<p>I’ve heard some universities/colleges boosts the admission rate/lowers their standards somewhat if they see a “non-traditional transfer student” What are some of these universities and could they be supported by some stats?</p>
<p>I think most schools would look favorably on your being a non-traditional applicant. Simply put it adds diversity to the campus, and offers you the oppurtunity to stand out a little. It’s certainly a plus, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say they would “lower their standards” in light of this quality.</p>
<p>I’m almost an expert on this topic, I am actively a non-traditional student and I have met with some very good schools on this topic and found out what exactly they are looking for, here’s a list of some schools who I know for a fact accept non-traditional students:</p>
<p>Carnegie-Mellon (Not Tepper)
Harvard (Extension School)
Cornell
Brown
NYU (Not Stern)
U. Penn (Not Wharton)
U. Pitt</p>
<p>List not too shabby right?
These schools don’t necessarily lower their standards, but they do take work experience in consideration over past school grades etc.
What they look for is unique individuals, when I had a phone meeting with U. Penn the admin person I spoke with flat out told me, “Good past work experience, 4.0 at a Comm. College of recent course work, and a kick ass essay will get you in.”
So it’s not like a guy can graduate from hs, sit home play Halo for a few years then decide he wants to go to a top University.
It’s true that Universities look at these students as an opportunity to diversify the campus with an individual who still brings brillance to the school but from a different perspective other than fresh from hs, a lot of the people who apply to these non-traditional programs are people who started companies out of hs, went into non-profit, etc.
So the competition is still tough the biggest benefit is you don’t have to worry about submitting SAT/ACT scores but with that you also lose the opportunity to get into the top programs at these schools, for example a non-traditional student can never get into the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie-Mellon because they don’t accept transfers.
Hope this info help, pm me if you have any questions</p>
<p>One thing to remember about some of these schools: They might be less forgiving than others if you have one bad grade. I applied to both Columbia University: School of General Studies and Penn: College of General Studies and was flat out rejected because I had a “D” in one of my classes. That alone had caused my GPA to fall to a 3.5 overall. </p>
<p>The schools that I believe that would be willing to give a student a chance are The Harvard Extension School and Northwestern University:School of General Studies. This due in part of their Open Enrollment policy, which allows you to sign up for a few classes before you apply to their BA degree program. In contrast, neither Penn CGS nor Columbia GS would give me this option to prove myself through their provisional status program. Just my personal take on this subject matter.</p>