Stanford only accepts a handful of transfers each year, and those are nearly all non-trads, so don’t waste your money.
Since you need finaid, drop the idea of ‘dream’ school and look for the best $ package, which will not likely be Tufts (which has never been completely need-blind).
Can you reach out to any of the XC coaches on yoru list to see if they have any interest/pull with admissions?
Be wary of Columbia as to which College you apply to: Columbia College is different than the College of General Studies (which is probably a match, but little need-based aid as its a cash cow for the Uni) which is different than the Engineering school. OTOH, given the unrest, now is a good time to apply to a big reach.
The enrolled student population at Tufts University is 48.6% White, 14.3% Asian, 8.59% Hispanic or Latino, 5.39% Black or African American, 5.2% Two or More Races, 0.0602% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders, and 0.0602% American Indian or Alaska Native.
Just as an FYI…48.6% is not far less than 50%.
And Tufts guarantees to meet full need of all accepted students even transfers…no regard to ethnic background at.all.
But this applicant has already applied and was denied admission to Tufts. They will need to demonstrate a solid academic reason for wanting to transfer…AND bring something very solid to their second application to be considered…in my opinion.
I have similarly not noted any cases of people getting a job based on a large network of alumni from an undergraduate education. I did get one job in the distant past based on a contact from a professor in graduate school. I know multiple people (including myself) who have gotten jobs through people they met on the job or in research projects. Some opportunities came via former bosses, some via former coworkers.
However I generally think that the value of an alumni network from undergraduate education is smaller than some people might expect. People often do over time develop a network of people they have worked with in the past and these networks can be valuable. Research projects can help with this.
I think that this is correct also. For someone who is still a freshman in university, being involved in any research is very good. One daughter for example in the summer after her sophomore year in university was able to get involved in some research, but not the research that she wanted. Partly based on doing very well in this research and gaining the associated references and contacts, she was then during her junior year of university able to get involved in research that was way closer to what she actually wanted to do (and that they continued over the summer and throughout her senior year of university).
If you can get accepted and can afford to attend then I agree with you. Tufts is a very good university and to me the Medford campus is in an attractive location. Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences does have a lot of research going on, and is in Boston near quite a bit of other biotech work. I do not see any harm in applying to transfer, but I would be a bit surprised if you get in as an undergraduate student. Unfortunately their master’s program (which I think may be relatively new) does not appear to be funded and so it could be expensive. Their PhD program is also very good.
If your current college does not offer the major that you want, then that would be a potential valid academic reason to transfer. Having a valid academic reason to transfer should improve your chances.
I do wonder what your current academic advisor would recommend that you do. I also am wondering if you can perhaps take advantage of your current research opportunity to try to arrange a one year coop-like program where you go on leave from your college to do research. This might be interesting and might also give you time to apply to other schools as a transfer student without messing up the situation that you already have at your current college. Whether it would be possible to arrange this I do not know.
Hi - I had a few thoughts, as a graduate of a selective SLAC, a biologist, and a current faculty member at a CC, where I advise a lot of potential transfer students and try to help them make research connections at our nearby big R1 institution and at other regional public schools.
I agree with others here that your undergrad alumni network is not of much importance for getting into graduate school in biology. Alumni networks are much more important for business/finance type careers. My alumni / friend network helped me get a lab tech job right after I graduated in the city where I attended school, but that’s about it.
Trinity is highly ranked and has a great reputation and one of the best things you can do as an undergraduate student to set yourself up for graduate school is to get involved in research. I know you know this. However, the type of biology research/the details of your undergrad project you’re involved in matter much less than the degree of independence/contributions you make to those projects. At a small college like Trinity you will be MUCH MORE likely to be able to attend conferences and present posters as an undergrad if you stay than you will as a transfer at a larger institution – as it will take you at least a semester after transfer to settle in and make meaningful connections with potential faculty mentors. What I mean by this, is that presenting a poster at a conference on a topic in evolutionary ecology that is based on your independent work as an undergrad will be much more valuable than a semester spent helping a grad student run PCR assays in a big research lab where you are essentially an unpaid lab tech – even if you want to go to grad school in molecular biology. Also, you can take a year or two after you graduate to get a lab tech job in a lab that is aligned with the type of research you want to do to get additional skills/demonstrate that you are ready for grad school (I routinely advise students to take at least a year to work before applying to graduate school - at least for Ph.D.s). It is a long road with uncertain career pathways, so it’s best to be sure.
The transfer cost is real – regardless of how good a student you are/ how well prepared you are. You will be starting at a new institution and will not have the same knowledge base as the sophomores who have been there for a year. At a place like Tufts (or similar) you will be in competition with all the sophomore students who’ve had a year of intro courses to survey faculty members / make connections.
I don’t mean to suggest that you stay at Trinity if you are miserable - if you are, by all means transfer, but recognize that there will be a cost.
Did you apply for any REU opportunities for this summer? It’s (likely) too late to find an REU for this summer (2024) but it is absolutely something you should do next summer. They are competitive, so apply to a lot (15-20). In addition to research with faculty at your instiution, REUs in biology are probably the top thing that potential graduate schools/mentors are looking for in prospective grad students. You will have a hard time getting an REU unless you’re an enrolled student somewhere - so this might be another reason to stay at Trinity if you don’t get in to your ideal transfer institution.
Finally - I’ll say that small liberal arts colleges have a much higher success rate of producing PhDs even than the top Ivy-league schools (per capita) - and that is primarily because of their low faculty-student ratio, the fact that faculty need to do research to get tenure/promotion, and because there are no grad students, they must rely on their undergrads to do this - and hence they invest a lot of mentoring/training into undergrads.
I’d be happy to chat if you like.
Quick follow-up, as I re-read your initial post. Are you going to do the summer research as planned? Would you be able to do the research trip if you decide not to return in the fall?
Do you want to continue running? You’ll have a better sense of how your times rank to possible transfer institutions - many of which are D1 so it might be harder to walk-on as a transfer. Do you have good connections with your current teammates, if so, are you OK losing that if you transfer?