<p>I am a Vandy freshman who just finished my first semester at Vanderbilt. I am pre-med who plans on majoring in English. I was wondering what my chances are for transfering to Duke/Brown/Cornell/Darmouth/Columbia/UPenn/Rice for my sophmore year.</p>
<p>First Semester Stats
Asian Male-Parents are Texas Residents
Grades in Classes - (A), (A-), (A-), (B-)
Vandy's Grading System:
A = (93+) = 4.0
A- = (90-93)=3.7
B+ = (87-89) = 3.3
B = (83-86) = 3.0
B- = (80-83) = 2.7
GPA- 3.55
Took 18 Hours my first semester.</p>
<p>Ecs in College-
Intramural Football
Pre-Med Club
Youth Club
Did Research for 3 weeks at Vanderbilt's Medical Schools
Shadowed a Doctor for 100 Hours at Vanderbilt's Hospital</p>
<p>High School Stats
Unweighted Gpa - 3.8/4.0
Weighted Gpa-4.1/4.0
Class Rank- Top 13 percent at a Huge Public School---fml
10 A.P.s
Sat Score - 2210/2400 (Total)
1490/1600 (Reading and Math only)</p>
<p>Ecs in High School
Pre-Med Club
Tennis
Asian Club
Youth Club
National Honor Society</p>
<p>you look pretty average to me, no offense. but you’re aiming really high and don’t look like you have anything special to offer, and that B- is probably not a good sign. if it’s in a science class, definitely going to be a redflag because you’re saying you’re pre-med.</p>
<p>why not just stay at vandy? it’s a great school</p>
<p>Your SATs are fine but your GPA is a little bit low for these schools (but I don’t think they disqualify you). Any reason in particular why you don’t like Vanderbilt? It’s a pretty good school.</p>
<p>The AP’s and the SAT score as well as your high school gpa are pretty good. However, there are issues. If a 4.0 was only enough to put you in the top 13% of your class, it raises questions about grade inflation at your high school. Beyond that, your college gpa is very low relative to the schools you’re applying to. Most people who transfer to the schools you’re looking at have on average a 3.7-3.8 college gpa. On top of that, because your gpa in college is lower than your high school gpa, you’ve got a downward trend, which is not good. It could make admissions officers wonder whether your high school did a really good job of preparing you for college. It could also make them wonder if you’re just not as good a student in college as you were in high school. I’m not saying either of those is necessarily true; rather they’re just things admissions people may think. Overall I wouldn’t say it’s hopeless, but it’s very unlikely you will get into any of these places. Perhaps you should consider some less competitive places like Emory or Northwestern instead. Alternatively, as some other posters mentioned, staying at Vanderbilt could be a good option. It is a good school and you might find that you like it more as time goes by.</p>
<p>Of all of the above, Rice and Cornell are the best shots. Probably out at the rest.</p>
<p>Regarding “academically stimulating,” you’re not going to find a better environment at either school. Brown is great, UPenn not so much, and neither is Columbia. Don’t know enough about Dartmouth to make a call.</p>
<p>Other than Rice, it seems as if you are trying to get into a school of higher rank/Ivy (where it seems as if rank doesn’t matter because it’s an Ivy) moreso than a more “academically stimulating” environment. Are you kidding me? You should be trying to go to Chicago if that’s the case. Seriously, I’m at Emory and find it quite academically( even though the student body is pre-professionally driven) stimulating and it ranks the same as Vandy. I’m going to agree with flowerhead, you won’t find that much of a difference even though I kind of disagree with the list provided by flowerhead. I thought that one would find it at Columbia and Duke, but I do agree on Brown. </p>
<p>I think ranks dominate decisions too much, with exceptions of Ivies, where everyone would want to go even if one ranked lower than 30. It makes it appear as if there are drastic differences in the learning environments of similarly ranked schools when there are not. Especially between 10-20. </p>
<p>If you came here with only one or two schools in mind that you are interested in, I would take this more seriously. Instead, you seem to be making the sweeping generalization that all of those schools will provide will provide better environments. With exception of Rice, all are ivies or rank higher than most of them (referring to Duke). You should narrow it down and give a better reason. How are you going to spin that shallow reason on the application?</p>
<p>As for Emory and Northwestern. Seem like good choices (ranks very well and is academically stimulating, especially NW where you can go to a school w/a higher rank). Ironically, my roommate did the opposite of you and transferred from NW, citing our polysci department as much stronger (which is extremely strong. He seems to really like it so far.) Our English department is also extremely strong if you’re interested. I think you would enjoy the courses a lot. And of course, the pre-med track is solid too. You just can’t get caught up in the overwhelming mentality that “I must have an A in everything at the expense of learning the material” because it will screw you on the MCAT which happens a lot to pre-med students here.</p>
<p>Your prerogative. I was obsessed with when i was in UG. My list of intellectually stimulating places to be:
Yale
Princeton
Harvard
MIT
CalTech
Reed
Swarthmore
UChicago
Brown</p>
<p>There might be others I’m forgetting. Many of the top schools (Duke and Columbia included) are highly pre-professional. Then again, schools that are reputed for producing a high number of Ph.D candidates tend to be few.</p>
<p>I had to work my ass off at Vanderbilt to get my 3.55 my first semester, I was taking 2 intro science class (where the average in the class is a C/C-) and on top of that I was taking 2 writing intensive humanities classes with sophomores/juniors. </p>
<p>I am trying not to be a prestige whore, however, I feel as if Brown/Dartmouth/Rice may be better academic “fits” for me for several reasons. Those are the schools that truly interest me, as for the rest, even if I got in, I would strongly debate going to. </p>
<p>Brown-More liberal grading practices, which would reduce some of the cut throat compeition</p>
<p>Dartmouth-Darthmouth’s D calendar system is fantastic, and would allow me to get in as much study abroad/research I need to get in.</p>
<p>Rice-I HATE frats/and greek life, because its pretty much paying people to be friends with you. Vandy has a HUGE southern GREEK SCENE. I know Dartmouth does too, but its not as exclusive as Vandys. Rice has no frats and uses the residential housing system.</p>
<p>I would only apply to those three then (but I guess you have the money for all those applications, I wouldn’t so I would choose only 1-3). In fact, Dartmouth and Rice make the most sense because “liberal” grading practices also seems to be a shallow reason even in its relation to competition. For example, our averages are the same and sometimes lower (versus what you cited to be Vandy’s) in the sciences, but there wasn’t any type of serious grading curve (in other words no bell-curving or real limits on As. the courses are just designed so that too many people don’t get them) in intro. courses such as orgo., gen. chem, and bio (which is hell b/c it’s structured differently than most comparable schools), and physics. If any curve occurred, it is normally at the discretion of the professor, and is always upward. So I guess we quite a nice collaborative environment, even though courses can get really tough. I didn’t know that Vandy had a cut-throat environment. That could be an issue, but you need to choose Brown for more than that reason. Lots of comparable schools to Vandy have similar grading practices as we do for example and a more collaborative environment. I don’t think a school with a completely different grading scale is necessary for you to get away from the cut-throat competition, and it shouldn’t be sufficient reasoning to choose Brown. Do tell more for that one.</p>
<p>Oh dude, you are not the only to have to work hard at a top institution. I had to work hard for my 3.5 at Emory 1st and 2nd semester and I am not upset about it either. I indeed got it w/o a harsh grading curve, but I did need my study groups to do well. It was that intense, but I think that’s good.</p>
<p>Wow, is that how Vandy rolls? Doesn’t seem that way here. And Greeks comprise like 30% of the student body. Anybody can go to those parties at anytime without being scrutinized about membership. There is nothing exclusive about the parties. I wonder if the whole sports scene has a similar effect to the Greek scene at Vandy.</p>
<p>Despite the SAT scores, I think your best chance may be Rice. Try finding out how many transfers both Dartmouth and Rice accept per application round. Normally it’s published on the website. Duke hardly accepts transfers. Cornell may accept a higher percentage than Duke, but I don’t think its environment is dramatically different from Vandy’s so I wouldn’t bother. Have you ever considered a UC (especially Berkeley)? I think there is quite a bit of intellectualism there if that’s what you are looking for. About Berkeley: I think I’ve heard that they have very harsh grading curves, which you clearly don’t like at Vandy. It can get really intense there. Was going to compare them to JH, but I really haven’t heard anything about JH, and don’t know if the rumors about the cut-throat competition are founded (you know, amongst pre-meds). Does anyone know?</p>
<p>^^^ I am curious how much work you guys at Emory get, I have to study, on average, a 5-6 hours a day outside of classes, to keep my grades where they on, while doubling up in the sciences.</p>