<p>Hi,</p>
<p>For various reasons I'm considering transferring out of Cornell to another college for Computer Science. Right now I'm in Arts & Sciences here, so it's not a typical engineering degree where you take physics and chem, so I've only taken one Physics: Mechanics class here.</p>
<p>I've already applied to the UCs since I'm from California, but what other options could there be for a strong Computer Science program where I actually have a chance? My overall GPA is around 3.14 and 3.64 in CS (but 2.67 in math, oops). I'm still interested in grad school but I suspect my low GPA is slowly taking me out of the running. A master's degree and then just working as a software engineer/etc back home in the Bay Area would be great too.</p>
<p>I did undergraduate research last semester and am continuing this semester, so I could get a rec from that...otherwise I'm not entirely sure who I should ask. My freshman writing professor loved me, but that's not CS related. I don't think I'm that bad a student - I'll be interning at Google this summer and might have a published paper in CS (decisions in March). I'll just keep going to Cornell if Berkeley doesn't work out since the program and opportunities are so good, but is there any hope for me anywhere else? I've been looking at Brown, Pomona, Williams, Rice...</p>
<p>Forgot to mention that I’m a sophomore now, so I don’t think my high school stats matter much: </p>
<p>SAT: 2360
SAT Math: 800
SAT Lit: 750
SAT Biology: 750
HS GPA: 3.88</p>
<p>If working in the computer industry in the bay area is something you’d want to do after graduating with a bachelor’s degree, consider SJSU and UCSC at least as backups (though it would have to be winter/spring 2012 since the fall 2011 deadline has passed). Recruiters are far more likely to go to a local school like SJSU or UCSC compared to an out of area school of otherwise similar reputation.</p>
<p>SJSU and UCSC are HUGE steps down from Cornell; that would definitely not be OK by me.</p>
<p>Did you want someone to say that because you are going to Cornell a 3.14 will get you into Berkley, Mudd, Stanford, or Caltech? You can give them a shot but the answer will probably be no. You can probably get into most any school in the UC system other than Berkley, or UCLA. Perhays try Cal Poly SLO or if you want to be out of state try RIT. Honestly no matter where you go even if you pull a near a 4.0 the rest of you time at school you will still have to list something in the range of 3.5 as your overall gpa. Perhaps just stay at cornell and work toward an upward trend with a strong in major gpa.</p>
<p>I would stay at Cornell. I’m sure 99/100 people would do anything to go to an Ivy League school and even with straight 4.0’s for the next 3-4 semesters, I think it’d be hard to boost your cumulative GPA up to a 3.7+ and I don’t think it’d be a whole lot easier to maintain a high GPA at another school, even if you did transfer down to a UC.
IMHO, the GPA is too low to transfer to an equally prestigious school like you want to do and it’d be too much of a risk to transfer down. (Not to mention you’d be sacrificing all that hard work you did in HS to even get into Cornell)</p>
<p>Well…yeah, I just had no idea what the criteria is for transfer admission so I was looking for people to tell me what/if anything was doable. Cornell is clearly no slouch and I have great research opps and have been able to take advantage of recruiting here (Google), so it looks like I’ll just hang tough for the next two years…</p>
<p>Sorry if I sounded pretentious in my last post. I’d be willing to go to around UCSD level, but otherwise it’s just not worth it.</p>