Transfer Blues

Transfer Students
1

<p>Got my first admissions result which happened to be a rejection today; kind of smothers hope.</p>

<p>Now I'm anxious yet I feel completely dismal. Applied to Rice, UChicago, Duke, Brown, NYU, going to apply to Northwestern.</p>

<p>SAT: 1920; 670 Math, 630 Critical Reading, 620 Writing
No SAT II scores
IGCSE: 3A* 3A 1B
Community College GPA (2 semesters): 3.5ish
International Background (lived in 4 countries including the United States; prior British education)
Achievements (extra-curriculum): Community service in Vietnam (no official records); ABRSM Grade 8 Piano (highest level achieveable before reaching professional degrees), ABRSM Classical Guitar Grade 5; ABRSM Grade 5 Theory; Vice-president of college chess club
Recommendation Letters: One greate one from English teacher (with minimal prestige to his name though), another coming from former Rice professor.</p>

<p>Rejected: Rice
Waiting: UChicago, Duke, NYU, Brown
Most likely being rejected by: Duke, Brown, UChicago</p>

<p>): I should retake my SATs, shouldn't I? </p>

<p>Wondering what I should aim for in order to be up to the standards of Brown, UChicago, Columbia, Princeton, UPenn, Cornell.</p>

<p>Desired goals for above universities
SAT:
GPA:
ECA (personal rejection by Kenyon Review already, how to go beyond that and get published?):
Any extra information:</p>

<p>Please help.</p>

<p>Any other transfer applicant who feels dejected, let's have a pity party and pop bubble wrappers.</p>

2

<p>IMO you shot way too high (top 25ish schools in the nation) because:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>You’re applying as a soph transfer, so you had only 1 sem of college when you applied, therefore your HS record and test scores will be more important.</p></li>
<li><p>You have a 3.5 gpa, low in general for these colleges and add to that it is from a CC.</p></li>
<li><p>Your SAT is below 2000 and no SAT IIs. Look at the fr 25:75 SAT range for these colleges and then add the fact that transfer rates are lower than fr admissions.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I’m sorry if this seems harsh, but these basic factors in transfer admissions (gpa, year transferring, college attending, etc.) have all been discussed extensively on this forum.</p>

3

<p>Just so you know, Princeton does not accept transfers. I know because it is my dream school and I had NO shot of going out of high school, and no shot now because their retention rate is so high they simply do not even take a look at transfer applications.</p>

4

<p>How did you end up with a 3.5? That is going to hurt you pretty bad. There are plenty of applicants with 3.8+ at top schools…</p>

5

<p>a lower GPA is acceptable IF you’ve been taking hard classes.</p>

6

<p>Personally, I think re-taking the SATs can’t hurt your scores. From what I’ve gathered, a lot of colleges don’t mind if you retake it. If you can get a higher score, I can’t see it hurting you during the transfer process.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>Only to some extent, in the sense that gpa and course rigor are a balancing act. What people fail to understand is that when it comes to very selective colleges, you need BOTH a high gpa AND demanding coursework.</p>

<p>As far as the OP, we don’t know what their courses were like, but since it was only fall sem of fr yr at a CC, very difficult course load is unlikely.</p>

8

<p>Basically, all my classes are sophomore classes with a 2312 and a 2412; if I’m not mistaken 12 stands for the level of difficulty.</p>

<p>Well, I had transportation and housing problems during the first semester and I tried to explain that on common application. Furthermore, I had 20 credit hours last semester and that was difficult to juggle for me so in the end it failed me.</p>

<p>My high school record is relatively lacking since I underwent self-studying and graduated early because international school curriculum is not rigorous enough. But I reckon I did pretty good on my IGCSEs.</p>

<p>I’m definitely retaking my SATs, so I’ll probably only be transferring at the end of my sophomore year. Thanks guys. Hope to get my GPA up to 3.75ish.</p>