Get to know your professors, get involved in stuff you’re passionate about, and most importantly keep an open mind to the school you’ll be attending! You may be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks for the reply! I definitely will keep an open mind going into it, but I want to have the best chance I can to get accepted if I need to. Do you think my HS GPA will put me at too much of a disadvantage to begin with though?
No. The process is holistic, no one thing will be your downfall. Focus on what you can change and do and don’t dwell on parts of your app that you cannot. Vanderbilt says during their information sessions, “We look for reasons to admit you, rather than reasons to deny”. Another tip I would give you is that the essay prompt for transfers seems to be the same every year- it asks why you want to transfer and what you hope to achieve. Think about this prompt while you’re at your school, keep an active list and brainstorm your ideas so that you will be able to really articulate why you want to transfer.
I will definitely do that. In terms of things I could change right now, do you think a 30 composite ACT (31 superscored) is too low? Should I try and retake it?
Personally, I had a 30 ACT as well when I was applying to college out of high school (I took it once in April 2015) and I believe that was one of the reasons I was not admitted to my choice schools. I took the ACT again this February and scored a 35, so the next couple months will tell whether it was worth the trouble or not (I am a college freshman applying to transfer for the upcoming fall).
I second the getting involed in stuff your passionate about. I got involved in clubs soley for the fact of improving my transfer application, then, accidently, wound up loving the activites that I am now a part/leader of.
@HopefullyIGetIn That’s awesome! I’m just curious, what kind of clubs did you get involved in? @Shenanigans1 Okay, so it sounds like I should probably retake it. Did you prepare a lot for it the second time around? What do you think helped the most with that huge jump from a 30 to a 35?
@astrorocket10
Politics, Economics and I volunteer as a student mentor at a high school. My problem was being social awkward. The fact that I needed to improve my extra-curiculars to increase my transfer odds forced me to overcome it. So yea, I recommend getting involved on campus even if you think its dumb. Another reason to get involved is for the learning experience. I have learned more from my extra-curiculars then I have in a lot of my classes. It provides you with skills needed to be successful.
@astrorocket10
I started preparing at the beginning of winter break, but I didn’t cram, I studied intermittently between then and February. I probably completed 3-4 practice tests from the red book (and never in one sitting, I just did not have the motivation to do that other than on test day). I was averaging 33s on the tests so honestly, I felt pretty lucky with my score; I feel what prepared me most was that I had two more years of school under my belt.
Also, you should really give your school a chance and not worry about transfer applications or anything until November, deadlines are not until March anyways and you’ll have winter break to work on them if that is what you decide to do. Who knows, you may like it. Good luck
@Shenanigans Did you apply to the engineering school? Curious cause it seems like almost everyone on this thread is CAS.
@newtmon Do you apply to the engineering school? I applied to the engineering ~
@AGoodFloridian Michigan does the same thing, and it makes a lot of sense.
They accepted me in February, and have been able to send me advertisements and letters to me as an admitted student. I would be lying if I said i wasn’t tempted once or twice to just say “screw it I’m just going to Michigan”
The extra month gives Vandy extra time to “sell themselves” to those students who they really want.
I applied to CAS since I’m a social science major. So far I think there’s only one other person here who applied to engineering. Maybe that’s good for your chances. Certainly less competition lol.
I’ve also applied to CAS for Applied Physics. I was thinking about applying to the engineering college, too. If I feel drawn to the engineering field, then I’ll do a masters in it or something along those lines.
I’m sure having a full degree’s worth of math and applied physics courses will give somewhat of an easy access into the engineering field.
@RunnerDude14 I think that’s a great thing. Getting an undergrad degree in mechanical engineering and going on to potentially get your MBA at Vandy is not uncommon here. So many students here are so diverse in their academics that I’m sure you’d be surprised at the different combinations of tracks that students take here! Students definitely show more inititative to go to class- the class sizes are small so everyone notices (including the professor) if you skip. Most of the classes require attendance, so skipping is very unusual.
@luckybaby I think the admission rate to Blair and Engineering would be very similar, but I don’t have evidence to back me up on that. I am sure that information is available on the Vanderbilt website or google!
i’m so anxious for decisions!
When do people think is the earliest we will hear back?
@limitsbylaw The 14th of this month, maybe? It’s a Friday.
If last year’s thread is any indicator then the first wave(which seems to have the most acceptances) will be dispatched in middle of April.
That’s really close… Just two weeks ago was the application deadline :))
do decisions start coming out the 10th or the 14th