<p>I goofed off in high school, plain and simple.</p>
<p>I didn't really care very much about my grades or where I ended up in college, and as a result, my scores from my 4 years in high school were less than stellar. Something like this:</p>
<p>4.0 weighted GPA (3.4 Unweighted)
7/25 rank
SAT- 1980 (M-680 CR-680 W-620) (Note: With more studying, I believe I could have pulled a 2100+)
SATII subject tests M1-650 CR-690
I got 2 sub-80 scores on my transcript, the rest were all between 85-96 or so.</p>
<p>However, I've turned over a new leaf. I want to work my a** off and get into MIT, the school of my dreams. Do you think it's even possible, or likely, that if I worked hard enough, I could transfer from the University of Maine in Orono(flagship university in Maine, strong in engineering) to MIT?</p>
<p>Note: I'm currently a senior in high school, I'll be graduating in June and attending UMO in the fall.</p>
<p>If this helps, I also know a former MIT professor quite well, and also have a friend who is currently a freshman there.</p>
<p>Nobody has any ideas?</p>
<p>Likely? No. Transfer admissions is incredibly unpredictable, even rougher than normal freshman admissions.</p>
<p>That said, of course it is possible, and it’s worth a try 
Just don’t hang your future on getting into MIT.</p>
<p>While it’s true that the admissions rates for transfer are incredibly low, you are also competing against a somewhat less qualified applicant pool (after all, the strongest applicants got in to MIT or other top college the first time around). That said, it is still extremely difficult. With fewer applicants and fewer spots however, for transfers, I’d think that “soft” factors would play a larger role. Make sure you have a very strong reason for transfer and convey this well in your essays. Ask your friend for specifics as to why MIT and its culture would suit you. Make sure you develop strong relationships with your professors early on in the short time span you have, so you can have amazing recs.</p>
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<p>It’s more like nobody has any expertise. The “experienced” commentators on this board have seen a great many applicants over the years and can draw some conclusions based on recognizing patterns (eg. “No, that extra AP exam is not likely to be the difference between being admitted or not”, etc.) </p>
<p>Given that transfer applicants are so ridiculously rare, usually single figures each year, nobody on this board with the single exception of MITChris, has anything like the expertise to comment. Yes, I know that the internet is the home of uninformed commentary, and that CC is often particularly good/bad at that (“Oh no, you cannot get into MIT without 4 patents”), but when it comes to transfer applications, nobody really knows.</p>
<p>I agree that everything that 1123581321 says makes a great deal of sense. I will note that the brightest undergraduate I knew when I was at MIT (which is a very strong statement) was a transfer from a midwestern state university. My personal view on transfers, which is uninformed, paraphrases MITChris’ views on international applicants: MIT’s successful transfer applicants are “out-of-this-world” good. They have to be.</p>