I’m a transfer student who will go into their junior year interested in double majoring in English/Physics at an LAC with a great department in the former, a small-ish student body, excellent study abroad programs, and interesting, unique curriculum in literature.
I’m interested in the following schools:
Middlebury
Amherst
Hamilton
College of the Holy Cross
Colorado College
Sewanee
Sarah Lawrence
Particularly Middlebury and Amherst. However, I’d also like to attend school in the fall rather than wait for spring, and I’ve missed the deadline on these schools except for Sewanee and Sarah Lawrence. I don’t think I would mind attending one of these LACs, but I also don’t want to jump the gun and miss out on a great education at a different LAC. Honestly It might be the prestige factor that’s convincing me to wait, and I’m not even sure Amherst and Middlebury offer more than Sewanee or SLC can, which leads to me ask would anyone recommend Sewanee or SLC over Middlebury or Amherst? This is all assuming I can even get into either of the latter schools, which are reaches, in which case I would simply apply to all of them in the spring. Or should I just wait and apply to them?
If it helps put things in context I’m a 20 year old straight guy leaning left of center. I think I’d be fine at Sarah Lawrence even with the possible overly liberal student body, but at the same time I would probably be chiller in a less politically active college. Sewanee’s campus is gorgeous, but most of these college’s campuses are. I also might prefer the weather over freezing my ass up north, but education > comfort is important to me rn.
You can look up the transfer stats for Middlebury and Amherst–I have no idea if they are particularly or particularly not “transfer friendly”–but I’d suggest going ahead and applying for the fall. You don’t know about acceptances at M and A. You’d be waiting a long time for something that may very well be unlikely or extremely unlikely. Do any of these schools require students attend two years to graduate–some schools do? It seems to be possible–I don’t really know though–that you could end up having to pay for an extra semester or two to meet that requirement or maybe would just be too far along for a standard transfer to work. Are you at a school now? Would you take next year off if you wait. Sewanee and SL are terrific. You seem to like Sewanee, which IS beautiful. Shoot for those, if it works out, you’ve done well. Good luck!
Well, would you want to limit your choices based on a missed cut-off date? Ordinarily, this would involve a major compromise, and one which, in your case, you might regret later. Of course if you are happy with your available choices, then this wouldn’t matter.
Importantly, you should consider whether your choices indicate transfer acceptance rates that are effectively non-zero. Amherst, for example, recently accepted at a 7% transfer rate.
Should you wish to expand or confirm your options, this article aligns with your interests:
@merc21 You’ve been helpful on two of my threads now, so thank you. From what I’ve gathered using the common data set at these schools the transfer acceptance rate isn’t too different, apart from some exceptions like Amherst.
And I wrote off Kenyon because of what I’ve read about the student body. It just wouldn’t be my cup of tea.
Do all of these schools accept spring transfers? I’d assume that some do, some don’t. And you can’t necessarily count on the net price calculators as a transfer student.
@intparent They actually do all accept spring transfers. From what I’ve read they’re fairly reliable within a certain margin. I don’t think the cost would vary drastically beyond what they estimate.