tennisplayer5

Hi y'all,

I'm a freshman at a LAC in the south. I pretty much hate it here - don't fit in, don't really have friends, and didn't want to go here in the first place. (WAY TOO FRATTY). I wanted to transfer out after this year, but had a few worries/questions/concerns for the CC community. Basically, in high school, I breezed through my classes, earning a crappy GPA in the process. However, that was the only crappy part of my application. I ended up going to my fallback school, since the places I wanted to go to (Penn, Duke, etc.) waitlisted/rejected me. I didn't lose focus and am doing quite well at my LAC. Here are my pertinent stats:

HIGH SCHOOL:
3.3 GPA (u/w, tremendously crappy - but there's a slight upward trend from c's freshman year)
National merit finalist
AP scholar with distinction (took 12 ap's in high school)
tennis team captain

COLLEGE:
hopeful 4.0, but I might make ONE a-
A - philosophy 206
A - econ 100 (my major)
A - history 216
A- (right now, am working on bringing up to an A) - humanities 101

i'm also a writer for the school's paper, am a member of the exclusive improv troupe that performs regularly, founded the school's chess club (is this big?), and just started an awesome internship at an incubator company for burgeoning entrepreneurs.

So as you can see, my college resume is a bit more impressive than my high school resume. That said, here are the colleges, ranked, that I want to transfer to:

1. Columbia (absolute dream - but didn't apply in high school)
2. Penn - applied e/d in high school, does this matter? i got rejected. still a dream, sister went there
3. Stanford
4. Harvard (will be number 1 if i decide to apply)
5. Dartmouth
6. Duke

I've developed a great rapport with my teachers, so I should be able to get sterling letters of rec. But - haven't told them I want to transfer. When is it appropriate to tell them?

Now to the point - what are my chances at these schools? What should I do to maximize my chances?

Any help at all will be forever appreciated.

Much love,
tennisplayer5

PS - I'm an indian guy from a high-income family. how negative is this in terms of applications?

PS number 2 - My essays should be great, I can write well.

beachlover15

I'm pretty sure Duke is super-fratty. Just sayin.

tennisplayer5

Haha I guess. But - some best friends go there and rave about it.

beachlover15

Then go there.

Christiaan

Hope someone can help you, don't see why someone has to reply like beachlover15

sometransfer

You have no chance at any of those schools. You don't even have your first semester grades in yet, but a 4.0 with those introductory fluff courses just makes you one of many non-notable students trying to transfer upward. Then you factor in the 3.3 from high school, and you just have no chance at any college in the top 15. You had better start making a new list of colleges with higher transfer acceptance rates.

beachlover15

^^ I really don't see what's wrong with my response.

Christiaan

Then keep making smart ass comments

beachlover15

Too bad my original comment was edited. But whatever man.

wavylays94

Word of advice, Broseph: Dartmouth is about as fratty as fratty gets. Duke is extremely fratty too. I've heard from a few friends that Penn is really fratty too....
Just food for thought

Matisyahu

Are those the only schools on your list? If so, then you're chances are not good at all.
If you have 60 credits with around a 3.9+, then maybe you can get in. But I would still add other schools to your list.