<p>hi so i'm an international student who's planning to transfer for sophomore year. my gpa isn't entirely low (3.6 UW, our school doesn't weight) but our school ranks by percentage points out of 100 and unfortunately, though most of us have very similar GPAs, i was caught on the lower end. i attend a very competitive private school that sends students to top tier schools, so many of us applied to the same place.</p>
<p>I have more extracurricular involvements than almost all the students in our grade, my SAT score is a 2200, i had good recommendations, and while I don't think I can grade the quality of my essays objectively, I clearly showed my interest in the school's curriculum, etc. I took all the optional interviews and received positive feedback from them. So I have a feeling it was my GPA that cornered me in.</p>
<p>i'm happy with the school i'm attending in the fall, but i feel the community may be smaller/more isolated than what i'm prepared for, and may possibly not have as extensive as an IR/law/government as I had hoped. as such, i'm planning to apply to mainly 'reach' schools such as swarthmore, amherst, northwestern, possibly penn or cornell.</p>
<p>what do you think my chances would be if i applied as a sophomore? reading through these threads i've realized that those with lower high school GPAs should go for junior year, but i'm afraid of being boxed out of the community even if i were accepted and were to attend.</p>