luying3636

Hi,

I am currently in my 3rd year at a 4-year university. I finished one year and a half at my home university in China, then I spent the second semester of my sophomore year and will complete the first semester of my junior year as an exchange student at a UC. Because most of the classes required of my major by my home university are not offered here at the UC I'm attending, I would have to take an extra year anyways if I decided to stick with my university in China to earn my degree (that said, it's not the main reason why I want to transfer).

I'm looking into transferring into one of the top50 national universities in the US. I emailed a couple of schools that I was interested in, such as Cornell, Penn, and Northwestern, but unfortunately in their very vague responses they told me I'm ineligible to apply as a junior transfer.

I have done lots of research, but I didn't find much useful information out there. Does anybody know if there's schools in that tier accepting or at least considering transfer applicants who exceed sophomore standing?

entomom

I don't understand this. Do you want to transfer to another US college for a couple of years and then return to China to finish? I don't understand how you will attend college in the US for a few years and then earn a degree from a college in China.

Most college admissions websites are pretty clear about who they will and won't accept as transfers.

For the schools you are looking at, most only take soph and jr transfers. That said, I haven't looked at all of the top 50 and there could be exceptions.

noamountofcoffee

I think most U.S. colleges want transfer students to spend 3--4 semesters on campus. Maybe add another major or minor, to increase the amount of time necessary to finish your degree?

luying3636

Thank you guys for your replies. I realized there's some non-clarity in my description so let me clarify a bit more:

I am looking into applying to a US university as a junior transfer in fall 2013. I have been studying at UC Davis as an exchange student from China and I am going to attain 48 quarter units from UCD by the end of my time there and then return to China in Dec to continue my study at my home university. So I will apply as an international transfer. My one year in UCD is only study-abroad.

I emailed the admin office of Cornell and Dartmouth. They told me students who exceed 2 years of college coursework are ineligible to apply as transfers for their schools;Some other vaguely say students like me are "discouraged" to apply because of the 2 year in residence requirement after matriculation; One admin officer in Georgetown told me they don't care about my standing; I haven't asked USC yet but I know a student from my univeristy in China ended up transferring to there when she was also in her 3rd year.

I just want to gather more information in regards to whether the fact that I have more than 2 years of college coursework would be a negative factor in my application, or, even worse, make me totally ineligible to apply.

Here's some of the schools I am considering:
NYU, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, USC, Washington Univ. in St Louis, Rice, Vanderbilt, UVa, Barnard College, Northwestern, Univ. of Michigan Ann Arbor...

happymomof1

Your situation is unusual. You need to ask each institution on your list separately about this. None of us know enough about all of their policies to be able to predict what their answers might be. If you ate admitted, you will need to plan to attend for at least two full years.