<p>Hi, I am going to be a freshman at Cornell University this upcoming year. I applied to UPenn Early Decision and got deferred, then rejected. I was wondering what I should/have to do during my freshman year at Cornell in order to transfer to Penn (either College of Arts and Science or Wharton)? I will currently be going to the Hotel Management School at Cornell. I know the necessary requirements, I need to fulfill like classes, so i'm asking about general grades, extracurriculars, etc? </p>
<p>-Also is it possible to transfer to Penn's CAS, then to Wharton?</p>
<p>Comments:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I think it is a really bad attitude going into freshman year already planning to transfer. I was deciding between Penn, Duke, and Cornell for undergrad and they’re all great schools. Give Cornell a chance.</p></li>
<li><p>When you apply to transfer, apply to the school you really want to be in. You are required to be in your home school for a year, so if you got admitted into CAS for fall 2013, then you couldn’t transfer to Wharton until fall 2014, at which point you would need to do a Wharton degree in two years. I know Wharton transfer apps are really competitive, but if you want to be in Wharton, you should apply to Wharton and not CAS.</p></li>
<li><p>Think about the fact that you are going to be filling out these apps during January of your freshman year. Do you really think they can expect you to be really involved in extracurriculars after just one semester? Just try to get as high of grades as possible, preferably 3.7 or higher (Cornell give a 4.3 for an A+, so it would be sweet if you could have above a 4.0). Also, you will need recs from professors, not high school teachers, so make a big effort to go to office hours and get to know your profs so they have something to write in your recs other than “s/he came to my class and got an A.”</p></li>
<li><p>I think something that is important when transferring is having a really good reason why you want to transfer. If you apply to Wharton, this is easy because you can say “I want to study business but my school doesn’t have an undergrad business school.” My brother transferred last year to Duke, and I think he was successful because he wrote about transferring to engineering and he was coming from a school that didn’t have engineering. If you decide to apply to CAS, pick a major that Penn has but Cornell doesn’t have so you can write a good story about your passion for urban studies or Asian American history or something.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>kansasjays,</p>
<p>External transfers to CAS are NOT allowed to apply for subsequent internal transfer to Wharton. However, if you are admitted to CAS as a sophomore, you are still allowed to apply for dual degrees with Wharton and CAS:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/ugrprogram/advising/internaltransfer_dualdegree/overview.cfm]Overview[/url”>http://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/ugrprogram/advising/internaltransfer_dualdegree/overview.cfm]Overview[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I’ll echo sunkist in that you don’t want to go into college planning on not staying there. I had that mentality for a while and so did a lot of my friends and it just makes it harder. I would wager that by the end of the year you’ll want to stay at Cornell for another 3 years if not more. I chose Penn over Cornell but you’ll make friends and join clubs and the such that will make it worth staying most likely.</p>
<p>I agree with the earlier comments. Give Cornell a chance, and you might find that you really love it. It is a great school. Also, as you are going into Hotel Management, that is an excellent program at Cornell that Penn doesn’t have. Sunkist is a bit incorrect in saying that Cornell doesn’t have undergrad business as they have the AEM program at CALS. Just try your best at Cornell, get as good grades as you can, pursue extracurriculars that interest you, and if you still want to transfer, you should be in good shape.</p>
<p>OOGKillaCam,
that is cruel for no reason and also completely inaccurate. Just because someone did not get in the first time, does not mean that they have no chances if they apply again as a transfer. in fact, the old application isn’t even looked at it, and what one accomplishes in his/her time after initially applying can influence the admissions committee towards an acceptance the second time.</p>