Hey guys, I’m a current freshman looking to transfer out of Vanderbilt. I just have a few questions about the transfer process:
- If I'm looking to transfer for social reasons (which I am, because the whole Southern/greek life thing is really not for me, and I feel like I don't fit in with the student body at all, since I'm a minority from the Northeast) how should I write my transfer essay?
- Is it bad to reuse freshman application essays as a transfer applicant?
- What would my chances of getting into schools like Brown, Rice, Cornell, and Northwestern be? I have a 3.77 at Vanderbilt and I had a 3.94 in high school, as well as a 35 on the ACT
Where were you admitted last year? Why did you choose Vanderbilt over those places? Start with that to help you focus your application list.
Look for an academic reason for the transfer. Since you aren’t on campus at any of your targets (and Rice is a southern place too) you don’t know for certain that greek life will be any less annoying.
Re-read the essay prompts. You’ve changed a lot in the past year. Your essays should reflect the new you rather than the old one.
It isn’t likely that you will get admitted anywhere that you couldn’t get into last year. So if the places in item #3 turned you down last time, they probably will again this time.
I totally agree with @happymomof1, especially about finding an academic reason. You can’t know for sure the culture that surrounds the institutions you’re looking to apply to.
Hey! Good luck with your transfer journey. I’m a Houstonian so I am very familiar with Rice and even though it’s in a geographically-Southern area of the US, they have no Greek Life and the students are very open-minded and quirky. I have a friend who got accepted ED this year (very academically-driven and only slightly into the party scene) who chose to ED Rice over Vanderbilt because of its comparably more academic vibe (so the gist is don’t rule out Rice lol). Good luck! (:
If I got waitlisted at all of them last year, would it be possible to get in this year if I applied again? Also, are there any resources I could use to write the transfer common app essay? I’m not sure how I could write the common app general essay
hmu in pm’s ill send you something that will help