I have to warn you that I am somewhat of an atypical case. i graduated hs in 2007 and went to a NJ state college nearby. I partied for 7 years but managed to keep my GPA above dismissal range until 2015.
I decided I had to turn my life around and completed a double associates in math and physics spring with a 3.9, earning an internal scholarship for excellence in math and physics. My transfer counselor worked with me to create a knockout resume that emphasized my personal growth and charity towards others. i was a tutor at my CC for 2 years and never turned down a student even when I was off the clock. My boss focused his recommendation on this. I also lead the international exchange student club and taught free english lessons/translated school literature for 3 semesters. The club advisor gave me a great recommendation as well. The heads of my departments wrote letters exhorting admissions to give me a chance and that I was a reformed student. My SATs from 2007 were 2220 (750M 780R 690W) which put me at or above the average range of all the schools I applied.
I recently got rejected from stevens after rejections from all ivies and uva, jhu, and swarthmore. Im not sure where I messed up, everybody I talked to said I was gonna get in at least a tier 2, my admissions counselor said it was the most solid resume she had seen that semester. I held out for stevens decision until june 30 and now im pretty sure its too late for me to get into any college. What do I do?
You messed up because you shot too high. Messing around for 7 years, then buckling down puts you in competition with people who (honestly) didn’t meander and party for 7 years. Most of thoses schools are even more competitive for transfers than freshman admissions. So you take a gap semester or year, and apply to a more reasonable list that has more than one match school on it.
Thanks for the advice. I know several students who got into columbia and jhu with a liberal arts AA and lower sats and a student who got into stevens with a 2100 and a 3.4 AS in engineering.
The problem is I was dismissed from my state flagship. I am paying for my own school so privates are out of the question. Tcnj is basically my only option for a physics major, every other state school is geographically undesirable for commuting. Tcnj
What is your overall college GPA from all colleges? If you had 7 years’ worth of college that ended in being dismissed (presumably < 2.0 GPA), that is probably dragging down your overall college GPA and making it difficult for you to be admitted to a more selective university as a transfer student. Your high school record and SAT scores are largely irrelevant now that you have a substantial college record.
There probably are less selective state universities that will admit transfer students down to low 2.x college GPAs. But if they are not accepting applications now, you may have to take a gap year and work and reapply to a more realistic list of colleges.
Give Salem College a look. It has a program for adult students and has rolling admissions. It is a private, but is about 20K less than most privates and they give good merit aid. It is a very small women’s college. Good luck.
At this point do I basically look like damaged goods to every university? Are my chances of getting into a top graduate school gone? Will I be able to overcome this with a strong GRE score and perfect grades at my new school?
Depends on what grad school in what fields and how much you can afford.
All the schools you applied to range from difficult to transfer in to (Stevens) to extremely difficult to transfer in to insanely difficult to transfer in to, so definitely not matches.
What schools does your CC have articulation agreements or TAG agreements with?
Well, that GPA is why you got rejected by the highly ranked schools you applied to along with taking 10 years to complete an associate’s degree. You are going to have to lower your standards (a lot) and apply to lower ranked schools and, yes, work very hard in your last two years of college if you want to go to grad school (any grad school - not just a top grad school). If you got a 3.9 GPA during your last year then stay on that path and continue to do your best from now on. If you want it badly enough you can do it. You are an adult now, and you need to move forward with the maturity of a 28 year old.
You may be able to apply for readmission to your original school, even though it may be normally more selective than other schools that will admit you as a transfer. If it is Rutgers, it looks like it is possible to be readmitted after academic dismissal (and presumably doing well in college courses elsewhere):
If privates are out of the question, what was that list of colleges you were rejected from about? It’s full of privates.
Your SAT might have been in range back in 2007, but now you’re a transfer. There are fewer transfer slots than freshman slots so the competition usually gets harder.
UVA: admitted 989 transfers versus 9668 freshmen.
Swarthmore admitted 18 transfers total. High reach for everyone.
You needed a much better researched list. Talk to admissions and financial aid and make sure there’s interest in a student like you before you apply to your new list.
They look at your whole undergrad GPA to date, not just your last year or so. No matter how good your test scores are, that GPA (and getting kicked out of Rutgers, I assume for academic reasons) means you really have to apply to lower ranked schools. Your GC did you a disservice by not telling you that to start with.
I agree with the others that your application list was overly aggressive given your past dismissal from a college. I don’t think you were well advised at your CC. While you should be commended for turning things around at your CC, that doesn’t completely wipe out your 7 years of “partying” and previous academic dismissal. Your current options are to look at schools on the NACAC list or get a job and re-apply next fall to a different group of schools. Good luck moving forward.
I think you should be commended for turning yourself around. You are not “damaged goods” for life - but maybe a little for this process. You have worked so hard, do not give up now. Apply again to a wider range of schools (that you can afford). If you do well where ever you get in next, you will be fine for graduate school. Just get yourself in somewhere. Congrats again on moving forward. Best wishes.
Given your story, “all ivies and uva, jhu, and swarthmore.” were probably close to hopeless. I think that you reached too high. I think that posts #17 and #18 above both nailed it. Work for a year and reapply with more realistic list of schools. You clearly have significant potential and can turn this around, but it will take a bit more time and effort. Good luck!