My goal is to transfer after my first year to a college like the Ivies, Rice University, JHU, Georgetown, etc. I have been accepted into the University of Rochester, Rutgers, Hofstra, UPITT, and University of Scranton. Which of these colleges will give me the best chance at transferring to a more prestigious school?
In general I think it is a terrible idea to start one college with the intent of transferring out. This will stand in the way of your making meaningful friendships, developing relationships with professors, and getting involved on campus. Then if your transfer doesn’t work out as planned you will be really stuck. I’d choose a college with the intent of staying all four years. It is fine to throw in a couple of transfer applications but don’t count on it working out.
@happy1 is completely right!
If you are planning on transferring out, just start at community college, work your butt off in class, and then move on. But those schools you mentioned aren’t exactly easy to transfer into.
Don’t you like any of the schools you got into enough to attend all 4 years?
My non-professional opinion is that U Rochester is already on a level playing field with a lot of top colleges anyway. It just doesn’t have the same name recognition. I defintitly think its superior to the other colleges you are considering. If you are looking for a rigorous school with great profs who will prepare you well for life, research, grad school, PhD, careers, active alumni involvment, etc…, regardless of if you transfer or not, U Rochester is a great place for all of that.
I agree with the other posts. You are sure to have a bad time if you start college with the idea that you must transfer out. Most of those schools will literally take a few transfer students (maybe 10? Probably less), and it won’t just be about grades. The types of kids they accept as transfers are no different from the types of kids they would accept as freshman. You will have to be involved on and off campus and show how you contribute to the college you are currently at, not the one you hope to get into. You will alos need very good prof recs, and becasue Roch has relatively smaller classes, it’s going to be a little easier to get to know your profs.
U Roch is a great school. It is highly regarded by people who know. It allows you to take almost any class you like, as it very nearly has an open curriculum. The campus is lovely, the students are smart and active. The city of Rochester has a lot going on. It’s attached to a large medical center, and alos the Eastman School of Music. It really has a lot going for it. Go to Rochester, with the expectation that if you invest yourself in it, you will likely have better grades, and make friends. Then you can seriously consider if you still want to transfer.
I agree with the previous two posters.
At some of the most prestigious colleges, transfer admission rates are even lower than freshman admission rates. Not too many students leave. In addition to similar qualifications expected for entering freshman, you’ll probably need a good reason for transferring. Simply desiring to attend a more prestigious college may not cut it.
Top schools may tend to favor older students with interesting life experiences to contribute to the college community. In a recent cohort of only 27 transfers to Stanford, 13 were military veterans. Stanford apparently also favors transfers from in-state community colleges.
https://news.stanford.edu/2017/11/01/small-mighty-cohort-transfer-students-joins-stanford-community/
Cornell enrolls about 20X more transfers than Stanford, so maybe you’d have a realistic shot at Cornell.
I don’t know how to measure the quality/prestige difference between Cornell and, say, Rochester.
Assuming there is one, I wonder if it’s enough to outweigh the disadvantage of starting all over in a new community.
I think you’re setting yourself up for a miserable year.
People tend to be just about as happy as they choose to be. Attending a school with the intention of transferring out just sounds silly.
Instead of chasing prestige, why not get an education and decide to love the school you attend?
Another vote here for “don’t go if you only intend to transfer out”. I have two daughters - one at Cornell and the other at Rochester. For various reasons, they both love their respective choices. Go to a place that you can see yourself at and be happy. Based on your choices and without knowing the $ implications, I would go with Rochester. It’s a great school.
What are you hoping to study?
And why can’t you do that at some of the excellent schools you have been accepted to?
Add me to the list. Bad mindset. Try hard to thrive where you are planted. Of the schools you list, I guess I would vote for Pitt or Rochester, both great schools. Nothing wrong with the others either.
Go either to a four year college you like enough to graduate from, or go to a community college with sufficient transfer prep courses.
To answer your question, none of those places is more likely to get you into the places you want to transfer to.
Did you apply to those other places this time around? If you didn’t then take a gap year, and apply to them. If you did apply, and you were rejected, you need to know that one semester of college grades (which is the only new information that would be on a transfer application) will make very little difference in your application. The chance that you would get in then, if you didn’t get in now, is just about zero.
If you never liked any of the places that did accept you, but someone forced you to apply to them, then you need to think of a way to arreange a gap year so that you can find back-up options that you would be happy attending for all four years.
U of Rochester is awesome, Rutgers and Pitt are very solid, and Scranton and Hofstra are ok too. You already have prestigious options.
I would seriously consider digging into these five schools and looking for the best fit among them – academic, environmental, social, cost – and choosing one with the goal of spending four awesome years there. If you are looking to leave ASAP, that year you spend at a school – that had enough faith in you to offer you admission – is going to suck.
While I agree with most of the posts on this thread, I could not disagree with you more @happymomof1.
Don’t think of first semester grades so lightly. These grades hold much more weight than high school grades as they give colleges a track record of the candidate’s performance at the college level. These grades are also NOT “the only new information that would be on a transfer application,” as the high school transcript will reflect the grades from the end of one’s senior year. In addition to updated high school grades, one can retake the SAT/ACT and submit a highly improved score. These new and improved pieces of information can help a transfer applicant get into a school he/she couldn’t get into as a freshman applicant.
I would say if one can improve their test scores and record stellar first semester grades then the chance to get into a dream school as a transfer applicant is much greater than “just about zero.”
@squishyfish Have you gone to any Admitted Student Days? I know this Sat April 14th is Rutgers New Brunswick.
I agree with a great many comments above. If you didn’t get into a “big name” school out of high school, then you probably still won’t as a transfer student after one year. If you seriously messed up in terms of where you applied then you might take a gap year, but I doubt that is the real problem here.
Not knowing your stats or where you were turned down it is hard to know what is going on. However, I think that you should look at the schools where you were accepted, and think about which one you would prefer and could afford for a full four years. Then go there planning to spend four years and get your degree. Also expect any university that you attend to be academically very challenging, and go in expecting to need to take your classes very seriously and to work hard.
You could try to transfer after a year, but do not count on it working.
I know 4 adults who graduated from Rochester. 3 of those 4 went on to get PhDs. The 4th got her Master’s. All are very well-educated and successful.
Yes, you will meet amazing fellow students and have amazing professors and staff at all the schools on your list! Embrace that, take advantage of opportunities, make opportunities, commit yourself to the school. Then sit down at the beginning of spring break and consider the transfer option, BUT ONLY THEN. If you still want to transfer, then you can apply to do so.
The advice above, taken together, is 10 out of 10 advice! You will be cutting yourself off from so many people and so many opportunities and so much money if you go into it with an I’m-getting-out-of-here attitude. Truly, you can get just as good of an education at the schools where you’ve been accepted as at the ones where you want to apply. I personally love Rochester; the students are very impressive. Students at JHU are not going to be getting a better education if you go there.
Just to add, JHU and Georgetown are very different. Georgetown is super affluent and very social. It will very expensive to “keep up” with your fellow students. If that sounds amazing, and you have the money to cover an expensive social lifestyle, then JHU is probably not for you. I don’t mean that to sound negative about either school. Both are terrific. They just have different cultures and would be better fits for different students. I know great people who attend/attended both. Good luck!
Choose your university as if you expected to spend four years there.
Keep in mind that if you applied to, say, Princeton, and they turned you down, they’re not going to look at your first semester college grades and go “oops we made a mistake, sorry”. So, the only elite universities left are those you didn’t apply to already.
Of all of those I’d pick Rochester which is elite in its own right. Most elite transfers are lateral (elite to elite) so if you want to transfer it’d help and if you don’t, which is the situation you’ll find yourself in with 99.5% probability, it’s an awesome school.
@realist712, Cornell takes a decent number of transfers, but for the other schools mentioned, @happymomof1 is about right:
Chances would be just about 0 for a nonhooked, traditional transfer applicant.
Anyway, OP, what are your goals?
I don’t see much that those other schools can get you that Rochester wouldn’t.