International Transfer Applicant

Transfer Students
1

Hello,

I’m from India and I’d be applying to U. S. colleges as an international transfer applicant in the fall of 2017. In order to fully justify my query, allow me to present a bit of my background. I hope it helps you in evaluating my question!

In India, the education system is a lot different. The secondary education is a 5 year program, at the end of which, you’ve to give a State level exam. Based on your percentage and your choices, you’re assigned a college. The competition is high. College is usually a 2 year program, at the end of which, once again you’ve to give a State level program to qualify for university. University is nothing but senior college which 3 year bachelor’s program.

Coming from a family of commerce graduates, I graduated from my high school with a decent 92% (top ten in my school) and was able to secure a spot at my dream college. Again, after junior college, I graduated within top 1% of state. Now, you must know the sad truth that a bachelor in commerce degree gets you nowhere in India. This is the reason why many students go for a professional degree, that runs along with their senior college. I did the same.

A day after my last exam of junior college, I started my trek towards the degree of Chartered Accountancy. (For those of you who don’t know the degree, here are a few facts. It’s a national level, professional degree, with a cumulative pass percentage below .01%. You’ve to give an entrance, after qualifying the same and after a gap of 9 months, you may appear for Intermediate level. After you qualify intermediate level, you’ve to do articleship for 3 years, and then at the end, you’ve to give a final exam. During the entire process, you’ve to attend 4 programs. Let’s take an example. Suppose 100,000 students sit for the entrance, out of them, roughly about 25000 qualify in the first attempt for Intermediate. Out of the 25000, 4% qualify for articleship, about 1000. Out of the 1000 students, hardly 2% become a C.A. after 3 years ie about 20 students! Others have to keep giving an attempt after another.)

During the summer between my junior college and the start of senior college, I gave the entrance and passed with a decent score. Immediately, I registered for the next level (that ran with my first year/freshman year of college) and gave the Intermediate in this May. Results are due, but I’m confident of qualifying the same. By the time I’d apply for transfer, I’d have completed my second year. (Though my aim is to enter the sophomore class!)

Now, the main prospect! The reason behind my application to transfer - there are moments in your life when you’ve give your life a call, see where it’s heading, predict your future, decide if you’re happy. And if asked if I was happy, I was not. Chartered Accountancy is a beautiful degree, with a beautiful career set ahead for me. But it’s not my passion. My passion is to be a writer, to be worthy to play with words, to let them flow from the inside, that’s my idea of paradise. By this application of transfer, I’m hoping to combine my love of writing with my family’s background, and go for majoring in creative writing + economics. This whole process is not only mentally taxing, but also conflicting. There are so many what ifs, can i’s on one hand and my fear that this is the one life I’ve been given on the other. The colleges I’m applying to are (in order of preference) - Colgate University, Williams College, Brown University, Hamilton College, Amherst College, Dartmouth University, Harvard University (I’m very undecided here!), and Cornell University. I’m seeking to apply to these 8, because not only will they help me to achieve my dream but also the amount of resources, the opportunities, the chances I’d get to grow as a person, that’d never be made available to me at my current institution. For me, this is my one chance to pursue things I wholeheartedly love.

So I ask you, what do you think? I’m not asking of my chances (I’m already in a course where the chances are less than .01%), I’m asking for tips, guidance, anything. If I has been your daughter, sister, niece, what would tell me?

Know that every perspective is much appreciated!

2

=> I also wanted to know, when applying as a transfer applicant, should we emphasize on “why that school?” or on “why I want to transfer?” . I know for schools like Harvard, they focus on the latter but it’d helpful to have more clarity. Thank you!

3

Unless your family is happy to support you while you try to make it as a writer, you need to have a skill that can earn you a steady living. Don’t give up on Chartered Accountancy so soon. You need a good day job to support you while you write in your free time.

How much can your family pay each year for your studies in the US? Look at the Cost of Attendance for International Students that is posted at each college/university website. You will need to demonstrate that you have that much money on hand for your first year here, or you will not get a student visa.

If you have good writing samples, it may make better sense for you to finish your undergraduate degree in something that will get you a job, and then apply directly to a graduate program in writing. Do some investigation about that.

When you apply to transfer, you need to be able to explain why you chose to apply to that particular college/university. So yes, why that college/university is infinitely more important than just why you want out of your current institution. Make certain that you can fully articulate the reasons for applying to each of them. Consider it a writing exercise.