Transfer Student - Dire Situation

Hey everyone. I am a 1st year transfer student who wants to go to William and Mary next year. The problem is, I have an extremely rough first semester. I gained 30 pounds and I failed most classes. I know the chances of getting into William and Mary now are nil, but I still want to give my all to write the best application so that I can

If I took very challenging courses 2nd semester, got all As, and wrote about how I lost 80-70 pounds over the course of it. Do you think there would be a remote chance of me being accepted?

I could also send the college pictures as proof, and they would have my mid-quarter grades as proof

I currently have a BMI of 39 (30 is the cutoff for obesity) and I’ve lost around 15 pounds over Winter Break, plus I’ve been making progress with a pyschatrist which has helped me with work. So it’s not just bluffing and wishful thinking when I mention this stuff, it is a very attainable goal if I push hard.

@StarcraftFanatic Not sure if this has anything to do with your situation but my DD was denied at W&M, she called about why and was told her ACT was a bit low but that she was an exceptional candidate for a transfer (I don’t know why they didn’t just defer her if that was true but whatever). She asked what she had to do to transfer and was told to retake the ACT, do well with her grades and most importantly to get really involved whereever she attends. Not to do a lot of everything but to have focus, pick a couple of things and really get involved. She said that was key. She decided against it however but perhaps that will help you. good luck, its an amazing school!

You had a very rough semester, gaining a lot of weight, and failing most of your classes. My advice is that you head to the counseling center on your campus, and get help sorting through whatever it was that caused last semester to leave you in such bad physical, emotional, and academic shape. When you have yourself back on track, you will be able to decide what to do about transfer aplications.

Sorry, but losing weight isn’t one of the assets or qualities a highly competitive college seeks. I’m not sure how you even explain that your first semester in college knocked you off your game without them worrying the same would happen if you transfer there. And are you serious about sending before/after pics or kidding?

Why do you want to transfer? If you do adjust to the current school, improve grades, maybe it’s best to stay there.

        If this is a real post, the weight thing makes you look mentally unstable. That won't be a sell to any transfer school.

I would say that you had a difficult time and that you struggled with some personal issues during that time period, but not send the pictures to the school. If I were the school personally, I would want proof from your application that you can handle your courseload and get good grades all the way through, and that might not come after a couple of semesters under your belt. I would be vary wary about accepting a student with only mid-quarter grades if the last semester did not go well. They want to accept students that can academically succeed because William & Mary is an academically challenging school, so you want to prove to them that you can do that.

Are you currently studying from community college? There are some guaranteed transfer agreements between William & Mary and some of those schools, so you can check if you would qualify for any of those. It might make sense to wait a couple of semesters to transfer or look at some alternative options. You want to highlight things about you that would make yourself a good candidate.

If this post is real, and if you failed all your classes, you aren’t getting in … anywhere as a transfer. Work on your issues at your current school. I’m guessing you’re on academic probation.

@cloudysmom My thanks to you! I actually have a very high SAT score but for the reasons I laid out in the post I had a pretty bad problem with self esteem and grades. Now that is changing and hopefully I can prove that change to the admission officers.

@shawnspencer Actually no believe it or not. I’m currently at VCU, another decent college close to William and Mary. What’s good is that I actually did withdraw from a class earlier in the semester before I did too much damage, so that saved my GPA somewhat, but it really is in the dumpster right now. I’m going to try and talk to the dean to get an exception to the academic probation (which I am on to answer @itsgettingreal17 's question.

@StarcraftFanatic You have been given some good advice here and unfortunately I don’t think the weight loss thing will mean much to W&M so I would not really talk about it or send pictures. @shawnspencer gave you some great advice and one I had forgotten about. There are several CC’s that actually do guarantee you get into W&M after 2 yrs I think it is. My DD considered this route but decided it just wasn’t for her. If you are determined to go there, which I totally understand, this would be a great way to do it.

You are at VCU which I understand people really like and perhaps really doing well there, getting through the depression which I assume is why you gained weight and failed - is really key before you go anywhere as challenging as W&M. If you refer to the weight gain/failing I would just call it depression and adjustment to college and leave it at that as long as you can show your more recent grades are very much improved. Good luck and congrats on turning things around, that is a huge accompishment, be proud and let it push you onward!

Out of curiosity what are you looking for at William & Mary that your current school does not offer? I agree with @cloudysmom that it may be worth taking a look at your previous semester and finding ways to improve, alongside addressing any mental health/physical health concerns before transferring. You might even be able to work to get off of academic probation. Some of those things may be more difficult to figure out in a more challenging environment.

If you are determined to transfer to William & Mary, here is information about transferring via the guaranteed transfer agreement from a Virginia Community College: https://www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/how-to-apply/transfers/vccs_students/guaranteed_admission/vccsagreement/index.php.

And here is information about transferring via Richard Bland Community College, a community college that is linked to William & Mary: https://www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/how-to-apply/transfers/rbc_students/guaranteed_admission/index.php.

Personally I feel like you need to make sure that you address many of the issues that affected your previous semester before transferring and like any candidate you need to provide a strong compelling reason for them to accept you. I think if you are aiming to transfer by next semester, that is not likely to be realistic and it sounds like you are trying to escape some of those issues by transferring to a more rigorous college. There’s a lot you can do between now and then if your intent truly is to transfer to William & Mary, but there is also things you can do at your current institution to make your academic goals a reality.

@cloudysmom

I’m definitely determined to go to W&M. I just don’t know if it would actually be constructive to go through the community college route as that would just add an additional 2 years on top of this coming semester. To be honest, I wanted to show them how I lost weight becasue I think it would be telling of broader pyschological change, and would possibly persuade them more to the idea that I’ve gotten better in general.

Thank you for the encouragement!

@shawnspencer
Personally, I really like William and Mary’s Political Science program. I’ve been following it for a pretty long time despite not even being a part of the school myself, and I like what I see. Poly Sci is my major and I think it would be a very good idea to have the bulk of my education in that field done at W&M hands down.

I know the chances of transferring at the end of this coming semester are nil, but I still think it’s a good idea to make the best possible application for practice because I want to apply for the next semester and then the semester after that, so I have 2 more chances after this. If it works, then whoopie! I got in and I’d be ecstatic, if not I’ll try again.

Thank you for the resources by the way. I do definitely need to deal with these issues, but I view W&M as more of a long-term goal than a short term reaction.

Good luck! There’s a redditt thread out there about a student who applied to the transfer three times to William & Mary, but was able to get it on his third try. In the meantime, there are a great deal of opportunities to get involved in local politics in Richmond because you are in the capital of the state. This can be through volunteering, interning, research, and more. I am also currently a government major at W&M, so if you need more information later on, hit me up.

@shawnspencer

Sweet, I’ll definitely check out that thread and perhaps post on Reddit about my situation as well. I appreciate the help by the way and yeah I’ll definitely try to see what I can do in terms of interesting extracirriculars.