Currently a freshman at Vanderbilt University, I applied ED here and find it okay so far but not great enough to stay just for the Vandy experience. No financial aid either so Vandy is very expensive for me. My main issue is that Vandy doesn’t have a Statistics major or even concentration, and also no undergrad Finance, Business, or Accounting majors, and talking to upperclassmen I’ve been told that in general there are very few stats classes. I’m thinking of transferring to another school that has a stats major or concentration (I’ve looked into Columbia, Brown, and UPenn), I wanted to know either what are y’all’s thoughts on this, what should I do this year to improve my chances at transferring, and/or how likely do you think my chances are to get in, especially seeing as lots of people are probably going to be transferring this year.
Stats:
Current College Major: Econ/Math with a Data Science Minor
High School: 1560 SAT, 4.0/4.0 UW; 4.8/5.0 W
16 APs, mostly 4-5s with 1 3 (AP Chem), ranked in top 5% of high school (10/450 ranking)
High School ECs: okay i suppose, no super big stand outs but 200+ volunteer hours, lots of tutoring and school clubs. unfortunately no internships. got into ut austin ea but deferred from duke ed1 if that means anything
College GPA: none for now
Obviously Vandy is a great school and I wouldn’t be too sad if I didnt end up transferring but I do think that, especially given the cost of attending here, I would be happier in a school where I could study statistics.
Nope, I didn’t even think of Stat at the time. I actually applied to Vandy as a bio major, but I’ve found that I liked economics and statistics much more than biology.
My advice to you would be to take a breath and enjoy the fall semester, get involved with the school community, your major, etc. Remember you don’t need to figure out what you are doing with your life yet, college is a time to explore your interests and develop your passions.
If your passion ends up being Data Science what would your path look like if you stay a Vandy? Grad School?
Then when you are home for winter break reflect on your situation and evaluate your options. Just remember transfer requirements differ by school, make sure you are keeping up with your grades, etc.
You might want to consider some more economical options as well.
Good Luck with your decision whatever you do. Just don’t go through this year with one foot out the door, you paid a lot of money to attend Vandy enjoy the experience
Are you taking on any debt to attend university? Do you have a known budget?
I do agree that it is odd to spend full pay at a private university that does not have your preferred major. I am usually skeptical about transferring, but I think that you have a valid reason to think about it. You might want to seriously consider an in-state public university for whatever state you are from (assuming that you are a domestic student).
One big thing to help your chances of transferring is to have a good reason to transfer, which it sounds like you do. Another thing is to get great grades in university.
I agree that you have a good reason to transfer but I am concerned that the only schools that you have looked into are Ivies. That makes me wonder if there is an element of prestige chasing in your desire to transfer. Ivies take very few transfers. If you want to try, go ahead, but you need to look at schools that are more reasonable to transfer into. Your state flagship would be a good place to start.
Parent of a stats major. It was called “Math”, which Vanderbilt has. The sub-field was “Applied Mathematics” which Vanderbilt has. It doesn’t need to be called “stats” in order for it to actually be “Stats”. And relying on hearsay that a university doesn’t have a lot of upper level courses- rather than meeting with an advisor to plot out a four year program- seems odd to me for someone oriented towards actual data. Get some data before you transfer!
There are people who get jobs as actuaries from colleges that don’t offer that major (they major in applied math and then study for the exams). There are people who get jobs in finance from colleges that don’t offer that major (they major in physics or math or comp sci or econ).