I literally got rejected and waitlisted from every schools that I applied to except for U Michigan but it doesn’t offer any scholarship or financial aid (I’m an international student). So I am considering about applying to a state university with relatively cheaper tuition where rolling admission is offered (penn state, purdue…), and then trying to transfer after the freshman year.
My stats are: 35 ACT, about 3.90 UW GPA, rigorous course load throughout my entire high school, very strong ECs.
(Yes, I just got rejected from 6 ivies yesterday and several others recently…)
If I spend my freshman year as best as I can (4.00GPA, ECs, and else), how much will it likely be for me to get into those top notch schools that rejected me this year?
It doesn’t matter what you do honestly. Don’t expect to get into any ivy league school as an international transfer student. If they didn’t want you now, idk why you would want to put yourself through another set of rejections. Move on. There are some okay ish options here: http://www.examiner.com/article/it-s-not-too-late-colleges-still-accepting-applications-for-fall-2015
It is harder to transfer into an Ivy than it is to get into one as a freshman. Sorry.
Penn State has a wait list for main campus this year. And is probably similar in costs to UMich OOS. Top schools do not see much attrition so the spaces for transfers are very limited. If you mean applying for fall 2016, then you should definitely cast a wider net. I think you are now limited to schools with available seats if you want to come for fall 2015.
It really depends on the trajectory you set before you apply. So if you had significant progress in terms of your leadership / character development in the last few years of high school but didn’t have a chance to show followthrough or failed to convey that in your application, you can prove that you are on a path to success by including all that detail on your transfer application.
Try Iowa State. It is fairly similar to Purdue but is much cheaper and is still accepting applications. U of Iowa is an even better option for majors other than engineering and also may work for you.
You should also research options in your home country if they will be affordable.
As noted above it is hard to transfer to a top school and it would be highly unusual to get any scholarship money as a transfer.
@redpoodles grad from my school went to CC for 2 years then transferred to Yale without any problems (white female 3.5 CC GPA)… Speak for yourself
If you are an international student and you need a lot of financial aid I highly recommend you stay in your own country for undergrad. If you like you can take a gap year and apply to top universities in the us again but don’t be surprised if all of them reject you on the basis of financial aid that you need. If youre taking a gap year, remember you don’t need to go to a “top” school you just need to go to a good school.
Didn’t you know you would be full pay at UMich? If so why did you apply there?
Can you afford these other options that you are considering? The likelihood of getting much aid or scholarship money from them at this point in time is very small. Like nearly zilch. Very few schools guarantee to meet full need, and those that do often exlude international students. YOu do have to check what money and awards an international student is eligible to get at schools you have on your list. UMich is better than most in terms of aid to internationals and you applied to them on a schedule that gave you chance for optimal money. You are not at that point anymore.
Do you even qualify for financial aid? I’ve run into a number of international folks who have no clue that you don’t get what you need in terms of financial aid, but that the need is defined by the schools and it’s usually a lot less than people think it is. It’s a total waste of time to apply for aid that is not going to happen because the schools don’t consider you needy. Run some NPCs and EFC estimators. They won’t be accurate for you bec you are international but you can get some idea s to what the income and asset matrices are and whether you are even in the ballmark to get any thing close to what you need to come study here. You may well be fishing in a dry pond.