Changing Schools Affect on College Admissions

Applying to College
1

For my freshman year I attended a highly ranked prep school on scholarship and had a rough transition from my previous schools. My semester one gpa was 2.9 and my 2nd semester is looking like a 3.8+ but I’ll have to wait to see how finals go. I have always taken the hardest classes available and enjoy the school but I’ll be switching to a public school which isn’t highly ranked but not too bad. I’m switching because of the better course selection, closer location and my scholarship only covered 18,000 of the 21,000 tuition so my parents won’t have to pay the 3,000 anymore.

I want to know if colleges will assume I switched because of my lower grades at the school or if it won’t be taken into account. I will be taking my math classes at Upenn starting summer after sophomore year and will be in all AP’s or honors once I switch. My family isn’t poor or struggling for basic necessities, combines salary is in the range of 90K so I don’t know how well saying I switched because of tuition will hold up. If it makes a difference my absolute dream schools are MIT, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Princeton.

2

It’s not likely to happen, but if you are asked in an interview, you’ve already stated a reasonable answer (beyond simply "my parents chose not to pay the tuition). They have better course selection, and they are closer to home, which will allow you more opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities.

3

Even with a combined pre-tax income of 90k, 3k is not pocket change. Depending on other financial responsibilities, this savings could be very meaningful.