Hi,
I’m currently a first year student at McGill University in Montreal. My academics and ECs are pretty superlative and feel that I have a legitimate reason for transferring. But one thing is kind of unnerving to me — the high school transcript. The first two years of high school for me were abysmal. I was extremely anxious, and my parent’s divorce hugely exacerbated the condition. I had a considerable amount of Cs and Ds, finishing with around a 75 average through my freshman and sophomore years.
But I discovered my passion for learning and education during the summer of grade ten, and while I received therapy for my anxiety disorder I began reading obsessively. When I returned back to school, I was getting straight As. So I’m wondering, will these first two years be at all consequential? Will they make or break me? I feel Brown would be such a good fit, it’s so upsetting to think that something that was out of my control could lead to my rejection.
I think that if McGill was able to see through the mediocrity of your early HS years, then Brown would likely do the same, especially since you have a year at an excellent university to show how you can handle college work. That said, getting into Brown as a transfer is even harder than getting in from high school, so your odds are long and you should prepare yourself that it is tough for anyone.
Ughhhh so stressful. I hope they’ll look past a small part of my academic career.
IIRC, my HS GPA was a 2.7 UW. Should I even bother applying?
Does Brown require your high school transcript? I have heard that there are some schools that waive having to see your high school transcript if you have two years of college. I don’t know whether Brown has some leeway on that. The HS average is probably less of a concern than if you were applying as a regular student, and they may give you some slack because you had straight As when it counted and the college transcript is exceptional. I don’t speak from experience, but it seems to me that situations like yours are a reason that schools have transfer programs: there are late bloomers and people with especially difficult situations during high school that call for a second look if they have proven their academic chops in college.
Anyway, McGill is an excellent school and if you stay there you will end up with an education equal to an Ivy League degree; I’m not sure why you want to transfer to Brown.
Thank you kindly for your answer. I want to transfer because of my love of American politics. I plan on becoming an American citizen and hopefully working in the public sector before getting my JD, so I’m thinking an eminent school like Brown would offer me a more expansive knowledge in the topic as well as name recognition.