When is the best time to transfer??

Transfer Students
1

I am a high school senior who is not very happy with the college I will be attending in the fall, and I am considering applying for transfer. When is the best time to transfer, and what are the deadlines? Is it better to transfer early since there will be less credits to transfer? When do we get our transfer results? Also, how is the finanicial aid for transfer applicants as opposed to freshman applicants?

Sorry for all the questions haha. I just don’t know when to start the application process, and I want to know what to expect before I send out all the applications.

2

Transferring can be very tricky I would need more information about what your HS stats are, sat/act ,EC, intended major, and where you want to end up in the end

3

Also where you will be attending this fall

4

Do you really have to start college this fall, or would it make more sense to take a gap year and apply for fall 2016?

5

Gap year would do much do to the fact her grades would remain the same

6

Gap year could help depending upon what happens in that gap year. Also student learn a lot about the application process by going through it. So applying next year can result in more success (although OP already has success this year and got into what are, objectively great schools although maybe not for OP). But a gap year can derail a student too unless the student has clearly established goals for the year. It’s usually best as a plan not a default.

7

@atuckertransfer

SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t take
ACT (breakdown): 34, 35 weighted (35M, 35W, 32R, 35S)
SAT II: Didn’t send
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 2/300
AP (place score in parenthesis): Psychology (5), US Gov’t (5), Stats (4), English Lang (5), Physics B (4), Macroecon (4), APUSH (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): School doesn’t offer
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Calc BC, Peer Tutoring, AP Music Theory
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): PSAT/NMSQT Commended Student, AP Scholar with Distinction

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): school & local youth orchestra, orchestra pit in a couple musicals, NHS, youth advisory council (met with local senator regularly), swim team freshman year, Scholastic Bowl, WYSE Team
Job/Work Experience: violin tutor
Volunteer/Community service: 130+ hours at a local hospital
Summer Activities: traveled to India to meet family, summer school
Essays: they were decent
Teacher Recommendation: should have been pretty good, didn’t get to read them though
Counselor Rec: should have been good as well
Additional Rec: N/A

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yup
Intended Major: BME
State (if domestic applicant): IL
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: female
Income Bracket: upper middle class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): N/A

Reflection:

Strengths: ranking, GPA, course load, violin
What you tried to focus on in your application - any hooks you tried to make for yourself: my love for learning, I guess
Weaknesses: lack of extracurriculars? no hooks, far-from-stellar essays, Asian (lol)
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: ^strengths
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Accepted at Loyola in Chicago, Missouri State, Notre Dame, Purdue, U of I at Urbana-Champaign, UW-Madison, Deferred/waitlisted at MIT, UChicago, Northwestern, Rejected at MIT, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia

I am planning to attend UIUC. I applied as an Undecided Engineer, but am now planning to take BME w/ a premed route

8

@happymomof1 @lostaccount If I were to take a gap year I’d probably do some research with local professors or try to create an app

9

I think you should transfer in your sophomore year because your high school record is competitive. You may not have been accepted to your top choices because of weak essays or recommendations. I would try to get strong recommendations in your first year of college and focus on the transfer essay. If you sort these two areas of your transfer application and have a good college GPA (3.8+) then I am sure you will make it to one or more of your reaches/dreams.