Which of these schools should I apply to?

Transfer Students
1

<p>I am a sophomore at a mediocre/decent public college with a 3.9 and 2200-2300 SATs. I'm trying to transfer to a better college as an Economics Major.</p>

<p>My high school GPA was OK. I was top 10% of the class but got about an even mix of A's and B's.</p>

<p>College extracurriculars are good.</p>

<p>One LOR will be excellent. The other one should be good.</p>

<p>Essays haven't been written yet but I will be spending a lot of time on them.</p>

<p>No AP scores or SAT-IIs.</p>

<p>Currently, I have 21 colleges that I am thinking of applying to. I'm going to be paying all of the money in my bank account that I have saved up from work to pay for applications but my parents are also paying some. However, they said that I can't apply to more than 8 or 9 colleges because it would be too expensive. </p>

<p>So could you guys give me an idea of which colleges I should be applying to? I want a college that only requires 4 classes a semester (not 5), doesn't actively grade-deflate and has good connections to Wall Street, consulting, industry, etc. </p>

<p>I also am looking for schools that don't have a crazy-low transfer acceptance rate (below 5% say) and that generally give somewhat reasonable financial aid (which is why I'll probably be taking NYU off of the list).</p>

<p>Here's my list right now:</p>

<p>Amherst
Bowdoin
Brown
Carnegie Mellon
Colgate
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
NYU
Northwestern
Rice
Stanford
Tufts
University of Chicago
University of Michigan
University of Pennsylvania
University of Virginia
Vanderbilt
Williams</p>

<p>Given my stats, financial aid needs, career goals, etc, which 8 or 9 schools should I be applying to? Are there any colleges that fit my criteria that I have left out?</p>

<p>Thanks so much for your help.</p>

2

<p>Dartmouth is sub 5%. Stanford is 2% transfer rate.Bowdoin is sub 5%. Not too sure about Rice and ties to Wall Street.</p>

3

<p>If you’re a NY resident, think about Cornell esp. Columbia would probably have the best ties. UVA or UMich seems good for cost.</p>

4

<p>Nah, I don’t live in NY (but those are private schools so I’m not sure it would make a difference in admissions anyway (the Econ department isn’t in any of the public colleges at Cornell))</p>

5

<p>For what time period will you be applying? I.e. fall 2011, winter/spring 2012, or fall 2012?</p>

<p>The fall 2011 application deadline has already passed at some schools.</p>

<p>What state do you live in?</p>

6

<p>Fall 2011. Most of these are March 1.</p>

7

<p>Any other suggestions?</p>

8

<p>williams often takes no transfers. northwestern would be a good one. did you look at colby, bates, lehigh, bucknell, etc.?</p>

9

<p>You can take out at least Dartmouth & Stanford for <5% transfer rates (fall 2010 transfer rates are currently available on the CB College Search function), and some of the others are likely close, eg. Amherst. </p>

<p>Unless you’re IS, UMichigan won’t give you much, if any, FA. You should check the specific admissions/FA policies for transfers for the rest, for instance Brown has need-aware admissions for transfers as well as limited FA available.</p>