Transferring between "equally good" schools

Hello,

Does anyone know much about situations where a student transfers to a school not much more/less selective than the one they already go to?

I’m at UCSD right now and will have around a 3.4 GPA (I get nearly straight A’s now but the first two quarters freshman year weighed me down lol). I want to transfer to Wellesley. It’s a little harder to get into, but only a little. I know most transfer students usually are “moving up that latter” for apps at good schools, where they come from somewhere generally a bit worse with good grades.

What’s expected of students in my situation? Does being from a similarly selective/ranked school give me a leg up at all? I mostly wanna transfer so I can live right by home.

Thanks!

Because you are applying for transfer with less than a year of college-level marks, the short-cut answer is: would your secondary school record have been enough to get you admitted? (were your grades & test scores in the middle 50% of accepted students?).

UCSD & Wellesley may be similarly ranked (don’t know what ranking system you are using), but they are not similarly selective.

6 days ago your GPA was 2.6. If that was your GPA after Q1 & Q2 was 2.6, and you just got your Q3 marks, the most your GPA could be now is about 3.06; if you get a 4.0 in Q4 the best you can get to by the end of this academic year is 3.3. I think that makes Wellesley an extremely high reach.

However, on another thread you attribute your poor marks in Q1 & Q2 to being worried about your father. If your secondary school record would have gotten you in, and you can get an LoR from a professor who can speak to the quality of your work now, it is not impossible that you could be admitted as a transfer.

If you are determined to be closer to home, you should apply to a range of colleges. Wellesley only accepts 18% of transfer applicants; UMass Amherst (which you mention in another thread) accepts ~80%. Others that might be interesting are Northeastern (36%), Mount Holyoke (43%), and BU (44%). You mention financial constraints on another thread, so check out the NPCs also.