Top Schools for Transfer Applicant?

Transfer Students
1

Hi. I am currently enrolled in a top public university (University of Michigan) and plan on transferring after my sophomore year of college.

My first year stats have been really good! I am almost certain my GPA will be between a 3.8 and 3.9 by the time I finish my freshman year (I received a 4.0 first semester and plan on having one B+ in Biochemistry and a B+ in Physics this semester). I’ve also been working a part time job, shadowing different job careers, volunteering, and participating in numerous school clubs. I haven’t really connected with my professors, but I will definitely work on that!

I have found that most colleges require high school transcripts and SAT scores from their applicants. My high school statistics were mediocre overall, and I was likely only accepted to UMich for my legacy (both my parents attended).

*High School Stats: 3.4 UW GPA and a 4.0 W GPA. SAT score: 1960. I only took the SAT once during my Junior year because I wanted to ‘get it over with’ and I didn’t plan on attending an amazing college at that time, even though I am attending a top public university today. I’ve been told I should not retake it…

I know my scores are well below the average at UMich, but I have managed to do really well, anyways! The main reason for my low GPA was my freshman year of high school, in which my GPA was around a 2.1 because I was having a really rough time (for various reasons that are irrelevant now). Other than that, my GPA was 3.6+ for each academic year. Anyways, below are some of the schools I may be interested in transferring to. I really like several of the schools in California (like everyone does -.-), so I plan on applying to many schools there!

  • Also, I attended a private school instead of a public school during high school, which is much more rigorous than the public schools I am familiar with in Michigan.

National Universities

  1. Columbia
  2. MIT
  3. Duke
  4. UPenn
  5. CIT
  6. Johns Hopkins
  7. Rice
  8. UC Berkeley
  9. Georgetown
  10. Carnegie Mellon
  11. UCLA
  12. USC

National Liberal Arts Colleges

  1. Williams
  2. Amherst
  3. Middlebury
  4. Pomona
  5. Claremont McKenna
  6. Harvey Mudd

I know many of these are reaches (for anyone!) considering my pitiful high school credentials. I was wondering if anyone knew my chances on these if I maintain a 3.8 - 3.9 GPA for next year as well, continue my ECs, connect with professors, and show interest in some of the schools/provide good reasons for wanting to transfer – I already have several reasons in my head!

If a lot of these are impossible or extremely hard (which they are), please tell me a way I can improve rather than criticize my endeavors. Thanks a lot!

2

Since you are an OOS applicant, I would cross UCB & UCLA off your list. They are public schools, and therefore prioritize in-state CC students over OOS transfers. Because of this, their OOS transfer rate is incredibly low, 3-5%, in-line with schools like Harvard. USC is different because they are private, and I think if you maintain your GPA you would have a good chance of being admitted since they do not consider high school transcripts nor test scores if you have over 30+ units at the time you apply. As far as the other schools go, I think you could have a possible shot at getting in Georgetown, Upenn (not Wharton), and Rice – although they are still low reaches. You would have to boost your extracurriculars to align with your major and reasons for transferring and write strong essays to put yourself in the running. In my opinion, I wouldn’t bother applying to the other schools because of how heavy they weigh your high school endeavors… they would be very high reaches. But if you have the time & money to do so, it wouldn’t hurt to at least try. I am also a transfer student, who just finished up applying & hearing back from schools this past semester, so I was in your shoes a few months ago. If you would like to chat more about the process feel free to PM me, I also applied to a few top tier universities and had some success.

If you really want to attend some of the upper tier schools in the list you made (MIT, Columbia, Brown, Duke, JH, CMU), you can do it, you just need to grind hard. Retaking the SAT and scoring a 2300+ would be a must, also taking the SAT II’s for the schools on your list that require them, maintaining a 3.9+ GPA with a hard course load, having compelling reasons for why you want to transfer, and have some unique and amazing extracurriculars.

Hope this was a little bit helpful, best of luck to you.

3

@IBProspect123

Thank you so much for your reply! I understand that UCB and UCLA are notorious for giving priority to CCC students and then giving priority to students at other UC schools and finally accepting only the top-of-the-top students from OOS. I probably would not fall into that category since there may be students from other extremely competitive schools applying, but I won’t cross it off my list yet (maybe Berkeley but not UCLA).

About retaking the SATs, I am sure I can easily improve and at least score above a 2100 (based on how much I have improved in my reasoning skills in the past year), but would colleges look down on this? I’ve heard mixed reviews on this situation, but I’m sure I can find more information on this matter throughout collegeconfidential.

Overall, thank you so much for your input! It really means a lot to me. You’ve even inspired me to work even harder than I am now, which will be mandatory if I really want to transfer.

4

Here’s a link to a recent thread on the Pomona board about transfers: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pomona-college/1889096-does-pomona-college-accept.html#latest.

5

Thanks Corinthian. Has anyone else experienced the transfer process and considered any of the schools I listed above?

Thanks :slight_smile:

6

Imo, take Columbia off your list unless you LOVE their core curriculum: trying to finish your major AND get all the core done in 2 years looks improbable.

You haven’t said anything at all about why you want to transfer and why (except name) you want any of these schools. That’s fine- it’s none of our business here, but it matters for you, b/c none of these schools take a ton of Juniors and all of them will want to know what you think they have -especially academically- that you can’t get at UMi. And without knowing that it’s hard to give any meaningful feedback.

With no clues at all to your reasons for transferring, I can see MIT, CalTech, Rice, JHU, Harvey Mudd, UCB, UCLA, CMU possibly hanging together. And I can sort of see Georgetown, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Pomona/Claremont McKenna. And in between the two groups, maybe Duke and USC. But CalTech and Amherst? Middlebury and any of the first group? from here, I can’t see what it is - again, beyond wanting a fancier name- that has you choosing these colleges.

So, the first way you can improve your chances is by having an objectively strong / clear reason for choosing each college.

7

Thank you for your reply! It may seem obvious that I am interested in more competitive schools (with 'fancier names) ’ from only viewing my list alone rather than including specific reasons for each school, and the truth is, I really want to get the optimum and finest education I can get. UMichigan is fun and all but definitely not the ideal school for me. I can’t imagine living in Michigan for another three years. Besides that (which I know is not important), I have other valid reasons for my intention to transfer – both academically and extracurricularly.

Academically, many of those schools offer fantastic scientific and mathematical research opportunities. The science curricula at these schools are top-notch. These include: MIT, CalTech, JHU, Rice, UCB, UCLA, CMU, HMC and Columbia.

Some of the LACs I am interested in were grouped together with other, similar competitive colleges, such as Pomona and Claremont McKenna being grouped with HMC. I have a relatives who attended Amherst and Middlebury. They both gave me excellent feedback and highly recommended the schools to me in the past. As mentioned before, Williams is a similar school to Amherst and was grouped together with the other LACs. Sadly, I don’t have many clear reasons of attending these colleges, except for the high-level of education they offer to their students.

I admit, I haven’t done a whole lot of researching these colleges, except for most of the colleges located in California.

Overall, I really want to attend a STEM school that provides many research opportunities, volunteering opportunities, and internships. Other interests of mine are East Asian Languages. I took Mandarin all throughout high school, but have stopped since the Chinese courses at UMichigan are not as competitive. I also enjoy learning Japanese too, and would love to learn it alongside Mandarin. California definitely has the most opportunities for learning these languages, while Middlebury has the best East Asian Language Department (outside of Ivies) in the country. Georgetown is also ranked highly for learning these languages.

Do you think I should remove some of the LACs? I’ve heard that some also offer amazing scientific research, and although they are LACs, they still offer amazing STEM courses.

Thanks!

8

I see these schools as a lateral move:

  1. Georgetown
    1. Carnegie Mellon
    2. UCLA
    3. USC

Not good choices if you are chasing prestige.

9

Not sure why you conclude that the Ivies naturally have the best East Asian studies programs. Hopefully, you don’t believe that the Ivies are the best for everything. They certainly are not.

10

@urbanslaughter

Yale likely has the best East Asian studies programs. Sorry for making the generalization that all of them do.

11

Thanks, @Buggle- that starts to clarify things a (little) bit.

Where are your science interests, and how deep are they? A B+ in a low level physics and biochem classes is one thing; if you are in 300 or 400 level classes as a first year it is quite a different thing. Are you doing an REU / summer research internship this summer? If you are looking to do a science at CalTech, MIT, JHU, or Harvey Mudd do some homework to see if that is the level of intensity you are looking for.

Also, if UMi doesn’t have enough serious science for you, I don’t see Midd, Amherst or Williams having enough for you either (I take nothing away from LACs on the science front- just that UMi is pretty strong and has a range of courses that a college with 2500 students just can’t match).

You also need to consider things like size and location: you may want a smaller/ more personal experience, but going from Ann Arbor (43K students, pop. 100K, nearest airport Detroit 40 minutes away to Middlebury, VT (2.5K students, pop 8.5K), nearest airport Burlington, 1 hour away, nearest major airport Boston, 3+ hours away) is a pretty big change.

Given your interest in keeping language and cultural studies going, the Claremont Consortium- HM if you are really serious about science, otherwise Pomona or CMcK, might be a good bet for you: smaller community, higher % of seriously motivated students, and lots of ways to structure your degree.

As you won’t be applying until fall you have a lot of time to do some homework on each college - autumn visits are highly recommended as well. As you already know, there is more to college than just your classes, so just being strong in your major is not the only variable that you need to think through.

12

Thanks for your reply again @collegemom3717.

My scientific interests are extremely broad. They range from the social sciences to physical sciences and life sciences. There really isn’t a specific science class I don’t enjoy. I could see myself pursuing some over others, though. Biology, psychology, physics, and anatomy/physiology/pathology are probably my top choices, while biochemistry and chemistry I still enjoy, but couldn’t see myself pursuing.

I will be partaking in a scientific internship this summer (microbiology research) and will be doing other research in Ann Arbor (related to psychology).

Regarding changing from a suburban/urban area to a rural area, I am well adapted to move at any time! My hometown has under 15,000 people (Traverse City) and is quite isolated. It is on Lake Michigan, so there are many things to do here, but it’s still very small and far from other cities in MI.

Many of the schools in the Claremont Consortium have very low acceptance rates for transfers, especially Pomona, which tends to stay between 5 and 10 percent. There is also nearby Pitzer, which I’ve heard is very similar but not as competitive. Would this be another good school to consider, since I can take colleges at three of the four other nearby schools (not Scripps)?

Once again, I really appreciate all of the information you are providing! Thank you so much.