sophomore transfer w/o ec's

Transfer Students
1

<p>i'm a freshman at swarthmore college in pennsylvania. i'm thinking about transferring to a west coast school because i really hate living SO far away from home (i'm from la). i'm thinking about applying to stanford and pomona college (maybe claremont mckenna as well). my stats are pretty good (within stanford's recommended range for transfer students..700 V 700 M on SAT, I don't know my first semester GPA yet b/c one of my profs hasn't graded me yet but it should be at least a 3.5). i did apply to stanford last year and i didn't get in. i do have some improvements to add to my resume, however. on my applications last year i heavily emphasized that i create websites for good causes for free (charities and local organizations). the website i designed for a science team at my high school won an award of excellence. now maybe i can send stanford a fine arts sample because I have achieved regional recognition. Also, two profs at Swat will give me good recs if I ask them..I got to know them pretty well.</p>

<p>BUT..this is why I'm really here. I joined no clubs my first semester! I wanted to slowly adjust to college and join clubs spring semester. Problem is, now I want to leave my college and I should have joined those clubs. I did have two jobs, though (averaging 7 hours per week). I was also appointed to a student council committee, but it hasn't met yet (i've emailed the chair but she doesn't want to hold a meeting until the spring semester). </p>

<p>so, does anyone have advice about what i can do about this problem? i know that to get into stanford/pomona i would need to have really good college ec's. i will be joining a few clubs next semester..but my wks/year is going to look really sad when i fill out the apps.</p>

<p>thanks to any who respond.</p>

2

<p>can you share some secrets to how to get to know the prof and let them know about you? i am in classes of over 1000, hard to even talk to them never mind getting to know them :(</p>

3

<p>well i know the profs pretty well because i go to a small school. one of my classes had 9 students, the other 20. so while a class of 1000 is quite different, i strongly recommend going to office hours. i hardly participated in my classes, so my prof's don't know me because of how i acted in class. they know me because i showed up consistently at office hours. so wander in one day..ask some questions about a paper or about something you'd like to learn more about. good luck :)</p>

4

<p>Well, designing websites would count as an EC. Do you have any other hobbies you could write about? I might advise you to keep in mind that a lot of freshman get homesick, and then it gets better. I believe the atmosphere at Swarthmore is a lot different than either Pomona or Stanford, so you might be less happy at one of those east-coast schools for different reasons. Just make sure you weigh pros and cons holistically before trying to transfer.</p>