Would I be competitive as a sophomore transfer?

I’m a senior in high school and I slacked off a bit freshman and sophomore year. Because of this, I wasn’t able to apply to some top schools that I’ve always dreamed of going to namely UNC-CH and UVa. I picked up my grades junior year and this year and between the two of them I’ll have a GPA of about a 3.9-4.0. This will bring me to about a 3.6 over the 4 years. If I apply after one semester in college with a strong college GPA, am I competitive for schools at that level?

No. Chapel Hill and UVa are very difficult to get into as an OOS applicant even if you had not goofed off for 2 years in high school.

@TomSrOfBoston I realize that those two are particularly difficult for OOS applicants and I didn’t really expect to be too competitive for them but what about similar caliber schools. Didn’t pick all south intentionally but William and Mary for example, or even private colleges like Wake Forest

Yes you will be a competitive applicant as long as you can get a 3.8+ your freshman year of college and have solid test scores. Of course you will need good LoR and essays

@TomSrOfBoston uva and unc dont seem like terrible hard schools to transfer into why discourage someone? The acceptance rate of uva hovers around 30% does not seem impossoble

@thecoolboy1234 a lot of those are guaranteed CC transfers through their programs and in state guys. Actual OOS rate is probably closer to 5-10% I would estimate

I do understand that there are alot of In state guaranteed transfer however UNC transfer rate hoverd around 40% i dont believe that number drops down to 5-10% for out of state. Im going to assume its around 15-20% for OOS.

But thats beside the point, strive hard do your best and apply! Theres no harm in applying

Good point. Thanks for replying

Anybody know anything about how difficult it is to transfer to Wake Forest or Vanderbilt? I’d probably have to wait to transfer as a junior but can they be realistic?

we need more information. ecs? stats? sats? class ranking? and you’re in high school, you don’t know how hard or easy college is yet. think about it once you actually start college.

I slacked off my first two years of high school too, but to a much worse degree than you did. I got a 1.96 in remedial classes. I’m currently a Wake Forest freshman who made dean’s list last semester. They’re the most holistic school on the whole frickin planet. Just be sure you write stellar essays and, if at all possible, interview (I actually don’t know if they offer interviews to transfers but it can be a very important piece of the application at least for a freshman applicant). Seriously, my experience with Wake is that they’ll take in weird applications with open arms as long as you come across as sincere and you have a solid turnaround (and it sounds like you do).

Just as an aside, I may be transferring but I’ll always be grateful to the Wake admissions office for taking a chance on me