What are my chances for transferring to MIT and Rice?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi, everyone.</p>

<p>I applied to these two schools for the fall of 2010, but I didn't get accepted (and I'm not surprised, I clearly wasn't ready, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try :P). I want to spend a year at university to see if I can get more math and science experience to transfer somewhere else.</p>

<p>Anyway, this is the deal.</p>

<p>I was homeschooled through an accredited distance-learning program throughout the majority of my high school due to illness that caused me to leave traditional public high school. I stuck with it, but my illness caused me to fall behind on my coursework. Nevertheless, I kept my grades up. Due to my catching-up, however, I didn't have the math I needed to make it into MIT or Rice, but that's what I'm currently working on.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, there's a lot of cool organizations and awards I can't do because I was homeschooled (there's no national honors society, BPA, etc. that I can join :( ) and so my EC's aren't anything like perhaps some public school kids have been a part of. But I spent a lot of my time doing community service.</p>

<p>I'm graduating this summer (about a year later than I should have, but oh well).</p>

<p>Since it's distance-learning program, there is no class ranking, weighted GPA or structured "classes" of freshman/sophomore/etc. You just take the classes and move on after you finish them at your own pace.</p>

<p>Because I got sick, I wasn't able to finish the work in my Swimming/Weight-lifting Health & Fitness class, so they let me complete a few essays and pass the class with a C in compensation.</p>

<p>I'm going to retake my SATs this Fall in preparation for applying for transfer...I did rather poorly last year due to only having started Algebra 2 and only just getting back into a rhythmic pattern of coursework....but I'm preparing this time. I took the SAT IIs...though I hadn't done Biology before then, so I clearly wasn't ready.</p>

<p>I'm now doing college-level classes in dual-credit before I graduate high school, and will do summer college courses, and then I'm going to be attending Texas A&M University next semester for engineering.</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Hispanic/Latino</p>

<p>SAT I: 560 Math/680 Reading/660 Writing
SAT II: 660 Biology/ 530 Math Level I</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9~ (UW)</p>

<p>High School:
[English]
English I - B
English II (Credit by Examination)
English III (Credit by Examination)
AP English Literature & Composition - (tentative A)</p>

<p>[Math]
Algebra I - A
Geometry - A
Algebra 2 - (tentative...A)
Algebra (College) - A</p>

<p>[Science]
Biology Honors - B
Chemistry - A
Physics - (tentative...A)
Biology I (College) - A</p>

<p>[Social Sciences]
Geography Honors - A
World History - A
AP US History - (tentative...A)
Principles of Macroeconomics (College) - A</p>

<p>[Foreign Languages]
Japanese I - A
Spanish I (Credit by Examination)
Spanish II (Credit by Examination)
Spanish III - A</p>

<p>[Health]
Lifetime Fitness Part 1 - C
Boys' Cross-Country <em>transfer</em> - A</p>

<p>[Electives]
Digital Media - A
Introduction to Graphic Design (College) - A
Introduction to Foundation Art (College) - A
Graphic Design/Foundation Art (College) - A</p>

<p>Over the summer, I will be taking:
Trigonometry (College)
Precalculus (College)</p>

<p>In the Fall of 2010, I will be attending:
Texas A&M University
College of Engineering
(Biomedical, Chemical, or Mechanical Engineering...not sure which yet)</p>

<p>ECs:
- Bass/Guitar player and youth leader for my church - 4 years
- Youth Leader/community service organizer for high school ministry - 4 years
- Visited Colombia to visit family and care for children at an orphanage - 1 month
- Visited Mexico and helped build a church, provide basic necessities to poor villages, and teach children English and the Bible - 3 weeks
- Attended the Pratt Institute of Art & Design for their Summer PC Program, and had final art displayed in gallery - 1 month
- Did volunteer Graphic Design for church - 3 years
- Did paid Graphic Design for my mother's company and non-profit organizations - 6 months
- Managed video content on a popular website - 2 months
- Taught sports such as kickball and soccer to young children in the summer - 1 week
- Performed as a puppeteer to entertain senior citizens at a retirement home, and homeless at a shelter - 1 year
- Worked for 7 months as an employee of Smoothie King</p>

<p>School-related ECs:
- Member of a high school robotics team in conjunction with engineers from NASA
- volunteer helper of a high school youth leadership and community service program</p>

<p>Hobbies/Talents:
- Fluent/Native-speaker of Spanish
- Drawing
- Traveling (been to Europe, Asia, South America, many parts of North America, etc.)
- Video games and movies
- Writing my own music and learning instruments on my own
- Cooking
- Building/Designing things (where my artistic passion comes in).</p>

<p>Honors/Awards:
- National Society of High School Scholars member
- VEX Regional Champion of Robotics</p>

<p>Anyway, I've got a while until I have to apply for transfer (MIT and Rice would be Fall 2011)</p>

<p>If I keep my college grades up and take some more math science/courses, and really get involved at EC's at Texas A&M (they have a lot), what do you think my chances are of getting into Rice or MIT?</p>

<p>Because of my rugged recent years, I don't feel that I have as interesting of things to talk about as my fellow public school graduates. I have an incredibly unique family circumstance that happened some years ago, but it's so private I'm not sure if I should write an essay about it for transfer. If I did though, I think it would be quite something. Should I?</p>

<p>I have a real passion in art, design, and creating things, and I feel like it's a passion I could talk about in my essays. But it's not very "sciency"/"geeky", so is it something I should refrain from talking about with a school like MIT or Rice?</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help, everyone.</p>

<p>Also, if anyone knows of anything I can participate in that would make me more attractive to colleges like Rice or MIT, let me know.</p>

<p>I'm interested in doing a summer distance-studies program next summer for college credit. I guess that might help.</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

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<p>Yes. You almost have to.</p>

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<p>This is the start of an EC, but passion itself doesn’t play a role in this realm of admissions. You have to translate it into an activity or activities. Being in a club, or doing things on your own, like “video games” and “movies,” is not competitive, or at least not as competitive as, say…having some of your work published in a mag or journal. It makes sense if your ECs have to do with the major you want to study (as that inherently shows passion for your prospective role in the school you transfer to), but it is not necessary.</p>

<p>You should retake the SAT, by the way…Note that, if you do plan to retake it, MIT does not accept scores of SATs taken after January of your freshman year.</p>

3

<p>By the time you are a junior transfer (finished 2 years worth of college) most transfer schools do NOT care one whit what you did in HS - not your HS grades, not your HS ECs, not your HS unique situations, etc.</p>

<p>Your transfer colleges will look almost exclusively (like, 95% or more) at your college grades, rigor of college schedule (number of credits, level of classes, multiple math/science or a lot of fluff each semester?), your college year ECs, and your college professor recommendations.</p>

<p>Stop thinking about your HS stuff and think solely about your college years now in terms of planning for transfer.</p>

<p>What are your chances at MIT and Rice transfer? Well, assuming you can get a 3.8+ college GPA (3.9+ would be better) with a rigorous college schedule, your chances will be…drumroll please… about whatever the going transfer rate is for those two schools.</p>

<p>Oh, likely need to factor in your SAT scores. Retake them. They need to be minimally in the middle 50% of the scores for your target schools. MIT lists 720 - 800 as their MIDDLE 50%. Your 500s in math probably mean automatic rejection from MIT. Need to raise them significantly. I would suggest 780.</p>

<p>Collegeboard lists MIT transfer rate of 24/401 - about 16%. If we figure that kids who blew it and have low GPAs or low SATs are not bothering to even apply to MIT and the majority of kids applying to transfer to MIT are those 3.8+ plus 750+ SAT math kids… if your stats can compete then you are in the competitive mix with a reasonable outcome of a <em>16</em> percent chance of transfer acceptance. If your stats can’t get into that mix, then the chance goes to zero.</p>

<p>Regardless - pick some matches and safeties (schools that have a 50 - 60 % transfer acceptance rate!).</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>I hear Cornell likes transfer students, so if I maintain a great GPA I could always apply for transfer there I suppose…or just stay at A&M and do honors engineering or something.</p>

<p>Thanks for the help everyone!</p>

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<p>Can I count on my essay being confidential to the university?</p>

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<p>I see. Well as a homeschooler I didn’t know of many ways I could apply my art hobby in order to be noticed. There was no art club or art gallery or competition or anything…the best I did was attend a summer PC program at the Pratt Institute to study art & design for university credit. I suppose I should look into it for university, eh?</p>

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<p>I was planning on taking it this January, but that’s helpful now that you’ve told me that. Thank you. I guess I have some months to practice…hopefully I put them to use.</p>

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<p>Hmm well this will be my first year in college, and I plan to apply for transfer for Fall 2011, so I will be pretty much an entering sophomore. I’m assuming only having done 1 year of college, they might look at my HS background for educational reference.</p>

5

<p>Which is why I think your chances to transfer after 1 year are somewhat slim. At that one year mark they will look at your HS records (which is not competitive enough), and even if you get a high SAT (780+ in math for example) there will be only 1 semester worth of college grades for them to look at.</p>

<p>No harm in trying for a soph transfer, but you may want to keep that junior transfer in mind if it doesn’t work out.</p>

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<p>Well…if I don’t make it for sophomore transfer…can I apply again for junior transfer? lol</p>

7

<p>Usually colleges will allow you to apply again, yeah. Check the sites, I’m sure it gives you that exact information.</p>

8

<p>Try focusing on the rigor of the curriculums related with math science and art in college and the SAT scores.</p>

<p>Like what someone has said before: Most people with little to no ECs get into college than those with alot of ECs.</p>