Transfer from WPI

Transfer Students
1

<p>I am a sophomore at WPI and I am considering transferring out for a few reasons:</p>

<p>First of all, it is quite expensive, even with the scholarship I am getting. When I decided to come here, a few influencing factors were a small environment with personal attention, small classes, dedicated faculty, and research opportunities. </p>

<p>Honestly, I have been somewhat disappointed, especially wth CS courses. The ECE department here is quite good in my opinion and I could not think of many ways it could be better. In the CS and math departments, classes are large (~400 majors + more robotics + imgd students with 23 TT faculty in CS) and it seems that grades are quite inflated (last semester, I got a 4.0 taking 7 classes without too much work). I had a bad first semester due to time management but after that it really has seemed like a breeze (even though I am now taking 2 upper division courses). Undergrad research opportunities are also very hard to get early on in the CS department. I am now overloadng with a graduate course (which is one of the best courses I've had here) but the workload doesn't seem that much.</p>

<p>Also, I want to take more non-engineering courses but the variety here is naturally quite poor (this isn't something I should really be complainng about).</p>

<p>I am considering transferring to UMass-Amherst (in-state) since it isn't too selective and seems to have an exceptionally good CS program and a good ECE program (the computer science courses seem to cover a lot more than at WPI surprisingly and they have more selection at the graduate level).</p>

<p>I am also thinking of some other schools, perhaps University of Southern California, UPenn, Cornell University, Rice University, and Dartmouth College (not really looking at OOS publics since my brother is going to an expensive and prestigious college and I need financial aid).</p>

<p>I don't know whether this is a wise choice. Please help me. I have a few very good friends here and there are some exceptionally smart students here as well. However, the overall "tech" school atmosphere here isn't overly appealing to me.</p>

<p>Stats:
Year: sophomore
GPA: 3.6 (should be 3.72 by end of semester)
Major: ECE, Computer Science
Minor: Math
HS GPA: 4.6/5.0 W, 3.7 UW
Miscellaneous activities and EC's (not really too notable) and an internship at a local company with a good recommendation from my boss</p>

2

<p>The first question you need to have a good answer for is this one:
How much can your family afford right now? </p>

<p>The second question that you need to have a good answer for is this one:
What is your FAFSA EFC, and what is a likely CSS Profile EFC?</p>

<p>The third question is:
What do you know about the financial aid policies for transfer applicants at the universities on your list?</p>

<p>If you need financial aid in order to attend any of those universities, but don’t qualify for aid, they will simply be unaffordable. In which case, you probably are better off staying where you are.</p>

<p>If the the money issue can be worked out, then you need to look at the coursework that you have taken so far to see how well it matches up with the offerings in the departments that you would be applying to. You also need to look at the course catalogues to find out more about their offerings in the non-CS areas, and whether or not there would be flexibility in your schedule to take advantage of them. Of the universities on your list, Cornell and UM-Amherst have the broadest offerings overall. They are the two that I would investigate first.</p>

<p>You also should find out if it is possible for you to take a semester or year abroad or in another type of exchange. Does WPI offer that? If so, it could give you an opportunity to spend some time in an environment less dominated by tech. coursework.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

3

<p>Thanks happymomof1 for your great advice. I have a few more questions</p>

<p>

Thanks. I know Cornell is quite prestigious and would open a lot of opportunities. UM-Amherst, not so much; prestige level is probably equal to WPI (less in the region; somewhat greater internationally). One of the reasons I chose WPI is because of their claim of high job placement; the career fairs here are quite good. I got an internship last summer, but by applying online.</p>

<p>Would UM-Amherst’s reputation enable me to work in as good a company as WPI would? Would CS/ECE classes there be any more challenging? Their syllabi seem to cover a lot more but classes there are 4 units as opposed to 3 units here. Grad CS courses there seem much more challenging than their equivalent counterparts here and they seem to have many more research opportunities. Also, they have a guaranteed MS with funding at a top 20 program with a 3.6+ GPA. Nothing similar offered here, though there is a 5 year BS/MS program.</p>

<p>Also, transferring sounds painful and intimidating. Is it really that bad?</p>

<p>

Really < $25k would be ideal. My EFC is $26k and I am taking $3k in loans. I wouldn’t be willing to spend too much more than that (unless it was an Ivy, even then) since I don’t want to be too indebted upon graduation. I made $$$$ last summer with my internship which I contributed towards tuition and expect to get an internship this summer too.</p>

<p>

Cost of UMass is less than what I can afford so that is fine. I think the other colleges meet all need for transfers using whatever definition of need that makes sense to them. The issue with Ivies and ilk is that they may be too competitive.</p>

<p>

They have projects you can do abroad but they are quite expensive and so I am not really considering them. The notion of paying US tuition to attend a foreign college for a semester alongside students paying much less honestly isn’t too appealing to me. I might want to do my MS/PhD abroad.</p>

4

<p>Also, UMass, like other publics, seems to have a lot of budget cuts so I don’t know how wise it is to transfer there. The computer science department, though, has hired 2 new faculty members and has 47 faculty members for around 370 undergrads. ECE also seems to have lots of $$$. But I like ECE@WPI a lot for many reasons and couldn’t iimagine other universities being too much better in that respect.</p>

5

<p>shameless bump…</p>

6

<p>due to the financial and your stats factors, I’d say stay at WPI would be a better choice. to be honest, an ‘upgrade’ would require some thing like UCB, CMU, MIT or Caltech, which you have no means to get there.</p>

<p>Get the best of WPI and try to get a more challenge program in your MS/Phd quest.</p>

7

<p>Okay that sounds solid. I think the best idea would be to stay for another 2 years. I probably can’t get into MIT, Caltech, CMU, or UCB as a transfer due to the competitiveness of those schools as well as the nature of transfer admissions (was WL from CMU for UG though). I will probably have a tough time affording UCB or CMU as a transfer even if I do get in due to their financial aid policy for transfer students and OOS students.</p>

<p>But just one question: would transferring to USC, Rice, Johns Hopkins, Penn, Brown really not be useful? I think if I apply to all of those schools (less competitive than transferring to ECE@CMU/Caltech/MIT/UCB), there might be a chance of at least one admit. I might try CMU and Cornell even though they are more competitive. By spring, I should have a 3.76 and I am working hard to find research opportunities and other opportunities. I have a friend who transferred to CMU from here successfully.</p>

8

<p>the operative word here is not admit, but Financial aid.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

9

<p>My older sister went to WPI (kind of a ghetto town lots of pushers…last time i went to visit her neighbour was a crazy crackhead …lmao) for undergrad & currently now for grad school to get her masters. She wants to hopefully go to Harvard for her PHd.</p>

<p>She’s a Biomedical engineer (had a high gpa 3.8+)…and so far she’s had tons of great job offers & (paid) internships at places like NYU for example. I believe that WPI is an excellent school…and it has a very good/high job placement…and i’ve heard the graduates get one of the best starting salaries compared to other schools…</p>

<p>I don’t think transferring to Zoo-Mass, jk “UMass” ( my cousin goes there…sry,random.) would be a good choice. I would say probably Cornell or Penn’s SCEAS in terms of prestige/reputation.</p>

<p>Good Luck!! :)</p>

10

<p>

Wow. Good luck to her. People out of WPI have done Ph.D.'s at Harvard so I am sure it is possible.</p>

<p>

Yes I agree with this, although being an engineering school in the northeast can’t hurt when it comes to starting salaries.</p>

<p>

I agree with this looking back. WPI has a stronger rep in the northeast and a part of why I got a paid internship my first summer must have been because of WPI’s rep. Not to say that UMass is bad but I realize it definitely isn’t worth transferring to in my situation.</p>

<p>

I decide to try and transfer, this is where I will aim. I might not transfer after all because ECE here is exceptional (though I have qualms about the CS program here).</p>