Hi all. I’m a transfer applicant looking to gauge my chances. I have a couple questions - feel free to answer any/all.
I attend a T15 school as a sophomore and have a 3.54 currently. I’ve also taken courses for credit from other institutions during J-term and summer, which bring my cumulative GPA up to a 3.71. Will colleges only consider the 3.54?
I have a very strong SAT score, but as a sophomore in college, I’m not sure how relevant this will be. I know grades take precedence, but do test scores have any relevance for sophomores applying out?
Will colleges seriously consider my extracurriculars as a major part of my app? I’ve held several competitive and time-consuming internship positions in the past two years, which I feel should have some impact.
Sorry for the length of this post. I’ve been unable to find any good info online about transfer admissions, so I’d love to hear from anyone with experience in the process. Thanks!
You have to have a compelling reason to transfer. If the transfer is for serious health or financial reasons, then yes, transferring is good. If the school doesn’t have the major you want, and you’re not too far along in your degree…and you can afford the new school, then yes.
If you’re going from a “t-15” to a “t-5” then no. Rankings are the single worst criteria you can use for choosing a college. Why? They don’t provide any useful information. It’s just a group of yo-yo’s saying “this one” is BETTER.
If there was a really compelling reason to transfer, you would’ve said so in the post. I would say, just keep doing what you’re doing. If you want prestige, graduate school would be worth quite a bit more.
My D17 transferred after 3 semesters and she did not need to provide SAT scores to any of her schools. She did have 60 credits, so I’m unclear as to whether she was a sophomore or junior. I see you ED’d to JHU, so I’m assuming you’re there. I went there back in the 80s and although I made wonderful friendships and went on to law school and a successful career, I can see why you’d want to transfer. When I was at Hopkins it was very cutthroat and competitive and also super nerdy. I met my tribe of people despite all this, but if you haven’t done that, I can see why you’d want to transfer.
@coolguy40 I didn’t provide reasons for transferring as I wasn’t asking about my chances. I really don’t prioritize prestige, this is a fit issue as @scorekeeper1 suggested. Many of the colleges I’m looking at are LACs like Wesleyan or Amherst. I really was only looking for answers to those questions I posted about.
@scorekeeper1 Thanks for your answer. You pretty much guessed it — after two years, I still haven’t really found a group of people I mesh with. And adding to that, Hopkins (surprisingly) just doesn’t have many classes that are focused in the areas I’m particularly interested in.
In considering applying for transfer, note that acceptance rates often differ significantly from first-year rates. Amherst, for example, recently accepted 7.7% of its transfer applicants, while Wesleyan accepted 27.4%.