<p>I heard transferring colleges messed up everything and you can't earn honors at your college and your GPA will probably get messed up and all this stuff. What's true?</p>
<p>Well for starters when you transfer to most schools they erase your current GPA; you start over again. If by honors you mean Deans List or something like that, you certainly can you just have to do it through their GPA and their classes.</p>
<p>what about graduating latin honors i.e. summa cum laude</p>
<p>Um...summa cum laude is just the top 5% of graduating students usually. I know at Dartmouth, transfers get to have their GPA erased, and they can still earn honors and stuff. Junior transfers just can't speak at commencement if they make a 4.0 or something like that (which is very very hard to do anyways).</p>
<p>Though, it should be said that Transfer Students have an implicit disadvantage when it comes to the GPA game. That's because as a Transfer, you don't really know what the easy classes are, who the good professors are, who are the easy graders, and all that stuff. Dartmouth makes it easier on Transfers though by having this thing called the SA Guide, and so if you're willing to put in the work to find quality classes and sections that you might like, then you don't need to get all social just to ask people about their favorite classes.</p>
<p>The only big one you sometimes can't get is Phi Beta Kappa, because that often requires a certain number of credits taken at the institution in question. In my case, I still qualify for it (assuming I meet the other requirements) at Mount Holyoke because I transferred in as a sophomore and Phi Beta Kappa here requires six semesters. But for things like writing an honors thesis, getting Dean's List, applying for fellowships, and so forth, it generally doesn't make a difference.</p>