For anyone who enrolls at SU in any other program other than Newhouse (with the hopes of transferring into Newhouse),you may want to know that the cumulative GPA needed for acceptance for Fall 2017 was 3.90. A 3.786 was not accepted for a transfer from CAS (College of Arts and Sciences).
So, basically, the following part of Syracuse’s website is completely misleading. They cover themselves by saying a “3.5 or above” for admission but a 3.9 requirement is a far cry from a “3.5 or above”. The tour guides are also misleading when they tell you that if you work hard and get good grades you should be able to transfer into Newhouse.
From the website: http://newhouse.syr.edu/admissions/undergraduate/faq
“2. Your cumulative GPA (which includes all courses taken at Syracuse University) must meet the GPA cut-off for admission to Newhouse. This varies depending upon the number of spaces available and the strength of the applicants in a given semester, but averages around 3.5 or above.”
Whenever you are admitted to a less selective program and try to transfer to the most selective program it is a crapshoot. You should never enroll at a college with this intent.
Then the school should be completely upfront and transparent about that from the start and not mislead students into thinking that there is a good possibility of transferring into the more selective program by posting an inaccurate GPA range. Yes, it is worded so that they are legally covered. However, an intra-school transfer is always presented as a good possibility (and encouraged if there is a high GPA) at each every tour, info session, accepted student event, etc.
Every year the transfer cutoff is different depending on the crop of students trying to transfer in. Last year, the cutoff for intra-transfers to Newhouse was 3.75; this year it was 3.9. I know this because my kid just got admitted after appealing the 3.9 cutoff. She had a 3.892 GPA! Her appeal was successful (damn fine letter, I might add!).