<p>Just curious, how difficult is it for someone at a competitive college (I know, this can mean a lot of things) to transfer to UPenn as a sophomore?</p>
<p>Like, is this only available for students who had 4.0 on their freshman year? I just want to know how plausible is it... I know in some colleges, transfer used to be "easier" (note the quotation; I just heard this, so I don't know) than admitting as a freshman.</p>
<p>While you don’t need a 4.0, it’s tougher than freshman admission. A friend with a 3.7 from Duke was recently shut down. Penn is also the “social Ivy” and puts a lot of weight on character/personality, so I’d expect the transfer essays to count for a lot once your gpa is in the 3.7/3.8 range it needs to be in.</p>
<p>4.0 is not like the required but a high GPA is probably the most important. Your high school activity and performance is also evaluated. You might want to do EC during your freshman year so your application looks competitive.</p>
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<p>Ouch. Duke fail. Score one for Penn.</p>
<p>do employers and graduate schools see that students made the transfers, let say from duke to penn??</p>
<p>My transcript says <em>admitted from <em>[old college]</em>____</em>. Unless Penn sends a completely different transcript to grad schools from what appears, they do see the transfer. However, unless you are sending a transcript to an employer, I don’t think they will[unless you tell them].</p>
<p>My GPA is 3.778, so I guess I’m in the range. Not sure what’s going to happen this fall for me, so I figure I would ask it for next year.</p>
<p>I was high school valedictorian with lots of activities from my high school. On my college, I cut down A LOT because I was pre-med. I played college varsity tennis, joined SAACS, pre-health society, and inducted into academic honorary society. I was elected as the vice president as well. I was a staff for college newspaper as well, an odd thing considering that my major is Biochemistry.</p>
<p>I feel like given my circumstances, I have a good shot… But, if you take a year off and reapply, would that look bad? Like, what would be the ideal thing they would look for if student couldn’t continue education due to the financial reason?</p>
<p>They might wonder why you didn’t take student loans, but that wouldn’t hurt you. If you do something valuable with your time, they might think that it’s admirable that you were willing to delay a year of your education to do X (something valuable).</p>
<p>If you use the year well[as in some internship or something], it shouldn’t hurt you. It’s different than spending the year doing nothing. But I don’t think anyone can give you a definite answer to what admission’s officers are looking for[and a gap year’s impact on that].</p>
<p>I know a number of Penn transfers (several from Vanderbilt) who did not have 4.0 GPAs. Penn is a large enough school that there are a fair number of transfers accepted each year. You aren’t fighting for 4 or 10 spots like at Williams.</p>
<p>I think the most important factor of your transfer application is the essay. I was rejected from Wharton freshmen, but only after a year was accepted as a sophmore transfer. I really worked hard on my essays. I started brainstorming around early November and had most of it written during Winter break. Until the applications were due, I had the essays revised multiple times (by friends, teachers, writing center). After I was accepted, I compared my transfer essays to my old ones and saw a significant difference.</p>
<p>If you decide to take a year off, I would suggest you do something worthwhile. Moreover, you will have a lot of time to do well in your essays. I would also suggest keeping up with your studies by re-reading your textbooks or possibly reading ahead.</p>
<p>Thank you all for inputs! I’ll definitely focus on essay too.
This is somewhat stupid, but I must ask… When you apply for transfer UPenn, do you have to pick the particular type of school (like isn’t there one for liberal arts, one for sciences, etc…?) or do you just get admitted to UPenn?</p>
<p>Thank you! :)</p>
<p>^ you pick between CAS(general college), SEAS(engineering), Wharton(business), and Nursing.</p>
<p>and 3.77 is good for pre-med. the Duke student i referred to earlier had a 3.71 in poli-sci.</p>
<p>im not really familiar with the GPA thing. what sorta average in terms of percentage is a GPA of 3.7?</p>
<p>i got in this year and by far the essay had to be the most important part for me</p>