Good morning! I am currently enrolled at The College of New Jersey, for business, and start my freshman year in August. I had a horrendous GPA in high school (2.5) but a high SAT score(790 ERW, 720 M, 1510). I also have a very solid EC list, with continued commitment, research, and leadership, and I plan on continuing all my activities into college.
I understand this website doesn’t like transferring, but while I am satisfied with TCNJ, I have my heart set on working in finance/finance law, the former of which is very school-discriminated. What would be a good course of action/itinerary over the next 2 years to ameliorate my chances to transfer into business/economics at a T25? What evolution in extracurriculars do colleges like to see from transfer students, and what GPA/SAT should I aim to have?
Of course, if I end up setting my sights fully on law within the next 2 years, I won’t transfer as I’ll just be going to law school.
My 25 year old has a degree in finance from TCNJ, his fraternity connections (forget the name but oldest frat on campus, business/law I believe but also social) got him his senior internship which lead to his current position in a valuations firm. Good money, long hours.
I get it. But you have a 2.5 and have yet to take a college class.
Kick butt first year to have a chance but it’s way too premature to see if you’ve got what it takes academically In college.
Yea there are targets and discrimination in regards to certain careers but nothing is impossible from any school. Nothing.
I missed the news that you got into TCNJ’s business school ED. Congrats, that’s awesome!
I don’t really think your to-do list should be any different for possible transfer in two years vs. if you want to maximize your opportunities post-graduation after four years at TCNJ. My advice would be to figure out what that to-do list looks like, and then table the transfer question for your entire first year. Nothing will sour your experience like sustaining an internal debate about whether to stay or go. Just dig in and make the most of TCNJ, and then check in with yourself in the fall of your sophomore year to see how you’re feeling about career plans and your college trajectory.
For law school, you want as high a college GPA as you can get, and as high an LSAT score as you can get.
If you do want to transfer colleges, you will likely have to wait until second year to apply as a junior transfer, in order to have enough of a college record that your high school record will be less or not relevant. Of course, you want as high a college GPA as you can get.
Your action plan should be to show up in August determined to be the best college student you can be. That’s not as easy as it sounds- you’ll need to go to class, do the reading, show up at office hours if you don’t understand something that was mentioned during lecture, seek out the tutoring center if your first quiz is a C when you thought you’d get an A, make sure you are balancing your social and EC commitments to give yourself time for sleep and doing laundry, etc.
Go do that. And come back once you’ve mastered college and we can help you if you still want to transfer. But the only action you need right now is to prove yourself academically.
You’ll have to go from a 2.5 GPA to 3.75 GPA in college (much harder even for students with a 3.75 HS GPA).
Can you develop the discipline and study skills to get a 4.0 this semester?
This kind of discipline will be crucial so put it to the test.
It’ll be easier in a HS context.
Have you taken the Precalculus CLEP test so you can start calculus freshman year?
(Also there’s a math placement test and you really want to do well.)
Something you could do is work on calculus on your own (use Khan Academy) to get a headstart on math. Many freshmen in calc1 will have taken CalcAB before and you’ll be competing with them for grades.
Since you’re good at math, plan on taking quantitative classes as long as you are getting Bs or higher.
You can read Harlan Cohen’s the Naked Roommate – it’s all based on real issues and questions by freshmen, and ADD-friendly.
Start contacting TCNJ’s office of disability support to see what documentation you’ll have to show and by which date + what accomodations are available.
Ask how you can secure tutors.
(Tutors will help you with time management, not havibg to rush through tasks.)
I also strongly advise against joining a social fraternity - the time commitments will necessarily interfere with your ability to do the work. They do even for students who had a stellar GPA before - a study showed that GPAs dropped by up to .3-.5 during the pledge semester, sth you simply can’t afford.
BTW your GPA can’t slip below 3.0 if you want internships for instance - some have harder cutoffs.
For finance, the higher the better, with 3.75-3.8 best.
There will be business clubs you can join, even professional fraternities for upper level students whose grades qualify them. You can look into them and what the process is to get invited. You’ll need grades and oncampus involvement (try to manage 1 volunteering activity and 2 other clubs, intramurals, film, outdoors, whatever).
I understand. So, to summarize, a comfortable place to be would be 1 or 2 oncampus activities, some outreach, and a 3.75 or higher? I’ll look to achieve that, and I’ll get in contact with the TCNJ disability office to see how I can be assisted once I get home today.
Have you taken the Precalculus CLEP test so you can start calculus freshman year?
I have it scheduled for April, and I have been studying. I don’t think I’ll do poorly at all! I have also been considering taking the Psychology CLEP because it’s the only one TCNJ officially takes, and it seems interesting.
What might be of note is this:
Students with an SAT math score of 630 or above or with an ACT math score of 28 or above who have taken four years of high school math including Algebra II, Geometry, and Trigonometry are placed in Calculus.
Elements of a compelling transfer application to T25:
- Valid reason to transfer (not just for prestige sake)
- Excellent college GPA
- Great test scores
- No need for financial aid - helps but not mandatory
Some of the Top colleges which are transfer friendly: Emory, Columbia, Vanderbilt, USC, UPenn, Cornell, WashU, UC Berkeley (but only for California CC transfers). Look at the common data sets to see how many students they take each year.
Some top colleges which are almost impossible to transfer to: Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, UChicago.
Thank you!
An issue with that placement policy is that you don’t have 4 years of HS math including post Algebra2 classes. The CLEP test with a strong score will vouch for your ability and should do the trick when it comes to placing into calculus but your coursework (as clearly unfair as your placement into remedial math was and as your SAT score shows) would preclude automatic placement without the CLEP test.
I barely graduated from high school but went on to graduate from UC Berkeley. A 4.0 at junior college and an exceptional essay are what I assume worked in my favor.
That’s really impressive. 
I hope @rohdawg can follow your example in terms of getting a 4.0.
A difference though: I assume you were a California resident who went to a California CC.
California is incredibly fortunate in that it has world-class universities, many excellent state universities, over a 100 CCs, and purpose-made transfer paths… (+ excellent financial aid though little merit)
Unfortunately this is exceptional and isn’t true in all states.
OTOH OP got into a topnotch college. OTOH there isn’t a UCB/UCLA equivalent in NJ and no clear transfer path anywhere (Rutgers may only be marginally better than TCNJ for OPs goal. 
)
I did take math all four years, though. Geometry-Alg2-Integrated(bleh)-Stats
Do they mean only the calc-path math classes? I’m honestly worried they won’t officially accept the CLEP(I can only find Psych credit transfer), but I suppose I can talk to the dean if necessary because there’s ample proof I shouldn’t need to take Pre-calc.
Understood. Sorry for jumping the gun, I like to have vision boards and long-running goals for myself.
If it’s comfortable with both he and you, would I be able to speak to him about his life at TCNJ and the career process? Or would you be able to field some questions for him in DMs? There’s a lack of information out there on career and student life @TCNJ
I think you’ll have a math placement exam as an incoming freshman.
Yes.
They may not accept clep for credit but it would be accepted for placement as a strong indication alongside the test (or you can try taking the placement test without CLEP).
Public universities tend not to be very flexible and math placement will not be considered a “talk to the dean” issue. You’ll need to take the math placement test - you should be able to access it now but you may want to wait till you completed CLEP because if you don’t score the minimum needed for Business Calc they’ll place you in Precalculus and you will only be able to change that after registration, by retaking the test in the summer (meaning you’d take whatever class section that’s left over, either bad time of day or less well rated instructor).
If you’re confident, take the placement test now though.
Y is OP trying to advance out of math ? If they need pre reqs, they should not advance ? It may take longer but.
Perhaps I’m missing something form earlier ?
OP had a 2.5 - I’m not sure any advancing would be smart but I’m likely missing details.
At the risk of sounding a bit proud, my GPA is far from representative of my intelligence. I have pretty bad ADHD and depression coming from a rough home life, and my parents were highly anti-mental health for a long time. I was unable to receive help until late in my high school career. I would say I’m pretty smart despite all that!
As for missing the prereq of precalc, I have had straight As in math for the last 3 years. For junior year, I was unfairly put into the bottommost math class by my 10th-grade teacher, which locked me out of calc, precalc, and many AP/honors subjects that required one of the previous.