i’m sorry this is the 3rd time i’ve posted this, but my threads have gotten plenty of views and no answers. i’d really like to know the reality of what i ought to be doing this semester-
I know I’m definitely not the first student who has dreamed of transferring to Brown, but given my current status I’d like to know what the consensus is on how I’d be most likely to get there.
I graduated HS in the spring of last year with a GPA that only barely allowed me to walk. I was in the IB program and took the most rigorous classes my school had to offer, but I hardly turned in my work and eventually dropped out of the program. I got all 4s and 5s on my AP tests, however, and 6s and 7s on my IB tests. My SAT is a 2240, with an 800 in math, though I have yet to test again to try to raise my superscore. I was a varsity debate member, participated in academic league and academic decathlon, and founded a poetry club my senior year. I never applied to any colleges.
I took a break during the Fall of 2014 and now am taking as many credits and honors courses as possible this semester (Spring 2015) at a quality community college, and plan to get a 4.0. I’m on the Mock UN team and have been involved in grassroots committees and protests since the fall of last year. I’m not sure it would be of interest to an AdCom, but I am also currently teaching myself to play the violin.
Would I have a shot at an undergraduate transfer, or is it more likely that I would have to go to a non-Ivy school first as a sort of intermediate? Should I aim to take CLEPs or more IB/AP tests before applying? SAT/ACT? I do plan on getting involved in more extracurriculars and volunteer/internship programs.
Last year. Brown's acceptance rate was 9.2 percent; normally, transfer admissions are even more difficult.
Your high school GPA was probably quite bad (you didn't provide a specific number, but your narrative suffices).
Your performance and attitude were poor ("but I hardly turned in my work").
You took this academic year's first semester off (why, what did you accomplish that would justify Ivy League admission?).
You have yet to receive a single CC grade and, candidly, your assurance that you "plan to get a 4.0" has no credibility.
Your standardized test results are good -- not great -- but they reinforce a perception that you're bright and possibly could do the work, but you're also lazy, undisciplined, and unwilling to devote the exceptional diligence that admission to and success at an "elite" university absolutely requires.
Now, just for a moment, you’re appointed to Brown’s Transfer Admissions Committee. Is there ANYTHING WHATSOEVER in 1 through 6 that would encourage you to support your own candidacy? I don’t believe there is.
Definitely valid points. A large portion of them are centered around my attitude and diligence - issues that were exactly why I felt any attempts towards matriculation exiting high school would be pointless. However, I do believe the rigor I pursued in my courses and extracurriculars shows some desire to be challenged intellectually that was ultimately negated by academic impotence. My goal in getting a 4.0 this semester, as you can imagine, is to disprove that inapparent ability to complete work. My past GPA was due to ethical dilemmas of mine regarding the system I was expected to participate in. I’ll spare you the essay, but, unlike class discussions and tests, homework served no intellectual purpose in my mind, and so I saw it as a representation of the elitist neoliberal mindset of an academia that didn’t truly care about knowledge. Now I’m not such a purist, and I’m willing to accept that educational institutions function as means to ends other than just knowledge. To be frank, a 4.0 in community college is not exactly something I’m struggling to maintain. You do bring up a good point on my gap semester, though, as I was doing very little that can be verified. It might make sense for me to write it then though, right? Independent study/reading/writing, volunteering, music and theater, meeting and advocating locally for civil rights, and spending time at friends’ universities?
Well, I admire your plan, although only time will tell if you can truly stick with it. Even then, putting yourself in the Admissions Officers’ places, what does Brown – the university, classmates, faculty, etc. – gain by taking a risk on a candidate with so much “adverse baggage,” when they have literally tens-of-thousands of applicants – most of whom will be denied – who greatly surpass your performance (and, they’d almost certainly presume, your potential) and who have NO risks and NO “adverse baggage?”