econ/business programs?

Please feel free to let me know what I’m doing wrong or what I should do, I appreciate any and all help and criticism. Thanks!

2

Sorry; another question, do colleges tend to look more preferably upon sophomore transfers or junior transfers? Thanks

3

bump

4

Okay so I’ll try to answer a few things here.

Business / Econ programs often have pre-requisites for transfer entry and for upper division classes. If you’ve taken Calculus (which you should have for engineering) then that’s good. Your situation will be more complicated though because you haven’t taken micro/macro econ, financial/managerial accounting, or statistics (or have you?).

You might have to either

  1. wait a year and take some of those courses before you apply
    or
  2. apply now as undeclared and then transfer to your intended major.

To your question about the importance of various pieces of the application:
That varies hugely by school. Some schools don’t ask for test scores or hs transcripts if you have enough units. A lot of schools have this document called the “common data set” that you can download. In section D for transfers, sometimes they rank the importance of the various aspects they require.

BTW: regarding the second semester grades. Some schools require something called the transfer mid-term report that you can download off the common app that will be a signed progress report from all your professors. Some will not, and some might end up asking for it in order to decide better whether they should admit you.

5

@philbegas Hey, thanks for your informative reply.

I took Calc 3 this semester, and did decently. I’m taking micro and macro next semester, and have credit for stats from AP. I have not taken any accounting courses (should I take one next semester?) I believe based on the school’s websites that I have/will have all of the classes required to transfer.

Thank you for the info about the CDS, I used that for first year admissions and forgot that it had transfer info as well, I’ll look into that for the schools I’m interested in.

In HS, since my school was on a quarter system, I simply sent in my first semseter grades since I sent in apps before the first semester. Since for transfer apps, colleges can already see your first semester grades, do they literally just get a snapshot of my grades at a halfway point through the second semester? That worries me, because the professors at my current school are known to not really grade anything until the back end of the semester near finals.

Thank you again for your reply!

6

If anyone else could enlighten me on whether colleges frown upon applying for transfer for multiple academic years (applying again after getting rejected and raising GPA/stats), I would greatly appreciate that as well.

7

Honestly for the transfer mid-term report you shouldn’t worry too much just yet until you have your college list. How many college units do you have? And are they semester or quarter units?

Regarding your question about whether you should take accounting yes I think you should. Generally Financial Accounting comes first.

8

@philbegas took 16 first semester, taking 17 next semester. 39 from AP. The 16 and 17 are semester units.

Alright, I’ll see if I’m able to still sign up for that class.

9

I have the following question that I need to clarify before submitting my application. I live in California and have attended a community college here for two years now. I recently completed my AA and I am ready to transfer. However, I took some college credits that I am not proud of in Venezuela (I am from Venezuela). Can I completely omit this institution from my Univ. application, because if I listed it, they will require me to send them the transcripts, which I don’t have. Can they find out about this foreign institution even when I omit it from my application. Please help!

10

@GeoRadioactive stop trying to thread-jack and make your own thread.