Second Try!?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Ok, so I tried to transfer from Mount Holyoke to Wesleyan or Tufts, but got rejected from Wes and waitlisted (with no acceptance) from Tufts. I've decided to take a year off and apply again for the fall of '06, this time to the following schools, with the addition of some less selective schools:</p>

<p>Emory, Northwestern, Brown, Wesleyan, Macalester, Oberlin, Vanderbilt (I'm a triple legacy), Yale (parents are both tenured profs), Wash. U, Bates, Bowdoin</p>

<p>What do my chances look like at the schools I listed above? Getting rejected from Wes and Tufts was kind of discouraging.. Do I need to lower my mark?
Any opinions/advice is much appreciated. :)</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>I had an awful year in 9th grade due to personal problems, 10th grade was mediocre (Bs and Cs), but 11th and 12th I got straight As. Final GPA ended up being approximately 3.4.</p>

<p>College GPA: 1st semester-3.5, 2nd semester-4.0
English Major, Spanish Minor</p>

<p>I'm retaking the SATs, and expect to do a lot better, but in highschool I got:
690 Writing
650 Spanish
630-650? Literature
660 Verbal
580 Math
AP Psych:4
AP Literature: 5</p>

<p>Awards:
-Finalist in state-wide poetry competition (12th)
-honored at ceremony for young artists for poetry (12th)
-published in local newspaper (11th)
-published in arts school magazine (11th and 12th)
-represented my class in state-wide foreign lang. poetry recitation (9th)</p>

<p>Academics:
-studied abroad in Spain summer after junior year with 94% average
-attended Creative Writing program from 1-4 PM 4 days/wk during high school</p>

<p>Work:
-Intern at yale international center (wrote a couple articles for their paper, researched, etc) this summer
-Intern at yale university press (ran one of the departments for 2 weeks but worked there all summer, summer before 1st yr college)
-Mentor for advanced Spanish literature course for Mount Holyoke's Speaking, Arguing and Writing program (the class was more advanced than the one I was taking myself) this was 8-10 hours/wk
-T.A. for art class (10th)
-T.A. at preschool (9th)</p>

<p>Volunteerwork:
-Hispanic retirement home (12th)
-school for children with emotional development issues, neglectful parents, etc. (11th)
-VA Hospital Geriatrics Extended Care Unit (11th)</p>

<p>Clubs:
-Verbosity Literary Mag. (1st yr Mt. Holyoke)
-Ceramics (1st yr Mt. Holyoke)</p>

<p>During my year "off" I plan to take two courses at Yale in the fall, an English and a Spanish literature course. I'm also interning at the creative writing program I did in highschool and possibly putting in a few hours weekly at the yale int'l center. In the spring I'm going to Costa Rica to live with a family/teach English to highschool/university students. Also, in August I'm going to NYC for the month to become certified to teach English as a foreign language. The class is recommended for ages 21+ but they accept younger students with their "discretion."</p>

<p>I have great recs and essays (at least I think so). I'll be getting one rec. from the associate director of the yale int'l center.</p>

<p>Sorry this is so long!! :)
-K</p>

2

<p>Sounds like you're destined for your local CC...;)</p>

3

<p>i am going for second try as well :), at least you were waitlisted at one place! i got rejected flat out!!!
i hope we'll have better luck this time :)
i have similar SAT scores as yours, however, i don't think we should retake, i heard they don't really care about SAT scores in transfer, though i do not know whether that's true, i am too lazy :P
wish you the best of luck :)</p>

4

<p>haha thanks spyderman24, that's what I thought!</p>

<p>Newbyreborn--I wasn't going to retake the SATs either, but I'm worried my math score hurt me/could hurt me again..i dunno?!</p>

5

<p>kitkat- if you retake SAT I, you must realize you have to take CR, MATH and WRITING, now, i am sure when you took the SATs, you did some prep. and if you take the SAT I now, you may increase your math score, but what's to say your writing and CR won't go down?(they got really nasty curves now!)
but i don't know, if you can get really high scores in blue book, go for it.
i am debating, b/c i know i got 600CR by luck, and i got 700 writing by luck and my 800M also by luck, so... i don't really want to try to drop over 100 points in WR and Math just to bring up 50 points in CR</p>

6

<p>Newbyreborn-- I think my Writing and CR scores can only increase with a year of college writing/reading behind me (I'm also an English major); what I'm worried about is math. I took Statistics first semester of freshman year and with some more prep I think I'll be able to bring it up at least a little. I think your scores look great, they are better than mine so I don't see why you would take them again--and an 800M is certainly not luck!</p>

7

<p>oh trust me, 800M is luck, i took it again, and score dropped lol
and all the scores i said was luck, they dropped once lol</p>

<p>so... i don't want to spend another 2 months preping. i mean during those 2 months, i can get a job and earn some money to pay off my loan :)
but that's just the opinion from a poor student
and i think you are right about increasing scores with a year of college.
either way, i don't think SAT scores are that important in transfer</p>

8

<p>Kitkat, </p>

<p>To say the least, your work is impressive. </p>

<p>It's the year of college work that the adcoms will deem most important. </p>

<p>Give the adcoms a call. If you haven't already done so, start a dialogue with them. Most find that your current work will indicate what kind of student you will be, and NOT your dated SATs. Having a 3.75, with ECs will probably land you into most schools. Many adcoms don't even require SATs from transfers/non-traditionals. </p>

<p>Why subject yourself to unnecessary work when you may have already proven yourself?</p>