<p>My daughter had the same decision to make.</p>
<p>After spending her freshman year at SUNY Geneseo, she applied for transfer and she was accepted at Cornell. She is a Bio major, with the hope of med school after her undergrad. Her freshman GPA at Geneseo was a 3.6. She was excited at the possibility of transferring, but concerned about the effect the more-difficult program at Cornell may have on her GPA and, consequently, how they may affect her opportunities for med school. She had been told by a Bio student, who had started at Genese and also transferred to Cornell, to expect up to a 1.0 drop in her GPA.</p>
<p>She decided to go for it, and began her sophomore year at Cornell this pas fall. Her GPA took a 0.8 hit at the end of her first semester at Cornell. I contacted SUNY Upstate Medical college on her behalf, in the hope of reassuring her, that her med school hopes were not down the drain. This is what the admissions person I spoke with said…</p>
<p>They use Barron’s ranking of undergrad colleges, and assign a ranking from 1-5 based on difficulty of program. #1 being the toughest, #5 being the easiest. Cornell is ranked a #1 program, Geneseo (which she called the IVY of the SUNY schools) is ranked a #2. This is one of the major factors they use in determining admission. She was very helpful, and indicated they would be looking for an average overall science GPA of 3.0 from Cornell.</p>
<p>I specifically asked her if my daughter would increase her hopes of med school if she transferred back to Geneseo, where it was likely she could expect to maintain that 3.6, and perhaps even raise. Her response was no, that Cornell was the best of the best, and that much consideration is given to the rigor of the academic program…and, of course, to the mcat scores.</p>