Hi so I’m currently a freshman in college, I go to a T40 school that is very STEM centric. I applied and chose to go there because I’m good at STEM, even though I’m not very passionate about it. In the past months I have realised a new love for humanities and my school simply does not offer the humanities subjects I hope to take. This is why I plan to transfer next year, to schools that can offer me both.
I plan to apply to Penn, amongst other schools. They rejected me RD last year, but I had applied for a STEM major that I had no true passion for, and I’m sure they could tell through my superficial essays. This time I plan to apply for what I am genuinely interested in (something humanities), I have ECs to back up this new interest and I’m sure my essay will turn out much more genuine and passionate.
But when I applied last year, the high school grades Penn saw were “predicted grades”, my eventual grades did not meet all the predictions. For three subjects I was predicted 5 on, I achieved 4. The rest were all ok.
So my question: would this significantly hurt my chances? I’m presenting myself in a different angle, with more passion, but lower high school grades than what they saw last time - though I don’t think they rejected me because of my grades last year, it was more likely how shallow my essays were.
I also have the chance to retake one of the exams, which would hopefully become a 5, is retaking it worth the extra studying I would have to do on top of my uni courseload? Thanks everyone
In general I think it is a terrible idea to start one college with the intent of transferring out. This will stand in the way of your making meaningful friendships, developing relationships with professors, and getting involved on campus. Then if your transfer doesn’t work out as planned you will be really stuck. I’d go to the college you enrolled in with the intent of staying all four years. It is fine to throw in a couple of transfer applications but don’t count on it working out.
If you apply to transfer, then you will need to send both university and high school grades. If you didn’t get in with a predicted grades of 5, then it seems unlikely that you will get in with actual grades that are lower than that. If you are serious about transferring, then you need to have target schools that are realistic.
The fact that your current school does not have a good program in your intended major is a valid reason to transfer. However, @happy1 is correct that this is likely to get in the way of your getting the most out of your current university.
I would not retake a high school exam at this point. You are in university and you need to focus on university. Any top 40 university is going to be plenty challenging enough without any extra distractions.
Your transfer application result will depend upon your college GPA, school/major applied to & competition from other students seeking to transfer into the same school at Penn.
^^^^Penn does require an official HS transcript and SAT/ACT for transfer students – especially for students transferring after a year of college the HS record does play a part in admissions decisions.