Seriously considering a transfer, please help?

<p>Hey, I'm currently a freshman at NYU college of arts and sciences, and I am contemplating on whether or not to transfer, which schools to transfer too, and what my chances are. My stats are as follows:
College GPA at the end of the 1st semester: 3.6
HS GPA: 4.1 (weighted), Rank: top 8%
ECs in HS: Debate, Key Club, FBLA, bunch of others including tutoring, leadership as President/Captain in almost all the clubs by senior year.
ECs in College: Premed Frat, community service, tutoring job @ $20 an hour.
APs: Biology 5, Chem 4, Stat 4, USH 5, Psych 5, Calc AB 5, Eng Lit 3.
SAT I: 720 m, 680 v, 700 w
SAT IIs: 780 molec bio, 720 math I, 710 ush
Current Courses: GenChem I, World Cultures: India, Cognition, Writing The Essay: Science (expos)
Next Semester: Intro to Ecology, GenChem II, ConWest (philosophical/writing course), Develop. Psych.
I am currently declared as a double major in Biology and Psychology.
Great recs from HS, plan to write good essays.</p>

<p>I would like to transfer for Fall 2007. I am looking for a top 30 university that has one of those jaw dropping campuses and is good for premed/science oriented students. I kinda just want a school where its not ridiculously expensive to do stuff, and there are always like frat parties at frat houses and stuff, and where there aren't like major cliques. As of now, I am looking to apply to columbia, cornell, upenn, georgetown, and usc. I still don't know about these and how the lifestyle really is, but yea. If anyone can help me or needs more info please let me know, but yea I kinda want to start the applications and get the college recs and stuff before winter break so I can apply by february/march. thanks again.</p>

<p>get a 4.0 and go to jonhs hopkins. and..where are your SAT scores?</p>

<p>sorry i had to edit, totally forgot the sat i and sat ii scores.</p>

<p>those scores are a tad low for transfering to any of the schools you just mentioned. perhaps you should look into the bottom of top 20-30 schools (if that made sense)..such as the University of Southern California (amazing school...great campus). you can also always wait until transfering for junior year and get a least a 3.85 GPA to be even considered for the top-notch institutions. good luck.</p>

<p>Wait what? With a 3.6 from NYU, goot SAT I and II scores and a strong HS record (relative to many CC transfer applicants) he would appear competitive at Cornell, USC, Georgetown and (iffy Penn). That does not mean he would be a shoo-in, but he's definitely competitive.</p>

<p>OP, why not add Emory, WashU and Vandy. All schools have gorgeous campuses and fit your idea of work hard, play hard.</p>

<p>hey, I never really thought about the other schools because i dunno too much about them, that seems like a really good idea though. Thanks a lot for the encouragment. Now, do you think the fact that I'm applying to USC from so far away will affect my chances, considering most transfer applicants to USC are california community college students? Also, I think I am taking georgetown off of my list, I really don't like the fact jesuit and catholic or on like everyyy page of their website, they seem hardcore about that stuff, plus the diversity seems to lack as well. Any other schools/chances?</p>

<p>Your hs recs will likely not be a factor, or even be submitted. So focus on getting very strong college recs.</p>

<p>You do need to add some safer schools to your list. If you want frat atmosphere in a good school, consider Lehigh in addition to the ones dearsiryes suggested. Maybe Miami of Ohio, Tulane.</p>

<p>see, the thing is, it's really hard to get college recs since all my professors are like lecture professors, and none of them know anyone's name. I was accepted into carnegie mellon and tufts in hs, but I chose not to attend, so i feel like i have a good chance at the higher institutions, i just need guidance and 'narrow downing'. I think my top choice right now is USC, but yeah, I'm still open for anything.</p>

<p>EDIT: I was also deferred/waitlisted at jhu, waitlised at uchicago, and waitlisted at cornell.</p>

<p>my best suggestion would be apply to places that you would want to stay for 3 years, and just go for it! you never know about transfers, and since you got WL at JHU, UChicago, and Cornell, it means your hs stats were good, but just not enough..with a 3.6 in college, im sure you have a shot, just work your butt off in the beginning of next semester, send in mid-semester reports, and hope for the best!</p>

<p>Emory - top notch for pre-med, top 30, transfer friendly, social scene mostly revolves around frats, campus is traditional and beautiful, Atlanta is not nearly as expensive as NYC, strong Indian community</p>

<p>also - WashU, Vanderbilt, Tulane</p>

<p>wow i really didn't know all this about emory. I think I've narrowed it down to usc, emory, cornell, upenn, jhu. Any other suggestions and/or more specific chances at the aforementioned schools? Also, if anyone has any 'transfer tips' that'd be great as well. thanks again everyone for the responses.</p>

<p>Yeah, Emory is top-notch for pre-med. And it does have a beautiful campus...</p>

<p>sweet, hm anything else?</p>

<p>Hi xindianx, I'm also a freshman at NYU and I'm planning to transfer out for the Spring '08 semester...It seems as a lot of NYU'ers transfer to another college after their freshman or sophomore year.</p>

<p>Why?????????????</p>

<p>Kids often feel really alienated in a school like NYU with no real campus feel, yet still in the middle of the NYC big-city frenzy. It's really not unheard of. Same thing at BU.</p>

<p>I'm just wondering if it's for a lack of friends - is it hard to make good friends at NYU? </p>

<p>When I visited I fell in love with the place. I would just hope I don't make the wrong decision by possibly going there since I can't transfer again.</p>

<p>often admissions offices have a "ask a student" type thing...i would try to use that if you can and ask a current student what its like...also, ask if you can get in touch with a bunch of different kids, so you dont get the lucky ms.sunshine "i have a million friends"....the best way is to just ask a student what its like</p>

<p>FBI and you should spend some time talking it sounds like...not everyone will have the same experience about a college, but maybe they can get you in touch with some of his/her friends too and that way you have multiple opinions</p>

<p>Hey, hm, i guess i'll put my two cents on this topic. honestly, the first month i LOVED nyu, it was absolutely amazing, and i do in fact have tons of friends here (they're all still trying to convince me to stay), so it's not a problem with that. Basically, the first month everyone is chill with everyone else, and ppl love to meet each other, and everything is chill. but after that, it seems that everyone gets into their own little cliques, and these cliques are SO prevalent (it's like high school all over again), and sometimes you just don't fit in a clique or can't handle the drama and what not, sometimes you just want to chill and have fun without worrying about it so much. To move on from that, parties are a real hassle here, nyu is definitely not a party school, although dorm/apartment parties are there, RAs are pretty strict and the parties are not anything like a real college party (my roomate and i have gone to several colleges in jersey/boston/penn and damn dude, lotta college kids in areas with frats and school spirited places know how to party hard). furthermore, it really is hard to find some good stuff to do without spending a lot of money in new york city (especially if you're a guy), clubs usually cost $20, f*kin water bottle could cost u $3. now, that's the main 'party' and social issue i personally have, but more importantly in my opinion is the academic part. i feel as if CAS is ovewhelmingly overshadowed by Tisch and Stern, yes nyu is the number one dream school, but why you may ask? because of tisch and stern. nyc has broadway, it has a vibrant culture, it has wall street and tons of business internship opportunities, but that's all tisch and stern (where the primary funding goes as well). I want a school that focuses more on the sciences and has the types of opportunites nyu offers to its business and drama majors to science majors. as of for the 'campus college experience,' i was really surprised that i feel kinda lost when there is no real home or holistic view of the campus that'll make you be like, yea that's my college, it's beautiful ain't it?. instead you see people dying on the streets next to ur school building, i mean i definitely love the city and i live nearby, but i always went temporarily and around timesquare where there is so much stuff goin on, but like downtown is not as boom-y. See, the other thing you have to know is that i only had three choices in the end, tufts (extremely underfunded, dull campus), carnegie mellon (nerd paradise, lotta my older friends don't like it there), and nyu (not my first choice, but i thought i'd be fine if that's where i would end up). you'll also notice that there is very little school spirit here, it's much more independent-ish and 'do ur own thing.' see, i've been going to clubs since i was a freshman in hs, and it's really not as big as ppl play it to be, i feel like nyc is best for highschoolers in jersey that come here to have fun during the night or maybe even the day, for tourists, for people in their mid twenties who work in the city (usually business oreinted) and who have those nice apartments you see on t.v and are livin smoothly, or for people that are in a close-knit separated campus with the college experience yet still in nyc (columbia). when you look at the ppl in ur floor or around 'campus', to me it's just a lot of artsy individuals who were extremely low-key kids in hs who now have a safe haven to express themselves as much as they want (lgbts, asians, etc). i guess last but definitely not least, nyu is statistically one of the most expensive schools in the nation (dorm cost, tuition, general expenses), and as most of you already know, we have the #1 students with dissatisfied financial aid (i was definitely lucky to get almost a half-scholarship, but most ppl here don't get anything close). I am not saying that everyone here has rich parents and is 'stuck up,' i'm actually saying that most of us are taking loans on our own with parents cosigning making this burden of more than 150k after 4 years a HUGE problem. actually there is one more slight issue, ppl may say it's kinda shallow, but hey i'm being realistic: women. Yes, it's true, we have like a 60-40 girl to guy ratio, and like half the guys are gay, but guys, i think i've seen about 10-15 hot girls in my entire freshman class, i'm pretty sure there were more cuter girls my senior year of hs. and as for indian girls specifically, god, please, spare me (if ur lookin for the college where u may end up marrying someone, this ain't it in my opinion). there is no like random hookin up at the frat house or anything like that. okay so, that's that, NOW PLEASE DO NOT TAKE ME WRONG WAY, i am NOT bashing nyu or new york city, it does offer an excellent education and the workload is quite reasonable, and it really depends on what kinda person YOU are and how you handle yourself. phew lol, again, i may even stay here all four years if some random motivation comes my way before i make a decision to transfer, god knows, but yeaa, just gonna go with the flow =).</p>

<p>just a note: Tufts has an endowment of only 200M less than NYU, but it has half the number of students... so there's more money invested into each student. just FYI</p>