Transfer High Schools to Get Into Top 10%

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello! This is my first post, so I'm not quite sure that I'm using the right forum for my question, so please excuse me on that.</p>

<p>My question is: What is the view on students who transfer schools later in the year? Namely, senior year in my case.</p>

<p>I go to a magnet school with a very small student body. My graduating class has only 200 students and we are incredibly competitive. On a weighted scale, a 4.2 GPA is not even in the top quarter of our class. Students in the 4.5 are fighting to be in the top quarter. With that, my GPA is currently a 3.9 weighted, and I rank in the upper 42% of my class. The percentage doesn't look very impressive because of how small my class is. </p>

<p>I know that in order for me to go to best colleges in my state, which have demanding standards for automatic admission (or just admission in general), I have to rank in my graduating class' top 7% or just REALLY REALLY HOPE I can make myself look appealing enough to be considered. </p>

<p>Now, because my school is a magnet school where students are selected, that means originally I was zoned to go to another 5A high school in my district.
My parents originally did not want me to attend that school because they believed that colleges will praise me for attending a magnet school instead. (The students believe otherwise)</p>

<p>For me, I care more about what school will show me off as a student. I know that 5A school will help me out with admissions tremendously. Their current Junior class has a student body of about 650 students, and I know that if I were to come in, I'd be put into the top 10%. </p>

<p>My friends urge me to transfer high schools and fly up to the top of the class, but I have all these thoughts that prevent me from doing it. </p>

<ul>
<li>First off, if I were transfer high schools and go to the top of the class, would colleges look down on me because it seems like I took the easy way out? Especially since I would be transferring over my senior year. </li>
<li>Can colleges reject me if they are discouraged that I pulled that move? In my state, public schools have to automatically accept applicants who are in the top 7-10% of their class. </li>
<li>Will colleges really give me the benefit of the doubt because I was in a highly competitive class with a small student body, or do they only look at the numbers in the situation? </li>
</ul>

<p>The higher ranked colleges I hope to be in are TAMU or UT.</p>

2

<p>Texas is the only place I’d even consider this, but are you 100% sure that 3.9 weighted would put you in the top 7%? It wouldn’t come anywhere close at our local public school, which is what I assume you mean by 5A school. </p>

<p>I think if UT or TAMU were far and away your first choices, and you’d met with your guidance counselor at the new school and were 100% sure the scores would transfer and that the top 7% cut off is far below 3.9, and there’s not a loophole of some kind you might fall in, it might be worth doing, maybe. But if there’s any chance you’d want a program with holistic admissions, I think this would mess you up, because it would be completely transparent.</p>

3

<p>You will need to check the policies of the district into which you plan to transfer. Many, if not most, in Texas have minimum periods of enrollment/attendance for ranking purposes. usually this requires a full senior year, if not more.</p>