Transfer from Northwestern...

Transfer Students
1

Hello everyone! I am currently a freshman at Northwestern University. I got in here through regular decision.
However, my dream school has always been Penn and as a matter of fact, I made up my mind to do the transfer pretty much the night I got rejected by Penn on Ivy Day last year.

Here are some stats about me:
College:
School: McCormick School of Engineering [ Also hoping to transfer into Pe
Major: Computer Science and History
GPA: (1st quarter 3.71) mostly because i took a 300-level history course with all juniors/seniors but me and I got a B unfortunately. All my engineering classes are really good.
But I am changing my game plan this quarter. I am taking 6 classes (1 more than last term) and I figure out my time management issue and solution based on last quarter. I am confident that i can pull this GPA up more.
EC:
Research assistant for a CS professor
Independent, school-sponsored research on environmental history(so both science and history related)
Northwestern Impossible Challenge on the topic of climate change
Acapella Group (tenor and outreach director)
College choir for 8 weeks (it’s mostly music major people in there)
Editor for NU Research journal
Startup from high school
Intern in a computer data service company last summer for 6 weeks

High school:
Unweighted GPA: 3.89
Class rank: 7/135
SAT: 2300(CR 730 M800 W770/12)
TOEFL:114
APs: Micro 4, Macro 5, World History 5, US History 5, European History 5 (you can see why i would have the confidence to take 300-lvl history course first quarter oh well), Physics C E& M 5, Mechanics 5, Calc BC 5, Chemistry 5, Environmental Science 5
EC:
TEDx Organizer
ASB Financial Officer
Tour Guide Head
Startup
Jazz choir
Sailing team
…

My reasons for transferring:

  1. Mostly academic: I want to be in a school that has a better integration of engineering and humanities/social sciences. At Penn, I will be able to also do double majors in CS and history. I have to say that Northwestern puts a strong focus on journalism and business (graduate only) that its humanities program is not comparable to a school like Penn. Also, Wharton offers undergraduate degrees/courses with a variety of options while Kellogg only offers limited certificate programs with few to choose.
  2. Research opportunities: With the nature of the school’s focus on its academic areas, Northwestern is not a strong research school. I have a feeling that research is not emphasized equally here as professional training (co-ops, interns etc…). You could make an argument that almost all schools are like this. However, i see at Penn that more of these opportunities are available. Courses are available, also no restrictions on how many times you can apply for a research funding. Penn really takes a lot of effort into making research available to undergraduates. Compared with that, Northwestern did not do that and in effect pay a lot of attention to professional training. I am really grateful for that, but I don’t think it’s the path that i want to take. I want a refined research track.
  3. Some personal reasons that might not be a good idea to include in the essays XD:
    a. I have a preference for coastal areas to live, work and study. I was born in a coastal city, i went to high school in a coastal city and now i am in Midwest. People here are really nice, but I don’t buy the saying that people keep telling me:" Lake michigan is huge and you can pretend that it’s the sea and we are in the coastal area!" It’s just different. I need a place in the East Coast to stay in.
    b. I went to Penn for summer school for 6 weeks during sophomore summer and I absolutely loved it! It gave off such a different vibe that Northwestern. At Northwestern, you can hardly find a person who’s studying not to find a job. At Penn, it’s different. You have a more even distribution of people who want to do research vs. people who work for jobs.
    c. Penn is my absolute dream school. And I am not giving up on it yet.

An important piece of information might be that I am Chinese. I am thinking that this might throw me off a little bit when i apply. Could you guys offer me some advice on my application? My reasons, profile? Do you think the academics are strong enough?

2

The admission rates for transfers are more or less the same as for Freshmen. Since this is your first, year, High School statistics will play a significant part. Your first quarter was strong but it is not significantly more so that your High School stats so you will be in the same situation as last year more or less. With such low acceptance rates, it is not clear that you will have a different outcome. I suppose that since Penn is your dream school, then you only have one transfer application fill out and it will cost you some money but why not give it a try?

As for advice, you need to articulate clearly why Penn is the right place for you and I am afraid that the discussion you have written in your post is not too compelling. Northwestern is an outstanding research university, not too different in quality or quantity from Penn. If anything, you need to focus on the curricular issues that are advantageous for your goals at Penn.

3
  1. You can double major and you clearly have not done much research into Weinberg. There are a ton a McCormick students thriving in both schools. In fact, Northwestern encourages students to double major in Weinberg and one of the smaller schools (I.e. McCormick).
  2. We just got several hundred million dollars extra in research money. There really is no way that you can tell what is emphasized at Penn without being a student and if you are a student, you may not like what you are getting and by then, it is too late. 3.Seriously? You need a coastal area? You would rather be in Philly which isn't near water than at a school that is on the coast of a lake? That makes no sense.
  3. You're just hanging with the wrong people.
  4. Let go of Penn. You're being the person that is holding onto their ex after that have told you that they don't want you.
  5. You're not even giving Northwestern a chance. You couldn't even point out a discernible difference between the schools outside of the fact that Northwestern is Northwestern and Penn is Penn. There are a ton of Ivy League rejects in our school that grow to love NU. You really need to let go and really make the most out of your time here.