Help For A Potential Transfer Applicant

Colleges & Universities Northwestern University
1

<p>Hey all,</p>

<p>I’ve been talking to my family recently about going into journalism and, as a result, the idea of switching schools has come up. So naturally, instead of listening to my family/friends, I’ve come to CC to help me decide my future.</p>

<p>Right now I’m a freshman at Tulane University currently at Brown for the semester. I don’t want to leave Tulane. . .I mean, I chose it because I love it; but after the whole hurricane issue I don’t know if it’s going to be the same. I was NEVER planning on transferring until earlier this week when I discovered the great journalism program Northwestern has and talked to my aunt and uncle (who both went there) about it and they really convinced me to at least put an application in. My question to you is whether or not it’s worth it.</p>

<p>I don’t know how many transfers Northwestern accepts per year, or what the average stats are for them. I guess incoming sophomores take precedent over other transfers (or so the website says) so I have that going for me. I’m doing pretty well at Brown, so hopefully that’ll help too.</p>

<p>My biggest concern is that I’m on scholarship for track at Tulane. There’s nothing in the contract that says I can’t transfer (a few on the team are leaving), but Northwestern has no track team. I realize I’m not going to the Olympics or anything, but track and field has been my life since I was a freshman in high school, Tulane’s conference (C-USA) is the best for track and field in the entire NCAA, and I really can’t imagine not running in college. When looking at colleges, I only looked at schools that were recruiting me, which is why Northwestern was never even a consideration, but I’m realizing now there’s a lot more to life than just running in college.</p>

<p>So that leads me to my second question is: If anyone in the area knows of a track club/coach I could contact, I’d feel a lot more secure in just putting the application in, knowing I can still run competitively, even if it’s not at a DI program. According to the NCAA Clearinghouse, I can still run in grad school IF I don’t run my full four years of undergrad, so there’s a glimmer of hope.</p>

<p>Sorry for the long post, I’ll give a nice tl;dr. . .</p>

<p>tl;dr –> Considering transferring to Northwestern, but on track scholarship at current school. No track team at Northwestern, any clubs in the area I can contact? What are the average stats of transfer applicants?</p>

<p>stealthEDIT: I can post my stats in a future post if y’all think it’s relevant to the topic.</p>

2

<p>I have a friend that transferred from tulane this year, he didnt have terribly great stats but his mom’s a prof here and he applied to sesp which is the easiest school. Medill is hard as a freshman, I’d assume itd be harder as a transfer if they take them. Northwestern isnt terribly difficult to get into as a transfer if you have high grades from any institution. There are a bunch of tulane kids in my dorm since we had the room. Too bad you didnt visit here. If you want to come here apply, it cant hurt. They take like 120 or somemthing out of 600-650. But the vast majority is for weinberg. Medill’s one of those really specialized schools. Call up their office and talk to an adcom, they’ll let you know whats up.</p>

3

<p>

</p>

<p>It said on the application site that they give preference to freshmen transferring in as incoming sophomores for Medill, so there’s a glimmer of hope.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Eh, it’s probably still fairly difficult; and I don’t know how high my grades are here. . .there’s no failing at Brown, but I know I’m not getting credit for one of my classes (and I’m only taking three classes) sooooooo I don’t know how good that’ll look.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s why I wish I was a high school senior again. I’ll apply, but even if I get in (which looks like a slim to none chance) I don’t know what’d I do. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’ll do this tomorrow, I suppose and explain the situation. It’s really going to be about the money, I’m going to need a ton of aid and without an athletic scholarship, I don’t know how that’ll come.</p>

4

<p>Email the coach at U of Chicago. His name is Chris Hall and he’s a really nice guy. He is recruiting my son, and I have exchanged some emails with him. I’m sure he would be glad to help you out with some possible club contacts in Chicago.<br>
I hate to see you give up college track, though. Can’t you find somewhere with a strong journalism program AND good track team? Doesn’t Indiana have a good journalism program?</p>

5

<p>Ecliptica,</p>

<p>If you are sure about journalism, you may want to take at look at Syracuse and UMO at Columbia (and probably Indiana) too. These schools are not better than Tulane overall though, so I guess it depends on how sure you want to do journalism. After all, giving up track scholarship from Tulane is a big deal.</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>I believe we talked about this over AIM. I know Coach Hall is a great guy and I’m sure he’d be able to help out.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Me too, I would’ve worked harder academically in high school if I knew I’d be in this situation :p</p>

<p>

</p>

<h2>I’ll look into it.</h2>

<p>

</p>

<p>I had the option to go to Syracuse (and I suppose Newhouse) for the semester, but declined because it’s too cold. I actually know three guys on the track team, and they’re making some great improvements. Regardless, I don’t see myself attending school there.
Mizzou is a good option, I’m considering it, but I don’t know if I can get into their journalism program. I believe it’s better than Northwestern’s, correct? My academic stats are good, but not THAT great. . .I’m at the low end for Northwestern’s journalism school (1380 SAT / 770 writing), but I was under the impression that Mizzou was a LOT higher? Maybe I’ve been horribly misinformed.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Prestige has never been that important to me, and I know people hate hearing that. . .so transferring “down” doesn’t matter. The way I see it, it’s what I do with the degree rather than where I get it from. The scholarship is the big issue, I don’t know how, if accepted (which really looks slim to none the more I think about it), I’d be able to pay for this.</p>

<p>Once again, thanks for your help guys.</p>

7

<p>Damn, can’t edit, so double post:</p>

<p>


Indiana is a no go:</p>

<p>The admission requirements for the School of Journalism are:
Twenty-six credit hours with a 2.20 grade point average on a 4.00 scale, including:
Journalism J 110, grade of C or above 
English composition or exemption, grade of C or above 
One college-level mathematics course, grade of C- or above 
One semester of a foreign language

</p>

<p>I’m starting to feel that maybe I should just go into journalism in graduate school? Run my four years at the school I originally wanted to go to and get my undergrad degree in the school I chose as a senior in high school.</p>

8

<p>“I’m starting to feel that maybe I should just go into journalism in graduate school? Run my four years at the school I originally wanted to go to and get my undergrad degree in the school I chose as a senior in high school.”</p>

<p>That’s the best plan, as long as Tulane keeps the track team.</p>

9

<p>I think Mizzou’s program is easier to get in. The average ACT for their Honors College is 30.6 and that should be higher than the average for their journalism. Northwestern’s average is like 31. You have nothing to worry about. :)</p>