I am currently a first year at Washington and Lee, looking to transfer for the fall of my sophomore year. I spent a majority of high school in foster care and ultimately stayed in the system until I aged out on my 18th birthday. For the majority of my senior year, I lived by myself in independent housing where I largely financially supported myself.
My grades in high school were not awful by any means and my college academic performance is far superior, but I fear my performance in high school will hinder my application to various Ivy League and top-tier institutions, as I was not in the top 10% of my public school’s class, but rather from the top 25-30% (My high school does not give exact data).
Will top-tier schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, and others allow room for error given my circumstances and give me a fair shot at admission?
I actually have no idea what the actual answer to your question is, but wanted to tell you how inspiring I find your story. I can’t imagine that on a human level your narrative won’t resonate with an AO. I wish you not thing but the best of luck and congratulate you on achieving so much! Good luck!
–Congratulations on overcoming such difficult circumstances to find great success.
–Washington & Lee IS a top tier institution – it is one of the top LACs in the country. If affordable, I’d say you have landed in a fabulous spot.
–In general I think it is a terrible idea to start one college with the intent of transferring out. This will stand in the way of your making meaningful friendships, developing relationships with professors, and getting involved on campus. Then if your transfer doesn’t work out as planned you will be really stuck. I’d go to the college you enrolled in with the intent of staying all four years. It is fine to throw in a couple of transfer applications but don’t count on it working out.
–Most of the tippy top schools you mentioned take very few transfers. You should take the time to look at the common data sets for schools you are considering transferring to (google “common data set XYZ University”) and look at section D. For example Harvard accepted 16 transfer students out of 1553 applicants, Yale accepted 28 out of 1160 applicants (you can check other schools yourself) so you need to understand the odds are against you.
W&L certainly registers as a top-tier school. If, however, you don’t like it for whatever reason, then, based on your achievements you would have options to transfer to another academically top school. However, destinations of potential interest would need to be at least reasonably transfer friendly for them to be viable as alternatives.
I did not come to Washington and Lee with the intent of transferring out but have found difficulty with the student body, as I am a gay man. Before September ended I’ve been asked to leave parties because students were uncomfortable with my presence (I was told this very blatantly) and generally faced microaggressions from the ignorance of others.
My hopes in transferring are finding a school that is academically on-par or better than W&L, as I love the professors and opportunities here but am hoping for a more liberal and open environment.
Please see https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/apply/transfer-applicants/admission-process for Brown’s transfer statistics. 76 undergrad transfer students joined Brown in Fall 2017. My understanding is that most (if not all) of them are full pays and if they don’t apply for FA at transfer time, even if their financial situations change later, need-based aid won’t be available to them.
One of my best college friends later told me it is lesbian/gay. Since then I became a gay/lesbian rights supporter. But a large number of people are just ignorant and not very understanding. For your protection, you might want to protect yourself by not going public in a more conservative environment. My friends never went public while in college.
“For your protection, you might want to protect yourself by not going public in a more conservative environment”.
Nrlax33 I respect your opinion but couldn’t disagree more.
I would never suggest anyone “hide” who they are based on the ignorance of others. Any relationships you forge would be based on a lie, doing so would erroneously suggest there is something to hide and wrong about your orientation, and who would want to be friends with people that would dislike the real you.
You should be proud of who you are, what you have achieved and overcome and to hell with those that don’t accept you for your uniqueness.
I would no sooner suggest a gay person conceal their orientation then recommend a person hide their race or religion.
I will caveat that I am a fairly generic white guy with “jocky” heterosexual kids, so I can’t honestly put myself in your shoes and would hardly want to offer uninformed advice that could put you in harms way. But as a Dad I can tell you that your OP suggests a tremendously determined, resilient and smart individual. You should never in my opinion feel compelled to be anyone but your honest self.
Best of luck in your future endeavors. W&L is a top tier school but I understand your concern about fit and am sure that you will find a more suitable school.
Sorry you are having these issues. I concur with @Nocreativity1 that you should never hide your true self.
For the immediate future, I suggest you reach out to groups that could help you at Washington and Lee such as the LGBTQ Resource Center if you haven’t already done so. https://www.wlu.edu/lgbtq-resource-center
If you do want to pursue a transfer you need to focus on: 1) finances – most colleges have very limited aid available for transfers so you need to pursue options that will be affordable and 2) schools that take a good number of transfer students (as I noted above Section D of the common data set for each college has information about how many transfer students they accept).
University of Southern California does take in a relatively large number of transfer students compared to other highly selective private schools, though a large percentage of them come from California community colleges.
Which state do you have residency for tuition purposes in? Depending on the state, its public universities may be transfer-friendly and have decent enough financial aid.
Again I really appreciate the replies, but I am not really looking for advice in regards to navigating my own relationship with my queerness.
Ultimately, I’m going to transfer and I will not be hiding anytime soon. I expect nothing less than respect from my peers as this is mine just as much as their’s and we were all granted admission on the same academic basis.
I understand that navigating financial aid as transfer applicant can be tricky, but upon looking into the individual policies I’m finding information that will help me make an informed decision in applying and ultimately accepting an offer if given one.
If you can communicate your story well, and if your grades are strong at your current school, then you may be able to transfer into similarly strong schools. Depending on the strength of your essay, you could put 1-2 elite schools on your list, but have backups.
I agree that finding a place that’s more liberal and accepting would be perfect. If you were my kid, I’d love to have you attend a school that is highly gay friendly, and I’d be suggesting you look at Vassar, UMass Amherst, NYU, Tufts, Bryn Mawr, Sarah Lawrence, Oberlin, Bowdoin, William and Mary, Reed, Grinnell, and depending on what you want to major in, perhaps also Emerson.