**University of Pennsylvania Fall 2017 Transfer Thread**

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

With the application deadline a little over a month away and no thread of the sort in sight, I thought I’d go ahead and make discussion thread for prospective transfers to UPenn.

Feel free to discuss about your intended program and to offer suggestions/advice to anyone who’s hit a writers’ block.

Check out the university’s common data set for information about admissions, financial aid and more:

http://www.upenn.edu/ir/commondataset.html

The transfer acceptance rate hovers around 8.5% and the number of applicants hasn’t increased too much over the last three years.

Good luck on this journey everyone! Fingers crossed for all of us.

2

(Applying to SEAS as a Biomolecular/Chemical engineering major)

I’m currently a 2nd semester CC student standing at 31 credits thus far. So far I’m managing to maintain a 4.0 and am involved with plenty of activities on campus as well as two part time jobs. Part of the Honors Program and PTK.
First gen, URM if that happens to count as a transfer student.

My test scores scratch the bare average for Penn; a 31C on the ACT with two subject tests scores arriving later on this month. I’ll be taking the ACT again this week in hopes of bumping up the score a point or two.

My course load in college consists of mostly science and math classes including Physics w/ calculus w/ lab, Calc I & II, Chemistry w/ Lab, Earth Science, College Comp I & II etc. Might have to enroll in a CompSci class this summer.Straight A’s so far but Calc II is starting to get a little feisty :smiley: Has anyone ever gotten that feeling of a tsunami of hard work looming? Startin’ to get that right about now.

Highschool grades are from a foreign school in country whose language I didn’t know at the time of enrolling. Grades were quite meh, in US GPA it’d probably be a 3.5 if I’m being generous.

I don’t see my chances as being particularly high at all but I do feel compelled to at least apply. Good luck everyone :slight_smile:

3

Applied to Penn as a transfer student for Fall of 2017. Posting this on all the transfer forums I applied to (that exist) for reference. Will report back come decision day, maybe even live in the suspense as it approaches.

22YO white male from Michigan
Also applied: Michigan, Michigan State, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, NYU, Vanderbilt

Program: CAS (Biological Basis of Behavior)

Objective
Currently Attending: Community College in Michigan
Credits: will finish with 88, which includes 12 from APs… I expect somewhere around 50 to transfer due a semi-difficult social work program I am completing that is nontransferable, as well as the APs being taken out.
College GPA: 3.95 (UW), 1 W in Fall of 2013
College course load: Sporadic courses from fall of '13 to winter '15. 17 CH’s in fall '15, 21 CH’s in fall '16, 22 this semester (never received lower than an A-, haven’t received A- since winter of '14)
Two gap semesters in winter '15 and winter '16
HS: Meh Public School in MI, ~1500 students, sends 2-3 students to Michigan every year and a student to an Ivy once or twice in a decade
HS GPA: 3.2ish
ACT: 28 (one and only sitting in March 2011)
Midterm Report: Four A’s, one A-, will be submitting a week from today

Subjective
EC’s: Work as a “full time” school bus driver in addition to the 22 CH’s I’m taking, internship at residential juvenile delinquency rehabilitation program, another job in leadership role, the gap semester jobs and travel, serve on board of directors of local youth baseball league, run umpires program for the league for last three years. Passionate about them all.
LOR’s: I doubt they get any better than what they may have wrote. I didn’t see them, but the two professors absolutely loved me. Both hold PhD’s for whatever that’s worth.
Gap explanation: Really good. Solid reason, involved travel and learning
Why Transfer: Liked this essay the most, but it’s kind of supposed to be a lay-up for a CC transfer lol
Supplemental Essays: I’m a perfectionist, and I felt like there was something still to be said, but I know I’m a really good writer, so shrug

4

Applying to Penn as well! My stats are as follows:

Current Sophomore, Applying as a Junior
Current University: US News and World Report Top 25 College
Current GPA: 3.7 (Got a 3.9 last semester and should have a 3.9/4.0 on my midterm report)
SAT: 2290
High school GPA: 3.5

College EC’s:

  • Worked at a financial firm this past summer
  • Interning at a different firm currently
  • Founded an Entrepreneurship Club and student publication at my school
  • Professional Business Fraternity
  • Staff writer for the school newspaper
  • Founded a non-profit organization in high school that is still active
  • Part of the Consulting Club and Financial Group

Other:

  • Recommendations should be good
  • LGBTQ and minority
  • Penn essay is pretty good, I think I was specific about why Penn was the best academic environment for me
  • Reasons for transfering are solid
5

To those of you in this thread: I transferred into Penn in 1984 as a Junior. Best decision of my life. My only regret was I didn’t start there as a Freshman. Now…30 years later I anxiously await whether my 18 year old will be accepted as a Freshman. Good luck to you all!

6

Just applying as an incoming sophomore to see if I could get accepted.

Demographics:
Male
White
Middle class
Michigan resident

High school:
Rank - 30/300
Weight GPA - 3.957
Unweighted - 3.600
ACT - 26
AP Classes - 7 (Geography, AM Government, Chemistry, World History, Biology, Stats, and Calc)
EC - Started and ran the science club for two years
President of the Interact club for one year
NHS cabinet member
Kids’ Food Basket Youth Action Board
JV Tennis for three years, captain for one
Marching and concert band for three years

Community College:
GPA - 3.657 (3.700, A- are weighted less at my CC)
Dean’s List fall semester
Rotaract Treasurer
Phi Theta Kappa
Shadowing doctors throughout the year
Adult hockey club team
One great letter of rec

Also applied to UMich and was accepted 03/05/17

7

Hello all! I am new to cc and applying to a few schools. I figure I might as well post my stats and would love some honest feedback, no matter how harsh. I do not want to have any regrets when applying to schools. So, I am applying to schools that I know are a big reach.

Objective

HS GPA 3.0 – poor, I know:( I explain why in personal statement

MI Community College – 3.84 ( not including Mid-Term report, which is a 4.0)

Large upward trend

Fall 2015 – 3.668 (A- in Introductory french 1, but A in Intermediate 1 and A in IM 2 on MD report)

Winter 2016 – 3.82 (A- in introductory french 2, but A later in Intermediate 1 and A in IM 2 on MD report)

Summer 2016 – 4.0

Fall 2016 – 4.0

Winter 2016 – 4.0 on mid-term report

I have All A’s except for 3 A- and a B- in Fall 2015 in honors comp-1

I received an A in english comp-2.

My course load is very rigorous. It is as hard as it gets for a CC. Several honors courses

A’s in honors micro, honors gov, intermediate french 1, statistics, macro, and several more. I will graduate with an Associate of Arts this semester with honors.

Personal Statement

I poured my heart into it. In hs, both my parents lost their jobs, my home was foreclosed, we relied on others for housing, my family went on food stamps, and I worked at McDonald’s to support my family. I explained how this resulted in my fascination for all things related to government and as a result, wanting to major in poli sci with the intention of becoming a lawyer. I also explained how a higher education will allow me to support my mom. I think it explains my life, motives, and why I am doing what I am doing. TBH very proud of it. Overall 9.5/10 IMO

Supps
100% the best essay I have ever written.

LOR-- I have three. One from French, Econ, and head of honors program and experiential learning. I believe they are all excellent.

EC’s – I will only list college.

Work at McDonald’s for several hours a week

Elected president of leadership club.

VP of an academic club

Volunteer work with Dementia Patients

Very involved in my chabad. I’m very active in the Jewish Community

Leader of Jewish youth group

Research this summer at U of M–Ann Arbor

Again, I realize this is not a chance me thread, but would love to interact with all of you about the transfer process

MISC

Accepted to Umich in early February for Fall 2017 and Brandeis (need-aware) for Spring 2017, but chose to stay at my cc.

8

I applied to transfer into the College of Arts and Sciences for fall!
Here are my stats:

Current Freshman, Applying as a Sophmore
Current University: Bentley University
Current GPA: 3.94
ACT: 31
High school GPA: 3.89 weighted

College ECs:
-Equity analyst in the Bentley Investment Group
-Professor’s assistant for an into law/ethics course
-Member of the USAU club ultimate frisbee team at Bentley
-Executive board for two arts related clubs

HS ECs
-Self-taught studio/performance rock guitarist
-FBLA state website design champion
-Accepted to and attended a satellite art school program to study website design and audio engineering in my junior/senior year while concurrently enrolled in regular school
-Boys and Girls Club student intern for two summers
-Heavily involved in a global non-profit during the year

Other:
-Have overcome a learning disability
-Taking two extra upperclassman classes spring semester for an extra challenge (Chaos theory/Fractal dynamics and a comp sci course)
-College grading system set up so that an A is above a 95% instead of a 90%.

Downsides:
-Midterm report will probably be around a 3.7 rather than my current 3.94 because of a B in a required accounting course
-ACT score isn’t impressive, nor is my high school GPA

If anyone has any insight as to how competitive I am, please let me know!

9

I’m surprised this thread has been so dead compared to other transfer threads. Penn tends to be a (relatively) transfer friendly school.

10

@mjr2013 that is good to hear! do you know Penn’s typical transfer acceptance rate?

11

@tnufas As I stated in the initial post, it tends to be around 8.5%. But amongst the Ivys, Penn and Cornell seem to be the most “transfer friendly”!

12

@AGoodFloridian oh whoops I didn’t see that in the initial post. thank you! I have heard that Penn prefers sophomore transfers to junior transfers and transferring in as a junior is much harder. do you know if there is any truth to that?

13

Would the grammatical errors or typos on one of my essays necessarily hurt my chance? If so, would submitting a writing sample actually help?

14

@EconosotrosoNY It’s hard to say, but I’d go with " it depends". How bad were these typos? Common typos include adding extra articles “a a book” etc… Those aren’t really a big deal in my opinion but the more heinous ones (their/they’re/there) could raise eyebrows and make them wonder why it wasn’t entirely proofread.

15

@AGoodFloridian I am also wondering about the same thing @tnufas was asking. Do you happen to have any insight on junior vs. sophomore admission chances? If so, are there any statistics online that directly support any discrepancy between chances getting in as a junior vs sophomore at Penn?

16

@outwest88 Honestly, I don’t know and haven’t done the proper research to find support for that claim. I tried looking through the common data set, but they don’t report those specific bits of information.

Perhaps there is evidence online that supports it, but I wouldn’t count on finding information solely regarding Penn. Instead, you might find something more general.

17

In regard to junior vs sophomore admission chances. we can only assume from the Penn Transfer Guide that the number of transfers who enter as sophomores normally exceeds that of junior transfers. In other words, sophomore transfers may have slightly higher chance of getting in. The Transfer Guide explicitly states, “Students are strongly encouraged to transfer after their freshman year to enter for their sophomore year. There
are very few spaces available for entering juniors.”
Source: http://www.admissions.upenn.edu/images/uploads/docs/Penn_Guide_for_Transfer_Applicants_2013.pdf

@AGoodFloridian The errors are like two exactly same sentences in a paragraph and a sentence with 6666 in the middle. Plus, there is a sentence with a syntax error. The errors are all in one essay. Others are free of mistakes. I guess I shouldn’t worry too much as my overall development of the argument is not affected by the errors. Who knows?

18

Does anyone know when they will let us know when exactly transfer decisions are coming out? I know the website says early May, but I’d be curious to know if anyone else has some insight.

19

I called and they said early May fs and that we would be emailed mid-April with an exact date.
Ahhhhh Penn has been my dream school for a few years now scared

20

Hello! Chance mes are kinda pointless especialy at this point when everything is done and sent. I got rejected from all of the schools I wanted to go to as a senior so I guess Im just super nervous. I tried to go back and look for weaknesses and fix those (ex. A in Ochem to make up for B in AP Chem) but idk. Any honest comments or thoughts regarding my app are welcome!!

I applied ED to Penn last year and was deferred, idk if they would even consider that

Currently part of a 6-year BS/MD (2 year undergrad/4 year med)
GPA: 4.00 (intro premed type classes- physics, bio, organic chem, biomedical ethics, etc)

HS GPA: 4.6 I think (a couple Bs in AP Chem and AP Calc)
ACT: 35
SAT: 2220/2400
SAT2: 700 Bio, 720 Lit, 720 Math2

Extra Curriculars:
High school
-3 Year Tennis
-Founder and President of JSA club
-Founder and President of Dance club
-Officer of a leadership club at my school (Jaguar Ambassadors)
-Chairperson of Pennies for Patients (raised $5,000 for cancer patients with financial needs)
-400+ Volunteer Hours at Local Hospital & Temple
-Research Internship at local hospital (did very well at science fairs using the research I did here)
-Raised a $7,500 to help build a school in an Indian village and helped set up curriculum
-AP Scholar w/ Distinction
-National Merit Semifinalist (223 in Ohio)
-Science fair awards previously mentioned

College
-Univeristy Hearing Board (hearings for misconduct cases)
-Phi Delta Epsilon (Pre-med co-ed frat)
-An inner city tutoring club
-research
-President’s List

My midyear report was good, all As

Recs should be good

My reason for wanting to transfer is wanting more than 2 years for undergrad and to study more diverse classes- idk if colleges will look at that as a strong enough reason