Cornell First-Year Looking to Transfer

sometransfer
Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:01:59 +0000

I say you apply to Brown out of your list. I believe your chances at the other colleges are near zero due to the competitiveness of the applicant pool. I mean there is one guy who posted here earlier. He also has a 3.5 and is applying to some of your schools, but he goes to Yale. Everyone else seems to have a 4.0 in advanced coursework relating to their major, and three of your four courses last semester have little to do with economics. Yes I understand you have a liberal arts core to fulfill but colleges want to evaluate you on your skill in your major, so taking liberal arts courses hurts your application. A lot. The most competitive freshmen take their major courses first and then move on to their liberal arts core in their upperclassmen years. With many introductory courses, you look like you wanted to get as high grades as possible to transfer out, which makes you less competitive compared to someone else who took the most challenging classes in their major and got perfect grades. I am exaggerating but so many people are so competitive. Since Brown and Cornell are peers I think you have a shot of trading colleges.

But before you apply you should realize the reasons you are applying are weak. Greek Life is everywhere, including every school you mentioned. Brown is in Providence, Rhode Island and Yale is in New Haven, Connecticut. At least Cornell is in New York state, although Ithaca is equal with regards to being in the middle of nowhere. Again, you are missing courses related to international relations; even though Cornell lacks the major you should be taking classes related to your declared interest. French and Hip Hop fail to backup your intention to study international relations. The writing seminar is mandatory, but then you should have taken 5 courses instead of 4 to compensate.

Closing up I think you have a chance at Brown because Cornell is equal in prestige. But the other schools… well you try and see what happens.