I need help choosing and finding schools I will be accepted to as a transfer applicant! [CT resident, 4.0 college GPA at SCSU, history pre-law]

Transfer Students
1

Hey all! Im going to put my transfer application and I hope I can get some honest feedback on what colleges I can be accepted too!

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student
  • US Resident
  • State/Location of residency:
  • Connecticut
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers):
  • Honors College of Southern Connecticut State University
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.)
  • Recruitable Athlete (Multiple D3 and 2 Wrestling offers last year)

Intended Major(s)
History, Pre-Law
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it)
    *3.51
  • Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities)
  • 3.85
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
  • 4.0
  • Class Rank:N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores:Test Optional

List your HS coursework

21 Honors Courses
4 AP
1 Dual Enrollment
2 UConn College Credit Classes
College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
Honors 150
Honors 100
Inquiry 100
History 100
History 200
School Health 203

Awards
Susan Zwick Award
High School’s Top Future Educator Award
Southern Central Area Connecticut Superintendents Award
Awarded to the best future educator in the Southern Connecticut Area
All Southern Connecticut Conference Academic Team
Varsity starter who maintains a 3.75 GPA or higher with no grade below a B-
High School Scholar-Athlete Award
Varsity in two or more sports for four or more seasons maintaining a 3.75 GPA or higher
CMEA All-State Band - French Horn
CMEA Southern Region Band
Second chair French Horn each year
New England Music Festival Association
First chair French Horn

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Intern for Connecticut State Senator, James Maroney III
Kelly Services
Substitute teacher at Local Public Schools
Roysters BBQ
Assistant Manager
Dairy Queen
Blizzard Wizard
Bella’ Gio
Waitstaff
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Marathon Runner
Pre-Law Society at SCSU
High School Varsity Wrestling
Captain in 2024
Future Educators of America Club Officer
African American Music and Culture Club Officer
High School Varsity Track and Field
High School Marching Ram Band
Section Leader 2020-2023
World Tang Soo Do Association - Black Belt
Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
My essay on why I want to transfer will highlight my change of major. 1 year after my grandfathers murder, the case still hasn’t made it to trial. Because of this, I want to become a lawyer so this doesn’t happen to other families.
Letters of Recommendations: State Senator and Professor

(Name of HS edited out by moderator for privacy)

2

Since SCSU offers a history major, why would that convince an admission reader at a highly selective college that you have a good academic reason to transfer?

Do you have cost constraints?

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I have no cost constrictions. I know SCSU offers a solid history program but it is based on the fact that everyone becomes teachers which is no longer my goal. My good reason to transfer will be in my essay that I had a career change and that a higher institution is needed to reach my goals because of the little to no LSAT or Pre-Law programing here.

4

There is no specific prelaw course work. Just choose courses where you will get good practice with reading, writing, and logic, and prep for the LSAT using official practice tests. Obviously, you want to get as high a college GPA as you can.

Law school is also expensive.

5

Students from SCSU do go to law school. You don’t need a specific major…you need a great LSAT score (colleges don’t prep you for the LSAT…that’s on you), and great LORs.

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6

Please clarify.
Do you need substantial financial aid to transfer? I know you say no cost restrictions, but be awrae that private universities can be very expensive. $80,000 plus a year is not unheard of.
Have you already completed one full year of college?
Are you intending to complete the fall semester and transfer for Spring 2025?
What region are you hoping to be near?

Have you contacted wrestling coaches? Surely that’s your best starting point if you want to have a better chance of getting in somewhere. I’d think an athlete with a high college GPA would be quite desirable, but have you stayed in shape and ensured you’ve kept up with your wrestling skills? I dont know when wrestling season is, but if it’s spring, might be good to get in touch with coaches asap.

You seem like a solid candidte for almost any college, but if you are aiming for prestige, that will be tough as many top colleges don’t accept Spring transfer students. Getting merit awards as a transfer student is also tough.

As previously mentioned, you can study anything if you’re going into law.

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There is no school with LSAT programming. Any LSAT review course would be taken outside of your college.

There is no pre-law program.

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I should clarify. My goal is to become a lawyer and I am looking for a higher institution to go to simply because I do not enjoy SCSU. I am asking for help finding colleges that fit in my academic profile because I do not know where to look.

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Do you need substantial financial aid to transfer? I know you say no cost restrictions, but be awrae that private universities can be very expensive. $80,000 plus a year is not unheard of.
Pricing isn’t a complete issue as I have 150,000 dollars of investments saved up to pay.
Have you already completed one full year of college?
I am in the first semester of my freshman year
Are you intending to complete the fall semester and transfer for Spring 2025?
Fall 2025 is my goal date
What region are you hoping to be near?
Preferably the east coast.
Have you contacted wrestling coaches? Surely that’s your best starting point if you want to have a better chance of getting in somewhere. I’d think an athlete with a high college GPA would be quite desirable, but have you stayed in shape and ensured you’ve kept up with your wrestling skills? I dont know when wrestling season is, but if it’s spring, might be good to get in touch with coaches asap.
I am currently in touch with NYU, UChicago, Johns Hopkins, and Washington and Lees Coaches. All have said I have a spot but need to be accepted in transfer.

10

Are the coaches offering you any help with transfer admissions or do you have to be accepted on your own to get a roster spot? These are very selective universities and unsupported transfer admissions would be very difficult in my opinion. If the coaches have any sway with transfer admissions, that would be your best move.

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You need to demonstrate a compelling academic need to transfer. So far, in what you have written, I haven’t seen anything close to that.

Don’t get me wrong, plenty of students transfer for primary reasons having nothing to do with a compelling academic need…BUT…they are able to craft a convincing narrative around an academic need to facilitate their transfer. You need to do the same.

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12

Is that really true though? Or is it primarily for elite privates? I ask because S22 transferred from UMass Amherst to UNC Chapel Hill without a compelling academic reason. In fact, I’m not sure they even asked about it (although he managed the transfer process largely on his own so maybe they did).

13

UNC Chapel Hill is considered by many to be a peer institution to elite privates. I would be shocked if there wasn’t something related to academics that he wrote about that resonated with their transfer admissions team.

14

You’ve been there a few weeks now? Maybe give it some time. Did you apply to any of these other schools last year and what were your results? You can reasonably expect similar results from transfer applications as they will look at your high school records.

15

Have you considered University of Connecticut? There are students who start out at SCSU or ESCU or CCSU and transfer successfully to UConn.

Is this your first semester at SCSU? If so…why did you choose this college…and are you really giving it a chance?

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16

IME in working with many transfer students over the years, relatively few schools directly ask why a student is looking to transfer (the ones that do tend to be elite). Unlike the common app for first years, there is no transfer app personal statement (unless a school specifically asks for that)

For example, this year, UNC’s transfer essays include:

1)The same prompts as the freshman common app personal statement prompts (I would not talk about reasons for transfer in this essay at all, or their following two essays either)

2)Discuss one of your personal qualities and share a story, anecdote, or memory of how it helped you make a positive impact on a community. This could be your current community or another community you have engaged.

3)Discuss an academic topic that you’re excited to explore and learn more about in college. Why does this topic interest you? Topics could be a specific course of study, research interests, or any other area related to your academic experience in college.

Penn does ask reasons for transfer:
Please explain your reasons for transferring from your current institution and what you hope to gain by transferring into another institution.

Generally, I would advise OP to not address reasons for transfer unless directly asked. OP should gather reasons why their current school isn’t a fit. It could be academic (looking for broader history courses and/or better coverage of a specific historical time and/or subject matter, prof(s) doing research of interest, doesn’t want a foreign lang requirement etc.) I wouldn’t advise talking about pre-law prep.

Non-academic reasons for transfer are acceptable too…want to be in a city/not in a city, closer to home for X reason, etc…but not something like I didn’t get into the sorority I wanted (which has comprised a shockingly high number of transfers I’ve known.)

In the Penn example (or something similar), I would encourage a student to be quite brief on why they are leaving their school focusing on points similar to above, and spend the most time on what they want in a new school (which should align with the target school’s offerings.)

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You just started college. How can you be sure you don’t like it already? You can become a lawyer by attending any college.

You need to knock it out of the park with grades as the colleges you listed are all very selective and probably admit low numbers of transfer students. You have no proven track record of academic ability in college yet. You will need good recommendations from two professors, typically. Transfer applications for the following academic year at some of the colleges you list will have a March deadline. It’s frankly very early to know which colleges are a good fit for you as a transfer student because you have no GPA yet.

Re finances, $150,000 is a lot of money, of course. However, three years at JHU will cost you $240,000. Have you discussed with your parents how the rest will be paid?

I’m curious about how you ended up at your current college. Were you recruited? Did you apply last academic year for any of the colleges you mentioned in this post?

Do you want suggestions for affordable colleges? Are you definitely applying as an athletic recruit? Or, if not recruited, are you looking for other suggestions? If so, give us some information about what you are looking for in a college, apart from a higher ranking.

Please provide complete information.

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I chose this college originally because I wanted to be a teacher. That decision has changed because of recent events and now I want to put myself in the best position possible for my future. This is a commuter campus where it is a ghost town basically 24/7 which is completely not my vibe. It also has very poor living conditions.

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I need to be accepted and then I am on the teams.

20

My narrative was my grandfather was murdered last November and the case still hasn’t been to trial because of the attorney general trying to save the kid who blatantly killed him. My goal is to get justice for future family’s and make sure this doesn’t happen again.