Thinking of Transfer to College or SFS

Colleges and Universities A-Z Georgetown University
1

<p>I'm a freshman at Fordham University, and I'm interested in transferring. Since (1) my grades suck at the moment and (2) the deadlines are through, I want to apply for Junior Standing (Fall 2010).</p>

<p>My GPA here at Fordham sucks, I have a 3.1, and I swear there's intense grade deflation here. I came out of every class first semester with a great understanding of all the material, but without the grades to prove it. Here at Fordham, teachers are expected to maintain a class average of a C+ (2.3 GPA).</p>

<p>In high school, I had a 3.9 with a 1480 SAT (680 CR + 800 M) and am a National Merit Scholar and AP Scholar with Distinction. And it's great that I have to apply just in time for these somewhat more impressive academic statistics not to matter anymore! EC-wise, I was a state finalist in forensics tournaments, and was on the Executive Board of NHS, Community Service Corps, and Student Government.</p>

<p>Needless to say, I'm a little bitter, and worried about my chances of getting to a school I would be happier at. Here at Fordham, I work at the professional radio station affiliated with the university, WFUV. Hopefully, I will be on air by Sophomore year. The station is listened to by 400,000 New Yorkers weekly. There really isn't much at all else you can do EC-wise here at Fordham. I know of only one person at the school undertaking any research opportunities, in the physics department. I'm the only Freshman on the Pre-Law Society board here, a society which doesn't "exist" as much as one would think such an important student asset would.</p>

<p>I am interested in Georgetown College (or SFS perhaps). In freshman admissions, I was waitlisted by the College.</p>

<p>Also, I know on Georgetown's website it says that transfer applicants are expected to have at least a B+ to be taken seriously for admission. It seems like a B+ (which is a 3.3 here) would be too low. Is this true?</p>

<p>I know I have a full year ahead of me, but is there any shot in the world? 4.0s don't happen at this school (actually I don't know a freshman with above a 3.6), so that's sort of an unrealistic encouragement.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for everyone's advice.</p>

2

<p>To answer your question, no posters on this forum can offer you any definitive ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to your chances. These chance threads are very meaningless as the answers to inquiries have no concrete evidence to support the claim of ‘very good chance’ or ‘must improve in this aspect’. My best advice would be to email the Georgetown admissions office to gather more information regarding your competitiveness as a junior transfer applicant. Unfortunately in your situation, transfer applicant’s college grades are weighted more than HS GPA in the evaluation. That being said, your HS stats may add validity to your claim that Fordham practices ‘intense’ grade deflation. However, admissions committees may view your grades as ‘slacking off’ after an impressive high school record. Admissions committees can never know the truth behind your grade deflation claims without sitting in your classes and taking the tests. </p>

<p>I am ranting a little bit here, but nobody should take suggestions or advice on college confidential as if it were the magical guide to college acceptances. Everybody posting on this site is merely speculating as to what admissions committees are looking for in transfer students and cannot offer anything substantial to support that speculation</p>

3

<p>Bump, any more input? I’ve made chance threads before, I’m well aware they’re not exactly “binding” in their predictions.</p>

4

<p>Jeydomz, </p>

<p>Best advice to you: pick one class that you know you can do well in, participate everyday in that class, and speak with that professor on the side about your goals in order for him/her to write you a meaningful rec. Secondly, try to develop a relationship with your academic adviser so that he/she can write a recommendation in order to separate you from the ‘pack’. In many cases, the Dean at your college who fills out the academic/discipline aspect of the ‘Dean’s Form’ will not be able to offer you any recommendation. Since that is normally the case, your adviser can/will if you develop a relationship with him/her. </p>

<p>From somebody who just got accepted to Vanderbilt for next fall, even though I am waiting to hear from Georgetown which is my number one, I firmly believe that good recommendations made up for my average SAT score (1300/1600) and 3.4 college GPA. For transfers, I believe that the school wants ‘people’ and not just robots in order to inflate the middle 50 SAT score like sometimes is the case in freshman admissions</p>

<p>Playing on my school’s Varsity Baseball Team (NCAA D3) and Tutoring at the Local Middle School helped EC-wise compensated for a less than 3.5 GPA that everybody on this website swears is the ‘be-all, end-all’ of college GPAs to transfer into Top 20 Schools. </p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>