Transfer to Cornell

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am newly registered at College Confidential, but I have been browsing around for the past few weeks. There is a lot of good information on here, and I sort of wish I would have found this website while I was still a senior in high school. </p>

<p>Last spring, I didn't quite into the college I hoped to get into, MIT. I realize transferring there is quite hard to do, so I have looked at other colleges. Its not that I necessarily dislike the college I am currently at (University of Florida) its just that I never really wanted to go here in the first place. I know I have to give it more time to see if I really want to transfer out, but in the mean time, I have a couple questions about Cornell.</p>

<p>I am currently a freshman at UF and I am trying to decide on whether to apply to Cornell for Fall 10 or Spring 11, assuming I do decide to go through with the transfer process. Basically I want to know if staying an additional semester will give me a better chance at transferring into Cornell.</p>

<p>High School Stats:
Class Rank: 8 out 420
GPA: 3.97 unweighted, 4.92 weighted
SAT: 640 Reading, 660 Writing, 770 Math (Composite: 1410, 2070)
SAT II: Math II - 730, Physics - 730
APs: Junior Year - US History (5), Calculus AB (5), English Language (4)
Senior Year - Environmental Science (4), Government (5), Physics B (4), Statistics (4), English Literature (4)
Awards: AP Scholar (2008), AP Scholar with Distinction (2009), National AP Scholar (2009), Math Department: Most Outstanding Student (2009), and a couple highest academic achievement awards and principal's honor roll awards in various subjects.
ECs: President of National Honor Society, Track and Field for 2 years (Co-Captain for one of the years), Engineering Club, Brain Brawl member, Brain Bowl member (social science version of brain brawl)</p>

<p>Probably my most notable accomplishment as president of NHS was helping start and support an ESE tutoring program at the local elementary Charter school (my high school was also a charter school). I also boosted membership participation by over 30% since in previous years, NHS at my school was a club that a lot of people joined then ended up doing nothing in.</p>

<p>I also represented my high school in a Math and Science competition and at a leadership seminar at UF.</p>

<p>College Stats:
Not much so far, currently a member of the honors program at UF. Just joined a Leadership Engineering Group as well.
Current Major: Electrical Engineering
Current Schedule:
Calculus II, Physics w/Calculus I, Comparative Politics, Professional Communication for Engineers, and an Intro to Electrical Engineering Course (15 credits in total)</p>

<p>I am confident I will pull a 3.75 or above this semester. </p>

<p>Another thing to note is that I am 90% sure I will be doing an internship at a company over the Summer.</p>

<p>So if I applied to Cornell for Fall 2010 would I stand a good chance at gaining admission, or would I stand a better chance if I waited until Spring 11 to further strengthen my application?</p>

2

<p>I’d say apply Fall because it is worth the effort and its nice starting out in the fall with the autum crisp and blank slate attitude.<br>
Just be careful because confidence can set in, and coupled with an unchallenging environment it can make very bright students get a low GPA.</p>

3

<p>Hi mmangan91,</p>

<p>I transferred to Cornell last year so maybe I could help a bit. I would recommend applying for Fall 2010 because the difference in difficulty between matriculating in Spring versus Fall is–seriously–negligible. You have good HS stats and as long as you maintain a 3.75+ I would say you stand a decent shot at transferring. I’m not as familiar with the Engineering school’s admissions policies but I do know that the engineering school is one of Cornell’s flagships.</p>

<p>I personally transferred with something in the 3.8-3.9 range after two years of undergrad. Also, if you are denied this time around, don’t let that discourage you from trying again the following year. I noticed that the most successful pool of applicants are Junior year entrants who proved that they could handle a solid college workload. </p>

<p>Just push that GPA higher and shoot for it. Best of luck.</p>

4

<p>Thanks Donnasaur and Jay1020. If I do end up going through with the transfer process, I shall be applying in the fall as both of you advised.</p>