hey guys, I was lookin for some advice (no hate please)
I’m currently a student at a “T20” school with a 3.7. I applied to transfer to two schools last semester with a slightly lower GPA and got rejected.
I don’t think my application was very eloquent nor good last semester and I am worried that will negatively affect my transfer chances this year because my reasoning to transfer was phrased poorly (I talked about lack of academic freedom which I could have evaded, stupid, I know).
I want to transfer from my current institution due to a variety of academic and personal reasons including racism, institutionalized homophobia that has become apparent (sorry cough Notre Dame), etc. The location is another significant reason I would like to leave. However, I am worried that some of the schools I am looking at (Penn, Brown, Columbia) may reject me because of my lower GPA. I am not intentionally “prestige chasing” but my family has made a lot of sacrifices for me to attend my current school and 1) I would want to transfer to a university considered better or at the same level as my current school and 2) I want a better location. Should I at least try to transfer at this point? Will they even take students with GPAs below 3.8 seriously (given how many 4.0 applicants there are)?
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What is your major? What year of university are you in?
I would expect it to be difficult to transfer to a Top 20 university with a 3.7 GPA. Yes, I do know students with 4.0 GPAs or higher (A+'s count as 4.3 or 4.33 at some universities). You would need to articulate a good reason for transferring.
Do you have a good in-state public university with a good program in your major? Sometimes transferring closer to home to an affordable school that is a better fit is worth a drop in the “prestige” level.
The world is not perfect. Most of the time we need to do as well as we can in the imperfect place that we are.
However, there is little harm in applying to transfer. The risks I can see are: (i) Putting effort into transfer applications that do not pan out; (ii) Getting accepted, transferring, and discovering that you do not like it any better; (iii) Transferring, and finding that you do not know the professors as well and therefore have more trouble finding internships.
In general schools will not hold it against you that you were trying to transfer out. Graduate schools will not hold it against you that you tried to transfer in and were not accepted. Neither will hold any grudges. I would not make a big deal about this to your fellow students because “I want to transfer out of here” is not going to make you friends among your fellow students.
I would try to avoid or minimize debt if you can, particularly if you have a major that is likely to require graduate school or for which getting a good job is “non-trivial”.
I applied to transfer to penn last spring and even coming from a higher ranked school, great gpa, awesome recs, and activities I was not accepted. College admissions are really hit or miss so I’d say it’s really hard to guesstimate without trying anyways. For example, BC is another school thats ranked in the 40s but is one of the hardest schools to transfer into. You can also get a great education at a 30 or 20 ranked school- at any top 50 school it can be just as hard as a top 10 because it all depends on the classes you take and how much you stretch yourself out with activities etc. I think it’s entirely worth it to at least try to leave if you’re not happy- you may get in somewhere else and be happier or you stay at a top school and finish with a great degree. Best of luck!!!
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