Transfer (unusual situation)

Transfer Students
1

<p>I applied last year as a Freshmen to Columbia and got waitlisted. Thing is I applied as an international seeking financial aid so that never ends well. I'm trying to transfer into a university in the US after finishing freshmen year at a university in Peru (b/c uni here blows).</p>

<p>Here are my stats</p>

<p>HS (American system school in Peru):</p>

<p>Rank: 1/90 (Valedictorian award)
GPA: 6.7 out of 7 (IB scale)
Full IB Diploma: 6's in all classes except HL math (5). Took 4 HL classes and full Bilingual Diploma (Spanish & English A1 HL)
SAT I: 2210 (770CR, 740M, 700W)
SAT II: 780 Physics, 770 Math II, 800 Spanish, Lit pending (January test)
Awards: Valedictorian award, Bilingual award, Merit scholar (all through high school), Debate award, Excellence in IB social studies award, Excellence in IB English A1 award</p>

<p>University (Industrial Engineering major):</p>

<p>Rank: 76 / 3549 (top 3%) for General studies (first two years of university were all science majors are put together). 20 / 1234 (Top 2%) for Industrial Engineering majors</p>

<p>GPA: University does not convert to US system but I have a 16.56 out of 20 average for the first semester. Anything over a 15 is "only obtained by a few students" (university's words) and is extremely high. They used to convert, but they don't anymore (using the old conversion system my GPA would've been 3.8)</p>

<p>Completed courses (not counting IB): Calculus I, Basic Math (pretty much linear algebra), Theology (required..and it sucked), Philosophy I (another required), Chemistry I, Intro to Computer Science</p>

<p>Next semester courses: Calculus II, Chemistry II, Physics I, Intro to Industrial Engineering, Drawing for Engineers</p>

<p>EC's:</p>

<p>While at High school I was a member of the Peruvian National Debate Team (Captain for 3 years, made top English as second language speakers at various World Schools Debating Championships).</p>

<p>Also Debate Club for 4 years (president for 1.5 yrs), Mentored Middle School debate, School newspapers, Recycling club</p>

<p>Right now I am a Peruvian Debate Association certified judge and am coaching a team that will attend the Pan-american debate championship.</p>

<p>Please give me your opinion regarding my chances for the following engineering programs</p>

<p>Northwestern (Ultimate top choice :) )
UIUC
USC
Purdue
UMichigan - Ann Arbor
Columbia
Cornell
Stanford</p>

<p>Thank you I will totally chance back.</p>

2

<p>Firstly, your stats seem pretty awesome to me. Purdue is a definite safety. If you don’t get in there I’d be shocked.</p>

<p>I could comment on each individual school but, I’m going to give a bit of a general answer. Some schools don’t ask for high school stats, depending on how many previous college credits you’ve completed, the same goes for test scores. If you’re applying to a school like that, you’re golden. With schools that require test scores, you’re still golden…so I wouldn’t worry too much about that. This is the difficult part. Some schools require new students to complete a semester or a certain amount of credits at their new schools before they’re allowed to apply into their major, in your case it would be the engineering programs. If that’s the case it’s almost to your favor. Transferring directly into a program tends to be a little harder than applying from inside the schools university division. I’d look at each programs requirements regarding core classes and decide which will be a better fit. Applying straight in or applying in the university decision. </p>

<p>With that aside I think you’ll be just fine. Assuming you get financial aid figured out. That tends to be a bit of a pain.</p>

3

<p>No need for financial aid this year :)</p>

4

<p>Perfect. Then I think you’re set!</p>

5

<p>Your stats are good. However,for the more competitive colleges it is usually harder to get accepted as a transfer than as a freshmen.</p>

6

<p>Do you have any ECs for college?</p>

7

<p>Update: I got an 800 in Literature (Jan SAT). As for EC’s, my current school does not really encourage them at all nor are they openly there. So I’m coaching and judging debate for an international and a couple national competitions. This takes away alot of time 5 hrs a day, 5 days a week during January. And approx. 3 hrs a week during the rest of the year without counting judging (which is about 6 hrs in monthly events). I also tutor occasionally for IB and SAT physics.</p>