I am a rising sophomore at a top 60ish LAC and am a member of a varsity athletic team here. Pretty much would not be at this school were it not for the athletics. With that being said, being a student-athlete was not the experience I had hoped for and thus I want to transfer to a school and not play a sport.
I currently have a 3.7 GPA after freshman year with a slew of challenging classes (organic chemistry/Bio,Calc1/2 Macro/Micro econ). High School GPA was also around a 3.7 with 32 ACT and 1450 SAT. Fairly strong EC’s as well, involvement in student government, clubs, leadership roles.
My main question is what caliber of schools should I expect to be competitive at? I am interested in schools such as Northwestern, Vanderbilt and Northeastern, which seem like semi-reaches. Could anyone shed some light on what schools I should realistically be looking at? As well as if the admissions team at such schools take into consideration the strength of my schedule and the time commitment which goes into varsity athletics.?
Thanks!
You need to provide a bit more information. What is your major? Why is your current school not satisfactory (apart from the athletics)? The schools you mention are very different in terms of their transfer acceptance rates and it is likely that you have a better probability at Northeastern than the others but it depends on your major and the kind of case you make for the transfer. It is unlikely that your high school tests scores or GPA will have much bearing on your transfer application after two years at your current school.
I’m currently a chem/math major but am seriously considering switching to Econ as I enjoy it considerably more than chemistry.
Besides athletics, the school culture isn’t necessarily a fit for me. Academics don’t seem to be taken as seriously and the student body has relatively little diversity. Furthermore, outside of attending class, there is negligible academic enrichment opportunities (research, hands on learning etc.). I am currently trying to work out what schools would be reaches or targets and would love some further feedback.
Well, you can look up the transfer acceptance rates of universities pretty easily. That will give you a good idea of whether a specific university is a reach or safety. The question is identifying the places you would like to apply to. If you plan to change to Econ and want research experience, then look for universities that have a graduate program in Economics. it is more likely that you will be able to find a satisfactory research experience there. You can look those universities up on the US News web site. Apart from that, I am afraid I can’t help with specifics as I am a physics professor.
You’re got a shot at all of them. I would say you’re most likely to get into Northeastern, then Vanderbilt, then Northwestern. Try to bring up your GPA to a 3.8-3.9 if possible.
Varsity sports are big commitments. They’re not going to excuse lower grades or anything because of that because many transfer are very committed to things other than sports. They will recognize that because of the time commitment sports require you may not have had the time to gain leadership positions or something, but you said you have gained them, so that’ll look good. Try to bring up your GPA and write killer essays. Your ACT score is only the lower end for all 3 schools, but it’s in the range. Trying to bring it up a point or 2 may help. Best of luck!