Colleges not accepting pre-med transfers

thelawn · 09-22-2012, 04:41 PM

Hello, I made this post in the transfer forum, and was advised to seek out the help of this part of the website

"Hey all, it's been a long time since I've posted on here.

I'm a pre-med mathematics major in my 2nd year at UAlabama and I'm looking to transfer to somewhere far more north, but I noticed when I was looking at Boston College they said that they wouldn't allow any transfers to be pre-med if they planned on transferring past their first year. This is a major red flag for me.

Is this something I should go back and look at most of my schools for? Is this something that's common, and I've just never heard of, or should I just assume this is just one school's policy?

Thanks for any help."

Here is the link to said page on their website: Special Conditions and Specific Requirements - Office of Undergraduate Admission - Boston College

I need help with the same question as before, is this a limitation specific to Boston College, or is this something I need to be looking out for as I make up a list of possible transfers? Thanks, again, for any help!

mom2collegekids · 09-23-2012, 12:00 AM

I don't think that's a common limitation, but maybe it is at schools that tightly control who is premed...and who will get committee letters. maybe the concern at these schools is that they want their premeds to take their prereqs at their school, not a former school.

I doubt any/many publics would care.

I know that you applied to some top schools (Vandy, BC, Duke, NYU) as a high school senior but your GPA kept you out. What is your current GPA?

limabeans · 09-23-2012, 12:18 AM

As a pre-med, your college will most likely write a Committee letter vouching for you on your behalf. BC is saying that they won't get to know you well enough to write such a letter. This basically shows you now how that process works, that it's not just a metter of taking courses, but that they get to know you, the student.

Quote:

Because our Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Committee requires that at least half of the required courses for entrance to medical school (2 biology, 4 chemistry, 2 physics, 2 math, and 2 English) be taken at Boston College, students who have been enrolled elsewhere for more than one year will have completed too much coursework to be considered for our program.

mom2collegekids · 09-23-2012, 09:08 AM

As a pre-med, your college will most likely write a Committee letter vouching for you on your behalf.

I don't think most colleges write Committee Letters. Many/most publics don't, and some privates don't either.

But, if the OP is looking to transfer to a top private (like BC or Duke), then he may face this issue. Those schools may want their pre-meds to have taken their pre-reqs at THEIR school in order to get a Committee Letter.

TheLawn...obviously, you need to proceed cautiously. You don't want to end up at a school that either won't write a CL for you or won't write a good one because they hardly know you. And, it may not be a good idea to transfer to a school that doesn't write CL's.

Also, keep in mind that you may have a harder time finding profs to write your LORs if you transfer...again because you'll be new at that school.

thelawn · 09-23-2012, 09:32 AM

mom2collegekids: Yeah, GPA has always been a weak point of mine, and still is. I came out of the gates with a 3.1 my first semester (which does not fairly portray the work I put in), and a 3.6 my second. If I absolutely rock this semester I may be able to be competitive for schools like BC, or NYU, but I very much doubt that they would accept me as of right now. I'd be happy with a school that wasn't near the top at this point, because I really want to leave Alabama.

I've also been involved in undergrad research, and a few clubs, but those probably won't save me.

Also, thanks for those of you that cleared up what this may be about, and other factors that I need to consider. I knew/still know very little about the actual process.

bluebayou · 09-23-2012, 11:59 AM

fwiw: BC had a higher than expected yield this fall, so bed space for transfers will likely be limited. (BC hasn't announced anything formal yet, but I'm just giving you my interpretation of reading tea leaves.)

If you are full pay (transfers may not get much financial aid), look into Boston Univ or Northeastern.

omama · 09-23-2012, 03:02 PM

thelawn,

I'm not sure of your homestate. But when you originally applied to schools you had OSU listed so I would assume that is Ohio State. You could easily transfer there.

MY D attends U Alabama and is from Ohio. We do know some hs classmates at OSU and I am pretty sure they do not do committee letters. Her good friend had to find his reqs. And since we are currently going through the application cycle I will say some medical schools have different criteria concerning recommendations. Like 3 science or no research. Bottom line I am glad D is at a school with a committee letter.

And if you are looking to transfer for Winter/Spring. The OSU application is due October
1st.

Also if you are truely interested in going to Medical school I think transfering to a school where you would have the opportunity to achieve the highest GPA would be good.

So in a recap things to ask when looking at transfer schools. Will I be able to raise my GPA. Will I be able to get letters of recommendation. What does the school have in way of premed advising.

mom2collegekids · 09-23-2012, 06:24 PM

GPA has always been a weak point of mine, and still is. I came out of the gates with a 3.1 my first semester (which does not fairly portray the work I put in), and a 3.6 my second. If I absolutely rock this semester I may be able to be competitive for schools like BC, or NYU, but I very much doubt that they would accept me as of right now.

Yes, I can see from your high school GPA and your college GPA that GPA is your weak area.

If you have what it takes, then I doubt that a 3.1 your first college semester doesn't reflect the work you put in - unless you don't know how to study properly.

I understand that you weren't accepted to your list of schools because of GPA, so you submitted late applications to Bama and a couple other schools. Your goal probably has been to transfer to a "name" school as soon as you can. that's fine IF it won't make your GPA worse!

I think you're making a huge mistake trying to transfer to schools where the pre-meds will be a lot stronger than you are. If you want to transfer to OSU, OU, UDel, or something like that, fine. But to transfer where the pre-meds have been life-long straight A students seems like suicide.

plumazul · 09-23-2012, 08:32 PM

Quote:

I think you're making a huge mistake trying to transfer to schools where the pre-meds will be a lot stronger than you are. If you want to transfer to OSU, OU, UDel, or something like that, fine. But to transfer where the pre-meds have been life-long straight A students seems like suicide.

I agree. OP, if your goal is to be the strongest MS applicant you can be, then you really should consider just staying put and continue working on relationships you already have established.

thelawn · 09-23-2012, 09:30 PM

I understand how you all came to that conclusion, and I'm not going to try and say it's entirely wrong. I also really do appreciate the input from unbiased sources, and don't disagree that it would be better in terms of competition to stay here. I've factored in that I have friends, a professor who's more than happy to have me researching things that I find really interesting, and in general just know this place better than I know any other college.

However, I do have problems with the college itself. The problem you've identified is around 20% of the reasons I want to leave. I'll explain them if you think I'm making excuses, but I'm not trying to make this into about what makes U Alabama not the right fit for me.

i_wanna_be_Brown · 09-23-2012, 10:51 PM

it's not just about whether or not it's the right fit. Only transfer if it's affecting your grades and/or general well being

parent56 · 09-24-2012, 08:32 AM

will you lose any merit aid that was helping keep your undergrad costs down, by transferring? would that affect money available for med school?

mom2collegekids · 09-25-2012, 08:52 AM

I don't think the student got any merit from Bama....

The student applied to Bama very late after being rejected from all of his top schools, largely due to GPA. He would have long missed the scholarship deadline. Also, his GPA may not have been high enough for merit anyway.

I'm reading between the lines, and may be wrong, but it seems that the student found himself in hot water (no acceptances) and quickly applied elsewhere. He enrolled at Bama with the idea that he'd transfer to one of his rejection schools later. With that in his head, he's never allowed himself to embrace the school he's attending. That happens when a student enrolls with the intention of just "making do" until he can transfer.

Frankly, since his college GPA isn't stellar, I think it's a bad idea to transfer to a top school with more competitive pre-meds.

bluebayou · 09-25-2012, 11:25 AM

^^If the OP's gpa is not stellar, he'll have a hard time transferring "up" anyway. After Frosh year, the OP's gpa is ~3.3 if I am reading correctly. Even a 4.0 in the first semester of Soph year will not be very competitive for a school like BC.

IMO, the best option is to look to "less popular" schools, off the beaten path, such as Case Western, Rochester, and the like. OTOH, the OP's best shot at med school is to apply to Alabama residency (some how some way, even if a gap year is required) and apply instate in 3-4 years.

thelawn · 09-25-2012, 03:16 PM

Well, I'd like to thank everyone for the thread for the help (while efforts were devoted to helping), but this thread has somehow become about assumptions based upon what happened 1.5 years ago. I'm glad to see that all of you are confident enough in your deduction skills to decide that I'm not someone who was approximately 50/50 on transferring, with a lean towards staying, and who was honestly just thinking about sending out transfer apps so that I would have options because my parents were nice enough to leave the decision to me, and instead that I'm an immature child, incapable of mentally/emotionally overcoming my past failures that has come to U Alabama with a completely closed-off mindset, and has, quite stubbornly, decided to transfer to a "name" school.

Once again, thanks for the help!