<p>I'm a high school senior right now and college decisions will be coming out in about a week and I'm feeling quite unsettled. I was an almost straight A student my freshman year of high school and my grades dropped during sophomore year and I hit rock bottom when I got a D in Pre-Calc in my first semester of my junior year. I'm retaking Pre-Calc this year and I got a B last semester and managed to end last semester with only one B, a 3.8. I'm working towards a 4.0 this semester and I will hopefully end high school on a positive note. I've taken 3 APs and two Honors classes, and I have a one sitting SAT score of 2060, which I intend to raise to a 2300+.</p>
<p>I'm an CS/CE and/or EE major depending on the college and after that rambling I'm wondering if I should transfer. My high school career didn't go as planned and even though I'm a senior, I'm much more focused than I've ever been primarily because I'm upset with my performance during my junior year of high school. I really wish I were this focused last year and maybe things would have gone better, but I don't regret my mistakes. I've learned from them and moved on. Despite that, is it possible for me to transfer to a top 5 school (MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton) given that I get a 4.0 my freshman year? Should I wait till my sophomore year to transfer and maintain a 4.0? Is there anything I should know specifically regarding things I should do my freshman year to get into a top 5 school?</p>
<p>I know these are ambitious goals, but it's something I've wanted for a long time and even though things haven't gone as planned, there's always a way to get a second chance.</p>
<p>First off, decisions haven’t even come out yet, so how do you know if you definitely want to transfer? You might end up getting into the school wanted!</p>
<p>And if you don’t, I wouldn’t stay fixated on transferring. I know right now you’re probably thinking that you’re most likely going to hate whichever school you end up at if it’s not the school you originally wanted. But this is only a moment, and you’ll only hate it if that’s how you make of it. For me, I planned on transferring too from the start. But I know that I would be very ignorant and immature if I didn’t even give my school a chance. Not only that, I’d be wasting my time and money. So I decided to make use of whatever resources my school offered, and I experienced as many things as I can. At the end of the semester, I reflected on my first semester. I’ve met a lot of really cool people, made some new friends and experienced some pretty cool things. Of course, I didn’t forget about my academics either. But the most important thing I learned was I realized what I truly wanted from going to college. And my school didn’t offer me what I wanted out of my college experience. In high school, I thought I knew what I wanted: a good education at a really good school. But having experienced a semester of college, I was able to get a better and more mature idea of what I wanted. And that’s why I’m transferring.</p>
<p>So my advice is to keep an open mind. You might see whatever college you end up at offers you everything that you wanted from college. Also, YOU define college. So if you go to and define XYZ college terribly, then of course you’re going to have a horrible experience. Good luck with your decisions! :)</p>
<p>^Agree.</p>
<p>Additionally:</p>
<p>You haven’t gotten at 2300+</p>
<p>You haven’t gotten a 4.0 your first semester of college.</p>
<p>Does it seem likely that some of the most selective colleges in the country will accept a student that was not a competitive candidate as a fr applicant (based on 4 years of classes), because they get a 4.0 in one semester at a relatively non-selective college? </p>
<p>Also, P does not accept ANY transfers and the others have lower acceptance rates for transfers than for fr admits.</p>
<p>Rather than spending time and energy worrying about which schools to transfer to sometime in the future, concentrate on what you are doing NOW. Keep the horse in front of the cart: get the scores, get the grades, THEN think about which schools fit your needs AND are within your reach.</p>
<p>If you have the money, personally I would go off to college right away. Ivy leagues are insanely hard to get into. It’s not a good college experience to just live at home and go to school. It’s worse than high school. I’m transferring in a year so I have experience. If you get accepted to a college you really like, go. If not, then wait and transfer. Also, if you don’t know your major, I would also wait and transfer because some schools are better than other with certain majors. For example, my major isn’t even offered at most schools.</p>