I know that this is kind of early, but I like being prepared.
I am applying to transfer to University of Washington-Seattle in Autumn of 2016. I currently attend Virginia Tech and am majoring in Biochemistry. I understand that they normally only take in students matriculating from community colleges, but I am not applying just because I like UW. While I do love UW, I would prefer to stay at VT. My father recently informed me that he will no longer be cosigning my loans, and since my mother is in school to get her Master’s degree and my sister will be a freshman in college next year, we do not have the money to support me to go out of state anymore. My parents are going through a divorce, and I need to go back in state. For my degree, UW is by far the smartest option for me, but it is very hard to gain acceptance as a transfer.
My projected GPA for the end of my first semester of sophomore year (Fall 2015) will be a 3.5. I will be a Resident Adviser at VT next year. I am going to be volunteering at the hospital. Hopefully, I will have an internship during the academic year as well, and if I do not, then I will have a work-study job. I am going to apply to be a TA for General Chemistry in the second semester as well, and I will have heard back before the applications are due. I will have taken the following courses that are required by UW for a Biochemistry major by the time I finish my Sophomore year: Freshman Biology, General Chemistry, Calculus, Physics, and Organic Chemistry. That leaves only the Junior/Senior level courses that must be taken, which are Physical Chemistry, Genome Science, Biochemistry, and I think one more, but I am not positive on that.
I talked with someone in the Department of Admissions today, and he told me that the average GPA last year for a transfer applicant was a 3.47. Obviously, it is entirely relative and depends on how competitive the applicants are next year, which could help or hurt me, but for now, I am going to assume it will hurt me.
What do you think my chances are to gain admission?
If you want to know any other things about my stats, just let me know!
Thank you!
The average GPA for a transfer from a Washington community college is 3.47. The average GPA for someone coming from a 4-year college is closer to a 3.9. UW puts enormous emphasis on admitting community college transfers, so admission rates for those students is around 40-50% while it is 10%, maybe 15% for 4-year college transfers. My advice would be to move to Seattle, take 2-3 classes at a Washington community college once you’re here, and then apply for transfer. You are then grouped as a WA community college transfer and your chances of admission increase by a lot (they just look at the most recent school of attendance, even if it was only a class or two). Sure, you have a quarter or two of taking coursework that might not be at the same level as your UVa work, but it really does help make you more competitive.