Hello,
I am a student finishing his first year at Penn State University and was hoping to transfer to colleges such as NYU, Swarthmore, UCLA, Michigan, or Cornell. I had a very low high school GPA (3.2) and low SAT scores (1600) and the only reason I got in was because of my race (Pacific Islander) and because I went to a very good high school. My parents have problems of their own and I have to help them more than they help me, so I have a full time job currently which doesn’t leave much time for school and will finish my first year with a 2.81 GPA I believe. I am working with a prof. on research and will hopefully get published by spring of next year and am going to be working very hard to get a 3.5-3.6 GPA. I am working on leaving my parents and letting them take care of themselves and will be volunteering and doing many things to improve my community this summer. I will also write in my essay about my parents and how I have had a tough childhood and a tough first year and am working on turning it around, I also have good letters of recommendations from profs who support my essay. With knowing all of these things what are my chances at those schools?
UCLA only takes Junior level transfers: 90 quarter/60 semester units and SAT/ACT and HS grades are not considered only your current college courses grades.
Here is the a link to transfer GPA’s for UCLA 2015: https://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_tr/Tr_Prof14_mjr.htm#PW
How do you plan to pay $55K/year for UCLA, since you will not get any FA?
I honestly have not thought about paying off my loans yet. I am hoping that a good college degree will get me a good job which help me pay off loans in the future. I also forgot to mention that I have 2 dropped classes.
I didn’t ask about paying off your loans, I asked how you plan to pay for UCLA since as an undergrad can only take out $7500 for Junior/Senior year? Hardly makes a dent in the UCLA COA and since you are helping your parents, it does not seem you have much extra money to put towards an expensive school.
If you are getting FA from Penn State, I think you should stay where you are and finish your degree. Transfer students usually get little FA vs Freshman.
Oh I see. Thank you for the help.