Transfer Chances (Please be harsh)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi all,

I am an undergraduate freshman at Iowa State University and I am looking to transfer to a better school for my area of study coming next fall. Long story short, due to some family and relationship problems, I ended up missing quite a bit of school my freshman year of high school and depression left me with little to no desire to try after that. I went to one of the best schools in Massachusetts (and one of the best public schools in the country). I ended up with around a 2.4 GPA and a 1930/2400 sat cold. Around college admission time I had no idea what I wanted to do so I didn’t care where I ended up.

This is where things changed. In college I thrived off of the increased independence. First semester I received a 3.87 gpa, I was elected treasurer of the Real Estate Investment Networking Club, and was an active member of 4 other clubs. I was also involved in greek life, joining a fraternity and holding a position on the social committee. Furthermore, I took independent study courses in financial modeling and I plan on getting a certification as soon as possible. I also started working on building out a small business in the form of an ecommerce website. At the end of semester I ran for treasurer of the ISU investment group, treasurer of the finance club, and director of membership for REIN club and was elected for all three positions.

Now, since I have figured out what I want to do and it happens that my current school has little to no exposure in that industry, I am looking to transfer.

The schools I am looking to transfer to are:

-University of Michigan
-Cornell
-Georgetown
-Vanderbilt
-UW Madison

Since I have been in mostly lecture classes I haven’t found many teachers who I think would make good recommendations, but I believe this will change second semester.

Specific Questions:
-What are my chances?
-Should I retake SAT’s in the new 1600 format?
-Does anyone have similar experience?
-How much of the information I provided will be relevant to the application process?

Please be as harsh or realistic as possible.

2

I forgot to mention, in high school I managed a restaurant for an average of 32 hours per week during the school year and 40-50 hours per week in the summer.

3

After your HS performance it might be hard to step up from ISU to a highly selective school based on a single semester in college. Would you consider knocking out as many pre-requisite classes at your local CC over the summer? Apply next year for a junior transfer?

4

I would happily consider it, the only problem is I plan on getting an internship this summer so I might not have a large time bank to spend on taking classes. I took 16 credits last semester and am taking 17 this semester. (the credit cap is 18 for non honors students). Would you recommend I wait until spring/fall2018 once I have more credits? Is there a detriment to applying now and reapplying once I have more credits if I do not get accepted?

5

You’re probably going to have to transfer as a junior if you did that poorly in high school. If you kind of think about it, you can’t just mess up all of high school and then just work hard for only four months and all of a sudden you’re going to Cornell. There aren’t really any easy breaks like that.

As a junior you will be safe though, because they will not ask for the HS transcript and SAT scores.