<p>DS#2 is a rising hs senior and UVA is far and away his first choice. My guesstimate is that he has about a 50/50 chance of being admitted. If he does not make it in, he's very interested in starting somewhere else and then transferring to UVA. I've found the transfer blog on the UVA web site but I love CC for valuable answers to questions. So. . .</p>
<p>(1) Does UVA prefer students from some schools over others? For example, would they be more likely to admit someone from a close, similar school (like VA Tech) or a possibly more-highly-ranked OOS school? (We are in-state in VA.)</p>
<p>(2) Is it easier to transfer in after one year at another school or two? It sounds like most transfers come in after their second year, but is it much harder to transfer in after one year?</p>
<p>Bottom line, if DS is not admitted at UVA, how can he optimize his chances of eventually being admitted as a transfer student? (And yes--he knows first priority is to do really well wherever he goes.)</p>
<p>I transferred in from Virginia Tech after my first year. It’s really up to you and your son to determine if you’re in a good position to transfer after your first year.</p>
<p>The best way to get admitted as a transfer student is largely the same as getting admitted as a freshman. Take a good amount of AP/IB classes in high school, do well on the exams, achieve a high SAT score, keep up a good GPA (in high school and college), maintain a fairly rigorous course load, and participate in <em>unique and interesting</em> extracurricular activities (being a member of a club isn’t really that notable). I’d say one factor that helped me transfer successfully was that my senior GPA was significantly higher than my other years, and I maintained a high GPA in college. Keep in mind that UVA only sees your first semester grades if you transfer after your first year, so your high school grades become much more important, and working hard that first semester is vital because it’s the only real clue the admissions officers have of how well you perform in a college environment.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t advise selecting a college to attend based upon successful transfer percentages to UVA; you simply never know if it’ll pan out in the end. I would encourage him to apply to UVA as well as other colleges HE REALLY LIKES. If he gets into UVA…fabulous! If not, he should select a school from his list of acceptances where he’d be happiest. He may find after a year he doesn’t want to transfer. If he does, though, admissions will focus primarily on his grades not his school.</p>
<p>How to possibly transfer successfully into UVa (listen closely, this is THE MAGIC ANSWER!!!)</p>
<p>1) Don’t go to another college assuming you’ll transfer to UVa. He’ll be so focused on UVa he won’t get involved in his school. His emotions will suffer and as a consequence his school work will suffer. Bad grades = no UVa. And no, you can’t “work my butt off and get a 4.0 to transfer!”. If you don’t trust me on that, you will get no where.</p>
<p>2) Don’t attend a school because it has a high transfer rate to UVa or you think it’ll give the best transfer chance. Why? See #1</p>
<p>3) Search CC for transfer stuff. I transferred a few years ago so all of my info/posting is still relevant and I’ve tried to do a good job of laying down vital info. .</p>
<p>4) Go re-read #1 again</p>
<p>5) If next December (end of first semester is a good time to evaluate the situation again) he still wants to apply, he needs to think about the reasons he wants to transfer. He isn’t applying to college again, he’s applying somewhere else because he’s unhappy at his school and thinks UVa would make him a happy college kid. He needs to know why, essays are vital. It doesn’t really matter where he comes from as long as his grades are good. He’ll still be considered IS (as long as you still claim him on taxes) which is helpful. He should have good grades from a good school. Transferring after first year will be easier on him in the long run; he’ll get more flexibility in classes/electives, he’ll find an easier time fitting in, and most of all, he’ll spend one more year at UVa.</p>
<p>Shoebox makes really good points. I transferred from Va Tech to JMU and was perfectly satisfied in staying at JMU. I liked the people, I liked the atmosphere and I was doing great academically. I had an apartment lined up with all my friends and was ready to make it my permanent home. However, I surrendered to curiosity and applied to Uva as a transfer just to see if I could make it. I didn’t want to go thru life telling myself I could have gone their and not have the concrete proof. I did not use JMU as a stop gap in a quest to go to UVa, I thoroughly enjoyed JMU. A wild idea popped into my head about a month before the transfer application deadline, I had to see if I could get into the school that I never thought was even a remote possibility a few years ago. It was a win-win for me, if denied, I was in a good situation; if accepted, it would seem to justify how hard I had worked in college. I didn’t care about my chances, because I already knew they weren’t on my side. Come to think of it, they aren’t on anyone’s side when Uva takes about 3 out of every 10 applicants. I did not have many ec’s, I did not have a professor’s recommendation, I did not have stellar high school grades, but I did have good college grades, and a unique perspective. I did all the research myself for: how to apply, what Uva wanted, how to set my self apart in my essays, etc. I can’t tell you the perfect script for how to get into Uva, because every single applicant is different and offers something that someone else doesn’t. I can tell you that its best for one to enjoy the college experience wherever it may be, and if it is somewhere else other than Uva, give it a chance and hopefully it will be like the win-win position I was in. Hopefully all the chips won’t be on the table. Mine never were, and that is partially why I have been accepted to every single college I have ever applied to. “Try your best and you will get the best, whether it is apparent to you initially or not” is the message that a very wise person told me once.</p>