<p>Hi I'm a sophomore student looking to transfer out of my local state school. I've previously taken a year and a half off for personal reasons and only went to college part-time for another year, all of which has slowed down my college education considerably. I had originally attended Tulane from 05-08 but ended up failing out with barely any credits. I then took a year off and re-enrolled at Central Connecticut State University first as a part-time student eventually becoming a full time transfer. I'm planning to transfer again for Fall 2011 as a philosophy/cognitive science or philosophy/neuroscience double major. My stats in brief:</p>
<p>3.7, 62 credits (42 GPA hours), Honors program
1490 out of 1600 SATs
700 writing, 680 Math II
Roughly 2.9 unweighted high school GPA at a Founders League boarding school in Connecticut.
Some work experience but no outstanding extracurriculars. </p>
<p>I'm not sure where to look. As a starting point I plan to apply to UConn, Wesleyan and U of Rochester. What are my chances? What other schools should I look into? I have no preference for school type or location aside from having a strong liberal arts curriculum and a chance at getting into a decent grad school. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>What is your Tulane GPA? There’s no getting around that they’ll be looking at that too. How could you have been there for years with few credits, normally you’ll be asked to leave if it’s that bad.</p>
<p>Clearly there’s more to the story if you made it through a FL BS. Top colleges will need to understand.</p>
<p>My Tulane gpa is under 2.0, most of them are Ws. I took a semester off during my time there and because of the hurricane I went somewhere else for my first college semester. I’m not full pay.</p>
<p>OK, trying to get the full picture.
– below average high school performance at good HS; good scores
–3 years at Tulane that look very messy
–year off. What did you do?
–return to state school and do well. Unclear how long you’ve been there.</p>
<p>What will adcom do with this?</p>
<p>Probably start by assessing how much of a risk you are. You’re clearly very bright and capable, but what happened? Are you planning to tell them?</p>
<p>Mental health problems are often the first guess and this scares adcom. So somehow you need to assure them you’re in good shape.</p>
<p>So after that, why should they accept you? Especially schools like Wes which need to turn away the majority of qualified candidates without a glitch? Most of the privates you should look at will not be need blind for aid. What will you tell them you have to offer?</p>
<p>At this point you need to take your talents and use them in some way on your campus that will make you of interest to others. You’ve got a great background, let it work for you. Good luck!</p>
<p>I did have mental health problems. They are sorted now but I’m not sure how I can assure admissions of my good health. Regarding tuition, if I tell them I’m full pay will that increase my chances? </p>
<p>I was off with the timeline. I was at Tulane for two regular semesters and one summer semester from spring of 06 to spring of 07. I took fall of 06 off. During my year off from 07 to 08 I lived and worked in a foreign country. I attended CCSU from spring of 09 until now. You are right that I don’t really have anything of interest to offer compared to other applicants. I’m applying for fall of 11 so there’s also very little time left. I plan to sell myself as a good philosophy student with hopefully an appealing recommendation from my department head. Other than that I can only try my best to impress during the interviews.</p>
<p>I would like to ask if you think I should even bother with private schools like Wesleyan or only stick to less selective public universities? Can you gauge my chances for UConn? I understand public schools are very competitive now given the state of the economy. Thank you for the advice.</p>
<p>This is a hard one. I think you certainly have a shot at UConn. And I think privates as competitive as Wes are unlikely.</p>
<p>But there are many less competitive privates I would look at if you can afford them. That’s why I asked about full pay. Not so much because it would improve your chances, but because it would open up the possibility of many privates that might work with you but not give you aid.</p>
<p>I’m thinking schools on the LAC list between 30-50. There are many quite good schools there that would appreciate your potential and work with you.</p>
<p>I think you want to work very hard to well position your past few years. If you can do that one or two bigger reaches can also be attempted, but probably not on the level of Wes. If you’re female, women’s colleges like Smith and Holyoke would certainly be worth a shot.</p>