Where can I possibly attend?

Transfer Students
1

<p>Here's the sitch:</p>

<p>I'm at Western Michigan at the time as a freshman. I didn't do too well in high school or on my act (2.9, 22). The first semester at Western was also rough (academic probation rough). The probation thing scared the crap out of me, and around xmas break, I decided it was time to get serious. This semester, for the first time in my life, I'm trying in school. I'm getting a 4.0 pretty easily with a pretty hard schedule (eng, math, cs, chem). I really think that if I continue to put the effort into it, I can keep grades like this going, and the end of this semester, I'm going to have something in the ballpark of 3.6.</p>

<p>I really want to (to put it lightly) get the hell out of this college. It's not a very academic environment, most kids seem to be at least semi-retarded, and I don't think it's the right place for me. It's a good start, and for the next year, I plan on getting my gpa up here, but I want to transfer eventually.</p>

<p>I'm literally willing to do anything (anything) from this point in order to get into a better school. I really want to go to umich, but would settle on msu. I know you can take the act after college, but is that really a viable option? What do colleges mostly look for in a transfer app? Do college grades have precedence over the rest of the stats? Will a bad high school history screw up my chances very much? What's the best school I could end up attending? Sorry for the lengthy post, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't leave out any details.</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>I think if you got a 4.0 for another semester and could prove that you have a grasp of working hard, I dont see umich as too hard to transfer to. I think your problem lies in that you got below a 2.0 (I presume at least since thats academic probation at my school) that regardless of what you get later, it still looks subpar.</p>

3

<p>Your high school history shouldn’t matter as long as you’re waiting another year; after two years, they tend to focus on your college grades.</p>

4

<p>Write convincing essays explaining your shift, don’t bother retaking the ACT, and continue to work hard.</p>

5

<p>If you’re a Michigan state resident, then you’d have a decent chance at the University of Michigan. I don’t think you could get into Ross, the business school, but you’d be a solid candidate for the main College of Literature, Science and the Arts. If you’re willing to declare an engineering major, you might have a decent shot at the College of Engineering. Beyond this, your options are relatively limited. Because of your first semester grades, I don’t think you’d have a chance at more elite programs like the Ivies,Stanford, CalTech, MIT, Northwestern, Chicago, Duke, etc… </p>

<p>Still, you’ve got some decent options. If you’re doing well in quantitative courses (math, natural sciences, engineering, and/or computer science), then you should probably declare a major in one of those areas. If you had a solid GPA and a demonstrated commitment to those areas via your major, you could probably get into Case Western or Purdue. Beyond those places, if you’re willing to look farther afield, you’d also have an OK chance at UCSD, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Cal Poly, and the University of Rochester’s engineering program. Some reaches you might want to consider would be Georgia Tech, Harvey Mudd, and Vanderbilt’s engineering school. </p>

<p>In general, given your profile you’d be best advised to apply to engineering programs. They typically don’t require a very high GPA, and you seem to be quantitatively strong. If you don’t want to do engineering, then I’d still recommend applying as a quantitative major. Those are typically viewed as more rigorous, and you’d be a satisfactory candidate if you had strong grades in quantitative subjects. Regardless of what you chose, you should focus on quantitative stuff because that seems to be your niche.</p>

<p>If you want to apply to a more liberal arts oriented place, i.e. not an engineering school, then you should still consider the options above. Additionally though, Grinnell, Harvey Mudd, Oberlin, Reed, Washington and Lee, Bates, Colby, Hamilton, and Colgate might interest you. Hamilton, Colby, and Bates are also testing optional, so your weak ACT would matter less there. A lot of liberal arts colleges, despite their names, have strong quantitative divisions. More over, they tend to have an oversupply of humanities/social sciences majors, so they like to take quantitative types to even up their mix. </p>

<p>In general you should do three things. 1: Declare a quantitative major. If not engineering then math, natural sciences, or computer science. This is your niche, and, because of the rigor, would make you a more appealing candidate. 2. Work very hard to keep your grades up. Your chances of getting into to any of these places really rests on showing that you’ve turned yourself around. 3. Seriously consider retaking the ACT again, or doing the SAT. Although test scores aren’t as important for junior transfers, they still matter somewhat. Your ACT is really low, and it would help if you can either boost it, or get a 2000+ SAT score. Hope all this helps.</p>

6

<p>Thanks a LOT tsak… I obviously didn’t expect to get into an ivy league school, UMich is definitely enough for me. I’m either doing CS, math, or physics… idk which at the moment but all three are pretty rigorous subjects so, like you said, that should help with my chances for admittance.</p>

<p>From here, should I start talking with an advisor @ UMich? If admission isn’t such a stretch, I don’t want to end up having half of my credits transferring because I didn’t plan my schedule @ Western well enough.</p>