I’m a current sophomore, history and political science double major, planning on transferring, wondering about my chances. The university I attend now is a top-50 public, and I’m here as an instate student (but money is not an issue if I were to get into any school).
Reasons for wanting to transfer are many but mainly I had applied to one of the Oxbridge universities, and was invited for interview, two years in a row (they check your AP scores rather the HS GPA and I have good AP scores but not a very good GPA, which was why I didn’t get into selective American schools). The atmosphere at the university, when I went for interviews, was wonderful. For the first time, I felt like I fit in and was being intellectually challenged. The discussions I’d had during those two weeks (I applied last year and this year) were unlike any I’ve had before, and frankly, I don’t feel that at my current university, a known party school, despite primarily taking 300+ level classes. So many people there were super passionate about the subject they applied for and I can’t find the same enthusiasm for learning at my current school. Anyways, here are my stats:
College GPA: 3.87 (Mid year report will show a 4.0); I had a rough first semester where I got 2 B+s and a C+, but I really turned myself around and got all As following, taking 20 credits second semester of freshman year, and 21 credits first semester of sophomore year, as well as 2 three credit summer classes, and a 3 credit winter class. Most of these classes are upper level, 300+ courses (I would say more than 80%), as I AP-d out of a lot of the intro classes.
HS GPA (very competitive, top ranked, traditional public high school): 3.0-3.2 UW(I don’t remember exactly, but it was really bad, I got a bad case of senioritis, so when actually applying to univeristies it was a 3.4); 4.0 W (it was a 4.2W before the bad case of senioritis hit)
ACT: 35 first sitting; 36 R, 35 E, 34 M&S
APs: 5 5s, 2 3s
SAT Subject Tests: 740 World History, 740 US History, 750 Literature
Extracurriculars: I had a year long internship at a museum freshman year; it’s not super prestigious, but is decently known for specifically it’s collection, which is fairly niche. It does connect to my interests in that it’s a history museum. I also had an internship over the summer that I don’t want to specify, but it connects to my political science major (think: think tank, presidential candidate, along those lines). Additionally, I am an active member in my university’s Quiz Bowl team, and an officer in the two arts and literary magazines here. I volunteer with my university’s chapters of the Big Brother and Big Sister organization, and Petey Greene program, where I tutor those in prison. Planning on getting a research position with a political science professor, but I think it’ll be after the application is due, so I doubt I’ll be able to include that. My HS extracurriculars are laughable; I participated in club that’s a bit like Quiz Bowl, where I received a few gold, silver, and bronze medals, and was a member of the arts and literary magazine, but that was essentially it.
My LORs will be great, I’ve built a really good relationship with two of my professors, both with PhDs from Princeton, whose classes I took last year and this year too, by going to their office hours as well as participating in class. I’ve received As in all the classes I took with them as well.
Finally these are the schools I’m considering: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and Stanford as complete Hail Marys; I know how few students they accept every year, but thought nothing bad came out of trying; Columbia, Penn, Brown, and UChicago as very very high reaches; Northwestern (which would be a very high reach, but they do seem to accept a decent amount of transfers, comparatively?), Vanderbilt, Rice, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Emory, USC, Georgetown, and UMich as reaches/high matches. If there are any other universities I should consider, please recommend them; I’m primarily looking for an urban environment, but a core curriculum vs open curriculum does not really matter; I would enjoy taking the breadth of classes offered at schools with a core, and would probably take a similar breadth at those that don’t have a core. If I don’t get accepted as a transfer to any of the schools I apply to, I’d still be ok with attending my current school, where I am taking full advantage of the opportunities offered, and it wouldn’t impact my future career choice, law, at all, as law schools don’t really take into account the college you attended. A huge thanks in advance and I’m sorry for the word vomit!