Wake Forest sophomore looking to transfer-Match Me and Chance Me! [3.7 college GPA; history, English, government]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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My son is a current sophomore at Wake and he is looking to transfer to a school where the social life does not depend on Greek life. There can be Greek life there-but it should not be the majority. He is already applying to 5 schools but we are looking to broaden that list a bit. Nothing too small or too rural. To be clear, there can be greek life, but it should be more of an open system to get in. No dirty rush.

Demo: looking for midsize to larger more than 2,000, close to or in a decent size city
*went to a very large, extremely competitive public high school
currently a sophomore at Wake Forest University

  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): White Male
  • Other special factors * non-athlete so not looking for a school where you must be an athlete to participate in a robust social life. Non-exclusive social life. Greek life can be present but NOT the most important social outlet. Big drawback of WAKE is if you are not in Greek life, you have no social life. Very challenging to get into Frats.
    Not a lot of night life in Winston.

Intended Major(s) History/English/Government

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.7
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.2
  • College GPA (for transfers):3.7
  • Class Rank: n/a at his H.S.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 32 (will most likely not submit if do not meet expectations)

Coursework
9 APs in High School (AP Bio, AP CHem, AP macro/micro Econ, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP Stats, AP Enviro Science, AP Comparative Politics, AP Psych) 4 years of Spanish

Classes at WAKE- Mostly took required core curriculum:
Freshman Seminar, Required Freshman Writing, 3 History courses (1 required), 3 Poli Sci courses, Required Spanish, Required Health, English lit course, Required math (Stats),

Extracurriculars:
AT WAKE: Model UN, Law Fraternity, Alexander Hamilton Club, Campus Garden volunteer, Sailing Club.
High School sports: Lacrosse 9-10, Co-ed Volley Ball 11/12,
High School extracurriculars: Started Virtual Volunteer tutoring online during pandemic-tutored online for free
co-chair of Families4Families 11th and 12th grade ( feeds local families in need)
Mock Trial grade 12
Worked for a tutoring organization senior year -tutored in Biology
Worked summers 10th and 11th grade for nonprofit camp organization for local under privileged kids to receive subject area instruction alongside camp experiences
Worked as Karate instructor in Karate school grades 8& 9
Worked for two years (11th/12th) in HS as a Barista and gelato and coffee shop
Worked after senior year HS at Restaurant/Inn on the Cape
Worked after freshman year college 6 days a week at restaurant/bar as bar-back on Cape

**Essays/anticipate very strong essay and LOR

No Cost Constraints / Budget**

Schools
Applying to:
Boston College
U of Michigan
University of Wisconsin
Pitzer
Claremont McKenna
Looking for other suggestions or good matches!

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As an incoming junior transfer, his admission evaluation will be mainly focused on his college record, with high school record being much less important (or not important).

Any AP credit that is not duplicated by college courses will be re-evaluated by the new college based on its AP credit policies, rather than as “passed through” the current college.

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My guess is that your son has an interest in applying to law schools in the future.

Viewing this as a transfer due to social fit/comfort level versus academic interest.

Northwestern University, Emory University, Rice University, Gorgetown, Notre Dame, Tufts, & UNC-Chapel Hill all should be considered.

Why Pitzer ?

I love CMC, but it is a tight knit frat like culture.

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Brandeis?

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What about American University ?
Fordham could be an interesting choice too.

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A lot of the schools that he is applying to or that have been mentioned strong Greek life. Georgetown, BC, and Notre Dame are social schools with no Greek life.

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To which schools are you referring ?

Rice University in Texas does not have any Greek houses to the best of my knowledge.

Transfers at schools like Northwestern & Vanderbilt are treated well despite the presence of on-campus Greek houses.

Wisconsin & Michigan are large enough for anyone to fit in.

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As an incoming junior transfer I don’t think he has to worry about dirty rush.

The list does seem to be quite disparate…not necessarily a bad thing, but maybe suggests he could do some more critical thinking on what he really wants out of the last two years of college (maybe more depending on credit transfer).

CMC and Pitzer don’t seem to fit the criteria for size or desired social atmosphere (I know the consortium in aggregate is bigger…has he visited?). I also agree with publisher’s comment about frat like culture at CMC. I also feel there’s a bro culture at BC, but I know not everyone agrees…again, has he visited?

Being full pay is a huge advantage for transfers. I like his chances at Wisconsin and Michigan. For less reachy schools, I think Fordham is a great suggestion, and he will likely get in. American too.

Other ideas could be Santa Clara and Georgetown.

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American University in Washington, DC is an interesting school to consider, but the campus culture will be quite different than that at WFU as American is liberal both in and out of the classroom.

Great, safe, attractive, quiet NW DC location with easy access to top government & government related internships including NGOs and embassies.

If the applicant has at least a 3.75 GPA, he or she will receive consideration for a Dean’s Scholarship of $20,000 per year at Fordham University.

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Greek life is a significant part of the social life at Vandy, Wisconsin, and Michigan. If I were looking for a school with little Greek life, I’d eliminate these.

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I didn’t see Vandy on the list.

IMO Greek life at Wisconsin (14% overall) and Michigan (10% M, 20% W) isn’t significant at all…there is plenty of opportunity for a social life outside of Greek Life at these schools because the vast majority of people aren’t participants in Greek Life.

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Pitt - low greek life.

I’d check the admission rates (section D in CDS) if you haven’t.

Agreed on Pitzer

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Yes! He does think he will go to law school and is transferring because of social fit and comfort level versus academic interest.

Pitzer-because close buddy goes there and loves it and he will have access to that consortium.

In his research of CMC online there were many reviews that mentioned the inclusive rather than exclusive social life.

Emory–is it heavily greek? We are thinking of avoiding all southern schools that are old school greek.

Northeastern-thought he does not have grades to get in there.

He may apply to Georgetown and UNC-Chapel Hill for Junior year if he does not get in to schools for second semester this year.

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Yes, however his is currently applying to schools that accept second semester sophomore transfers.

If those don’t pan out he will have more options for Junior year. But he wants out ASAP.

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He could almost walk to American so that’s a no go. Fordham is a good idea!

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He’s currently applying to schools that accept transfers in January which is why the list is a bit disparate. Also, he is looking at schools where he already has some friends so the transition will be a bit easier.

I had not heard of the frat like culture at CMC. Can someone expand upon that a little? I did not think they had Frats? How is it “fratlike”? Lots of opportunities for social interaction/parties/etc is considered a plus for him as he is not experiencing that at Wake due to the Frats being so exclusive.

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14% or so in fraternities and sororities at a big school can fill a lot of fraternity and sorority houses on the row, making it big in absolute terms, even though it is relatively small in percentage terms, leaving lots of students not participating to have social contact with.

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Yup, BC for second semester this year. Worried about his chances?

Georgetown-he will apply in the spring if none of the others pan out.

NotreDame-love it but worried heard its very heavily Catholic in feel much more so than BC.

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American U is in our back yard, as in he could walk to class. Non starter for him unfortunately.

we will check out Fordham.

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Yes, I knew that about Vandy-southern, old school greek life which is why it’s not on the list.

Wisco and Michigan-got the sense that because they are so big, plenty of other opportunities to go out/go to bars/ go to off campus parties/ even if you are not greek. Also heard that rushing is more “open” as in, all invited to participate in “rush” and narrow it down, rather than at Wake where you literally can not get in the door if you don’t have multiple connections, even if you sign up to formally “rush” The difference in how they do it is the important part

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