garden93

What are some good ones that are still slightly competitive (accept at least 50% of applicants or less) and accept spring transfers?

jkiwmom

You have to research school by school. Some accept spring transfers and some do not, so you need to first start a list of potential schools and look at each website under "transfer admissions". If you want to get the exact data on the percentage of applicants accepted as a transfer, then google the school's Common Data Sets for 2012. Here's an example for James Madison University:

http://www.jmu.edu/instresrch/cds/2011/CDS2011_D.pdf

What's your intended major? What state are you located? What can you afford? What's your current GPA and scores (and HS GPA)? Are you looking at larger universities or liberal arts colleges? Mainstream culture or more liberal? etc. etc. I may be able to suggest a couple schools.

garden93

Thanks for the info!

Intended major: Either international business or pre-med
Location: Kansas (but currently studying in the UK). Hoping to transfer to the East or West Coast
Budget: None
GPA: 3.0
HS GPA: 3.8
ACT score: 25
And I'm fine with either large or small university!

justina11

UGA fits the bill. Why the hell do you want to leave England?

jkiwmom

Here's a few I'd consider...do confirm whether they accept for spring though. And do look at James Madison U. Keep in mind that your out-of-state public schools, like JMU, will be more difficult in admissions being OOS, but don't let it stop you from applying.

American U.

http://www1.american.edu/academic.de...et%2005-06.pdf

Temple U. (Public)
http://www.temple.edu/ir/factbook/do..._2011-2012.pdf

Northeastern U.
http://www.northeastern.edu/oir/pdfs/CDS%202011-12.pdf

U Southern Cali (worth a shot)
http://www.ipr.sc.edu/cds/cds2011/cdsd2011.ht

Boston U (reach, but worth a shot)
http://www.bu.edu/oir/files/2011/03/cds.pdf

Common Data Sets, but be sure it search for more recent 2012 data (link may give you ideas of schools to consider though):
Links to the Common Data Sets Posted by Colleges

garden93

@justina11 As much as I have enjoyed studying abroad and traveling around the UK, I've realized that I don't like the college education system over here. They make you take classes related to your degree automatically, core classes are not required. All of the classes you take also base your entire grade on ONE essay or ONE exam. It's really unfair.

@jkiwmom Thanks so much. You are a life saver! Do you know how competitive BU is? I entered my scores and GPA on Cappex, and they said I have a good chance. So just wondering!

jkiwmom

BU is competitive, just check out their Common Data Set pg. 20.
There were 1,125 male transfer applicants in '11 and 257 were accepted. The number of female transfer applicants for 2011 were 1,390 and 454 were accepted. I would still apply, and they accept for spring . I think that your being in the UK may be more interesting to an admissions rep., and you have the ability to write a meaningful essay on your experience with the UK Ed. system (although, do not complain too much..fine line).

The one thing I will tell you, is that you may have a better chance of transferring into a private school (now that I see how your courses have been thus far). Most of the public schools will want you to have a certain number of general ed. requirements already out of the way (often they favor junior transfers). The fact that the UK school didn't require these may be an issue with the public schools you decide to apply. However, the private schools are more likely to not care. There's an advantage to them receiving your tuition for the next 3 +years. Publics are more about graduation rates and so turning out more graduates is generally the goal (that's why they prefer juniors in CA and in VA who have met all gen ed requirements at a cc). Just something to consider when you complete your list of schools.

jkiwmom

American U had 1,477 transfer applicants in '11 and admitted 1,015! I live in DC area and have met a lot of grads that loved AU (liberal school/good cultural climate as well as strong academics).

1/3 of transfers applicants were accepted to Northeastern. I am trying to think of more Boston schools for you...or NY. Fordham may be in range, but I cannot locate their Common Data Sets for some odd reason.

garden93

Wow, that's competitive. But obviously not as competitive as the Ivies! I applied this year as a transfer to Stanford, Brown, Harvard, Cornell, UPenn, and Dartmouth. They only accepted 2% of transfers this year, so I wasn't that surprised. So if a school accepts only a third of applicants, that's a pretty good chance in my opinion.

Do you think I should re-take my ACT in September? I scored a 25. I want to score at least a 27, but I can't decide if that'll help my transfer applicants.

Also, what's the crime like in DC? I was looking at a school there earlier, but someone told me to avoid DC due to the high crime rates!

garden93

Also, what do you think of NYU?

entomom

jkiwmom, some schools don't post their CDSs publicly, Columbia and WUSTL are a couple that come to mind.

jkiwmom

I didn't realize that some schools didn't post their CDS. Good to know! . thx Entomom.

NYU is probably too reachy. You could look up the CDS, but guessing the GPA avg. will be higher. Your college GPA is carrying the most weight now, not your HS GPA, so you really are going to need to focus on schools that have a good portion of accepted transfers with a 3.0.

You could retake the ACT. Your scores will still be factored in as a 2nd year transfer, so go ahead and study this summer as much as possible (get a tutor if you can) and retake in Sept. Your GPA matters much more at this point, but it's still worth a try to boost scores up a bit if you have the time to prepare this summer. Can't hurt.

I happen to love DC. I've also lived in NYC and Chicago (years ago though). You will have crime in all cities. There are safer areas and more crime prone areas in all big cities, so that's always an issue and you do have to practice good "street smarts" if you head to an urban college. You should visit some schools this summer and get a better feel for what you may want. It's hard to know whether you like an urban setting, or a more suburban or rural. I know my daughter prefers small rural schools (but near a nice town/city), and my son prefers large suburban/urban schools. Everyone has a different reaction to a school, so get in some visits and find out where you feel more at home .